summary ofCrossing the ChasmBook by Geoffrey A. Moore

first KEY POINT

There is a technique to bringing high-tech disruptive products into the market; fail to understand it at your own peril

In the last two decades, thousands of tech startups have arisen all with the hope of disrupting the market and making headway.But it’s sad that many of these startups do not pass the one year test. Some experience some measure of growth for a year or two, only to start nosediving and being overtaken by competitors.What has been responsible for this? How can you accurately predict if a startup would thrive or not?You can’t be entirely correct if you decide quality would be the only metric for measuring business success. A good chunk of all the startups that have failed had excellent products. If you however begin to understudy their marketing tactics, then a new light would open up to you.It’s not just enough to bring disruptive products to the market, you have to understand consumer behavior and know how to play the markets. There are two categories of innovation: discontinuous or disruptive innovation and continuous or sustaining innovation.Continuous innovations do not require behavioral changes on the part of the consumers, because those innovations are usually a build up on existing technologies. Example of continuous innovation is when Toyota promises you a faster sports car that doesn’t consume much gasoline.When you get the car, you wouldn’t have much to learn because you’ve been driving similar vehicles all your life.How about Tesla introducing a self-driving electric car? Sure enough, such vehicles are better for the environment and may even increase your productivity, but you would need to learn how to control them. Your behavior would need to change when you swap to using electric cars. That’s what disruptive products do: they change consumer behavior, and consumers don’t all adapt at the same speed, so there’s a problem.Right there is the main reason startups find it difficult to introduce their disruptive products to the market. In trying to market their products, they discover that there are chasms across their row of potential customers.Once you understand the different customer categories when it comes to high tech products, you will begin to gain insight into how you can market to them effectively.

The five groups of potential customers in the market are:
• Innovators
• Early adopters
• Early majority
• Late majority
• LaggardsThe rest of this summary is dedicated to exploring these groups and understanding how to meet their unique marketing needs.