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Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
Every year, companies gamble away millions of dollars and countless hours of technical talent on doomed efforts to market technology products that are greeted with enthusiasm by a few technologically literate consumers but ultimately fizzle in the wider marketplace. With more high-tech products scrambling for the home market every day, it is essential that marketing professionals learn to transcend the outmoded marketing theories that have led to more failures than successes in the challenging technology marketplace. Based on the revolutionary model derived from Geoffrey Moore's extensive experience in high-tech markets, Crossing the Chasm is the definitive book on a vital, rapidly growing but capricious market.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 22, 2002
4070 people are currently reading
77500 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey A. Moore
9 books411 followersGeoffrey Moore is an author, speaker, and advisor who splits his consulting time between start-up companies in the Mohr Davidow portfolio and established high-tech enterprises, most recently including Salesforce, Microsoft, Intel, Box, Aruba, Cognizant, and Rackspace.
Moore’s life’s work has focused on the market dynamics surrounding disruptive innovations. His first book, Crossing the Chasm, focuses on the challenges start-up companies face transitioning from early adopting to mainstream customers. It has sold more than a million copies, and its third edition has been revised such that the majority of its examples and case studies reference companies come to prominence from the past decade. Moore’s most recent work, Escape Velocity, addresses the challenge large enterprises face when they seek to add a new line of business to their established portfolio. It has been the basis of much of his recent consulting.
Irish by heritage, Moore has yet to meet a microphone he didn’t like and gives between 50 and 80 speeches a year. One theme that has received a lot of attention recently is the transition in enterprise IT investment focus from Systems of Record to Systems of Engagement. This is driving the deployment of a new cloud infrastructure to complement the legacy client-server stack, creating massive markets for a next generation of tech industry leaders.
Moore has a bachelors in American literature from Stanford University and a PhD in English literature from the University of Washington. After teaching English for four years at Olivet College, he came back to the Bay Area with his wife and family and began a career in high tech as a training specialist. Over time he transitioned first into sales and then into marketing, finally finding his niche in marketing consulting, working first at Regis McKenna Inc, then with the three firms he helped found: The Chasm Group, Chasm Institute, and TCG Advisors. Today he is chairman emeritus of all three.
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Geoffrey Moore Main Site
Moore’s life’s work has focused on the market dynamics surrounding disruptive innovations. His first book, Crossing the Chasm, focuses on the challenges start-up companies face transitioning from early adopting to mainstream customers. It has sold more than a million copies, and its third edition has been revised such that the majority of its examples and case studies reference companies come to prominence from the past decade. Moore’s most recent work, Escape Velocity, addresses the challenge large enterprises face when they seek to add a new line of business to their established portfolio. It has been the basis of much of his recent consulting.
Irish by heritage, Moore has yet to meet a microphone he didn’t like and gives between 50 and 80 speeches a year. One theme that has received a lot of attention recently is the transition in enterprise IT investment focus from Systems of Record to Systems of Engagement. This is driving the deployment of a new cloud infrastructure to complement the legacy client-server stack, creating massive markets for a next generation of tech industry leaders.
Moore has a bachelors in American literature from Stanford University and a PhD in English literature from the University of Washington. After teaching English for four years at Olivet College, he came back to the Bay Area with his wife and family and began a career in high tech as a training specialist. Over time he transitioned first into sales and then into marketing, finally finding his niche in marketing consulting, working first at Regis McKenna Inc, then with the three firms he helped found: The Chasm Group, Chasm Institute, and TCG Advisors. Today he is chairman emeritus of all three.
Visit The Infinite Staircase Website
Twitter Account for The Infinite Staircase Website
Facebook Account for Geoffrey Moore
Geoffrey Moore Main Site
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 973 reviews
October 1, 2020
In 2003 I reached a simple conclusion: I knew nothing about Marketing. Having created a Marketing company during college (after owning several businesses and spending more than a year selling advertising for a newspaper) with paying customers and everything!
So, I immersed myself in learning everything possible about Marketing in the context of small privately held firms. After seven years, I can honestly say that I now know nothing about Marketing... except that I know more than 99% of the people who claim they do.
This book changed my life, and the lives of my clients. I bought it in April 1999 and skimmed it. But it was not until April 2009 that I dug in to learn its secrets. I was simply amazed.
If Marketing touches any part of your business (or personal) life, you must buy, read, and re-read this book. Until you understand the power of referenceability, may I be so bold as to suggest that you are clueless about Marketing?
So, I immersed myself in learning everything possible about Marketing in the context of small privately held firms. After seven years, I can honestly say that I now know nothing about Marketing... except that I know more than 99% of the people who claim they do.
This book changed my life, and the lives of my clients. I bought it in April 1999 and skimmed it. But it was not until April 2009 that I dug in to learn its secrets. I was simply amazed.
If Marketing touches any part of your business (or personal) life, you must buy, read, and re-read this book. Until you understand the power of referenceability, may I be so bold as to suggest that you are clueless about Marketing?
July 19, 2012
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. This book lays out the mechanics of formulating and evolving a marketing strategy by exploring an extreme boundary case: introducing a fundamentally new product to the marketplace. The principles are relevant to all businesses everywhere. However, it would be wrong to view this book as a simple roadmap, because it is very hard to know where on the map you're starting. Do you really have something that will be regarded as a "disruptively innovative product", or is it really just an incremental advance, subject to the rules of one of Moore's later books, such as the Gorilla Game? The most basic point of this book is that the tactics that serve you well at one stage will sink you in the next, so you better orient yourself properly before shouting and writing big checks.
That warning aside, this book belongs on the shelf next to other hallowed volumed of condensed wisdom like The Art of War, The Prince, and How to Shit in the Woods -- All illuminating, and all easily misused.
That warning aside, this book belongs on the shelf next to other hallowed volumed of condensed wisdom like The Art of War, The Prince, and How to Shit in the Woods -- All illuminating, and all easily misused.
July 24, 2016
Lots and lots of opinions, directions, and instructions with very few reasons and evidence (let alone science) to back it up. The stories and anecdotes that are mentioned to back up points are cherry picked. Research on the credibility, track record, and net worth of the author only made my skepticism increase.
I cant say his directions are wrong. But I wasn't convinced they were right.
I'm sure many other people have failed to even consider these components before rushing to implement on his advice (considering how famous the book is), which I think is a dangerous error.
I cant say his directions are wrong. But I wasn't convinced they were right.
I'm sure many other people have failed to even consider these components before rushing to implement on his advice (considering how famous the book is), which I think is a dangerous error.
March 18, 2019
It was to the point, usable, concise and competent. Exactly what I would want in a book I'm reading for work. It's a rather short book, but still it took me over half a year to finish!
It was pretty good:
- a well-articulated model describing high-tech marketing on various stages of its adoption life cycle;
- clear implications of adopting such a model were presented and well-organized;
- the author gave examples of real-world products and how the model applies to them;
- there were instructions and concrete steps to take to make use of this model and applying it to your own case.
So overall I liked it and would recommend it.
The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars is that it took me so long to finish it. The product I'm working on, I realized, is pretty mature, so I wasn't compelled to read this book quickly and had to push myself to go on.
It was pretty good:
- a well-articulated model describing high-tech marketing on various stages of its adoption life cycle;
- clear implications of adopting such a model were presented and well-organized;
- the author gave examples of real-world products and how the model applies to them;
- there were instructions and concrete steps to take to make use of this model and applying it to your own case.
So overall I liked it and would recommend it.
The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars is that it took me so long to finish it. The product I'm working on, I realized, is pretty mature, so I wasn't compelled to read this book quickly and had to push myself to go on.
Read
August 20, 2021A classic; a fascinating business book about running start-ups that sell tech products.
January 16, 2015
The first half of this book is gold. It kicks off with the diffusion of innovations theory and a characterization of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. It goes through lots of concrete strategy on how to market to each of these groups, how different they are, and why there is a tricky chasm between the two early adopter groups and everyone else. The lessons here go beyond marketing a product and are just as useful in other contexts, such as how to convince people at your own company to do something. The writing is clear, keeps jargon to a minimum, and has lots of good analogies and even a few good jokes.
As you get into the second half of the book, it runs out of steam. Or, to be fair, perhaps it just wasn't what I was looking for. It starts to go into detailed tactics, and at this level of detail, the book really shows its age. Many of the companies and technologies it uses as examples are long gone. Worse yet, some of the advice doesn't make sense any more. For example, the book describes the Internet as an up and coming technology you might want to pay attention to. The book also shies away from any sort of data or talking to real customers in favor of intuition and experience. This may be the right decision in some scenarios, but with the data access and analysis we have today, it's not always a good trade-off.
