Monthly Archives: August 2007

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell are two extraordinary books focusing on the concept of how something can be taken from a few early adopters to have an epidemic effect and reach the late majority. Crossing the Chasm explains how to market and sell high-tech products to mainstream customers. In the Tipping Point, Gladwell examines the epidemics occurring around us. Both books are great reads in themselves, but they somewhere touch on one common thing in the World of marketing that I think is worth talking about. That common thing is how any product or service, or a trend or a concept, that starts with a few individuals takes off and becomes widely accepted. In other words, how and when something becomes a mainstream phenomenon.

The thing that fascinates me the most is how this simple concept of mainstream adoption can be explained in two completely different yet related ways using the viewpoints of these two experts. To dive deeper in the comparison, let us analyze one of the most successful mainstream product (or you can call trend or fashion) adoption of the recent times: the iPod. The design genius of this product apart, let’s see how Apple marketed iPod to become a mainstream phenomenon.

Apple introduced iPod to its loyal customer base of Macintosh users (remember the days when iPod only worked with Mac!) The early adopters eagerly adopted iPod to envy of every PC user. How did iPod cross the chasm? The product supporters and specialists played a vital role in increasing the popularity of the music player making it more interesting and wannable for the pragmatists. Apple came out with the whole product which included the iTunes software to work on PC and Mac, and a set of dozens of accessories, count of which increased exponentially with a whole industry revolving around the iPod. This positioned iPod perfectly for the mass market adoption hence making it a mainstream phenomenon. 

Let’s see how, when and what “tipped” the iPod. I think the three things that were instrumental in tipping the iPod were the trendy appeal of the product, the passionate drive of the mavens and the consecutive releases of the iPod targeting the right customer at the right time. When Apple came out with this sleek, all white music player, it instantly became the fashion symbol of the cool kids. Those white earphones defined the social status of the college students hopping between classes and the health conscious folks running in the parks. These people, who paid the premium to get this expensive device, played the role of mavens for Apple best to their capacity. And to help further, Apple attracted the right customer at the right time by coming out with a version of iPod ranging from $100 to $400 for every type of customer. All this together helped the iPod tip by the 2004 holiday season.

Both outlooks, the one by Geoffrey Moore and the one by Malcolm Gladwell, are adept in describing, or teaching, how a product reaches mass adoption. Where do they meet? To put it in very simple words, I think we can define the tipping point as the point where the chasm ends. It is that inflection point from where the mainstream adoption starts. To think tipping point as that magical moment when a trend crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like wildfire makes perfect sense when you look back at all the efforts put by the parent company to create a support ecosystem, and acknowledge the early adopters, the mavens, the connectors and the salesmen who put the right efforts, knowingly or unknowingly, pushing the trend across the chasm.

Malcolm Gladwell has emphasized the importance of connectors, mavens and salesmen very clearly in The Tipping Point. Mavens, the people who are experts on a subject matter, play a critical role in success or failure of a product. They are different from paid consultants, because they pass on their advice not for money or business, but for the love of it. They are the product enthusiasts, the people who are willing to shell out a premium to be the first ones to use a product. This zeal of these seemingly weird people adds a greater credibility to whatever they have to say.

Mavens are the people who kick start the word of mouth epidemic. They are the ones on whom their friends or neighbors or coworkers rely to get expert advice. But in this connected World, mavens have become a more powerful force than ever before. They have got new weapons in the form of blogs and newsgroups to spread the word and extend their reach. They have the channels to start and spread the epidemic faster. So quite obviously, the companies need to find and embrace the mavens, more than ever before.

The accent of information age has made one thing easier for the companies, that is, finding the mavens. The companies can set their maven traps on the web and locate the mavens. Mavens on the web are the early adopters, the beta participants, the feedback providers and the newsgroup contributors. Though locating mavens on the web in no way, shape or form should substitute the much more outreaching maven traps, but it makes it easier for the companies to communicate to the mavens, listen to them and give credibility to them.

Now let’s talk about embracing the mavens. If there is only one thing a marketing organization can do right for launching a product, it should be this. The most important task for any marketing organization is to connect to the customers. And who are better people to connect to than the mavens? Every company should welcome the feedback given by these product enthusiasts, and more important than that, make sure they know that their feedback is being noted and taken seriously. How you can embrace the mavens in the Internet age? Share the spotlight with them. Thank them publicly in newsgroups or blogs for their advice. When they reply to someone else’s query, back them up as if they are part of your company.

Mavens can sometimes be a big pain to deal with. But remember, it’s not the 0.1 percent of your customer base that makes a lot of noise, it’s the 0.1 percent of your customer base that can make or break the remaining 99.9 percent of your market. There are lots of examples where the mavens have shifted the dynamics of the market. They have the unique capacity of making or breaking a brand. If a company handles the mavens in their industry with care, they can add a virtual sales force to their marketing team which is unmatched to anything else in the World!