How To Go From Early Stage To Mainstream Market Adoption | Forestlyn

The elusive ‘chasm’ is a term that most entrepreneurs are all too familiar with. It refers to the struggle point between early adopters and the early majority that has been known to derail many innovation businesses. For high-tech offerings, the chasm might seem more like crossing a wide gushing river in flood season rather than wading through a knee-deep stream. Trial and error of this kind saw American author and speaker, Geoffery Moore, write a guide for marketing and selling high-tech products to mainstream consumers called ‘Crossing the Chasm’. It has been hailed as a bible for bringing cutting-edge products to the wider market, becoming a cornerstone for the success of many entrepreneurs.

Early Market & Mainstream Market: The Apples & Oranges

Bridging the chasm requires an understanding of why it is there in the first place. The early market and the mainstream market are like apples and oranges. The innovators and early adopters are adventurous and willing to try new things. They see the potential in tech-offerings and are willing to ride out any initial glitches to the other side. These people are on the hunt for new technology and want to be on the cutting-edge. Gaining support from the early market may feel like you’re on a winning ticket after some initial success. However, what worked for these guys is not going to convince the mainstream market. The early majority, late majority and laggards are far more conservative and very risk-averse. While the early market are lovers of disruptive technology, the mainstream market will only jump on board once it has been tried, tested and proven successful. They want to know how this offering is going to add to their lives, which can often be difficult for high-tech companies to convey in simple terms. That’s where innovation marketing comes in.

The elusive “chasm” from Early Adopters to Early Majority audiences

The Key to the Mass Market

Geoffery Moore says the way to infiltrate the mass market is through targeting a niche group within the early majority. By winning their trust, this target group can become the gateway to wider adoption by providing a reference point to others. Looking out into the vast mainstream market may feel overwhelming, but this can be overcome by segmenting niche groups within the early majority. By creating comprehensive audience profiles for specific target customers, predictions can be made about behaviours and outcomes to adapt the offering and stay ahead of the game. Finding success with one niche group provides a foundation of customer references, referrals and testimonials to disperse into the wider market. This is what the mainstream market wants to see: reviews and case studies before investing money in a new product or service. Geoffery Moore likens this process to the tactic used on D-Day, where the Allies focused on a small section of beach in France as a way of gaining initial traction to retake Europe. By focusing on winning over a niche group within the early majority, credibility is heightened and sales referrals created. You only need one spark to start a wildfire.

Getting to the Front of the Pack

Competition within the market is essential for product success when it comes to mainstream market adoption. Customers do their research by comparing products as a way of gaining reassurance. According to a recent report by KPMG, 55% of customers search online for reviews and recommendations before making a purchase (2017 Global Online Consumer Report). Being able to evaluate products against one another is essential for making sales, but how do you ensure that your product comes out on top?

Now that the target has been acquired, it’s time to eliminate the competition.

Step 1: The Product Alternative

Identify a product that is very similar to what you are offering. Look at the perceived value of the product and how it performs in the market. Then, introduce your disruptive offering as the most innovative on the market to take the place of competitors.

Step 2: The Market Alternative

Identify a business tackling the same problem as your product does and that your target customer already buys from. Look closely at how they’re positioning themselves within the market and how they are connecting with others. Observing these market-based values provides a foundation for building ethics and values within a business.

Use these two guideposts to position your product in the right space so customers can understand and relate your offering to what they already know. This provides a foundation for differentiating your product against competitors. Look at what everyone else is doing, but show how your offering can do it better.

Case Study: The iPod

Take a walk down the street on any given day and you’ll notice most people are bopping along with their earphones on. When did we all become so obsessed with music that we couldn’t leave the house without our trusty tunes? Well, whilst Apple may not have invented MP3 technology, it certainly recreated the music industry as we know it. Here’s how the iPod surpassed its competitors in crossing the chasm to the mainstream market:

Research competitors

Our global adoration of music fuelled a desire to have our favourite tunes with us on the go. Early innovations of CD players and car radios were bulky, whilst MP3 products on the market were difficult to use. Most people were carrying around cases of discs to get their music fix or those who were determined persevered with trying to locate and organise music online.

Understand the customer

What people wanted was to listen to music, share it with friends, and take it with them on the go. Apple was motivated to make music portable, convenient and fun to use by overcoming the barriers faced by similar products on the market.

Be a problem solver

Apple saw that even the creation of the iPod wouldn’t be enough to satisfy customers. Even if the iPod solved the issue of making music portable, there was still the challenge of being able to source the files online and upload them to the device. To overcome this, Apple created the iTunes library and store, providing customers with a user-friendly one-top-shop to enjoy music.

By understanding the core limitations of MP3 technology at the time, Apple was able to disrupt the market with iTunes and the iPod. These innovations took what their competitors were trying to do, but did it better by making MP3 simple, convenient and accessible. Understanding the needs of the customer and providing an offering that fulfilled those needs enabled widespread adoption in crossing the chasm successfully.

If you are a technology company that needs help marketing a disruptive new offering, we can help you cross the chasm to widespread adoption. At Forestlyn, we are marketing experts with a passion for innovation. Specialising in AI, blockchain and emerging tech, we can help you grow and scale your business to global audiences. To find out more about our marketing services, book a free consultation with us here.

How Forestlyn Can Help You

We are technology marketing experts with a passion for innovation. With a deep understanding of the emerging technologies space, we create your marketing strategies and de-jargon your communications to help you bridge the gap between the early adopters and the mainstream audience. Whether you are a corporate organisation, small-medium size business or startup, we formulate high growth tactics for outsourced marketing, strategic direction, marketing implementation and educational workshops.

Talk to us today to find out more about how we can help you. Book a consultation here.