In short, well worth reading the first few parts to wrap your head around the different customer segments and how your marketing tactics have to change as you capture more of the market, but consider skipping the rest.
Some good quotes from the book:
Innovators pursue new technology products aggressively. They sometimes seek them out even before a formal marketing program has been launched. This is because technology is a central interest in their life, regardless of what function it is performing.
Early adopters, like innovators, buy into new product concepts very early in their life cycle, but unlike innovators, they are not technologists. Rather they are people who find it easy to imagine, understand, and appreciate the benefits of a new technology, and to relate these potential benefits to their other concerns.
[...]
The early majority share some of the early adopter’s ability to relate to technology, but ultimately they are driven by a strong sense of practicality. They know that many of these newfangled inventions end up as passing fads, so they are content to wait and see how other people are making out before they buy in themselves.
[...]
The late majority shares all the concerns of the early majority, plus one major additional one: Whereas people in the early majority are comfortable with their ability to handle a technology product, should they finally decide to purchase it, members of the late majority are not. As a result, they wait until something has become an established standard, and even then they want to see lots of support and tend to buy, therefore, from large, well-established companies.
[...]
Finally there are the laggards. These people simply don’t want anything to do with new technology, for any of a variety of reasons, some personal and some economic. The only time they ever buy a technological product is when it is buried so deep inside another product—the way, say, that a microprocessor is designed into the braking system of a new car—that they don’t even know it is there.
What the early adopter is buying [...] is some kind of change agent. By being the first to implement this change in their industry, the early adopters expect to get a jump on the competition, whether from lower product costs, faster time to market, more complete customer service, or some other comparable business advantage. They expect a radical discontinuity between the old ways and the new, and they are prepared to champion this cause against entrenched resistance. Being the first, they also are prepared to bear with the inevitable bugs and glitches that accompany any innovation just coming to market.
By contrast, the early majority want to buy a productivity improvement for existing operations. They are looking to minimize the discontinuity with the old ways. They want evolution, not revolution. They want technology to enhance, not overthrow, the established ways of doing business. And above all, they do not want to debug somebody else’s product. By the time they adopt it, they want it to work properly and to integrate appropriately with their existing technology base.
Marketing professionals insist on market segmentation because they know no meaningful marketing program can be implemented across a set of customers who do not reference each other. The reason for this is simply leverage. No company can afford to pay for every marketing contact made. Every program must rely on some ongoing chain-reaction effects—what is usually called word of mouth. The more self-referencing the market and the more tightly bounded its communications channels, the greater the opportunity for such effects.
When pragmatists buy, they care about the company they are buying from, the quality of the product they are buying, the infrastructure of supporting products and system interfaces, and the reliability of the service they are going to get. In other words, they are planning on living with this decision personally for a long time to come. (By contrast, the visionaries are more likely to be planning on implementing the great new order and then using that as a springboard to their next great career step upward.) Because pragmatists are in it for the long haul, and because they control the bulk of the dollars in the marketplace, the rewards for building relationships of trust with them are very much worth the effort.
Most companies fail to cross the chasm because, confronted with the immensity of opportunity represented by a mainstream market, they lose their focus, chasing every opportunity that presents itself, but finding themselves unable to deliver a salable proposition to any true pragmatist buyer. The D-Day strategy keeps everyone on point—if we don’t take Normandy, we don’t have to worry about how we’re going to take Paris.
Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision. It serves as a kind of buyers’ shorthand, shaping not only their final choice but even the way they evaluate alternatives leading up to that choice. In other words, evaluations are often simply rationalizations of pre-established positioning.
Here there is one fundamental key to success: When most people think of positioning in this way, they are thinking about how to make their products easier to sell. But the correct goal is to make them easier to buy.
As you get into the second half of the book, it runs out of steam. Or, to be fair, perhaps it just wasn't what I was looking for. It starts to go into detailed tactics, and at this level of detail, the book really shows its age. Many of the companies and technologies it uses as examples are long gone. Worse yet, some of the advice doesn't make sense any more. For example, the book describes the Internet as an up and coming technology you might want to pay attention to. The book also shies away from any sort of data or talking to real customers in favor of intuition and experience. This may be the right decision in some scenarios, but with the data access and analysis we have today, it's not always a good trade-off.
In short, well worth reading the first few parts to wrap your head around the different customer segments and how your marketing tactics have to change as you capture more of the market, but consider skipping the rest.
Some good quotes from the book:
Innovators pursue new technology products aggressively. They sometimes seek them out even before a formal marketing program has been launched. This is because technology is a central interest in their life, regardless of what function it is performing.
Early adopters, like innovators, buy into new product concepts very early in their life cycle, but unlike innovators, they are not technologists. Rather they are people who find it easy to imagine, understand, and appreciate the benefits of a new technology, and to relate these potential benefits to their other concerns.
[...]
The early majority share some of the early adopter’s ability to relate to technology, but ultimately they are driven by a strong sense of practicality. They know that many of these newfangled inventions end up as passing fads, so they are content to wait and see how other people are making out before they buy in themselves.
[...]
The late majority shares all the concerns of the early majority, plus one major additional one: Whereas people in the early majority are comfortable with their ability to handle a technology product, should they finally decide to purchase it, members of the late majority are not. As a result, they wait until something has become an established standard, and even then they want to see lots of support and tend to buy, therefore, from large, well-established companies.
[...]
Finally there are the laggards. These people simply don’t want anything to do with new technology, for any of a variety of reasons, some personal and some economic. The only time they ever buy a technological product is when it is buried so deep inside another product—the way, say, that a microprocessor is designed into the braking system of a new car—that they don’t even know it is there.
What the early adopter is buying [...] is some kind of change agent. By being the first to implement this change in their industry, the early adopters expect to get a jump on the competition, whether from lower product costs, faster time to market, more complete customer service, or some other comparable business advantage. They expect a radical discontinuity between the old ways and the new, and they are prepared to champion this cause against entrenched resistance. Being the first, they also are prepared to bear with the inevitable bugs and glitches that accompany any innovation just coming to market.
By contrast, the early majority want to buy a productivity improvement for existing operations. They are looking to minimize the discontinuity with the old ways. They want evolution, not revolution. They want technology to enhance, not overthrow, the established ways of doing business. And above all, they do not want to debug somebody else’s product. By the time they adopt it, they want it to work properly and to integrate appropriately with their existing technology base.
Marketing professionals insist on market segmentation because they know no meaningful marketing program can be implemented across a set of customers who do not reference each other. The reason for this is simply leverage. No company can afford to pay for every marketing contact made. Every program must rely on some ongoing chain-reaction effects—what is usually called word of mouth. The more self-referencing the market and the more tightly bounded its communications channels, the greater the opportunity for such effects.
When pragmatists buy, they care about the company they are buying from, the quality of the product they are buying, the infrastructure of supporting products and system interfaces, and the reliability of the service they are going to get. In other words, they are planning on living with this decision personally for a long time to come. (By contrast, the visionaries are more likely to be planning on implementing the great new order and then using that as a springboard to their next great career step upward.) Because pragmatists are in it for the long haul, and because they control the bulk of the dollars in the marketplace, the rewards for building relationships of trust with them are very much worth the effort.
Most companies fail to cross the chasm because, confronted with the immensity of opportunity represented by a mainstream market, they lose their focus, chasing every opportunity that presents itself, but finding themselves unable to deliver a salable proposition to any true pragmatist buyer. The D-Day strategy keeps everyone on point—if we don’t take Normandy, we don’t have to worry about how we’re going to take Paris.
Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision. It serves as a kind of buyers’ shorthand, shaping not only their final choice but even the way they evaluate alternatives leading up to that choice. In other words, evaluations are often simply rationalizations of pre-established positioning.
Here there is one fundamental key to success: When most people think of positioning in this way, they are thinking about how to make their products easier to sell. But the correct goal is to make them easier to buy.
May 9, 2014
It's a classic... and the point it makes is solid (more or less, that the skills needed to make an innovative product for early adopters are very different from those to make a mass market whole product).
That said it's very dated, and most of the advice pertains to large products. The paradigm it establishes has no room for crowdfunding, or for companies like 37signals that don't hardsell anyone. It's a very sales-driven viewpoint on things for a corporate world that's very focused on the bottom line.
I'm sure much of it still applies, but it talks about the parts of the world that I strive not to interact with all that much.
That said it's very dated, and most of the advice pertains to large products. The paradigm it establishes has no room for crowdfunding, or for companies like 37signals that don't hardsell anyone. It's a very sales-driven viewpoint on things for a corporate world that's very focused on the bottom line.
I'm sure much of it still applies, but it talks about the parts of the world that I strive not to interact with all that much.
