5. How can consumers be categorized in terms of their timing of adoption relative to that of other consumers? Innovations are products, services, ideas, or attributes that consumers in a market segment perceive to be new. Innovations can be characterized as functional, symbolic, or hedonic and may vary in the degree of behavioral change their adoption requires.

Companies are increasingly using cocreation to develop innovative new products. Product innovativeness ranges along a continuum from continuous to discontinuous. Innovations may represent fads, fashions, or classics and hence may exhibit a short, moderate, or long life cycle. Marketers can extend a product’s life cycle by enhancing the breadth of the innovation and encouraging consumers to find innovative uses for familiar products.