Welcome to Germaine Theory

Thanks for Your Service, But Not My Baby... Welcome back my fellow theorists. This week we take a long look at 'Word of Mouth' advertising and influencing, and the absolute importance of understanding an early adopter's significance in the diffusion of innovation.  As many of you know, I am an Army Recruiter. I’ve been a recruiter for almost 10 years now and have seen and heard pretty much everything in regard to reasons against joining the Army by parents of young Americans . “My son isn’t mature enough for the Army”. “I’m not letting my kid go to fight for somebody else’s oil”. “My kid is going to college and doesn’t need the Army”. “You think I want my kid to be a homeless drunk”. “Thank you for your service, but not my baby…I don’t want him getting killed over there” . A vast majority of my day is spent dispelling urban myths about what people think the Army is and does. We often look for new and innovative approaches to reaching our target demographic of 17 – 24 ye...

Hola, my name is Germaine Powell. I am currently a graduate student majoring in Strategic Communication at Troy University. Professionally, I have been a recruiter for the United States Army for the past decade, so it's safe to say that strategic communication has been an integral part of my life. As human beings, even though communication is a major part of our lives, it's one of those things that most of us just inherently do and don’t really give much thought to the mechanics. I wanted to take a peek behind the curtain and understand how to maximize my communicative efforts. My blog will follow the weekly topics discussed in my current course; principles and theories 'germane' to effective communication. We will dissect the theories that govern facets of strategic communication and take a good look at the real world application of these theories and attempt to better understand the reasoning behind their overall successes and/or failures; making us better communi...

To have a true understanding of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory in practice, you must first understand the theory in and of itself. So just what is this Diffusion of Innovation Theory that was mentioned in my previous introductory post? Dr. Everett M. Rogers, author of Diffusion of Innovations, Fourth Edition, defines diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas”. (Rogers, 1995, p. 5) The main characters of this theory are classified by segments, the innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and the laggards. Think of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory as a five lane highway. In the lane farthest to the left (the HOV Lane) are our Innovators ; they arrive at the destination first. These bright men and women are the dreamers; the ones that saw a problem and thought of a solution to corr...