‘Early Adopters’ react positively to Microsoft Surface

Monday, 2 July 2012, 4:35 pm
Press Release: Roy Morgan Research

Technology ‘Early Adopters’ react positively to Microsoft Surface

Article No. 1728 - June 29, 2012

The latest television commercial from Microsoft, launching its new ‘Surface’ tablet, has drawn the most positive response from ‘Technology Early Adopters’ and ‘Digitalised Students’, two of Roy Morgan’s new ‘Technology Adoption Segments’.

The Microsoft Surface ad scored highly with these key segments among a group of eight current technology-related television commercials tested with Roy Morgan Research’s Reactor — the proven online application that continuously measures respondents’ reactions. Respondents were segmented using Roy Morgan Research’s newly-developed ‘Technology Adoption Segmentation’, which defines the Australian population into those who are more or less inclined to adopt technologies.

As the quickest segment in terms of their technology uptake, Technology Early Adopters are a crucial market for new products like Surface, therefore their positive reaction to the ad is particularly important. It is interesting to note that the reaction among Technology Early Adopters becomes more positive throughout the ad as more of the Surface product features are highlighted or demonstrated.

At the other end of the scale, ‘Technophobes’ (laggards) had a negative reaction to the Microsoft Surface ad; in fact, they reacted most negatively to this ad, compared to the other the technology ads. Comparing the reactions of the Technology Early Adopters with the Technophobes on The Reactor shows a near mirror image in terms of positive/negative reactions.

Part of the ‘early majority’ in terms of technology uptake, Digitalised Students had the most positive reaction to a number of these ads, including the Sony, Samsung Fridge and Microsoft Surface ads. Technology Early Adopters had a similarly positive response to these ads, indicating the successful targeting of these influential consumers by these brands.

Marcus Tarrant, Director of The Reactor for Roy Morgan Research says:

“The Technology Early Adopters showed the most positive responses to the HTC, Sony, Microsoft and Samsung ads. Given the high tech nature of these products and content of the ads, this is a logical reaction by these tech savvy consumers.

“As a new entrant in the growing tablet market, Microsoft Surface will need to appeal particularly to the discerning, and often highly influential, ‘Technology Early Adopters’, so this is an excellent result for their launch ad.

“The Reactor always turns up interesting, and often unexpected results. The surprise in the results of this batch of ads we tested was the surprisingly high appeal of many of the ads to the ‘Technology Engaged Retirees’ segment, including the ad for Samsung’s 3D Smart TV. Maybe there’s a target audience here that we may not have automatically expected!”

Click here to view the results of this Technology Reactor test. Click here for more information on The Reactor.

Click here to view our extensive range of Media Profiles across internet, social media, television, pay TV, radio and more. These profiles provide a broad understanding of the target audience, in terms of demographics, attitudes, activities and media usage in Australia.

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About Technology Adoption Segmentation

Roy Morgan Research has developed a new Technology Adoption Segmentation of Australians based on their uptake of new technologies. Technology Adoption Segmentation defines the Australian population into those who are more or less inclined to adopt technologies whether the technology is internet-related (such as online retail or social media), mobile phone related (such as apps) or consumer-based technologies (such as in-store kiosks, GPS enabled cars or Blu-ray players). Roy Morgan Technology Adoption Segments are defined on psychological characteristics, not behaviour. So an Early Adopter would have been the first to buy a DVD player when it was launched and will be the first to buy the latest mobile device when it is launched. If our segmentation was based on behaviour (e.g. ‘bought a DVD player’) the segments would need to be constantly redefined and would be retrospective, rather than predictive of future behaviour.

Understanding these segments allows businesses to target specific groups of technology users for product launches, digital marketing campaigns and technology-led offerings. Based on a well-established and accepted Technology Innovation Adoption theory, the Technology Adoption Segments comprise:

• Technology Early Adopters

• Professional Technology Mainstream

• Digitalised Students

• Tech Engaged Retirees

• Technology Traditionalists

• Technophobes (the ‘laggards’)

About Roy Morgan Research:

Roy Morgan Research is the largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state of Australia, as well as in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Indonesia. A full service research organisation specialising in omnibus and syndicated data, Roy Morgan Research has more than 70 years’ experience in collecting objective, independent information on consumers.

In Australia, Roy Morgan Research is considered to be the authoritative source of information on print media measurement, financial behaviour, voting intention and consumer confidence. Roy Morgan Research is a specialist in recontact customised surveys which provide invaluable and effective qualitative and quantitative information regarding customers and target markets.

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Roy Morgan Research

New Zealand's leading social and market research company

A full service research organisation specialising in omnibus and syndicated data, Roy Morgan Research has over 70 years' experience in collecting objective, independent information on consumers. Roy Morgan Research was set up in New Zealand in the 1990s and has been collecting information across a wide range of industries in New Zealand ever since. Roy Morgan currently has over 10 years of trended data on a geographically and demographically representative sample of over 12,000 New Zealanders aged 14+.

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