Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge (Paperback)

~ (Author) "At the beginning of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and Toto are caught up inside a tornado, swept away from their mundane world of Kansas,..." (more)
Key Phrases: bowling alley strategy, pragmatist customers, hypergrowth markets, Main Street, Technology Adoption Life Cycle, Silicon Valley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is Moore's second book expounding his high-tech marketing theories, focusing on what to do when you've followed his advice in Crossing the Chasm so well that customers are beating down your door and crawling in the windows, putting your business into a new lifecycle stage: the mass market. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Moore (Crossing the Chasm, HarperBusiness, 1991) claims that marketing technology-based products is different from marketing standard consumer products. He explores marketing stages through a discussion of the "Technology Adoption Life Cycle," which follows a product from birth to death and suggests a course of action for each phase. He also charts power distribution within a company and the marketplace as these high-tech companies engage in traditional business strategies (i.e., strategic partnerships, competitive advantage, positioning, and organizational leadership). Moore provides examples from high-tech firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Pyramid. Although other recent books address technology marketing (see TechnoBrands, AMACOM, 1991), none addresses life cycle issues. Written for those with a prior knowledge of marketing theory, this book is recommended for business libraries.
Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, O'Connor-Cavanagh Lib., Phoenix, Ariz.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887308244
• ISBN-13: 978-0887308246
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #140,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Invaluable Guides to E-Commerce, December 28, 1999

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Crossing the Chasm (1991) and Inside the Tornado (1995) are most valuable when read in combination. Chasm "is unabashedly about and for marketing within high tech enterprises." It was written for the entire high tech community "to open up the marketing decision making during this [crossing] period so that everyone on the management team can participate in the marketing process." In Chasm, Moore isolates and then corrects what he describes as a "fundamental flaw in the prevailing high-tech marketing model": the notion that rapid mainstream growth could follow continuously on the heels of early market success. In his subsequent book, Inside the Tornado, Moore's use of the "tornado" metaphor correctly suggests that turbulence of unprecedented magnitude has occurred within the global marketplace which the WWW and the Internet have created. Moreover, such turbulence is certain to intensify. Which companies will survive? Why? I have only one (minor) quarrel with the way these two books have been promoted. True, they provide great insights into marketing within the high technology industry. However, in my opinion, all e-commerce (and especially B2B) will be centrally involved in that industry. Moreover, the marketing strategies suggested are relevant to virtually (no pun intended) any organization -- regardless of size or nature -- which seeks to create or increase demand for what it sells...whatever that may be. I consider both books "must reading."ÿ

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Its raining bananas, February 24, 2000

By	Bhanu Dhir "[e-mail]" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Inside the Tornado : Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge (Cassette) (Audio Cassette)

This is fantastic. Some simple mataphors: the bowling alley (niche marketing where you pick off segments like pins), tornado (when market demand increases exponentially) and main-street (when the tornado dies down and you need to focus on adding value). Some jungle characters: the gorilla - the company with the greatest market share, the chimps - the apes who wanted to be gorillas but failed and the monkeys - the low cost clone providers.

A wonderful explanation of how it is so easy to get it dead wrong as markets change, dead wrong in strategy, dead wrong in the selection of critical success factors and dead wrong in who you select as your CEO.

Easy to understand and vivid in its descriptions. If you are into high-tech and you want all the bananas get into this now.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're nuts if you market high-tech without this book, February 22, 2000

By	J. G. Heiser (Sunninghill, Berks) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Moore applies the technology acquisition curve and product life cycle management to the high-tech market, which is characterized by discontinuous innovations (changing paradigms) and market upheavals. He uses actual case studies of high-tech successes and failures to illustrate his model. Effectively utilizing some of the most profound writers in marketing, he weaves in important concepts from Levitt, Davidow, and Treacy & Wiersema.

If you are in high-tech, this is an essential book to read. You might not be in a tornado, but you won't know if you don't read the book. It explains a lot that you won't learn in business school.