Crossing the Chasm Book Summary - Crossing the Chasm Book explained in key points

Crossing the Chasm summary

Name: Crossing the Chasm
Rating: 4.6 (204 reviews)
Author: Geoffrey A. Moore

Geoffrey A. Moore

Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers

Listen to the first key idea

Key idea 1 of 9

00:00

4.6 (204 ratings)

17 mins

9 key ideas

Audio & text

What is Crossing the Chasm about?

Crossing the Chasm (1991) examines the market dynamics faced by innovative new products, particularly the daunting chasm that lies between early to mainstream markets.

The book provides tangible advice on how to make this difficult transition and offers real-world examples of companies that have struggled in the chasm.

About the Author

Geoffrey A. Moore is an author, consultant and venture partner. His other bestsellers include Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and Living on the Fault Line.

Crossing the Chasm is derived from the author’s work as a high technology consultant in Silicon Valley. Originally, both the author and publisher assumed the book would be of interest to a mere niche group of people and would probably only sell some 5,000 copies. In fact it became a runway hit with over 300,000 copies sold.

Table of Contents

Key idea 1 of 9

Technological innovations are absorbed in stages by different groups.

All innovative technological products take time to be absorbed by any community.

Due to differences in attitudes to new technology, this adoption process tends to happen in stages, one group of people at a time, according to the aptly named Technology Adoption Life Cycle.

The first to adopt a new technology are the technology enthusiasts, for whom technology is a central interest in life. They simply want the hottest new technology before everyone else, even if it is still bug-ridden and faulty in places.

Next in line are the visionaries. Rather than the technology itself, they are interested in the strategic competitive advantage it could provide. They seek breakthroughs, not minor improvements to the status quo.

The above two groups constitute the relatively small early market, which is followed by the vital and far larger mainstream market.

Once a technology has proven itself and a clear market leader has emerged, the pragmatists, constituting roughly one third of the entire market, feel safe enough to jump on board. Unlike the visionaries, they are not looking for big changes, but rather incremental benefits gained from standardized, well-supported products. Pragmatists make for extremely loyal customers and thus winning their support is the key to long-term market dominance.

The fourth group, the conservatives, is as numerous as the pragmatists, but suspicious of high-tech. They want simple, high-quality, low-cost products with no hassle involved.

Finally, the skeptics are a small high-tech resistant group who are most often ignored as a customer segment, but who can provide valuable feedback on how your product is failing to meet their expectations.

Between visionaries and pragmatists lies a chasm where products languish and companies die.

Ideally, as a product moves through the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, each group of customers will provide references for selling to the next, more skeptical group of adopters. Thus, like Tarzan swinging from vine to vine, the product sustains momentum.

The problem is that in the case of discontinuous or disruptive innovations, meaning products which demand substantial behavioral changes from their customers, this process does not unfold smoothly.

To achieve mainstream market success, you must address your customers’ needs fully with a whole product.

Unlike early-market customers, mainstream customers abhor products that require them to hunt for additional products and services.

Hence, they only want what are known as whole products, meaning products that completely satisfy their buying objectives. Pragmatists love Microsoft products, for example, because they know there is a wide infrastructure of supporting products and services available for them already.

Crossing the chasm is like launching an invasion – you must first secure a niche as a beachhead.

Entering the mainstream market is an act of aggression: you are invading the existing players’ territory, hence you should plan your attack as you would a military invasion.

You start by securing a beachhead. This means targeting a specific market niche within the pragmatist group and becoming its undisputed market leader. From this base you can then expand to other segments until eventually you can dominate the entire market. The niche is the kindling with which you light the fire.

Choose your first niche by finding the most attractive customer segment.

Choosing the right target niche to invade first usually means making a risky decision without having reliable information to base it on. Hence, it calls for informed intuition rather than analytical reasoning.

A tool to assist in this decision is a process called target-customer characterization. This means developing a variety of scenarios in which your product might be used by various customers. You consider the buyer, the end-user and how the product would actually improve the customer’s current situation.

To effectively position your product in customers’ minds, use a powerful claim to demonstrate market leadership.

The positioning of a product is the single largest influence on a customer’s buying decision. Positioning means the attributes associated with that product in customers’ minds, e.g. “Mercedes is a top-of-the-line car.”

