Crossing the Chasm- A critique
From the very beginning of Crossing the Chasm, Moore’s key strength is engagement with the reader. The amiable writing style, the use of numerous examples and, in particular for me, the breakdown of the TALC into descriptions such as Visionaries and Conservatives allows you to put a personal perception of the type of person you are targeting your product at.
A number of core marketing principles are evident throughout Moore’s text: target, segment, niche and mass marketing. I believe this is one of the main reasons why I, and probably many others, found the book easy to read, understand and relate to. For this reason I believe that the book has a dual purpose – to educate technology-focused individuals about marketing and to educate marketing professionals about the complexity of high tech marketing. After all, Moore’s initial chapter highlights how it so often goes wrong. Perhaps because the pace of the high tech industry has picked up over the last decade, more and more experienced Marketing Managers will enter the high tech industry. This is of course if these industries have bought into Moore’s teachings!
However despite all the above, it is easy to see where the book can fail to engage the attention of some readers. Ultimately it is aimed at marketing and selling technology products as the front cover details, so it should therefore contain examples from Moore’s area of expertise, the high tech industry. Yet for me as a non-techie with examples from over 8 years ago, this is where I struggled in sections. There could now be a place in the market for a third edition.
In summary, Moore's teachings are not new and it would be surprising if an organisation entered the market without having considered analysis, scenario planning, segmentation and a market strategy to some degree, particularly for discontinuous innovations. For this reason Crossing the Chasm can tend to be too simplistic in its approach so I would not recommend it as a core marketing text, however I would advise those moving into the world of technology marketing to pick up a copy in preparation.
A number of core marketing principles are evident throughout Moore’s text: target, segment, niche and mass marketing. I believe this is one of the main reasons why I, and probably many others, found the book easy to read, understand and relate to. For this reason I believe that the book has a dual purpose – to educate technology-focused individuals about marketing and to educate marketing professionals about the complexity of high tech marketing. After all, Moore’s initial chapter highlights how it so often goes wrong. Perhaps because the pace of the high tech industry has picked up over the last decade, more and more experienced Marketing Managers will enter the high tech industry. This is of course if these industries have bought into Moore’s teachings!
However despite all the above, it is easy to see where the book can fail to engage the attention of some readers. Ultimately it is aimed at marketing and selling technology products as the front cover details, so it should therefore contain examples from Moore’s area of expertise, the high tech industry. Yet for me as a non-techie with examples from over 8 years ago, this is where I struggled in sections. There could now be a place in the market for a third edition.
In summary, Moore's teachings are not new and it would be surprising if an organisation entered the market without having considered analysis, scenario planning, segmentation and a market strategy to some degree, particularly for discontinuous innovations. For this reason Crossing the Chasm can tend to be too simplistic in its approach so I would not recommend it as a core marketing text, however I would advise those moving into the world of technology marketing to pick up a copy in preparation.
No comments:
Post a Comment