Book review: Crossing the Chasm
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Crossing the Chasm is a legendary book about how to get new technology to reach the mass market. In this book Moore redefines the technology adaption life cycle model. Moore divides the market into five groups; innovators; the technology enthusiasts, early adopters; the visionaries, early majority; the pragmatists, late majority; the conservatives and laggards; the skeptics (don’t spend any effort here). The challenge is to get from early adopters to early majority, a gap which he describes as the chasm.
There are some main factors throughout the book on what to emphasise when targeting the early majority. This is be market oriented, not product oriented. While the early adopters and the visionaries are happy with the new technology, the early majority is looking for something to serve their needs. Market centric elements include:
- strong references
- whole product
- third part supporters
- de-facto standard
- cost of ownership
- quality of support
By focusing on these elements together with the more product centric ones, Moore claims that you should be able to create the value attributes of a market leadership position within a manageable segment and thereby bring a state of true market leadership.
This second edition of the book has replaced some of the examples from the 80s with new ones from the 90s but except from that it is basically the same.
Crossing the Chasm is a good book worth reading if you are interested in technology, innovations and how to hit the mass market.
Tags: books, innovation, marketing, technology management
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