Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Crossing the Chasm
Book Review: Must read for anyone in high tech marketing
Summary: 5 Stars
For a book on high tech that was first published nearly two decades ago to feel so relevant today is a testament to the ideas and writing of Geoffrey Moore. Its frankly pretty amazing how Moore seems like he's discussing the various success and failures of the social networks and their adoption issues (friendster, myspace, and facebook).
The genius of this book is not the discussion of how technology adoption follows a normal distribution. The genius is in Moore's research around how to increase your chances for taking a technology or idea from its early nascent days to mainstream success. The key as Moore lays it out is in the attitudinal differences between members of the Early Adopters and the Early Majority. The early adopters he argues are typically Technologists and Visionaries, and can see the possibilities of what a technology represents. They are more willing to play with immature technologies (in the case of Technologists, it's a geek thing we wouldn't understand, in the case of visionaries, it's about pushing what's possible further along). In order to continue to grow the business beyond this early set of customer you have to prove your value to the pragmatists that make up the Early Majority who want to go with a proven leader. This is the chasm, to shift from the Early Adopters to the Early Majority if you will. This is where a great number of companies falter and don't last.
The key per Moore, and frankly it jives really well with my admittedly anecdotal experience, is to focus on a small segment, while keeping your end goal in mind. To do this, you have to pick the right segment to focus your efforts on in order to build out the product. Moore argues that in order to know whether your segment is the right size or is truly a segment, you have to a small enough community that can generate word of mouth completely on its own. To me this is sound advice no matter the truth of whether technology adoption occurs this way or not, as it forces companies to focus on a relatively small group of customers with common concerns, which in and of itself is a great thing. It means that the service/product is going to get developed completely for a group of people instead of trying to be all things to all people.
Moore has a great analogy, to describe this strategy. He calls it D-Day. Your end goal is the liberation of Europe. In order to do this, you need first to get a foothold in Europe. To do this you must gather all of your resources and position them to come out of the early adopter market (England) and send them onto a focused point (Normandy) in a rapid manner in order to cross the chasm (English Channel), and ultimately to success (mass market appeal).
There are tons of other great insights in this book (from understanding the need for a larger ecosystem of companies to define a value chain, to positioning yourself relative to your competition).
Complete review of this and other interesting non-fiction can be found at www.cosmicwanderlust.com
Book Review: Must-read for anyone in high-tech or biotech marketing
Summary: 5 Stars
"If you build a better mousetrap" is the old saw about inventing new and improved products. But this adage is completely wrong; if you build a better mousetrap, they DON'T come and buy it and you are left wondering why your product failed to make the grade.Geoffrey Moore writes clearly about the need to cross the chasm that exists between those customers who buy the latest and greatest and those who hang back for a bit, waiting for..what? They are waiting for an incentive to buy your product for other reasons than "it's NEW!" The problem is, there aren't enough of the customers who will buy anything because it's new and exciting--and what's more, the these customers aren't particularly loyal. The sweet spot of customers are those who wait to see if something new and inventive actually gives them back something of worth, a return on investment, a better way to work, doing more with less, you name it. These customers will often switch to a new technology, but only if they have the right incentive to do so.
If you fail to market effectively to this type of customer, you end up with a pile of boutique products that languish in sales and don't ramp up the profits for your firm. To avoid this all-too-common scenario, many companies are now hiring consultants to teach Moore's methods to their marketing and R&D departments. By "Crossing the Chasm" they strive to market products that will sell. If you are in a tech business, and especially if you are an inventor marketing a new idea, reading this book is a very good idea. In fact, I'd say it's required reading.
Book Review: My first "marketing" book -- a fine choice!
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a marketing rookie, so much of what I found interesting in this book may be old news to anyone with marketing experience. Having said that, I believe this book is a good read for anyone: for newbies, it's a good primer; for more seasoned people, it should serve as a good reference book.
While you may not agree with the notion of the 'chasm', or with the author's ideas on how to overcome it (or, at the very least, on how to anticipate and recognize it), the thought process is wonderful -- good thinking where none had gone before. The examples are somewhat out-of-date, and I'd be interested to see how the referenced companies actually dealt with some of the issues mentioned. But they are still very useful for supporting the analogy and providing clarity, and I enjoyed reading about them.
I am also easily swayed by an author who is passionate about his subject, and writes well enough to make his point. The best word I can come up with for Moore's writing is: INFECTIOUS. Chasm or not, I was ready to tackle the world after I finished this book.
All told, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it for anyone working on a new product -- even if the product isn't a chasm-crosser!
Book Review: Open-minder
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a bible for entrepreneurial marketing. I strongly advise to get it to the Marketing &Strategy specialists in different sectors how to learn redefining targeted customers on action plans via creating loyalty&profit maximization. Also, a good open-minder book on how to differentiate your company against high-tech solution providers' competitors in the market.Book Review: Perfect for professionals dealing with discontinuous innovation
Summary: 5 Stars
There are very few texts that do a good job dealing with how to convince the market to adopt new technologies. The standard TALC (tech adoption life cycle) texts have serious flaws when it comes to discontinuous technologies. Geoffrey Moore nails it with Crossing the Chasm. If you are an executive or marketing professional introducing high tech products you will be well served by this book. It will help you understand if you cross the line into discontinuous innovation and need to adopt chasm approaches to your customer base. Even if you don't deal with discontinuous products you will learn a lot of the different types of customer demographics encountered by any high tech marketer.