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The Commercialization of Innovation May 2009

About This Report

By using VALS as part of a strategic process of commercialization, companies can avoid costly mistakes that could ultimately result in the failure of the innovation in the marketplace.

Given the enormous cost in time and money in the development and commercialization of innovations, the last link in the commercialization chain of events-actually selling the product-seems particularly important. The questions then are when companies should start considering who their first group of consumers-or early adopters-of the new product will be and what characteristics those consumers should ideally possess to be a good match for the product. This report provides answers to these questions from a VALS™ perspective on new product commercialization. It identifies specific psychological types of early adopters to match the key benefits and features of new products.

Table of Contents

Successful Commercialization 1
Radical Innovations 2
The VALS™ Eearly-Adopter Segmentation 5
Attracting Innovators 5
Differentiating between Types of Early Adopters 6
Adoption Speed 6
General Types of Innovations 6
Role Differences 7
Strategic Considerations 8
Summary 9
Figure
A Generic Innovation-Diffusion Model 2