What is the Consumer Adoption Process in Marketing and What are its Five Stages?

A well-known strategy that may assist you to turn potential leads into paying customers is known as the product or marketing adoption process, and in this article, we are going to take a comprehensive look at what it entails.

What is the marketing adoption process?

Like the famous AIDA model and other similar concepts, the marketing adoption process is based around the idea that consumers go through several key stages on their way to ultimately choosing to buy a product or service.

Whether we realize it or not, it is widely accepted that as consumers, we look at things from several different angles before deciding whether a purchase is right for us. It is believed that businesses can benefit from recognizing this, primarily as they can create marketing and promotions which are targeted at guiding individuals through the consumer adoption process, facilitating it and thus making it more likely that the purchase will be completed. 

What are the key stages of the marketing adoption process?

As sources including BusinessDictionary.com explain, it is widely regarded that there are five different product adoption stages that consumers go through before ultimately choosing to proceed with a purchase. These are:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Evaluation
• Trial 
• Adoption

Now, we will take a look at each in turn to explain just why they could affect the marketing efforts of your business.

1. Awareness

This is simply the step where consumers discover that a product or service exists and is being offered by your business or organization.

2. Interest

Once people know about your offering, they may then look to gather more information on it and develop their interest further.

3. Evaluation

Next up, consumers will take all of the detail they have acquired and make a judgment on whether the product or service suits them. 

4. Trial

This is where consumers may then seek to sample a product or service in order to get a feel for whether it is suitable. The trial might come in the form of a literal free trial or it may simply involve the first purchase of the product in question.

5. Adoption

Adoption is arguably the most critical of the product adoption stages. This is when a consumer chooses to “adopt” or stick with a product or service, while alternatively they may simply reject it and look elsewhere

How does the marketing adoption process relate to sales?

Having an understanding of the marketing or consumer adoption process could prove invaluable as you look to develop and design campaigns for reaching out to potential clients.

Each of the stages detailed above may prove to be key touchpoints to your strategy and you could base your marketing and sales activity around satisfying each element. 

For example, the following steps would correspond to each product adoption stage:

• Hook clients in with an eye-catching ad
• Provide a link to a website for them to get more information
• Display detail which compares what you offer to other brands
• Offer a trial period or a product in sample format
• Finally, encourage clients to take on your service/product

Examples of this approach can be found across the business world, but it is fun to consider how the model emerges when a major new video game launches. 

For instance, with EA’s FIFA 21 game, a trailer was launched to raise awareness of it and was then followed by an official website featuring more information. The detail on the latter might prove important as people go through the evaluation process, while a demo may well follow after that. Finally, it will be up to players to then decide whether it is a title they intend to buy

Adopt a new outlook

The marketing adoption process is a fairly straightforward five-stage concept that could make a genuine difference in how businesses think about their promotions.

Hopefully, the information above has given you an idea about how your own organization could benefit from embracing such a strategy.