January 25, 2019
For a reason, this book should be labeled as a textbook, not like a free-time one. It took months to finish it and yet I believe I need to recap, revise and find other summaries for it.
Although I got the 1997 edition, it is yet relevant to the high tech industry nowadays. Yet, found it hard to get the examples of the 90s companies that are no giants, or even exists, now.
Although I got the 1997 edition, it is yet relevant to the high tech industry nowadays. Yet, found it hard to get the examples of the 90s companies that are no giants, or even exists, now.
February 19, 2016
good one..
must read!!
Read and enjoy:)
must read!!
Read and enjoy:)
September 8, 2019
This is the first marketing book I've read, so I don't have much to compare it with, but to be completely honest, this book was a drag to read. At the very least, I learned about the chasm that exists between the early market and the mainstream market, and I learned Geoffrey Moore's strategy for getting technology companies across that chasm as quickly as possible.
August 5, 2017
So, product development!
I wasn't really sure if this was going to be for me (and the latest edition is form 1998, so, it might have been a bit dated) but this was actually a great surprise. The idea of the chasms when marketing products, specially in tech, really resonates with what happens in the market and we can compile a huge list of companies and products that have died somewhere along the way while trying to cross one of the chasms to become a mainstream product.
The book defines markets as groups that can refer to themselves, since you can't really hope a doctor will refer and have many friends in architecture, so the main goal is to be able to create a presence in a market where people can refer and talk about your product among themselves as you can't possibly pay for marketing for every single person there.
The charms are defined as innovators, the first market, where you excite the people most interested in whatever new thing you have (think about the first geeks buying smart home appliances). These people are mostly interested in the novelty of your stuff and will try to direct the product, they're extremely helpful in trying to come up with an actual product at the end but focusing too much on them will pull you in many different directions, so while it's important to have them on your side, you can't just follow them blindly otherwise you won't be getting anywhere.
Then you have the early adopters. These are the people influenced by the innovators you have, they're also interested in the improvement but they will be less engaging than the innovators. These people are less prone to bugs, errors or support requirements but they're the start of your upward race collecting more customers and building a better product that could possibly find it's way to the mainstream market.
Then we have the great chasm to reach the skeptics mainstream customers, this is where stuff gets really hard and you'll really need to up your game as the people here are pragmatists and conservatives. They don't want to invest money in something new just because it's shiny, they need a good reason and a working product, some prototype that requires a lot of handholding from an unknown company won't do it here, you must have already sorted out most of the kinks in your product and you need to be ready to own the market.
To do this the book offers segmentation, preparing a D Day operation to attack a very specific market that you can corner and own, since being the top brass in such market makes these pragmatists and conservatives much more likely to buy from you. This requires focus and forfeiting embrace everything solutions (that wouldn't work, anyway) and will give you much better results.
The book then goes about pricing (and it's a great discussion, like how much money you need to be making to have an actual sales force and product price point), partnerships and other stuff involved.
All in all it offers a great perspective and techniques to break into markets, develop products and growing. It's small, direct and focused, definitely recommended.
I wasn't really sure if this was going to be for me (and the latest edition is form 1998, so, it might have been a bit dated) but this was actually a great surprise. The idea of the chasms when marketing products, specially in tech, really resonates with what happens in the market and we can compile a huge list of companies and products that have died somewhere along the way while trying to cross one of the chasms to become a mainstream product.
The book defines markets as groups that can refer to themselves, since you can't really hope a doctor will refer and have many friends in architecture, so the main goal is to be able to create a presence in a market where people can refer and talk about your product among themselves as you can't possibly pay for marketing for every single person there.
The charms are defined as innovators, the first market, where you excite the people most interested in whatever new thing you have (think about the first geeks buying smart home appliances). These people are mostly interested in the novelty of your stuff and will try to direct the product, they're extremely helpful in trying to come up with an actual product at the end but focusing too much on them will pull you in many different directions, so while it's important to have them on your side, you can't just follow them blindly otherwise you won't be getting anywhere.
Then you have the early adopters. These are the people influenced by the innovators you have, they're also interested in the improvement but they will be less engaging than the innovators. These people are less prone to bugs, errors or support requirements but they're the start of your upward race collecting more customers and building a better product that could possibly find it's way to the mainstream market.
Then we have the great chasm to reach the skeptics mainstream customers, this is where stuff gets really hard and you'll really need to up your game as the people here are pragmatists and conservatives. They don't want to invest money in something new just because it's shiny, they need a good reason and a working product, some prototype that requires a lot of handholding from an unknown company won't do it here, you must have already sorted out most of the kinks in your product and you need to be ready to own the market.
To do this the book offers segmentation, preparing a D Day operation to attack a very specific market that you can corner and own, since being the top brass in such market makes these pragmatists and conservatives much more likely to buy from you. This requires focus and forfeiting embrace everything solutions (that wouldn't work, anyway) and will give you much better results.
The book then goes about pricing (and it's a great discussion, like how much money you need to be making to have an actual sales force and product price point), partnerships and other stuff involved.
All in all it offers a great perspective and techniques to break into markets, develop products and growing. It's small, direct and focused, definitely recommended.
March 7, 2019
I didn't know much about marketing, so this gets 5 stars
The book adressed a lot of issues relevant to my current company directly.
First of all, the chasm model applies in B2B scenarios. This is not a b2c marketing book even if some ideas do apply.
What I found interesting was that this book provides this model describing 5 different types of customers. Then we find ways in which to address these customers, the proper timings, the proper sales pitches, the product pricing, the competitors, the strategic partnerships, the development team, and even the compensation appropriate for the team, in order to attack each of the 4 market segments (1 market segment, or psychographic, as the author calls it, being pretty unapproachable).
Awesome book.
For me it would be an honest 4.5, as I didn't see a lot of references to more formal papers, but just to a few other books, and I don't want to just trust the author's wisdom on this, even if the book seems full of good ideas, and great explanations, and showcases nice ways of thinking about problems.
I recommend this to anyone living in a capitalist system, seriosly....But more seriously indeed, this is very good for developers that work in product companies. All of the marketing, sales and management stuff will make a hell of a lot more sense after this book! For marketing and sales people I'm not sure what to recommend, but the book does claim to create a common vocabulary for the different departments of an organization, so dunno, maybe try it, marketing/sales/management folks!
Enjoy!
Also, if anyone knows a good B2C marketing or sales book, feel free to recommend!
The book adressed a lot of issues relevant to my current company directly.
First of all, the chasm model applies in B2B scenarios. This is not a b2c marketing book even if some ideas do apply.
What I found interesting was that this book provides this model describing 5 different types of customers. Then we find ways in which to address these customers, the proper timings, the proper sales pitches, the product pricing, the competitors, the strategic partnerships, the development team, and even the compensation appropriate for the team, in order to attack each of the 4 market segments (1 market segment, or psychographic, as the author calls it, being pretty unapproachable).
Awesome book.
For me it would be an honest 4.5, as I didn't see a lot of references to more formal papers, but just to a few other books, and I don't want to just trust the author's wisdom on this, even if the book seems full of good ideas, and great explanations, and showcases nice ways of thinking about problems.
I recommend this to anyone living in a capitalist system, seriosly....But more seriously indeed, this is very good for developers that work in product companies. All of the marketing, sales and management stuff will make a hell of a lot more sense after this book! For marketing and sales people I'm not sure what to recommend, but the book does claim to create a common vocabulary for the different departments of an organization, so dunno, maybe try it, marketing/sales/management folks!
Enjoy!
Also, if anyone knows a good B2C marketing or sales book, feel free to recommend!
October 23, 2016
This book gives a fresh and powerful set of tools to help navigate the stages of product life, as well as covering honestly some of the hard decisions that must be made. A great book for those interested in making their technology sustainable and more than just a passing fad.
