One of the recommended books in the Technopreneurship Short-Term Training that I joined with other IT Educators (which ran from November 2006 to January 2007) is Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore. I was able to get a copy of the book at National Bookstore-Gaisano Mall. Moore presents a differing perspective on the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC) for disruptive high technology products and cautions readers on a "chasm" that separates the innovators and early adopters (who compose the minority of the market) from the mainstream market composed of the pragmatic early majority, conservative late majority, and skeptical laggards. Not understanding and mastering the differing mindsets of the "minority market" and the "majority market" invites failure and difficulty in crossing the so-called "chasm". Moore also presents his strategies on how to negotiate the so-called "chasm" and create inroads when reaching the other end. Below is a book review which I got from the Internet. As stated by an endorser, it is a must-read for those in the business of marketing and selling disruptive high technology products...Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Reviewed by John Falsetto of DocuCenter Corporation
(http://www.writersblock.ca/summer1998/bookrev.htm)
Reviewed by John Falsetto of DocuCenter Corporation
(http://www.writersblock.ca/summer1998/bookrev.htm)
Marketing is a challenging field, to say the least. The future of a company can hinge on the ability of its marketing department to plan and execute a product release. The volatile nature of high-tech marketing perhaps best exemplifies the challenges. Geoffrey A. Moore heavily reinforces this point in Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers. Moore warns of the issues to be faced and, although the high-tech industry has evolved substantially since the book's release (1991), the information is still useful today.
Moore begins by defining a commonly accepted high-tech marketing model — a Technology Adoption Life Cycle. The model has five divisions, each representing a group of buyers to whom a product is sold during its life cycle: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards.
Innovators are technology enthusiasts. They are keen to be the first to try out a new technology, but they represent just a sliver of the model.
Early Adopters, also known as visionaries, are somewhat keen to try out new technologies. They appreciate a product's potential to give their organization a competitive advantage. They represent a larger slice of the market, and they tend to have much more influence in an organization than do Innovators.
The Early Majority, sometimes called pragmatists, represent the bulk of the market. They tend to buy in to new technologies only after they perceive solid references and safety measures that guard against potential failures. Securing the pragmatist buyer is the most important marketing challenge.
The Late Majority, or conservatives, are also a very large portion of the market. They are extremely cautious when buying into a new technology. They want to see proof of results before they will accept a product's usefulness.
Laggards are skeptics who would prefer to avoid new technologies altogether. They will buy only if they really must.
When a new product is released, it should move from left to right in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, until its useful life is expired. Although products are not guaranteed to follow this logical path, most naturally will.
Moore believes that small breaks exist between each division in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, representing lulls in the market (refer to the figure entitled Revised Technology Adoption Life Cycle above). However, Moore posits that the break that divides the Early Adopters from the Early Majority is actually a chasm. As the title of Moore's book implies, this chasm is significant enough to warrant a full-scale effort to pass a product across. Moore argues that many companies get so caught up in early market success that they don't anticipate the chasm, and their products then fail owing to an inability to traverse the gap.
Exceptions to every rule certainly exist, but, by and large, every new high-tech product must find a way to leap the chasm, so that the organization can benefit from the rewards that await at the other side.
The difficulty comes because the Early Majority, by their very nature, need good references before buying into a new technology, and Early Adopters do not make good references. The chasm then becomes a treacherous hazard indeed.
Moore proposes a four-stage approach to crossing the chasm. He calls it the D-Day strategy, a reference to the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. The idea is to:
* target the point of attack,
* assemble the invasion force,
* define the battle, and
* launch the invasion.
These four steps allow an organization to successfully attract pragmatist buyers, and to build a significant market share for their new product (refer to the link above for the discussion of the four steps).
Moore begins by defining a commonly accepted high-tech marketing model — a Technology Adoption Life Cycle. The model has five divisions, each representing a group of buyers to whom a product is sold during its life cycle: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards.
Innovators are technology enthusiasts. They are keen to be the first to try out a new technology, but they represent just a sliver of the model.
Early Adopters, also known as visionaries, are somewhat keen to try out new technologies. They appreciate a product's potential to give their organization a competitive advantage. They represent a larger slice of the market, and they tend to have much more influence in an organization than do Innovators.
The Early Majority, sometimes called pragmatists, represent the bulk of the market. They tend to buy in to new technologies only after they perceive solid references and safety measures that guard against potential failures. Securing the pragmatist buyer is the most important marketing challenge.
The Late Majority, or conservatives, are also a very large portion of the market. They are extremely cautious when buying into a new technology. They want to see proof of results before they will accept a product's usefulness.
Laggards are skeptics who would prefer to avoid new technologies altogether. They will buy only if they really must.
When a new product is released, it should move from left to right in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, until its useful life is expired. Although products are not guaranteed to follow this logical path, most naturally will.
Moore believes that small breaks exist between each division in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, representing lulls in the market (refer to the figure entitled Revised Technology Adoption Life Cycle above). However, Moore posits that the break that divides the Early Adopters from the Early Majority is actually a chasm. As the title of Moore's book implies, this chasm is significant enough to warrant a full-scale effort to pass a product across. Moore argues that many companies get so caught up in early market success that they don't anticipate the chasm, and their products then fail owing to an inability to traverse the gap.
Exceptions to every rule certainly exist, but, by and large, every new high-tech product must find a way to leap the chasm, so that the organization can benefit from the rewards that await at the other side.
The difficulty comes because the Early Majority, by their very nature, need good references before buying into a new technology, and Early Adopters do not make good references. The chasm then becomes a treacherous hazard indeed.
Moore proposes a four-stage approach to crossing the chasm. He calls it the D-Day strategy, a reference to the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. The idea is to:
* target the point of attack,
* assemble the invasion force,
* define the battle, and
* launch the invasion.
These four steps allow an organization to successfully attract pragmatist buyers, and to build a significant market share for their new product (refer to the link above for the discussion of the four steps).
Note: A summary of the book can be downloaded at http://www.parkerhill.com/Summary of Crossing the Chasm.pdf
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