Communicating change and innovation: Is your message too radical?

This winter I read a great book called Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant. Professor Grant of the Wharton Business School is one of today’s most celebrated psychologists and TED speakers. His known works cover subjects from motivation, meaningful work to organizational culture.

I really enjoyed a chapter in the book which centered around the story of three famous suffragists: Elizabeth Stanton, Susan Anthony and Lucy Stone. Despite sharing the same goal of getting women voting rights, the supposedly partners became rivals due to their different communication approaches. Stanton and Anthony adopted a more radical approach, to the extreme point of including a known racist to their campaign. Meanwhile, Stone’s organization, in addition to advocating for justice, also attempted to communicate how women’s positive domestic traits would improve public life and protect family values.

Guess which approach won more supporters? While the radical message attracts early, passionate believers, some tempering and neutralizing would be needed to extend the support base to mainstream audience. You probably know more than one example in the world of politics to support this idea.

The idea applies to the world of marketing as we think about the product lifecycle. How you market to the innovators or early adopters should differ significantly from how you later market to mainstream customers. Mainstream audience wants something familiar in your pitch, for example a product category they already know or a familiar face advocating for your product. They want solid proof that your product provides tangible value.

Let’s take a look at how companies pitch their products to mainstream audience in two well-known product launches.

Segway is a famous product failure. For a product that’s been around for 15 years, Segway still introduces itself as a “personal transporter” with the tagline “Personal Transportation That Simply Moves You”. Not only is the product category unclear, but the messaging risks confusing consumers with an unclear, yet-to-be-proven benefit.

The Amazon Echo is a product with a known, successful launch. Currently the Echo is described as follows: “Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more — instantly.” The Echo is of course more than just a speaker. To better connect with consumers, Amazon uses a product category consumers are already familiar with. The company also explains how the product works in simple terms to help non-technical consumers understand where the hands-free benefit comes from.

When the world becomes obsessed with innovation and disruption, it may be tempting to call your product “disruptive” or “the new way” to achieve something. While doing so, make sure you don’t alienate your potential customers with your messaging or product design. Disruption may gain you passionate early adopters, but for many of your customers, maybe what they need is a product that integrates seamlessly into their lives without breaking existing knowledge and familiar rules.

Elise is an MBA candidate at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thumnguyen.