Last post we talked about Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS) releasing their popular "Battlefield Heroes" to a mass market, doing some things that appeal to those outside the early adopters.
This post let's look at some of the characteristics of a product or service when it is being taken from the early adopter to the general consumer stage. This article talks about it from a more general busniness viewpoint, whereas here we'll talk about it focused on Web businesses. Even so, it can be applied to any business field.
Barriers to Entry - No Barriers
This is simple, don't have any. Everything else we talk about is really an extension of this one, key idea. Barriers to entry are for our competition, not for our customers. Remember, this applies to reaching the general population. Having difficulty and in-depth ideas and information would apply to early adopters, as that's what attracts them in the first place.
Ad Supported - Subscription
What's nice about having an ad-supported business model is it offers something for free to the consumer. This is important to expanding to a general consumer. This is why not too many subscription models on the Internet work for reaching the mass market. There are more than most think or know about, but they're definitely for the early adopter and person looking for in-depth information or experiences.
Simple - Difficult
Early adopter love the challenge of a product or service offered them. It gives them a sense of belonging to the "inner" circle of club. This is why smaller communities can be built around that experience. The ordinary person doesn't care much for that. They want it simple. They don't want the entanglements which come with being an early adopter.
Fun - Challenge, Competition
A mass market doesn't want to have to compete with what they're doing or face a big challenge, they want to have fun in whatever it is they're doing, or product they're trying. Make it difficult, and the fun factor will leave for this demographic. Early adopters usually like the challenge and/or competition, mass markets don't.
Participate - Rather than Compete
Don't think of this only in terms of gaming, get beyond that. Even clothing can be a competition, as many of us know. But whatever it is we market on the Internet, the regular person wants to participate in something, not enter a competiton of any sort. They only want to take part in something.
Micro-Payments - Larger Payments
If there is some type of mechanism you have to sell smaller items in whatever you're marketing, going the micro-payment way is more successful than larger payment. I don't mean a payment plan here, but a series of things a person can buy to add to whatever it is you're offering. You'd be surprised at how much money you can make from offering small, customized things that can be offered for micro-prices. The mass market loves this kind of stuff.
Fast Access - Time Factor
Early adopters don't mind the time it takes to learn and master a specific product or service, but it is a disaster for the mass market. Fast access isn't simply allowing someone to sign up and then start or receive whatever you're selling, it means they can have immediate access to it without taking a lot of time. The mass market must receive instant gratification for it to work for them.
Casual Interaction - Core talk
The internet is of course a communications medium, and with early adopters, everything needs to be geared toward depth and width in conversations. With the mass market, it's the opposite, everything needs to be built around casual interaction. Many times the general market will talk to each other about completely different things than what they're doing or getting. It's more chit chat than it is deep conversation. We need to set up things to encourage that.
Ease-of-use - Tinkering
People in a mass market have no interest in tinkering or looking under the hood of your product or service. They want to be able to use it immediately and quickly. Early adopters are thinkers and tinker. Ordinary people want it easy, simple and fast. They want to be able to do it now!
Short Learning Curve - Detailed Complexity
That leads us to the last element in the mix, and that is a short learning curve for the mass market. While it's obvious that even the simplest of products or services must have elementary learning, it can't be more than a few things that are required in using them. Early adopters love complexity and the challenge of discovery, the mass market rejects it.
As you can see, there is a lot of overlap with taking a product or service from the early adopter market to the mass market. The idea isn't to destroy the early adopter market you serve. That will be your base you work from, and usually can be counted on for a long time.
What we need to do is develop new products and services possibly based on the ones we offer early adopters, but reverse engineer them and take out a lot of what is there and make it much more simple and fun. In other words, it's a completely different product or service, but not reinventing the wheel.
Take these examples into account when you're looking at growing or Internet business.
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