Author Geoffrey Moore makes the case that high-tech products require marketing strategies that differ from those in other industries. His chasm theory describes how high-tech products initially sell well, mainly to a technically literate customer base, but then hit a lull as marketing professionals try to cross the chasm to mainstream buyers. This pattern, says Moore, is unique to the high-tech industry.

Moore suggests remedies for the problem that can help businesses meet their long-term goals. He coaches marketing professionals on how to move slowly through the gulf, teaching them to create profiles and target specific segments of the population rather than trying to plow right into the mainstream. He cites examples of successful chasm crossings by such companies as Apple, Tandem, Oracle, and Sun, showing what they all had in common and exposing the different weaknesses in their strategies. Moore also assigns responsibility for success to programmers and developers by suggesting they design a "whole product model." Here, because integration tasks are daunting to the mainstream market, all the components of a technological product must be in one package. Moore also describes strategies for competing with rival companies and assessing the best distribution channels for penetrating the target market.

Written not just for marketing specialists but for all employees whose futures ride on the success of a technical product, Crossing the Chasm delivers crucial information in an engaging, readable tone. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Geoffrey Moore is a Managing Director with The Chasm Group, a consulting practice based in California that provides market development and business strategy services to many leading high-technology companies. He is also a Venture Partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm specializing in specific technology markets, including e-commerce, internet, enterprise software, networking and semiconductors. As a Venture Partner at Mohr Davidow, he provides market strategy advice to their high-tech portfolio companies. Geoffrey is a frequent speaker and lecturer at industry conferences and his books are required reading at Stanford, Harvard, MIT and other leading business schools.

Geoffrey's current practice focuses on the concepts of his recent book Living on the Fault Line, targeted to CEO's and senior executives of Fortune 500 companies facing the impact of the Internet. Geoffrey's first book, Crossing the Chasm, initially published in 1991, adds compelling new extensions to the classical model of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. He introduces his readers to a gap or ""chasm"" that innovative companies and their products must cross in order to reach the lucrative mainstream market. A revised edition was released in July 1999 to update industries and case-study companies.

The sequel, Inside the Tornado, published in 1995, provides readers with insight into how to capitalize on the potential for hypergrowth beyond the chasm. This second book sorts out how the market forces behind the Technology Adoption Life Cycle demand the need for radical shifts in market strategy.

The Gorilla Game, Geoffrey's third book, was originally released in March of 1998 with a revised version, including a new chapter on internet investing, released August of this year. This book was co-authored with Chasm Group managing partner and high-tech marketing strategist Tom Kippola, and stock investment guru and BancAmerica Robertson Stephens analyst Paul Johnson. The Gorilla Game combines the methodology Moore introduced in Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado, with Johnson's stockmarket valuation models and Wall Street expertise, and Kippola's high-tech investment experience.

Geoffrey's most recent book, Living on the Fault Line, focuses on a single theme: How should the management of a public company that rose to prominence prior to the age of the Internet manage for shareholder value now that the Internet is upon us? Living on the Fault Line guides executives and managers who are coping with disruptive technology, destabilizing their core market positions, providing them with new models, metrics, and organizational practices to meet the challenges of the new economy.

Prior to founding The Chasm Group in 1992, Geoffrey was a principal and partner at Regis McKenna, Inc., a leading high-tech marketing strategy and marketing communications company. For the decade prior, he was a sales and marketing executive at three different software companies.

Geoffrey holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, both in literature, and served as an English professor at Olivet College.