TYPOLOGIES - THE TIPPING POINT

I re-visited 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell to gain a better insight into the three types of people that New Balance have highlighted as important consumers that they would like us to consider for this project.


Gladwell analyses how trends are sparked and how they then influence people to ultimately take hold. His 'Law of the Few' suggests that before a trend can become widespread a few, key, types of people must champion an idea, concept, or product before it can reach its tipping point into popularity. These key groups of people are named Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen; if these three groups endorse and advocate a new idea it is more likely that it will tip into success.




A closer analysis into the three groups highlighted by 
Malcolm Gladwell are featured below (obtained from catwchang.com)




CONNECTOR
Connectors are the people who know everyone. We are all linked to each other by 6 degrees of separation, but not all degrees are equal. A small number of people are linked to a large number of people within a few steps, while everyone else is linked to the world through these special people. While the rest of us might prefer to keep acquaintances at arm’s length, Connectors try to keep up with them. They like to cultivate weak ties, people who are outside of their usual social networks, and they manage to occupy different niches and subcultures fluidly. In sum, connectors spread ideas and bring about change simply through the sheer number of people they know.


MAVEN
Mavens are obsessive information collectors who are socially motivated and have a strong desire to be of service and influence. They love to initiate discussions to gather information on different products, prices, places, etc., and they genuinely enjoy sharing this wealth of information with other people. They are the type of people who know where the bathroom is in a given retail store or which hotel to stay at when you are vacationing in Barcelona. While a connector might tell 20 people about the fabulous hotel they stayed at, probably only half will take their suggestion. On the other hand, while a maven might only tell 5 people about the hotel, all five of those people will very likely take his advice. In sum, mavens spread ideas and bring about change by giving expert advice.



SALESMAN
Salesmen are those people who somehow convinced you to bring home that $450 blender that you pull out to make orange juice once every 6 months to ease your guilty conscience. They are extremely energetic, enthusiastic, charming and happy. They are the masters of non-verbal cues, and they intuitively tune in to the phyisical and conversational harmony of others. They are the ones who conduct the conversations and have plenty of quality answers to combat objections commonly raised by their listeners or potential clients. In sum, salesmen spread ideas and bring about change through their ability to persuade other people.

TYPOLOGIES RESEARCH

It was relevant to look into typologies as initial research for this brief to help define what type of Opinion Former would be best for New Balance.

Firstly we looked into the book, 'Diffusion of Innovations' by Everett M. Rogers to get a better insight into what Diffusion is.
What is Diffusion?

"Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerns with new ideas."
"An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. It matters little, so far as human behaviour is concerns, whether or not an idea is objectively new as measured by the lapse of time since its first use or discovery. The perceived newness of the idea for the individual determines his or her reaction to it. If the idea seems new to the individual, it is an innovation.

Newness in an innovation need not just involve new knowledge. Someone may have known about an innovation for some time but not yet developed a favourable or unfavourable attitude toward it, nor have adopted or rejected it. ‘Newness’ of an innovation may be expressed in terms of knowledge, persuasion, or a decision to adopt."

The Innovators

Opinion Leaders

"Rogers showed that a diffusion process in a social system follows an S-Curve in which the adoption of a technology begins with slow change, is followed by rapid change and ends in slow change as the product matures or new technologies emerge. He also held that people adopt new technological innovations at different times and at different rates. He then used the varying rates of adoption to distinguish different phases in the diffusion process allowing practitioners to assess such things as the life of a new product or service and the application of the correct set of marketing activities at the appropriate time." (Proven Models.com)

The Innovators and Opinion Leaders will be the two stages that we will focus on when choosing a suitable Opinion Former. We felt that these were the most fitting stages because they would result in a social and interesting Opinion Former who would help raise awareness for New Balance and hopefully get people who they interact with to adopt the brand themselves.