Nicole Whaley
May 11, 2011
Com-126 Comm. and the Media
Dr. Susan Montjar, APR

“The Water Car”

A good candidate that I believe can be used to exemplify the Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations Theory would be a vehicle that runs on water. It would cut down the cost of gas and allow individuals to drive more efficiently without the worry of costly gasoline pieces. I would design the car to be able to run on gas as well, but if and when the vehicle was out of gasoline, the car would automatically switch to water. It would be design to be ran manually so that the owner had a choice of driving the car on water alone without ever using gas. This would enable the owner to keep the environment clean and sanitary. The people most likely to be receivers of this innovation would be the young to middle age people whose concerns for their pockets and the environment was of great matter. I would predict that those individuals would become my first time buyers. People that have families to support and are in constant commute, back and forth, to work. Individuals, who are economically stable, but still experience hardships when trying to fit the cost of gas into their family budget. People who need standard of living changes that will improve their responsibility to our environment all while still allowing themselves the ease of their current way of living. If I had to give them titles, they would be business-orientated, focus on maintaining their current status and still helping their environment along with their bank accounts. Individuals who want to make a difference in the air quality. These particular groups of people would have to be open to change, especially when this type of change doesn’t affect their personal convince but improves their green thumbprint. The Water Car will appeal to everyone’s sense of responsibility, reliability, as well as efficiency and overall straightforwardness in the protection of our plant. As an initial plan, questionnaires would be created and distributed throughout the auto market in varies cities. The surveys would emphasize the amount of money that could be saved on gasoline, making driving better and more earth friendly than our current means of transportation which runs on gasoline and diesel. The surveys would concentrate on how much better the Water car was especially with almost everyone having access to water as oppose to gasoline. It would go on to emphasize the comparison of gas to water through the product and recognize the environmental benefits along with economic benefits of the car itself. They survey would then be distributed on a wide scale, via internet, e-mail, mail and also placed in auto sales magazines and stores. Following the organization and the analysis of the surveys, an enormous media push would be used to inform the public of the results and to keep the invention in the lime light. Not just on TV, but also in the printed media and the radio as well. I believe this would help to reinforce the benefits of driving the Water Car. In regards to the mechanism itself, there have been many inventions that are similar to the one I am promoting. But from my recollections, those cars ran on electric or partially on water. Unlike the Water car I am proposing. My invention would be able to not only run on water alone but gas as well. A most effective way I feel about advertising my innovation would be to pair up with an already prosperous and established car company like Ford or Chevelote, maybe even Toyota or Honda, although I would prefer to keep my invention American owned, and have them plaster my innovation on billboards across the states that will be viewed in advance prior to product release. To promote the Water Car, a select group of the targeted population and members of the private car rental industry will be selected to try out my invention. This way, any unanticipated challenges can be detected and fixed before making the car available to the general public. If our test audience approved of the product, then they could further promote the car making it even more popular. There is nothing more promising than word of mouth promotions! So our initial test groups will be allowed to keep the device at a minimum monetary cost as long as they agreed to document a list of prospective associates. In my opinion it is important to focus on the initial test group with an eye toward changing or adapting further sales strategies through the success and feedback of the first group. This way any mishaps for the next group of early adopters will be removed and by following the second group of early adopters, we can repeat the process for the early majority of users until we have the challenges removed and are able to continue to reach the late majority and laggards. This will ensure our success with the overall public. At this point I do not see our innovators group having a big impact on the result of our marketing at all. Any imperfections and problem discovered in this particular group will not have tinkled down on the effect of the final result since control of the imperfections would have been handled earlier on right after the dissemination of the Water Car, prior to the early adaptor interest. The early adopters are usually a much larger group and are very effective in diffusing their opinions. Early adopters like to have knowledge that a particular product has been tried out, but not thoroughly distributed to the public. They love to jump aboard the new ship but dislike being the first ones on board. The most important particulars to be employed when discussing early adopters include ease, dependability, eco-friendly and most of all, affordability. Individuals of this group will be the ones testing the product to see if the product is of use to them. They are interested in finding out if this vehicle fits their overall lifestyle and if it is useable on a daily basis. So when advertising, the message and slogans should accommodate and appeal to their needs, for example. “Drive the Water Car! Be good to the earth!” or “Live Life, Drive Free!” These messages should be included in any and all commercials, advertisements, and all newly gathered information pertaining to factual sales information. Opinion leaders for this advancement will come from the targeted group and the private car rental, auto magazines and auto stores who would have more concrete and genuine information. The top representatives from each of these venues will form one element of the opinion leader group. They are considered authoritative from the value pint of view of the innovation and the dependability of such an innovation. The managers and owners would in affect be the people who are benefitting from the invention and could in turn be used as opinion leaders as well. Finally, considering all the data in it’s entirely would be analyzed in preparation for trends. Each part will be compared to the previous one for any indication of promised success. The detailed plan will be followed unless there is some kind of interference in which case, other plans will be adopted with the inclusion of change. Anyone interested in the success of the Water Car will be inclined to participate in the development, any revisions, and redevelopments to the introduction of the product to the public. While using Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory, it should never be forgotten that not all of the ideas will be used. The idea of the Water Car and my described plan above are a few of my ideas as to how the theory perhaps could work for my invention. When you diffuse an idea to the public, you should have a well developed plan to use. Coupled along with Roger’s Theory of diffusion, your innovation is sure to go far!

References

“Enabling Change” located at: http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf

Diffusions of innovations By Everett M. Rogers - Free Press (2003) - Paperback - 551 pages
Gaining Momentum: Managing the Diffusion of Innovations By Joe Tidd - WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUB CO ((2009)
Marketing Manual: Diffusion of Innovations, with Other Marketing Aspects By Bren Monteiro - 6 Degrees Books (2010) - Paperback - 116 pages