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Crossing the Chasm

Geoffrey A. Moore

HarperBusiness, 2002

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This serious, detailed book offers marketing insights for high-tech marketers. Consultant Geoffrey Moore thought long and hard about how to market new technology, so his book has elements of an intriguing personal essay. He identifies different levels of tech users – such as early adopters – and cites product examples to explain why each consumer matters at certain stages in a product’s marketing. He describes how consumer groups feed information to each other and explains that marketers must use both data and “informed intuition.” Moore’s exploration of how to market innovative, high-tech products may have become a bit dated, but his core advice and his analysis retain substantial value.

Summary

Most technology products fail to cross the “chasm” – to move from early adopters to a mass audience.

To remain competitive, companies must market new technology properly to key audiences. While non-tech US companies often market their products successfully, why have so many high-tech products disappeared – presumably as a result of marketing failures?

The answer partially lies in finding the right market. Many technology products fail to make the transition from a few early adopters to a larger audience that has very different concerns. Marketers may assume this transition will be seamless, but it is a huge “chasm” and crossing it is so dangerous that it is the main reason tech companies falter.

To survive this transition from serving a fad to feeding a trend, high-tech marketing’s challenge is to manage the fad successfully and then turn it into a trend. This is how many successful high-tech products have been launched. Without the acceptance of a wide market beyond early adopters, the product will fail, so this transition from the esoteric to the mainstream is critical.

To reap the benefits of navigating this bridge successfully, a company must...

About the Author

Geoffrey A. Moore is a managing partner at a consulting firm in San Mateo, California, and a partner in a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. He is the author of Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and Living on the Fault Line.

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w. q. 3 years ago

Great book but this is such a messy and poorly worded summary.
- 3 years ago
  
  Dear wer qerqw, Thank you for your feedback. I've gone back to the summary, rechecked the editing and updated the format. This remains a historically important book, so we were glad to take another look. Erica Rauzin, Senior Managing Editor, getAbstract
A. 1 decade ago

I got this book when doing my MBA, and it changed my professional life. A must-read for anyone in technology business.
T. B. getAbstract 1 decade ago

Just the best book about selling B2B technology products I have ever read. Great.
- getAbstract 1 decade ago
  
  Absolutelty! Almost ten years old, but still a must read for every executive, not only sales people.

Crossing the Chasm

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Summary

Most technology products fail to cross the “chasm” – to move from early adopters to a mass audience.

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