So after you define your WHY and Golden Circle, how do you get your new product or mission to reach more people?
In sum, by 1) understanding that different people will adopt your product at different stages of maturity, 2) finding your early adopters, and gaining a critical mass of them.
This chapter explains both concepts and how they apply to starting with WHY.
To understand the key points in this chapter, we have to define two key terms: the tipping point and the Law of Diffusion of Innovations.
The term “tipping point” was coined in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point.
According to Malcolm Gladwell, a tipping point is “the point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.” (Related terms for this include critical mass and inflection point.)
Tipping points happen when a mass of influencers unite to support an idea or a product.
While tipping points might seem like they happen somewhat spontaneously or by luck, they can actually be consciously designed by leveraging The Law of Diffusion of Innovations.
This term was coined by Everett M. Rogers in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations. The Law of Diffusion explains how innovations--whether they are products, services, or ideas--spread through a population.
He identifies five key populations of people who, over time, spread an innovation throughout a social system. We’ll dive into these five populations in the next section.
The Law of Diffusion identifies five key groups of people who help spread innovations through society. They are:
Group 1: The Innovators
Innovators make up 2.5 percent of the population. These are the people who want to be first, so they chase new ideas and products. They’re most interested in advancing society and changing the world in some way. Innovators are the rarest type of people. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk are all innovators.
Group 2: Early Adopters
Early adopters make up 13.5 percent of the population. These people aren’t coming up with new ideas, but they see the value in them, trust their guts, and jump on board right away. These are the people who stand in line for the new iPhone or have five tablets laying around the house because they upgrade models the day they release.
Group 3: Early Majority
The early majority is a large portion of the population at 34 percent. They’re still fairly comfortable with new technologies, but they’re more practical than early adopters. Additionally, they're less likely to act on gut instinct, so rationality matters more to them.
Group 4: Late Majority
The late majority, like the early majority, makes up 34 percent of the population. Also like the early majority, they’re more practical. However, they’re even less likely to make a decision on gut instinct, and even when presented with rational reasons for an innovation, they’re much less likely to hop on board.
Group 5: Laggards
Laggards are the type of people who still miss rotary phones. They make up 16 percent of the population, and they’re actively hostile toward new innovations. These are the people who are resistant to change.
In the Law of Diffusion, these groups are spread along a bell curve, where the top and bottom groups (innovators and laggards, respectively) represent that smallest portions of the population and the middle groups (the Early and Late Majorities) represent the largest.
In tipping point scenarios, all five of these groups (unconsciously) work together over time to spread an idea until that innovation eventually becomes part of our status quo.
There’s one important caveat: the Law of Diffusion category a person falls into depends on the product. For example, one person might be an early adopter when it comes to smart watches, but in the late majority when it comes to new fashion.
That’s because everyone has different WHYs. Not every product is designed for you, so it makes sense that you would move up and down the Law of Diffusion spectrum depending on the product/service in question.
So how can we use The Law of Diffusion to create tipping points and mass market success? The key is making sure you’re marketing to the right population.
Making sure you get innovators and early adopters on your side first is the trick to mass market success. While this these constitute just a small fraction of the overall population, they’re likely going to be your most loyal customers, and they’ll help your product spread to the masses.
How does this work?
This raises the question - how do you attract the early adopters? By focusing on WHY. You win over people who align with your mission and are willing to tolerate significant cost or inconvenience to join your mission.
In contrast with this logic, most companies focus on marketing new products to the middle of the bell (the Early and Late Majority). This seems intuitive - this is where the majority of the population falls, so it seems like the most successful place to start marketing.
But this tends not to work. The Majority rarely try a product unless someone else has tried it before them. Since they’re risk averse, they want a trusted recommendation before they jump in.
The further you move to the right of the bell curve--toward the late majority and the laggards--the more likely you are to find people who need what you’re offering but don’t share your WHY. As a result, they tend to be difficult to work with**.**
You should avoid working with the late majority and laggards: not only will you struggle to get them to see your value, you’ll probably never win their loyalty. Instead, start by buliding a tipping point
Keep in mind that while most businesses want mass market success, only 2,000 businesses in the United States ever reach a billion dollars in annual revenue**.** 99.9% of all American businesses have fewer than 500 employees.
But if you want a shot at succeeding in the mass market, you have to use the Law of Diffusion correctly. You have to focus on reaching the innovators and early adopters if you want to penetrate the market .
The term “TiVo” has come to mean the same thing as “recording on a DVR.” And yet, despite being well-funded with a great product, TiVo didn’t achieved mass market success because they didn’t start with WHY. As a result, they haven’t effectively used The Law of Diffusion.
Instead of telling people the WHY behind their company (which is to give people power over how they watch television), they spent all of their time talking about WHAT a DVR is and what it could do. Furthermore, they targeted the majority with their marketing, rather than the early adopters.
As such a new device, TiVO was difficult to understand the value of until you installed it in your house. But most people never got to that point.
Instead of focusing on WHAT, TiVO should have articulated its WHY - like “We want to empower people who like having control over every aspect of their lives, including when and how they watch TV.” This would have attracted the early adopters, who would align with the WHY, try out the device, and understand the value.
Then, the early adopters would have created a tipping point and spread the product to the masses.