These are among the dozens of passages of greatest interest and value to me:
Page 8 Most important lesson of crossing the chasm
Page 25 discovering the chasm
Page 39 last paragraph, what technology enthusiast want
Page 49 last paragraph targeting a small pond / market
Page 50 bowling pin analogy
Page 54 pragmatics or early majority
Page 78 fighting your way into the mainstream and the D-day strategy
Page 85 big fish, small pond
Page 88 Apple's Mac niche strategy
Page 105 target the point of attack
Page 110 target customer characterization
Page 113 sample scenario
Page 120 scoring scenarios / customer target's
Page 124 second last paragraph on focus on product not competition
Page 126 target market selection process checklist
Page 160 whole product strategy
Page 184 what is your claim
Page 186 example claims do exercise
Page 201 avoid human contact businesses
Page 222 adopt a make money from day 1 mindset
These are among the dozens of passages of greatest interest and value to me:
Page 8 Most important lesson of crossing the chasm
Page 25 discovering the chasm
Page 39 last paragraph, what technology enthusiast want
Page 49 last paragraph targeting a small pond / market
Page 50 bowling pin analogy
Page 54 pragmatics or early majority
Page 78 fighting your way into the mainstream and the D-day strategy
Page 85 big fish, small pond
Page 88 Apple's Mac niche strategy
Page 105 target the point of attack
Page 110 target customer characterization
Page 113 sample scenario
Page 120 scoring scenarios / customer target's
Page 124 second last paragraph on focus on product not competition
Page 126 target market selection process checklist
Page 160 whole product strategy
Page 184 what is your claim
Page 186 example claims do exercise
Page 201 avoid human contact businesses
Page 222 adopt a make money from day 1 mindset
January 20, 2019
A very good book about transitioning between marketing and selling from early-adopters to mainstream customers. This transition is called chasm as it doesn’t happen smoothly. There need to be fundamental changes how the company markets and sells it’s product. Mainstream customers need other mainstream customers to recommend your product. That’s right there is the chasm. The solution is to solve niche issues and then expand as you have references from mainstream customers. For example you have document management solution and you start selling it to pharmaceutical companies so they can easily manage their patent application documents.
September 3, 2020
Hmmm. I’m not sure I would have read this unless it had been chosen as the uk it book club pick, not really my bag (you know what I’m like with any non-fiction really). But it wasn’t dreadful, in fact I quite enjoyed the first few scene setting chapters, particularly where the book had been updated and referenced some recent company examples. It was ok.
January 8, 2020
Great analysis of the product lifecycle. Must read for any product manager or entrepreneur.
March 4, 2017
Classic & a-must-get-familiar-with for all interested in building high-tech product.
Why "a-must-get-familiar-with" but not "a-must-read"? Because the concept presented is very interesting & vital, but the book itself is at most average. The parts worth the greatest attention are 0-20% & 50-60%, the rest is a bit boring & repetitive, but fortunately not outdated (latest edition was updated in early 2010s).
Another slice of advice: this is a _marketing_ book. Vast background on the subject is not required, but you have to keep that in mind: be warned.
Why "a-must-get-familiar-with" but not "a-must-read"? Because the concept presented is very interesting & vital, but the book itself is at most average. The parts worth the greatest attention are 0-20% & 50-60%, the rest is a bit boring & repetitive, but fortunately not outdated (latest edition was updated in early 2010s).
Another slice of advice: this is a _marketing_ book. Vast background on the subject is not required, but you have to keep that in mind: be warned.
January 12, 2020
Đang làm đúng ngành và đúng nghề cảm giác như được đọc Bible luôn :'( chắc đè các sếp ra đọc mỗi người một quyển...
p.s: sách nói nhiều về chiến lược nên ng đọc cũng nên ở tầm cứng, manager trở lên thì có ích hơn, nhiều ví dụ hơi khó hiểu chút nhưng trong này có nhiều case B2B SaaS nên mình thích
p.s: sách nói nhiều về chiến lược nên ng đọc cũng nên ở tầm cứng, manager trở lên thì có ích hơn, nhiều ví dụ hơi khó hiểu chút nhưng trong này có nhiều case B2B SaaS nên mình thích
December 23, 2016
Too much talking to get a few points across. Ended up skimming the book to get a few key points.
May 25, 2021
Pretty useful little business book. Too long in the way all business books are.
November 5, 2012
инновациями, прерывающими привычный порядок вещей, илипрерывающими инновациями. Противоположный термин — инновации, не прерывающие привычный порядок вещей, илинепрерывающие инновации — относится к обычной модернизации продуктов, не требующей изменений
[image error]
Первый разрыв — между новаторами и ранними последователями. Этот разрыв возникает, когда продукт новейшей технологии не может быть сразу же использован как нечто не только принципиально новое, но и существенно полезное, расширяющее наши возможности. На примере эсперанто. Энтузиаст обожает этот язык за архитектуру, но больше никто не может даже понять, где его использовать.
маркетинг: это действия, направленные на создание, расширение, удержание и защиту рынков.
Если два человека приобретают один и тот же товар по одной и той же причине, но при этом не имеют никакой возможности посмотреть друг на друга, они не являются членами одного и того же рынка
Суть в том, что, в отличие от технологических энтузиастов, провидец извлекает пользу не из технологии самой по себе, а из прорыва, которого она позволяет добиться.
В основе реформирования лежит принцип: победа в маркетинге чаще всего означает, что вы — самая большая рыба в пруду. Но если мы очень малы, тогда нужно искать маленький пруд.
Ранние последователи обычно приходят с заказом к вам сами, как правило они основываются на мнении первых гиков.
Захват плацдарма и попадание в первую цель запускает динамику последовательного принятия технологии, что открывает перед ней ��овые рыночные возможности, отчасти за счет продвижения решения от одной ниши к другой, отчасти за счет передачи информации из уст в уста клиентами смежных ниш.
Один — поражение первой цели, захват плацдарма, преодоление пропасти.
Второй момент — планирование выхода на смежные сегменты рынка, где ваше первоначальное нишевое предложение может найти применение.
Теория пропасти гласит: «Действуйте локально,затем глобально».
условиях недостатка или вообще отсутствия необходимой информации.
Но спешу предупредить: преодолеть пропасть на потребительском рынке чрезвычайно сложно. Почти все случаи удачного преодоления пропасти, происходили в корпоративной среде, где экономические и технические ресурсы позволяют решить проблемы, связанные с обслуживанием незрелого продукта
Сценарий: заголовок, пользователь, технический покупатель, экономический покупатель.
День из жизни (до): Место действия или ситуация, Желательный результат, Неудавшаяся попытка, Мешающие факторы, Экономические последствия.
День из жизни (после): Новый подход, Позитивные факторы, Экономические плюсы
набросок плана стратегии развития рынка:
Каждый пункт включает в себя факторы, важные для преодоления пропасти:
• целевой покупатель;
• решающий фактор покупки;
• готовое решение;
• партнеры и союзники;
• дистрибуция;
• ценообразование;
• конкуренция;
• позиционирование;
• следующий целевой клиент.
Обработка сценариев заключается в оценке каждого сценария по этим факторам. Процесс проходит в два этапа. На первом этапе все сценарии оцениваются по четырем главным факторам рыночной привлекательности
Имейте в виду, что лучшими сценариями будут те, что подразумевают законченное решение.
Главное - за год стать стандартом де факто на выбранном рынке. Для этого нужно в течении первого года получить не менее половины заказов на выбранном рынке. Поэтому не нужно сразу стремиться выйти на самый богатый сегмент.
1. Составьте библиотеку сценариев
2. Назначьте подкомитет для выбора целевого рынка. Сократите число его членов до минимума.
3. Пронумеруйте и распечатайте сценарии, каждый на отдельной странице
4. Каждый член подкомитета должен самостоятельно оценить все сценарии по убивающим идею факторам
Необходимо отсеять все лишние варианты, должен остаться минимум
Единственное важнейшее различие между ранним и основным рынком заключается в том, что на первом согласны взяться за превращение товара в целостный продукт (в обмен на опережение конкурентов), а на последнем — нет. Неспособность понять этот факт стала причиной неудач многих хайтек-предприятий.
Тактические альянсы преследуют одну-единственную цель: ускорить формирование инфраструктуры целостного продукта в пределах конкретного сегмента рынка.
хорошая программа тактических альянсов для ускорения развития инфраструктуры этого продукта
См "Резюме: советы по управлению целостным продуктом"
гораздо чаще это происходит потому, что мы неверно истолковываем реальные запросы наших целевых клиентов или нам не хватает духу взять на себя ответственность и сделать все, чтобы они поняли свои запросы
В общем, прагматики не хотят покупать, пока не могут сравнить.
Ключ к успеху — концентрация на интересах и ценностях прагматиков, а не провидцев.
В хайтек-маркетинге есть четыре критерия ценности продукта: технология, продукт, рынок и компания.
См Рис. 6.1. Компас конкурентного позиционирования
Для доверия обязательна конкуренция/альтернатива. Она 2 типов: рыночная и. продуктовая
Потенциальные клиенты не могут купить то, чего не могут назвать (энтузиастам)
Клиенты не будут покупать, пока не узнают, кто и с какой целью будет пользоваться продуктом. (провидцам)
Клиенты не могут знать, чего ожидать от продукта и сколько за него платить, пока не смогут сравнить его с другими продуктами (прагматику)
Клиенты не будут чувствовать себя уверенно при покупке продукта, пока не убедятся, что он поставляется незыблемой компанией, которая останется на рынке и будет продолжать инвестировать в данную продуктовую категорию (консерватору)
Для ____ (целевые покупатели только сегмента-плацдарма)
• Кем недовольны ____ (нынешняя рыночная альтернатива)
• Наш продукт является ____ (новая категория продуктов)
• Он обеспечивает ____ (ключевое качество, решающее существующую проблему)
• В отличие от ____(продуктовая альтернатива)
• Мы собрали воедино ____ (ключевые качества целостного продукта, предназначенного для вашего конкретного применения).
