Strategies for retailing technologies at maturity: A retail banking case study

Most modern consumer societies make use of retailing technologies. For instance, consider the widespread use of scanning equipment in supermarkets. The banking industry, in particular, has also tried to take advantage of the productivity and customer service gains associated with technology with the provision of ATMs (Automated Telling Machines), which consumers can use to carry out day to day banking transactions. Consumers access these machines by using magnetic stripe plastic cards. However whole these new technologies may offer significant advantages to the consumer, many are unwilling to adopt them. A large number of consumers are resistant to new ways of doing their banking, especially when the new way represents loss of personal contact. This research found that around 60% of card holders are regular users of ATMs. The vast majority of these only withdraw money. This low usage rate suggests a serious misuse of bank resources. Thus, while ATMs are at the maturity stage of the product life cycle, usage rates are still well short of their potential. Are the strategies used in the past necessarily appropriate for the future? When ATMs were launched in the U.S. and U.K., emphasis was on large scale promotional campaigns and lavish giveaways to encourage trial. Such strategies were largely resisted by New Zealand banks, which preferred to adopt a more “soft sell” approach centered on issuing consumers with a card and then letting them adopt ATMs in their own time. This study found that the main reason for consumers not using ATMs was preference for dealing with humans in banking. It is suggested that strategies such as competitions and promotions, which have been used with great frequency in the U.K. and U.S., will not succeed in the future because they do not meet the needs of the laggard group. What is needed, however, is a program, which lets consumers make the transition in their own time. This could be encouraged by increasing the placement of in-branch ATMs. Not only would this give ATMs the image of being “nearly human, ” but reluctant consumers could use the ATM with the security of having other bank staff present. This is the strategy, which has been adopted by New Zealand banks, and would appear to have greater potential for success in the longer term. The lesson for suppliers of retailing technology both within and outside the banking industry is clear: the late majority and laggards differ from innovators and early adopters in both their reasons for adopting a technology and their reasons for not adopting a technology. Furthermore, by the time the adoption process has reached the late majority and laggards, it is likely that the innovation is at or near the maturity stage of the product life cycle. Strategies, therefore, must change so that they are more appropriate for the latter stages of both the adoption and product life cycle processes.