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Marketing vocabulary · Consumer Behaviour

Early adopter

Meaning in marketing, with examples

/ˌɜːrli əˈdɑːptər/nounCommon term

In marketing, early adopter means: A person or company that starts using a new product, service or technology soon after it appears, before most other people do.

In Turkish: erken benimseyen, ilk kullanıcı, öncü kullanıcı

How it is used

Comes from the diffusion of innovations model, which groups people as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. Startups often target early adopters first because they accept imperfect products and tell others about them.

Example sentences

  1. Early adopters were happy to pay more for the first version of the smartwatch.

  2. We're giving early adopters a lifetime discount in return for feedback.

Common collocations

  • target early adopters
  • attract early adopters
  • early adopter programme
  • early adopter pricing
  • launchTo make a new product, service or campaign available to the public for the first time, usually with planned promotion around it.
  • price skimmingLaunching a new product at a high price for customers who want it first, then lowering the price over time to reach more price-sensitive buyers.
  • product life cycleThe stages a product goes through in the market: introduction, growth, maturity and decline, each with typical sales levels and marketing needs.
  • word of mouthInformation and recommendations about a product that spread from person to person, in conversation or online, rather than through paid advertising.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Consumer Behaviour

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