После преодоления пропасти пионеры должны стать колонистами.
Однако, чтобы действительно оставить пропасть позади, нужно прекратить работы на заказ и сконцентрировать все усилия на выведении на рынок целостного продукта, добиться того, чтобы продукт удовлетворял стандартам, соблюдения которых требует рынок.
в период преодоления пропасти две новые роли.
Первую из них можно назвать менеджер по целевому рыночному сегменту, а вторую —менеджер по целостному продукту
Исследование и разработка целостных продуктов — новая область знаний.
[image error]
Первый разрыв — между новаторами и ранними последователями. Этот разрыв возникает, когда продукт новейшей технологии не может быть сразу же использован как нечто не только принципиально новое, но и существенно полезное, расширяющее наши возможности. На примере эсперанто. Энтузиаст обожает этот язык за архитектуру, но больше никто не может даже понять, где его использовать.
маркетинг: это действия, направленные на создание, расширение, удержание и защиту рынков.
Если два человека приобретают один и тот же товар по одной и той же причине, но при этом не имеют никакой возможности посмотреть друг на друга, они не являются членами одного и того же рынка
Суть в том, что, в отличие от технологических энтузиастов, провидец извлекает пользу не из технологии самой по себе, а из прорыва, которого она позволяет добиться.
В основе реформирования лежит принцип: победа в маркетинге чаще всего означает, что вы — самая большая рыба в пруду. Но если мы очень малы, тогда нужно искать маленький пруд.
Ранние последователи обычно приходят с заказом к вам сами, как правило они основываются на мнении первых гиков.
Захват плацдарма и попадание в первую цель запускает динамику последовательного принятия технологии, что открывает перед ней ��овые рыночные возможности, отчасти за счет продвижения решения от одной ниши к другой, отчасти за счет передачи информации из уст в уста клиентами смежных ниш.
Один — поражение первой цели, захват плацдарма, преодоление пропасти.
Второй момент — планирование выхода на смежные сегменты рынка, где ваше первоначальное нишевое предложение может найти применение.
Теория пропасти гласит: «Действуйте локально,затем глобально».
условиях недостатка или вообще отсутствия необходимой информации.
Но спешу предупредить: преодолеть пропасть на потребительском рынке чрезвычайно сложно. Почти все случаи удачного преодоления пропасти, происходили в корпоративной среде, где экономические и технические ресурсы позволяют решить проблемы, связанные с обслуживанием незрелого продукта
Сценарий: заголовок, пользователь, технический покупатель, экономический покупатель.
День из жизни (до): Место действия или ситуация, Желательный результат, Неудавшаяся попытка, Мешающие факторы, Экономические последствия.
День из жизни (после): Новый подход, Позитивные факторы, Экономические плюсы
набросок плана стратегии развития рынка:
Каждый пункт включает в себя факторы, важные для преодоления пропасти:
• целевой покупатель;
• решающий фактор покупки;
• готовое решение;
• партнеры и союзники;
• дистрибуция;
• ценообразование;
• конкуренция;
• позиционирование;
• следующий целевой клиент.
Обработка сценариев заключается в оценке каждого сценария по этим факторам. Процесс проходит в два этапа. На первом этапе все сценарии оцениваются по четырем главным факторам рыночной привлекательности
Имейте в виду, что лучшими сценариями будут те, что подразумевают законченное решение.
Главное - за год стать стандартом де факто на выбранном рынке. Для этого нужно в течении первого года получить не менее половины заказов на выбранном рынке. Поэтому не нужно сразу стремиться выйти на самый богатый сегмент.
1. Составьте библиотеку сценариев
2. Назначьте подкомитет для выбора целевого рынка. Сократите число его членов до минимума.
3. Пронумеруйте и распечатайте сценарии, каждый на отдельной странице
4. Каждый член подкомитета должен самостоятельно оценить все сценарии по убивающим идею факторам
Необходимо отсеять все лишние варианты, должен остаться минимум
Единственное важнейшее различие между ранним и основным рынком заключается в том, что на первом согласны взяться за превращение товара в целостный продукт (в обмен на опережение конкурентов), а на последнем — нет. Неспособность понять этот факт стала причиной неудач многих хайтек-предприятий.
Тактические альянсы преследуют одну-единственную цель: ускорить формирование инфраструктуры целостного продукта в пределах конкретного сегмента рынка.
хорошая программа тактических альянсов для ускорения развития инфраструктуры этого продукта
См "Резюме: советы по управлению целостным продуктом"
гораздо чаще это происходит потому, что мы неверно истолковываем реальные запросы наших целевых клиентов или нам не хватает духу взять на себя ответственность и сделать все, чтобы они поняли свои запросы
В общем, прагматики не хотят покупать, пока не могут сравнить.
Ключ к успеху — концентрация на интересах и ценностях прагматиков, а не провидцев.
В хайтек-маркетинге есть четыре критерия ценности продукта: технология, продукт, рынок и компания.
См Рис. 6.1. Компас конкурентного позиционирования
Для доверия обязательна конкуренция/альтернатива. Она 2 типов: рыночная и. продуктовая
Потенциальные клиенты не могут купить то, чего не могут назвать (энтузиастам)
Клиенты не будут покупать, пока не узнают, кто и с какой целью будет пользоваться продуктом. (провидцам)
Клиенты не могут знать, чего ожидать от продукта и сколько за него платить, пока не смогут сравнить его с другими продуктами (прагматику)
Клиенты не будут чувствовать себя уверенно при покупке продукта, пока не убедятся, что он поставляется незыблемой компанией, которая останется на рынке и будет продолжать инвестировать в данную продуктовую категорию (консерватору)
Для ____ (целевые покупатели только сегмента-плацдарма)
• Кем недовольны ____ (нынешняя рыночная альтернатива)
• Наш продукт является ____ (новая категория продуктов)
• Он обеспечивает ____ (ключевое качество, решающее существующую проблему)
• В отличие от ____(продуктовая альтернатива)
• Мы собрали воедино ____ (ключевые качества целостного продукта, предназначенного для вашего конкретного применения).
После преодоления пропасти пионеры должны стать колонистами.
Однако, чтобы действительно оставить пропасть позади, нужно прекратить работы на заказ и сконцентрировать все усилия на выведении на рынок целостного продукта, добиться того, чтобы продукт удовлетворял стандартам, соблюдения которых требует рынок.
в период преодоления пропасти две новые роли.
Первую из них можно назвать менеджер по целевому рыночному сегменту, а вторую —менеджер по целостному продукту
Исследование и разработка целостных продуктов — новая область знаний.
April 4, 2025
Masterclass. I can see why this book is so highly regarded. So interesting to see how relevant and widely applicable the concepts in here are despite being first released in 1991 (3rd edition now, but still). Very practical and implementable advice; not overly theoretical, which I really appreciated. Took so many notes. I’m glad I purchased a copy of this book to have as a reference point on my book shelf; first read of many.
Notes:
Most high tech startups fail at the transition from early market visionaries to mainstream market customers who are predominantly pragmatists. This is the chasm. Every innovative high tech product starts out as a fad. A chasm is created as the mainstream market watches to see if a real value proposition will be created.
The Technology Adoption Life Cycle: (1) Innovators/Early Adopters, (2) Early Majority, (3) Late Majority, and (4) Laggards. This is a bell curve distribution.
Discontinuous/disruptive innovations require a change to your current mode of behavior or to modify other products and services you rely on, as opposed to continuous/sustaining innovations.
Innovators are technologists and want to see how a product works, even before any marketing is done. Early Adopters are not technologists, but rely on their own vision of your product solving their concerns. Early Majority is primarily driven by practicality. They want to wait and see well established references before they deem your product to not just be another fad. 1/3 of the buying population. Late Majority are not comfortable with new technology until it has become the standard, they can buy it from an established company, and there is enough support available. 1/3 of the buying population. Laggards hate new technology and will only buy it if they have no other option. Not worth pursuing.
The High Tech Marketing Model is progressively focusing on each segment from left to right, and using the previous segment as the reference for the next. Need to build and maintain momentum through these transitions. If you can through the segments fast enough, you will have a monopoly and get rich.
