This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Food for Tech Marketers? Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

There's an interesting op-ed piece in Computerworld - I was taken in by the notion of a "Toxicity Survey". Everyone in the marketing sector has read Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" - Thornton May says it's time to move on:

Inappropriate and outdated mental models on why and how technologies enter the organization: The days of "crossing the chasm" are over. Geoffrey Moore, the creator of this once-dominant descriptive framework, has moved on; vendors should too. The simplistic, product-centric characterization of customers as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority or laggards has given way to a much more fragmented and nuanced set of behavioral buying clusters. Just as society has fragmented into categories such as soccer moms, NASCAR dads and underemployed knowledge workers, so too have technology entry points atomized. Most vendor marketing programs haven't been successful at targeting the tribal leaders of these buying clusters.

I'll have to give this one some thought. In most marketing circles, Moore's chasm work is near gospel - certainly the conservatism of the late majority is evident in the space. The rest of the piece is thought provoking as well. I'll have to chew on this one.