問8
頻出度★★★
新商品の市場への浸透において重要であるといわれているオピニオンリーダの説明として，適切なものはどれか。
平成23年度 秋期 ITパスポート試験 問8
ストラテジ系経営戦略マネジメント › マーケティング
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 8
Incorrectア
“The group that purchases the product only after confirming that many people are already using it” is the cautious, skeptical group that moves only after diffusion has advanced considerably, which is a description of the late majority. They take the position of confirming how others have adopted and then following along, the exact opposite direction from an opinion leader, who goes first and influences others.
Incorrectイ
“The group that is relatively cautious and purchases the product in a follow-the-crowd manner, after consulting early adopters and the like” is a description of the early majority. The “early adopters” they consult are precisely the opinion leaders, so イ describes the side that receives the influence, not the side that gives it.
- ウ
正解 The correct answer is ウ. An opinion leader is a person who, in the diffusion process of a new product, buys ahead of others and whose evaluations and opinions sway the purchasing decisions of the consumers who follow. This corresponds to the early adopter in the innovator theory (Rogers’ theory of diffusion). In ウ, “purchases the product relatively early based on its own value judgment” expresses that they decide to adopt by their own standards without watching what others do, and “influences the consumer groups that follow” expresses the aspect of influence, namely that this judgment spreads to the later groups. Together they state the definition of an opinion leader with nothing missing and nothing added. Keep in mind that buying early alone is not enough; having influence over the groups that follow is the decisive factor.
Incorrectエ
“The group that is adventurous and takes the lead in purchasing the product” is a description of the innovator, who values novelty itself and is the first to jump in. Innovators buy earliest of all, but because their values are far removed from those of ordinary consumers, their influence on the general public is limited, so they do not satisfy the opinion leader requirement of “influencing the consumer groups that follow.”
ここがポイント
- Opinion leader = the early adopter in the innovator theory. The key to identifying them is that, on top of buying early, two further conditions must hold: they choose by their own value judgment, and they influence the consumer groups that follow. Distinguish them from the group that simply buys first of all (innovators) and from the groups that buy only after watching what others do (the majorities).
- The innovator theory classifies consumers, in order of how early they adopt, into five groups: innovators (about 2.5%), early adopters (about 13.5%), the early majority (about 34%), the late majority (about 34%), and laggards (about 16%). A barrier to diffusion called the chasm is said to lie between the early adopters and the early majority: after the product has been accepted by the roughly 16% made up of innovators plus early adopters, whether it can spread from there to the early majority becomes the turning point for diffusion.
用語