We have spent many an hour mulling over how to exploit Moore’s  Chasm theory.

But many, many more hours cursing the dynamics of the early market.

In particular, we wrestle with early adopters’ infatuation with all things new and their inability to stay loyal to ideas over time.

You see, the first buyers are often visionary in character, attracted by revolutionary change, comfortable with half-baked features and totally cool with the untested, unfinished.

They’re also needy, goal obsessed, and keen to brag. Especially about being the first on the block to grab innovation by the horns and wrestle it into submission.

They will always be among the first to quit. 

Visionaries like to jump onto the next big thing. And that can be a problem. The early market is a dynamic, fickle force which can be hard to tame and even harder to keep caged.

Here are five things about the early market most overlook:

• The early market is always in the minority. If you talk to 100 people about your new product, only 10 will say it’s awesome. 90 will tell you it sucks. Or worse, they won’t even know it’s there. 90% rejection is hardly compelling evidence that you’re onto something.

• People who sell to the early market are rarely comfortable selling to the early market. Your team, those stalwarts who have chosen to join you on the front line of change, they too are surrounded by doubters and skeptics. So is your Board. And your investors. They want guarantees. Or at least promises. They will all push you to go for the money. Now. And the money lies in the fattest part of the Bell Curve with the elusive majority. So why aren’t you selling there now? Moore urges caution and the need to establish a beachhead first. But to do that is to sit back while someone else exploits the fat found in the middle of the herd!

• The early market is way different from the late market. To find where you are on the curve, it’s important to understand the differences between the two groups. Somewhere in your product’s journey to success is a gap. It lies between the radicalized, crazy, fanatical first-customers and their more prudent, careful, and risk-averse brethren. Pragmatists don’t trust visionaries. They think visionaries are crazy. And pragmatists bore visionaries with their endless prattling about avoiding risk and loading up your product with check-box features. Yet, significant numbers of pragmatists have to be swayed by visionaries for an idea to root and blossom.

• The traffic moves in one direction: from left to right, early to late. Ideas move from new to old. They are birthed. They grow. Mature. And eventually pass into the mainstream. And after a while they wither and die. The point here is that they rarely pass from mature to death and back to sexy again. Which means it can be hard for a new idea to retrace its steps, especially when the gloss has worn off.

• Your industry is not any different. Don’t fight the theory, embrace it. We have been teaching diffusion theory since Rogers first published Diffusion of Innovations in 1962 (check this out). It’s hardly a new idea or a novel expression of market development. The principles are tried and tested. Sure you can break into a market by penetrating the middle: but it takes a lot of money. That’s why so many Super Bowl advertisers are major, established brands — Coke, Pepsi, Jeep, Bud — and why so few companies trust debuting a novel idea in a $3 million commercial. So if you are outside the mainstream, you can gain a significant advantage by embracing the lessons of market adoption theory and watching your own customers for the telling signs of quivering, flighty pioneerdom. And even find ways to cross the chasm to that big, fat majority market. But more on that in another piece.

That’s how we see it. Join the conversation. #whatifmortar

We’ve been having all sorts of discussions about simplicity recently. So we thought we’d briefly revisit our simplest campaign, which also happened to be one of our most successful.

Isilon’s Simple is Smart:

Simple right?

(SPOILER ALERT: business buyers are human too)

Prick a business buyer, do they not bleed? Tickle them, do they not laugh? Poison them, do they not die? To further bastardize the Bard, if we are like them in the rest, we resemble them in this too.

B2B marketers take note: if you too want to make billions, a great place to start is by framing your messaging as an appeal to human nature. 

It helped us shape the creation of some $16 billion in value since 2003. It will work for you too.

Here’s a three-step approach to more human-factored business communication:

1. Decide who: Your target is of flesh and blood. Emotion, gut and desire drive purchasing decisions, not job titles. So remember to understand your audience’s Psychographic profile.

Consider how well you know your target audience? What keeps them up at night. What gets them going? Are they early adopters, or of the more pragmatic mindset?

[Tip: there is no better way to profile customers than to talk to them -Ed].

2. Decide your value: Now that you know who is in your sights, you can decide what you can offer them.

Your Value Proposition should speak to what they truly want (and wants always trump needs).

An effective value proposition explains how only your product solves their problem and promises added value.

Ask yourself: What do customers get from you that others can’t provide? How you define your audience will give you clues for crafting your value proposition. But you will still need to decide what to emphasize. Even though your value proposition will likely change as the market matures and the product becomes more widely understood, maintaining differentiation requires choices and focus.

And the dirty little secret about focus is it means that only some people are in the tent while most are not. 

3. Give them three Careabouts. We like our things in threes. Threes are easy to remember. Easy to use. And necessarily focused.

So give your target three things to expect of your offering—three powerful whys. And back up each of the whys with compelling and clear Reasons to Believe.

