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Home→The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing→A→adoption curve

adoption curve

Definition:
A graphic representation of the diffusion of an innovation. The curve illustrates the number of adopters who have purchased a new product or service in each time period from the launch date. The curve takes the shape of a normal statistical distribution. A small number of people adopt the innovation shortly after it becomes available and this rate of adoption increases until 50 per cent of the potential buyers (or users) have tried it. After this point the number adopting within each time period falls until there are no potential adopters who have not tried the innovation. An alternative method of illustrating the same process is by plotting the cumulative number of adopters against time: This produces an S-shaped curve, also known as the diffusion curve.

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© Westburn Publishers Ltd 2002, The Westburn Dictionary of Marketing edited by Michael J Baker, ISBN 978-0-946433-01-8. www.themarketingdictionary.com. Entry: [Michael Saren and Michael J. Baker], [1998].