I enjoyed my first Blizzard this past week.  Yep, that’s right. Twenty-five years after Dairy Queen introduced the candy-laced ice cream treats so thick they can serve them upside down, I finally had one.

Since ice cream is my all-time favorite desert, it’s a little surprising I never gave in to the Blizzard. But even a small Blizzard looked like too much to me. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of these world-favorites, DQ introduced a limited-time mini Blizzard. Finally, finally, I couldn’t resist. I stepped up, puzzled over the long list of flavor options and ordered raspberry truffle.

As I savored it, I had to laugh at myself. As a marketer, I’m well aware of the challenge for companies introducing new products and trying to lure people to use them. They face the Adoption-Diffusion challenge.

The theory of Adoption-Diffusion addresses the speed with which people will adopt innovation. People fall into several general categories: Innovators (think about people who couldn’t wait to get their hands on a Kindle), Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards.  Plotted out, people in these categories form a bell curve. Roughly 16% constitute the Laggards – those who will resist an innovation to the bitter end.

Truthfully, I’ve never considered myself a laggard. Certainly not when it comes to ice cream! But there you are. Twenty-five years later, there are still brand new customers out there. Personally, I’m glad DQ didn’t give up on me. Proves the value of persistence in communication, doesn’t it?

My second DQ mini Blizzard was banana cream pie. What’s next?