But different groups of customers value different things. For visionaries, the features of a product, like its speed or size, are key, but for pragmatists the main evidence of a product’s value is its position in the market relative to competitors.

Find a distribution channel pragmatists are comfortable with and motivate that channel to sell.

Before launching your invasion on the target niche, you must choose the distribution channels you will invade through and the pricing strategy you will attack with. This basically means deciding who will sell your products then slapping a price tag on them.

Pragmatists are very picky about which companies they buy from. Hence, when crossing the chasm, the number-one priority is to secure a distribution channel that pragmatist customers are already comfortable with.

The chasm is even harder to cross in consumer markets than in business markets.

Most successful chasm crossings happen in business markets because it is extremely difficult to do so with a consumer product.

Businesses usually have the economic and technical resources to adopt even immature products, whereas consumers do not. Though technology enthusiasts exist in consumer markets, too, they tend to rapidly move on to “the next cool thing.” At the same time, you are unlikely to find true visionaries to champion your product and underwrite your R&D.

To address post-chasm challenges, a company must secure profitability and realign its organization.

After emerging from the chasm, companies often find they have inherited a number of commitments from the pre-chasm organization. These could, for example, involve the returns promised to investors.

To successfully manage these challenges and leave the chasm behind, difficult and profound financial and organizational choices must be made.

Want to see all full key ideas from Crossing the Chasm?

Key ideas in Crossing the Chasm

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

Who should read Crossing the Chasm

Anyone working within the high tech industry
Anyone trying to enter a market with an innovative product
Anyone interested in how high tech products are adopted

Categories with Crossing the Chasm

Marketing & Sales Entrepreneurship

Books like Crossing the Chasm

The Goal

Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox

A Process of Ongoing Improvement

16 min

The Metaverse Handbook

QuHarrison Terry & Scott “DJ Skee” Keeney

Innovating for the Internet’s Next Tectonic Shift

18 min

4.2

The Innovator’s Dilemma

Clayton Christensen

When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Marketing That Can't Be Ignored!

22 min

4.3

Follow Up and Close the Sale

Jeff Shore

Make Easy (and Effective) Follow-Up Your Winning Habit

18 min

4.6

Stealing Fire

Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal

How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work

How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets

How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer

Getting People to Think Your Idea Is Their Idea

18 min

4.2

What our members say

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.

Start growing with Blinkist now

25 Million

Downloads on all platforms

4.7 Stars

Average ratings on iOS and Google Play

91%

Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*

*Based on survey data from Blinkist customers

Powerful ideas from top nonfiction

Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.

Start your free trial

Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club

by Robin Sharma

Crossing the Chasm summary

Listen to the first key idea

What is Crossing the Chasm about?

About the Author

Technological innovations are absorbed in stages by different groups.

Between visionaries and pragmatists lies a chasm where products languish and companies die.

To achieve mainstream market success, you must address your customers’ needs fully with a whole product.

Crossing the chasm is like launching an invasion – you must first secure a niche as a beachhead.

Choose your first niche by finding the most attractive customer segment.

To effectively position your product in customers’ minds, use a powerful claim to demonstrate market leadership.

Find a distribution channel pragmatists are comfortable with and motivate that channel to sell.

The chasm is even harder to cross in consumer markets than in business markets.

To address post-chasm challenges, a company must secure profitability and realign its organization.

Key ideas in Crossing the Chasm

Technological innovations are absorbed in stages by different groups.

Between visionaries and pragmatists lies a chasm where products languish and companies die.

To achieve mainstream market success, you must address your customers’ needs fully with a whole product.

Crossing the chasm is like launching an invasion – you must first secure a niche as a beachhead.

Choose your first niche by finding the most attractive customer segment.

To effectively position your product in customers’ minds, use a powerful claim to demonstrate market leadership.

Find a distribution channel pragmatists are comfortable with and motivate that channel to sell.

The chasm is even harder to cross in consumer markets than in business markets.

To address post-chasm challenges, a company must secure profitability and realign its organization.

Who should read Crossing the Chasm

Categories with Crossing the Chasm

Books like Crossing the Chasm

What our members say

Discover the Blinkist catalogue

Popular titles

Most popular categories

Trending Collections