Boil them down like this: Many squeamish and concerned homeowners (the psychographic and demographic profile) turn to “Mouse Killing Machines” (MKM) to kill vermin infesting their homes so they can have a mouse-free and safe home with no harmful chemicals needed (value proposition). 

So MKM wants to point out how lethal their solution is to all pests (careabout #1), compared to say cats, which often deliver prey that is still, well, twitching (a compelling Reason to Believe).  Others MKM customers want a smart and easy way to keep mice and other vermin from entering their home–and that can be adjusted based on conditions. So MKM says it can be optimized too (careabout #2). And MKM customers indicate some level of concern that mice-killing poison could harm their pets or children.  So MKM points out that ridding your home of pests means it is more actually safe  (careabout #3). That MKM does not use harmful chemicals (I know right, oh the wonderful power of logic-free analogies) and includes a child-safety latch to protect it against prying fingers (more Reasons to Believe). The three things the MKM customers thus careabout are Killing, Optimized and Safe. 

These simple, but effective steps can be brought together in a messaging house. Ready to be blessed and put into action by marketing, sales and partners.

Sometimes it can be more fun to think inside a box (house). Here’s an example for MKM that includes a value proposition, customer psychographic and demographic profile along with three careabouts–and the supporting Reasons to Believe:

That’s how we see it. Let us know your thoughts. Join the conversation #whatifmortar.

Here’s the simplest and soundest way to bang heads effectively.

For the past few months we have been writing about the perils of the Big Reveal and more effective ways to include clients in the creative process. Many of you, dear readers, have asked for help doing just that. So we thought we would share our favorite collaboration method: Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats.

Six Thinking Hats, One Straightforward Goal

What: The Greeks taught us to debate issues by attacking one another’s ideas, so that only the strongest survive. But there are plenty of other ways to debate ideas. Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats brainstorming technique is both simple and astonishing. By separating thinking into six dimensions or perspectives— the metaphorical “hats” — groups can be aligned to explore and vet alternative ideas in a non-confrontational, structured manner.  And like most of our favorite brainstorming techniques, it can be deployed quickly. Plus you get to wear hats. Which is always good.

When: Six Thinking Hats works best with a well defined idea/question to explore. You need a starting point that the group can agree on, otherwise you’ll quickly descend into a maelstrom of “I think we’re wasting our time here.”

Who: Groups of four to 12 are ideal.

How: Carefully sequenced and structured collective thinking. The team considers the idea/problem from the same perspective and at the same time. [Great hatters capture all the goodness on a whiteboard-Ed].

We suggest you move the group through the hats in this order:

Blue Hat: The moderator’s hat. What the Blue hat says, goes. The moderator organizes the session, sets the agenda, captures insights and enforces the code of the hats. The Blue hat starts the session and explains the rules. This is the only hat worn by a single person, who will remain the moderator throughout the session.

White Hat: The fact hat. What are the plain, simple and undeniable facts about the problem at hand? White hat thinking is often easy and fast (but it can be hard to keep speculation out). Stick to the facts and only the facts. Facts set the foundation for the later stages of informed thinking. Good White hat questions include: What do we know is true about X? How big is X? How much does X cost? How many customers does X have?

Red Hat: The emotional hat asks “How do we feel about the issue?” Giving participants permission to share their emotions about a subject is illuminating. It has the added bonus of removing anxiety by validating opinions. Be sure everyone has a chance to wear the Red hat and give voice to their gut. Ask participants to share why they feel the way they do.

Black Hat: The negative hat. Black hat thinking asks, “What is wrong with this idea?” Black hat thinking frees the group to indulge their dark side and revel in unfettered pessimism. What could go wrong? Why won’t it work? Why bother? Empty the issues and challenges out on to the whiteboard for all to see. Don’t worry about obsessive Black hat thinking scuttling the entire process. The group needs to work through negativity to see the light.

Yellow Hat: The sunny hat. The Yellow hat asks, “What makes the idea great and why will it work?” This hat  encourages a positive disposition by allowing the group to focus on benefits and positive impact. If you spend 10 minutes in Black hat thinking try and spend 15 here. Capture all the good things onto the board.

Green Hat: The “Then what happens?” hat. Closing a Six Hats session with the most optimistic of all the hats leaves participants with a strong sense of possibility. Green hat thinkers look to the future: If we introduce X what will happen next? What are the implications of this move and how will it change the world?

Next Steps: Close the session by reviewing the whiteboard and asking the group to highlight what they found stimulating or surprising. Take a snap of the whiteboard and send it to participants.

Last words: Wearing real hats makes it infinitely more merry.

To get through everyone’s ideas you’ll need at least 5 minutes per hat (anything less than 60 minutes overall is unsatisfying).

Fancy managing your own Six Thinking Hats session?  Download our handy guide here. There’s more on the creator of the hats, Dr. Edward DeBono, here.

Follow our “What If” series and join the #WhatIfMortar conversation.