Innovation in business
is very important, but most important is developing a product/service consumers
are willing to buy. Over the years, many products with innovative features have
failed, not because they are not good, in fact, most times, they bring more to
the market than existing products. Unfortunately, consumers end up avoiding
them leading to over 70-90% of innovation failures and eventual withdrawal of
such product from the market. Examples like Microsoft Windows Vista, Apple’s
Newton PDA, the Concorde supersonic airplane etc reminds us that not everything
innovative finds a market. Some of them actually came into the market when
consumers were not ready for such innovation.
Entrepreneurs with new
products or services want customers to adopt it and get maximum satisfaction
from using them. However, entrepreneurs often face the challenge of convincing
customers to move from an existing product where they derive satisfaction, to a
new one which its utility is not certain.
Here are some reasons customers may resist your new offerings.
1. Your products bring too much change
Change
is good, but customers don’t always appreciate it when a product is bringing
too much change to their lifestyle. For instance, Coca Cola’s attempt to change
the original taste of coke was met with resistance. When consumers feel very
comfortable with an existing product, they can go to any length to resist any
attempt to change it especially when such a change will affect other areas of
their lives. This resistance comes as a result of consumers being satisfied
with their current situation, and see no reason to change. Habits that have
been developed while using a particular product are difficult to do away with.
Any product that requires a change in behaviour will likely experience
resistance.
2. Innovations with the wrong
technology
Many
businesses apply the wrong technology in their market. In Nigeria, when it
comes to telecoms, GSM is the way to go. Over 90% of subscribers use it, and it
is the preferred network in the world. For companies that came into Nigeria
with CDMA technology - Starcomms, Multi-links etc, it wasn’t a favourable
market for them. Technology has seasons and regions where they are most
appreciated. E-retailers in Nigeria observed that insisting on shoppers buying
and paying online alone may not give them the desired result; they decided to
introduce ‘Pay-on-delivery.’ This act is building confidence in people to use
the technology. The right technology must be one that fits into a people’s
lifestyle, values and norms. Every technology introduced into a business must
be compatible with the desires of the consumers.
3. Innovations that are too complex
Keep
it simple. Innovation is all about simplifying life. Innovative products are
those that are useful to consumers, and are easy to use. Years back, the long
process of registering on a website puts off many people, but today, with your
social media accounts, it looks seamless. Consumers are always reluctant to go
for innovative products that are complex to use, complicated and confusing. If
you can’t keep it simple, it’s not good enough.
Consumers’ resistance
of a product doesn’t mean a failure, but it points out the need for
entrepreneurs to pay more attention to the needs of the market. Bringing a
technology that consumers are not familiar with, and the risk level cannot
easily be ascertained will create an air of doubt in the consumers. If the resistance
is allowed to prolong, it leads to rejection and eventual product failure.
