Marketing of Innovative New Products in Emerging Markets: A Trust Based Framework

Abstract

There are instances of products with proven performance as well as marketing successes in one market, which do not succeed in emerging markets. Commonly used marketing techniques are not adequate in planning consumer adoption and ensuring successful commercial launch. The consumer faces some degree of irresolvable uncertainty and risk for any new product adoption decision, especially in the emerging markets where institutional consumer protection mechanisms are relatively ineffective. Thus the resolution of the uncertainty and risk is fundamental to the adoption in emerging markets. Literature suggests that one such psychological mechanism is use of “trust”, which has been explored in this paper. The current research explores how the consumers make adoption decision for innovative new product under condition of risk, uncertainty and ineffective institutional mechanisms of consumer protection. The research evidence suggests the adoption decision may be modeled as that trust based decision making process and it may provide useful choice criteria for decisions on alternative product offers. The trust based innovative new product adoption process suggests that the disposition to trust and direct experience of the consumers are primary drivers for adoption decision. For innovative products, the product performance seems to be more significant decision making criteria as compared to the marketer intention.