Sales

Have you ever wondered why so many high-tech products seem to make a sensational entrance, but then disappear before they’re refined enough to become practical? What is the reason why most new, high-tech products never reach the stage of maturity? Adoption of new technology by the mainstream market doesn’t happen overnight. Further, most tech products will never see mainstream success. Marketing consultant Geoffrey Moore has an explanation for this: once the product is adopted by the early market of tech-savvy users, the sales stagnate as the mainstream market customers are not as keen on jumping on the new technology. Moore

What does Moore mean by “crossing the chasm”? How does remaining in the chasm between the early market and the mainstream market sabotage your business? According to Moore, in order to succeed in the early market, the company must “cross the chasm.” At a high level, crossing the chasm means becoming the market leader in a very specific niche market, and then expanding into other niches until you dominate the whole market. In this article, we’ll present an overview of Moore’s advice on how to cross the chasm.

How do you market a breakthrough technology? What customer segments should you target? According to Geoffrey Moore, the author of Crossing the Chasm, marketing high-tech products to the early market begins with innovators and moves to early adopters, early majority, late majority, and then laggards. The challenge for companies is to cross the chasm between the early market and the mainstream market (where the majority of customers are) and ultimately accelerate adoption across every segment. In this article, we’ll take a look at Moore’s chasm marketing chronology and the potential problems that could arise during the process.