In Geoffrey Moore’s book “Crossing the Chasm”, he explains how to market and sell disruptive products to mainstream customers. In order to take a new product or idea mainstream, you must understand the different segments of buyers. Innovations are absorbed in stages based on the psychological profile and stages within a community, each group making up a portion of the whole market. Here are the 5 main buyer segments:
Innovators: make up 2.5% of buyers. They are typically high tech people that love innovation and want to be the first to purchase. They are the ones camping outside the mall in order to be the first to purchase the new Apple product release.
Early Adopters: make up 13.5% of buyers. They are not high tech but they appreciate innovation, driven by a strong sense of practicality. They are ok waiting to see well established references.
Early Majority: make up 34% of buyers. They want to make sure all of the bugs are worked out and their will be a smooth integration with their existing systems. References from other early majority members is a must for this group ensuring that the new product is safe.
Late Majority: make up 34% of buyers. Not only must they have solid references like the early majority, but they will wait until something has become the established standard.
Laggards: make up 16% of buyers. They only buy a product when it is buried deep in another product. This segment of the market is not worth pursuing on any other basis.
A successful marketing plan must methodically work through each stage, addressing their unique psychological needs. The “Chasm”, is making the leap from the Early Adopters to the Early Majority. Although it is the most difficult to cross, on the other side of the chasm awaits a level of customer adoption and value creation that makes all of the risk worth it.