The chasm is between Early Adopters and Early Majority. Blurring the lines between these two is dangerous. Early Adopter is looking for a change agent. They want something that disrupts the old way of doing things and gives them an early advantage, and are prepared to deal with bugs and glitches. EM wants to buy productivity improvement for existing operations. They want evolution, not revolution. EA do not serve as good references for EM, but the only way to get an EM reference is with an EM. Catch 22. EM market is highly reference oriented and highly support oriented.
Orient your current marketing strategy to the phase that you’re at. A market has four components: (1) a set of actual or potential customers, (2) for a given set of products or services, (3) who have a common set of needs or wants, and (4) who reference each other when making a buying decision.
Technology enthusiasts want (1) the truth, (2) access to a technically knowledgeable person to troubleshoot with, (3) want to be the first with new stuff, (4) want everything cheap. You don’t need fancy marketing to capture them; if you can reach them with a good technology, they will make business with them easy, especially for a free demo, etc.
Visionaries are the new executives who push through change like Steve Jobs or Henry Ford, and that have a dream and seek personal recognition and reward. Learn to target this. They take business risk with unproven technology or unproven companies. They aren’t looking for improvements, they are looking for breakthroughs. They are easy to sell to, but very hard to please. Best approach is to do a pilot program with them, productizing key milestones/deliverables in generalized versions to all other interested early adopters. Build in milestones to the pilot program that allow for smaller product spinoffs. Visionaries usually find YOU by keeping close contact with technology enthusiasts. Visionaries can give you a huge amount of visibility but can be a risky, very demanding customer.
In the early market, sometimes you have to start very small (small pond) and sometimes you have to wait to develop your product more before starting a pilot program with visionaries to not disappoint them.
Early Majority are pragmatists, and make up the majority of your potential revenue. They care about incremental progress, not breakthroughs, and would rather not take risks. They’re loyal and in it for the long haul and care about supporting infrastructure. Need to focus on building their trust. References and word of mouth are very important for these pragmatists. One way to target pragmatists as a small unestablished startup can be to establish an alliance with an already accepted vendor through a value-added reseller (VAR) dynamic. They also like to see competition and that you are the market leader because it makes them confident in their decision, gives them options to fall back on if you fail, and ensures that price is competitive. You need to be patient with pragmatists and remain highly visible until they finally accept you as the obvious supplier of choice.
Conservatives are 1:1 with Pragmatists in terms of volume. However, they want to buy things that are 100% safe, and want everything bundled together and at a discount. They want a refrigerator that you open the door and the light turns on, their food stays cold, and they don’t have to think about it.
At first, your product and its technology is the most important, but the longer your product is on the market, your service and support becomes more important.
Although Skeptics may never buy your product, you should still listen to what they complain about as this can be insightful. Don’t just ignore their feedback.
Visionaries do not serve as good references for pragmatists because both have such different goals and desires in a product. This is the Chasm. Visionaries want to hear about new launch sites while the pragmatists wants to hear about up-and-running sites. Visionaries want to hear about “state of the art” while pragmatists want to hear about “industry standard.” It’s a whole different marketing approach that you have to consciously adopt.
To cross the chasm and win over pragmatists, you have to concentrate on a highly bound market segment (think California for TransitFile). Need to have discipline to not go after the entire mainstream market and focus on your niche market, instead. Need to be market driven, not sales driven. Need to focus on giving the pragmatists the entire solution as they expected, which can drain your time and attention, but is necessary to secure them as references for other pragmatists. You have to take a big fish small pond approach to dominate the niche market segment that you choose (market leader = more than 50% market share = target market size should be 2x the sales you expect to capture in 1-2 years). In terms of your customer, normally, it’s the department function who leads (PROCUREMENT/ADMIN/FINANCE: they have the problem), the executive function who prioritizes (CEO/ADMINISTRATOR/DIRECTOR: the problem is causing enterprise-wide grief), and the technical function that follows (IT: they have to make the new stuff work while still maintaining all the old stuff).
Choosing the right beachhead market is a high-risk, low data decision, so that means that informed intuition, rather than analytical reason, is the most trustworthy decision-making tool to use in this case. Informed intuition relies on the formation of Target Customer Characterizations (archetype/customer images/day in the lifes/scenarios). These supply the “data” to inform your decision. Then, you must run these Customer Characterizations through the Market Development Strategy Checklist to rate and ultimately choose only one Customer Characterization as your beachhead market. Checklist is: (1) Target customer - is there actually an economic buyer readily available and with the budget and authority to purchase, (2) compelling reason to buy - are the economic consequences sufficient to make them buy, (3) whole product - can you fulfill the customer’s full solution within the short run, (4) competition - has another company already crossed the chasm at this beachhead, (5) partners and allies - do you have any relationships begun with other companies needed to fulfill the whole product, (6) distribution - do you have a sales channel or a well known contact in the industry or market, (7) pricing - is the price consistent with the customers’ budgets, (8) positioning - is your company credible as a provider to your target niche, which will over time become better and better, (10) next target customer - if successful in this niche, will this facilitate entry to the next niche. (1)-(4) are the most important and qualifying/disqualifying.
Early adopters are fine with the Generic Product, but later stage markets prefer the Whole Product (Generic Product, Expected Product, Augmented Product, and Potential Product). Need to consider Whole Product planning to capture the mainstream market. Your product may win the battle, but the best whole product wins the war. The product is what you “ship,” and the whole product is anything else the user may need to reach your proposed value proposition. Failure to deliver on the whole product leads to disillusionment/a feeling of deceit. Every additional new target customer will add additional new demand on the whole product. While crossing the chasm, there is no external support that is not specifically recruited by you for whole product development (i.e. before the chasm, enthusiasts might find their own third party solutions to make your product whole, and after the chasm once you’re established in the mainstream market third parties may seek you, but when you’re crossing the chasm neither of these is an option). Recruit partners or allies necessary to fill the gaps of the whole product that you or the customer can’t fill.
Need competition to win over pragmatists. Competition can be the status quo, alternative solutions, or comparable products, but doesn’t always have to be rival companies. Going from early market where there is no competition to crossing the chasm into to the mainstream, you sometimes have to CREATE your own competition. Choose competition that is a balance of rigged in your favor but still impressively won. Establish two reference competitors: (1) market alternative = what customer currently uses and the exact budget dollars that will be reallocated to your product (need to find out what funding source transit authorities use for these (ProcurementPro, etc.)), and (2) product alternative = an innovative company leveraging a new technology approach (PlanetBids, etc). Provide the customer with a solution at the intersection of these.
When crossing the chasm, shift your marketing focus to market-centric values instead of product-centric values.
***********Positioning is primarily a NOUN, not a verb, and presents people’s interpretations of your product, not your marketing actions. Positioning as a VERB should be focused on making your product easier to buy, not easier to sell. Customers naturally RESIST selling, but ENJOY buying. It’s obvious when a seller is trying to manipulate you. Use this positioning statement template: “For (target beachhead segment customers) who are dissatisfied with (market alternative) our product is a (product category) that provides (compelling reason to buy). Unlike (product alternative), we have assembled (key whole product features for your specific application).” This positioning statement is not the tagline for your ads, but rather should control your ad CAMPAIGN. Ads should match the THEMES in this position statement.
Need to pick one distribution channel that is most relevant to your target market strategy: (1) enterprise executives, (2) end users, (3) department heads, (4) engineers, or (5) small business owner-operators.
Pricing: early market will favor value-based pricing and will even be willing to pay a premium for support. Conservatives will expect to pay cost-pricing which has much smaller margins. In the middle, the pragmatists expect to pay a premium (up to 30% more) for the market leader under competition-based pricing. When crossing the chasm, target a market-leader price to set your tone. Ask for market leader prices from customers. They’ll actually find this validating for their decision to go with you.
Use “consultant fees” on pilot program to fund you early on. Wait to spend heavily on marketing and public relations until you reach early market leadership. Bootstrap this whole time if possible.
The key to leaving the chasm behind is to stop custom developments and institutionalize the whole product. Sometimes innovators/pioneers can struggle to adapt to a settler mentality and can slow the business down and drag you back towards the chasm. Accept that not all the pioneers that helped START the company will be there once the company reaches the mainstream market. Just make sure to compensate fairly along the way and treat everyone respectfully.
Notes:
Most high tech startups fail at the transition from early market visionaries to mainstream market customers who are predominantly pragmatists. This is the chasm. Every innovative high tech product starts out as a fad. A chasm is created as the mainstream market watches to see if a real value proposition will be created.
The Technology Adoption Life Cycle: (1) Innovators/Early Adopters, (2) Early Majority, (3) Late Majority, and (4) Laggards. This is a bell curve distribution.
