Document Text Contents
Page 135
START WITH WHY
128
mattered more than WHY. They also ignored the Law of Diffusion
of Innovations.
In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell created his own tipping point when
he shared with us how tipping points happen in business and in so-
ciety. In his aptly named book The Tipping Point, Gladwell identifies
groups of necessary populations he calls connectors and influencers.
With little doubt Gladwell's ideas are spot-on. But it still begs the
question, why should an influencer tell anyone about you?
Marketers are always trying to influence the influencers, but few
really know how. We can't dispute that tipping points happen and
the conditions that Gladwell articulates are right, but can a tipping
point happen intentionally? They can't just be an accidental
phenomenon. If they exist, then we should be able to design one,
and if we can design one, we should be able to design one that lasts
beyond the initial tip. It's the difference between a fad and an idea
that changes an industry or society forever.
In his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations, Everett M. Rogers was
the first to formally describe how innovations spread through so-
ciety. Thirty years later, in his book Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey
Moore expanded on Rogers's ideas to apply the principle to high-
tech product marketing. But the Law of Diffusion of Innovations
explains much more than just the spread of innovation or technol-
ogy. It explains the spread of ideas.
If you don't know the law, you're likely already familiar with
some of its terminology. Our population is broken into five seg-
ments that fall across a bell curve: innovators, early adoptors, early
majority, late majority and laggards.
Page 136
HOW A TIPPING POINT TIPS
129
As the law states, the first 2.5 percent of the population are the
innovators, and the next 13.5 percent are early adopters. Innovators,
Moore says, pursue new products or ideas aggressively and are
intrigued by any fundamental advance; being first is a central part
of their lives. As their name suggests, innovators are the small per-
centage of the population that challenges the rest of us to see and !
think of the world a little differently.
Early adopters are similar to innovators in that they appreciate
the advantages wrought by new ideas or technologies. They are
early to recognize the value of new ideas and are quite willing to
put up with imperfection because they can see the potential. Al-
though quick to see the potential and willing to take risks to try new
technologies or ideas, early adopters are not idea generators like the
innovators. But both groups are similar, as Moore says, in that they
rely heavily on their intuition. They trust their gut.
Early adopters, like innovators but to a lesser degree, are willing
to pay a premium or suffer some level of inconvenience to own a
product or espouse an idea that feels right. Those on the left side of
the diffusion curve are the ones who stood in line for six hours to be
among the first to buy the iPhone, Apple's entry into the mobile
phone market, even though they could have walked into a store a
week later and bought one without waiting. Their willingness to
suffer an inconvenience or pay a premium had less to do with how
START WITH WHY
128
mattered more than WHY. They also ignored the Law of Diffusion
of Innovations.
In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell created his own tipping point when
he shared with us how tipping points happen in business and in so-
ciety. In his aptly named book The Tipping Point, Gladwell identifies
groups of necessary populations he calls connectors and influencers.
With little doubt Gladwell's ideas are spot-on. But it still begs the
question, why should an influencer tell anyone about you?
Marketers are always trying to influence the influencers, but few
really know how. We can't dispute that tipping points happen and
the conditions that Gladwell articulates are right, but can a tipping
point happen intentionally? They can't just be an accidental
phenomenon. If they exist, then we should be able to design one,
and if we can design one, we should be able to design one that lasts
beyond the initial tip. It's the difference between a fad and an idea
that changes an industry or society forever.
In his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations, Everett M. Rogers was
the first to formally describe how innovations spread through so-
ciety. Thirty years later, in his book Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey
Moore expanded on Rogers's ideas to apply the principle to high-
tech product marketing. But the Law of Diffusion of Innovations
explains much more than just the spread of innovation or technol-
ogy. It explains the spread of ideas.
If you don't know the law, you're likely already familiar with
some of its terminology. Our population is broken into five seg-
ments that fall across a bell curve: innovators, early adoptors, early
majority, late majority and laggards.
Page 136
HOW A TIPPING POINT TIPS
129
As the law states, the first 2.5 percent of the population are the
innovators, and the next 13.5 percent are early adopters. Innovators,
Moore says, pursue new products or ideas aggressively and are
intrigued by any fundamental advance; being first is a central part
of their lives. As their name suggests, innovators are the small per-
centage of the population that challenges the rest of us to see and !
think of the world a little differently.
Early adopters are similar to innovators in that they appreciate
the advantages wrought by new ideas or technologies. They are
early to recognize the value of new ideas and are quite willing to
put up with imperfection because they can see the potential. Al-
though quick to see the potential and willing to take risks to try new
technologies or ideas, early adopters are not idea generators like the
innovators. But both groups are similar, as Moore says, in that they
rely heavily on their intuition. They trust their gut.
Early adopters, like innovators but to a lesser degree, are willing
to pay a premium or suffer some level of inconvenience to own a
product or espouse an idea that feels right. Those on the left side of
the diffusion curve are the ones who stood in line for six hours to be
among the first to buy the iPhone, Apple's entry into the mobile
phone market, even though they could have walked into a store a
week later and bought one without waiting. Their willingness to
suffer an inconvenience or pay a premium had less to do with how
