Abstract
M.Comm
High-technology marketing is different to consumer marketing in that with consumer
marketing a number of different rules apply. The complexity , cost , and risk of technology
products makes them fundamentally different from consumer products, and marketing
practices are usually different as well. ( McKenna, 1991 : 218)
Consumer marketing of continuous innovations refers to the normal upgrading of products
that does not require the consumer to change behaviour. Between continuous and
discontinuous products lies a spectrum of demands for change. When a marketplace is
confronted with the opportunity to switch to a new infrastructure paradigm- customers
self-segregate along an axis of risk aversion. With high-technology marketing the
prospective buyer is attracted by the value of the high-technology product, but fears it
may not work, is uncertain about the solution and doubt the validity of the solution -
referred to as the FUD —factor ( fear ; uncertainty ; doubt ) ( Wiefels , 1998: 7 ) .
Truly discontinuous innovations are new products or services that require the end user
and the marketplace to dramatically change their past behavior , with the promise of
gaining equally dramatic new benefits. Discontinuous products require customers to
change their current mode of behaviour or to modify other products and services that they
rely on.