Discontinuous/disruptive innovations require a change to your current mode of behavior or to modify other products and services you rely on, as opposed to continuous/sustaining innovations.
Innovators are technologists and want to see how a product works, even before any marketing is done. Early Adopters are not technologists, but rely on their own vision of your product solving their concerns. Early Majority is primarily driven by practicality. They want to wait and see well established references before they deem your product to not just be another fad. 1/3 of the buying population. Late Majority are not comfortable with new technology until it has become the standard, they can buy it from an established company, and there is enough support available. 1/3 of the buying population. Laggards hate new technology and will only buy it if they have no other option. Not worth pursuing.
The High Tech Marketing Model is progressively focusing on each segment from left to right, and using the previous segment as the reference for the next. Need to build and maintain momentum through these transitions. If you can through the segments fast enough, you will have a monopoly and get rich.
The chasm is between Early Adopters and Early Majority. Blurring the lines between these two is dangerous. Early Adopter is looking for a change agent. They want something that disrupts the old way of doing things and gives them an early advantage, and are prepared to deal with bugs and glitches. EM wants to buy productivity improvement for existing operations. They want evolution, not revolution. EA do not serve as good references for EM, but the only way to get an EM reference is with an EM. Catch 22. EM market is highly reference oriented and highly support oriented.
Orient your current marketing strategy to the phase that you’re at. A market has four components: (1) a set of actual or potential customers, (2) for a given set of products or services, (3) who have a common set of needs or wants, and (4) who reference each other when making a buying decision.
Technology enthusiasts want (1) the truth, (2) access to a technically knowledgeable person to troubleshoot with, (3) want to be the first with new stuff, (4) want everything cheap. You don’t need fancy marketing to capture them; if you can reach them with a good technology, they will make business with them easy, especially for a free demo, etc.
Visionaries are the new executives who push through change like Steve Jobs or Henry Ford, and that have a dream and seek personal recognition and reward. Learn to target this. They take business risk with unproven technology or unproven companies. They aren’t looking for improvements, they are looking for breakthroughs. They are easy to sell to, but very hard to please. Best approach is to do a pilot program with them, productizing key milestones/deliverables in generalized versions to all other interested early adopters. Build in milestones to the pilot program that allow for smaller product spinoffs. Visionaries usually find YOU by keeping close contact with technology enthusiasts. Visionaries can give you a huge amount of visibility but can be a risky, very demanding customer.
In the early market, sometimes you have to start very small (small pond) and sometimes you have to wait to develop your product more before starting a pilot program with visionaries to not disappoint them.
Early Majority are pragmatists, and make up the majority of your potential revenue. They care about incremental progress, not breakthroughs, and would rather not take risks. They’re loyal and in it for the long haul and care about supporting infrastructure. Need to focus on building their trust. References and word of mouth are very important for these pragmatists. One way to target pragmatists as a small unestablished startup can be to establish an alliance with an already accepted vendor through a value-added reseller (VAR) dynamic. They also like to see competition and that you are the market leader because it makes them confident in their decision, gives them options to fall back on if you fail, and ensures that price is competitive. You need to be patient with pragmatists and remain highly visible until they finally accept you as the obvious supplier of choice.
Conservatives are 1:1 with Pragmatists in terms of volume. However, they want to buy things that are 100% safe, and want everything bundled together and at a discount. They want a refrigerator that you open the door and the light turns on, their food stays cold, and they don’t have to think about it.
At first, your product and its technology is the most important, but the longer your product is on the market, your service and support becomes more important.
Although Skeptics may never buy your product, you should still listen to what they complain about as this can be insightful. Don’t just ignore their feedback.
Visionaries do not serve as good references for pragmatists because both have such different goals and desires in a product. This is the Chasm. Visionaries want to hear about new launch sites while the pragmatists wants to hear about up-and-running sites. Visionaries want to hear about “state of the art” while pragmatists want to hear about “industry standard.” It’s a whole different marketing approach that you have to consciously adopt.
To cross the chasm and win over pragmatists, you have to concentrate on a highly bound market segment (think California for TransitFile). Need to have discipline to not go after the entire mainstream market and focus on your niche market, instead. Need to be market driven, not sales driven. Need to focus on giving the pragmatists the entire solution as they expected, which can drain your time and attention, but is necessary to secure them as references for other pragmatists. You have to take a big fish small pond approach to dominate the niche market segment that you choose (market leader = more than 50% market share = target market size should be 2x the sales you expect to capture in 1-2 years). In terms of your customer, normally, it’s the department function who leads (PROCUREMENT/ADMIN/FINANCE: they have the problem), the executive function who prioritizes (CEO/ADMINISTRATOR/DIRECTOR: the problem is causing enterprise-wide grief), and the technical function that follows (IT: they have to make the new stuff work while still maintaining all the old stuff).
Choosing the right beachhead market is a high-risk, low data decision, so that means that informed intuition, rather than analytical reason, is the most trustworthy decision-making tool to use in this case. Informed intuition relies on the formation of Target Customer Characterizations (archetype/customer images/day in the lifes/scenarios). These supply the “data” to inform your decision. Then, you must run these Customer Characterizations through the Market Development Strategy Checklist to rate and ultimately choose only one Customer Characterization as your beachhead market. Checklist is: (1) Target customer - is there actually an economic buyer readily available and with the budget and authority to purchase, (2) compelling reason to buy - are the economic consequences sufficient to make them buy, (3) whole product - can you fulfill the customer’s full solution within the short run, (4) competition - has another company already crossed the chasm at this beachhead, (5) partners and allies - do you have any relationships begun with other companies needed to fulfill the whole product, (6) distribution - do you have a sales channel or a well known contact in the industry or market, (7) pricing - is the price consistent with the customers’ budgets, (8) positioning - is your company credible as a provider to your target niche, which will over time become better and better, (10) next target customer - if successful in this niche, will this facilitate entry to the next niche. (1)-(4) are the most important and qualifying/disqualifying.
Early adopters are fine with the Generic Product, but later stage markets prefer the Whole Product (Generic Product, Expected Product, Augmented Product, and Potential Product). Need to consider Whole Product planning to capture the mainstream market. Your product may win the battle, but the best whole product wins the war. The product is what you “ship,” and the whole product is anything else the user may need to reach your proposed value proposition. Failure to deliver on the whole product leads to disillusionment/a feeling of deceit. Every additional new target customer will add additional new demand on the whole product. While crossing the chasm, there is no external support that is not specifically recruited by you for whole product development (i.e. before the chasm, enthusiasts might find their own third party solutions to make your product whole, and after the chasm once you’re established in the mainstream market third parties may seek you, but when you’re crossing the chasm neither of these is an option). Recruit partners or allies necessary to fill the gaps of the whole product that you or the customer can’t fill.
Need competition to win over pragmatists. Competition can be the status quo, alternative solutions, or comparable products, but doesn’t always have to be rival companies. Going from early market where there is no competition to crossing the chasm into to the mainstream, you sometimes have to CREATE your own competition. Choose competition that is a balance of rigged in your favor but still impressively won. Establish two reference competitors: (1) market alternative = what customer currently uses and the exact budget dollars that will be reallocated to your product (need to find out what funding source transit authorities use for these (ProcurementPro, etc.)), and (2) product alternative = an innovative company leveraging a new technology approach (PlanetBids, etc). Provide the customer with a solution at the intersection of these.
When crossing the chasm, shift your marketing focus to market-centric values instead of product-centric values.
***********Positioning is primarily a NOUN, not a verb, and presents people’s interpretations of your product, not your marketing actions. Positioning as a VERB should be focused on making your product easier to buy, not easier to sell. Customers naturally RESIST selling, but ENJOY buying. It’s obvious when a seller is trying to manipulate you. Use this positioning statement template: “For (target beachhead segment customers) who are dissatisfied with (market alternative) our product is a (product category) that provides (compelling reason to buy). Unlike (product alternative), we have assembled (key whole product features for your specific application).” This positioning statement is not the tagline for your ads, but rather should control your ad CAMPAIGN. Ads should match the THEMES in this position statement.
Need to pick one distribution channel that is most relevant to your target market strategy: (1) enterprise executives, (2) end users, (3) department heads, (4) engineers, or (5) small business owner-operators.
Pricing: early market will favor value-based pricing and will even be willing to pay a premium for support. Conservatives will expect to pay cost-pricing which has much smaller margins. In the middle, the pragmatists expect to pay a premium (up to 30% more) for the market leader under competition-based pricing. When crossing the chasm, target a market-leader price to set your tone. Ask for market leader prices from customers. They’ll actually find this validating for their decision to go with you.
Use “consultant fees” on pilot program to fund you early on. Wait to spend heavily on marketing and public relations until you reach early market leadership. Bootstrap this whole time if possible.
