Crossing the chasm : marketing and selling disruptive products to mainstream customers

Author Geoffrey Moore makes the case that high-tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. His chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.Moore suggests remedies for the problem that can help businesses meet their long-term goals. He coaches marketing professionals on how to move slowly through the gulf, teaching them to create profiles and target specific segments of the population rather than trying to plow right into the mainstream. He cites examples of successful chasm crossings by such companies as Apple, Tandem, Oracle, and Sun, showing what they all had in common and exposing the different weaknesses in their strategies. Moore also assigns responsibility for success to programmers and developers by suggesting they design a ''whole product model.'' Here, because integration tasks are daunting to the mainstream market, all the components of a technological product must be in one package. Moore also describes strategies for competing with rival companies and assessing the best distribution channels for penetrating the target market.Written not just for marketing specialists but for all employees whose futures ride on the success of a technical product, Crossing the Chasm delivers crucial information in an engaging, readable tone. Cover Page......Page 1 Title Page......Page 3 ISBN 0066620023......Page 4 Contents (with page links)......Page 6 PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION......Page 8 FOREWORD......Page 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 15 PART I Discovering the Chasm......Page 18 INTRODUCTION If Bill Gates Can Be a Billionaire......Page 20 1 High-Tech Marketing Illusion......Page 24 2 High-Tech Marketing Enlightenment......Page 37 PART II Crossing the Chasm......Page 62 3 The D-Day Analogy......Page 64 4 Target the Point of Attack......Page 82 5 Assemble the Invasion Force......Page 96 6 Define the Battle......Page 114 7 Launch the Invasion......Page 137 CONCLUSION Getting Beyond the Chasm......Page 156 About the Author......Page 172 About the Publisher......Page 174 Crossing the Chasm (1991; rev. 1999) demonstrates the existence of distinct marketing challenges for each market segment in the life cycle of new technology-based products. A significant gulf -- the "chasm" -- exists between the market made up of early adopters and the markets of more pragmatic buyers. To cross the chasm, a product team must identify the needs of pragmatic buyers and deliver a "whole product" that more than meets those needs. This landmark book, part of the HarperBusiness Essentials series, shows just how to do that. "Here is the bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries. Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This revised and updated edition provides new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing, with special emphasis on the Internet. It's essential reading for anyone with a stake in the world's most exciting marketplace. Book jacket."--Jacket "The bestselling guide that created a new game plan for marketing in high-tech industries, Crossing the Chasm has become the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to progressively larger markets. This revised and updated edition -- which provides new insights into the realities of high-tech marketing, with special emphasis on the Internet -- is essential reading for anyone with a stake in the world's most exciting marketplace." -- Book Cover This work offers ideas for marketing new high-technology products. It suggests fresh marketing strategies to help with selling innovative new products so that the not untypical situation of new items being received well by the few but not by the public at large can be avoided. There is a line from a song in the musical A Chorus Line: '"If Troy Donahue can be a movie star, then I can be a movie star."