The key to leaving the chasm behind is to stop custom developments and institutionalize the whole product. Sometimes innovators/pioneers can struggle to adapt to a settler mentality and can slow the business down and drag you back towards the chasm. Accept that not all the pioneers that helped START the company will be there once the company reaches the mainstream market. Just make sure to compensate fairly along the way and treat everyone respectfully.
November 24, 2022
It’s ok. Kind of annoying with the consistent references to the authors other book.
Interesting theory I guess. Having worked at a handful of startups, I don’t really see it. Every day feels like an existential crisis. This seems like a narratively driven framework that helps this dude sell consulting. I guess it’s useful as a high level concept.
Interesting theory I guess. Having worked at a handful of startups, I don’t really see it. Every day feels like an existential crisis. This seems like a narratively driven framework that helps this dude sell consulting. I guess it’s useful as a high level concept.
January 20, 2023
My first marketing book ever, and it was far from a disaster. The book includes many interesting concepts, albeit repeated abundantly for maximal retention. Optimal read for people looking to pull their startup out of their baby shoes into adolescence.
November 12, 2015
[Summary] Successfully getting lead users is different from successfully entering mainstream market.
Traditional technological product adoption cycle has a huge flaw on its premise. It assumes that the adoption of the product will automatically diffuse from early users (technologist and visionary users) to followers (early majority, late majority, and laggard). In fact, we should concern about the different set of paradigm in which we use to attract and communicate with both group. Early users will put their focus on technological breakthrough, aiming to achieve superior competitive advantage while taking higher risk. following users, except laggard, will focus more on stability of product innovation to ensure that they will not burn their money for the waste.
A large chasm, the major obstacle to achieve mainstream market, occurs between visionary users and early majority. To deal with this, we need to 1) focus our product on niche target market (Remember : being large fish in the small pond is much better than being small fish in the large pond 2) position our product to be a part of existing market, but differentiate it from existing products 3) align core product within supportive value ecosystem (managing it as whole product) 4) set a reasonable price (using value-based or distribution-based pricing) and carefully manage the product through a set of well-selected distribution channels (ranging from salespersons to retail stores).
Traditional technological product adoption cycle has a huge flaw on its premise. It assumes that the adoption of the product will automatically diffuse from early users (technologist and visionary users) to followers (early majority, late majority, and laggard). In fact, we should concern about the different set of paradigm in which we use to attract and communicate with both group. Early users will put their focus on technological breakthrough, aiming to achieve superior competitive advantage while taking higher risk. following users, except laggard, will focus more on stability of product innovation to ensure that they will not burn their money for the waste.
A large chasm, the major obstacle to achieve mainstream market, occurs between visionary users and early majority. To deal with this, we need to 1) focus our product on niche target market (Remember : being large fish in the small pond is much better than being small fish in the large pond 2) position our product to be a part of existing market, but differentiate it from existing products 3) align core product within supportive value ecosystem (managing it as whole product) 4) set a reasonable price (using value-based or distribution-based pricing) and carefully manage the product through a set of well-selected distribution channels (ranging from salespersons to retail stores).
March 1, 2021
Поставлю с натяжкой 5, потому что книга несколько устарела и процентов 20-30 можно смело не читать. Однако, основная идея изложена великолепно. Начните с ниши, это повысит ваши шансы на успех. Идея простая, но крайне полезная. Ниша должна быть как можно меньше, чтобы занять на ней доминирующее положение. Но достаточно крупной, чтобы там было достаточно денег для вашего существования.
The basis for reform is the principle that winning at marketing more often than not means being the biggest fish in the pond. If we are very small, then we must search out a very small pond indeed.
Классная модель жизненного цикла технологической компании вдогонку, которая лучше позволяет понять на чем фокусироваться.
That’s it. That’s the strategy. Replicate D Day, and win entry to the mainstream. Cross the chasm by targeting a very specific niche market where you can dominate from the outset, force your competitors out of that market niche, and then use it as a base for broader operations.
Отлично определен рынок: это группа людей, которые советуют друг другу продукты.
that markets—particularly high-tech markets—are made up of people who reference each other during the buying decision.
The basis for reform is the principle that winning at marketing more often than not means being the biggest fish in the pond. If we are very small, then we must search out a very small pond indeed.
Классная модель жизненного цикла технологической компании вдогонку, которая лучше позволяет понять на чем фокусироваться.
That’s it. That’s the strategy. Replicate D Day, and win entry to the mainstream. Cross the chasm by targeting a very specific niche market where you can dominate from the outset, force your competitors out of that market niche, and then use it as a base for broader operations.
Отлично определен рынок: это группа людей, которые советуют друг другу продукты.
that markets—particularly high-tech markets—are made up of people who reference each other during the buying decision.
September 10, 2009
I began this book exploring a product to launch and finished it working in the business services industry. This juxtaposition helped me make sense of Moore's analysis and see its limitations.
For high-tech, or most new products, Moore is spot on. There is an adoption curve and the key challenge for success in these kinds of ventures is moving from early adopters to the mainstream. His strategy (summed as 'focus') is the way to conquer this challenge.
For services, I'm not as sure. My business is defined as singular events: consultation meetings, coaching sessions, and drafting language for others to deliver. While his advice (narrow focus leads to strong results) does not yet resonate with me. I'm still at the stage of figuring out what I do best and what customers need most. Frankly, most small service businesses (singular self-employed ventures) stay in this stage. Here we tinker, bring others in to solve tough problems. We never reach a 'mainstream.' And we shouldn't: when you can mass-produce professional services, you lose the real value created.
All that said, Moore was an entertaining and refreshing read: high-tech (and new product) folks must take him in.
For high-tech, or most new products, Moore is spot on. There is an adoption curve and the key challenge for success in these kinds of ventures is moving from early adopters to the mainstream. His strategy (summed as 'focus') is the way to conquer this challenge.
For services, I'm not as sure. My business is defined as singular events: consultation meetings, coaching sessions, and drafting language for others to deliver. While his advice (narrow focus leads to strong results) does not yet resonate with me. I'm still at the stage of figuring out what I do best and what customers need most. Frankly, most small service businesses (singular self-employed ventures) stay in this stage. Here we tinker, bring others in to solve tough problems. We never reach a 'mainstream.' And we shouldn't: when you can mass-produce professional services, you lose the real value created.
All that said, Moore was an entertaining and refreshing read: high-tech (and new product) folks must take him in.
August 10, 2011
This is certainly one of the most insightful business books i have ever read. It is of biblical importance to anyone in the technology business, especially operating in a B2B scenario.
Apart from a cogent theoretical framework, it provides high practical, and actionable advice on how to move from one segment to the next in a technology adoption life cycle. It has certainly shown me the wrong assumptions we have made in our own business, and why.
The book helps consultants create a concrete service offering to start-up clients who need advice on their go-to-market and organizational strategy.
Full five stars on this book. I look forward to meeting Geoffrey Moore sometime to pay him my compliments for this great piece of work
Apart from a cogent theoretical framework, it provides high practical, and actionable advice on how to move from one segment to the next in a technology adoption life cycle. It has certainly shown me the wrong assumptions we have made in our own business, and why.
The book helps consultants create a concrete service offering to start-up clients who need advice on their go-to-market and organizational strategy.
Full five stars on this book. I look forward to meeting Geoffrey Moore sometime to pay him my compliments for this great piece of work
February 15, 2009
Every MBA that I know has since told me that this is a classic, and I can see why. I never knew where the concept of early adopters and the technology adoption life cycle came from. The book is well written, has a compelling concept -- the "chasm" that must be crossed from visionaries and innovators to mainstream use in tech companies and that this crossing requires completely different techniques and types of people -- and is SHORT. I love short business books.
Thanks to Will, my sculptor/alternative energy consulting/visionary friend for recommending this. It has all sorts of interesting implications, well outside of just the tech world for areas as diverse as community building and a career as an artist.
Thanks to Will, my sculptor/alternative energy consulting/visionary friend for recommending this. It has all sorts of interesting implications, well outside of just the tech world for areas as diverse as community building and a career as an artist.
January 15, 2018
I have never stopped to think about how a company gets from an early product into the mainstream, even tho I have been working in tech for ages. Have experienced the chasm so many times, but this is the first time I hear the word itself and had no clue that this is a normal growth process, and there is a logical explanation for what is happening. There are too many eye-opening ideas, including (but not limited to) product lifetime stages, target audiences segmentation, tips on how to cross the chasm, and to my surprise – dealing with early startup employees vs product ownership. I don't think the world will ever be the same again. Work in a startup? Read it. Building a startup? Well, you should have already read it.
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