Conventional techniques for marketing technology products fail primarily because marketers do not truly understand their customers. Do you know what customers really think about your technology? Now, drawing on their award-winning research and case studies ranging from America Online to the Discovery Channel, marketing experts A. Parasuraman and Charles L. Colby demonstrate how the adoption of technology is influenced by unique beliefs that do not apply to conventional products and services.

In the context of a general set of powerful techno-marketing strategies, Parasuraman and Colby introduce "Technology Readiness" (TR), a groundbreaking concept that enables you to measure and assess a customer's predisposition to adopt new technologies. Employing their TR construct — a psychological amalgam of fears, hopes, desires, and frustrations about technology — the authors identify five types of technology customers: the highly optimistic and innovative "Explorers," the innovative yet cautious "Pioneers," the uncertain "Skeptics" who need the benefits of technology proved, the insecure "Paranoids," and the resistant "Laggards." Using this typology, you can customize your technology strategies by combining insights from your context-specific assessments with general marketing strategies presented in the book. Essential reading in technology companies will be the chapter devoted to Parasuraman's Pyramid Model, which explains the critical role technology plays in a marketing organization as a link between employees, the organization, and the customer. Finally, the authors have included a self-administered quiz so you can score your own Technology Readiness and a chapter on the "Techno-Ready Marketing Audit" to provide a framework for taking immediate action based on the precepts in this book.

Philip Kotler

Professor of International Marketing, Northwestern University

A valuable and original contribution to our understanding of how to successfully launch technological innovations...No company should dare launch a new technological innovation without first reading this book.

Bruce Carlisle

President and CEO, SF Interactive, Inc.

The authors dive deep into the motivating factors of consumers...a valuable resource for interactive marketing professionals.

Roland T. Rust

Director, Center for E-Service, University of Maryland

An insightful analysis of why people resist technology, what managers can do about it, and how technology marketers can reach them. Required reading for high-tech and e-commerce executives.

Lois Kelly

CEO, Meaning Maker

Goes way beyond standard "early adopter" and "laggard" profiling...provides much-needed multidimensional insights into why people accept or ignore new technologies.

Leonard L. Berry

Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Texas A&M University, and author of Discovering the Soul of Service

Every marketer will benefit from exploring the concept of Technology Readiness developed in this original and compelling book.

A. Parasuraman is the James W. McLamore Professor of Marketing at the University of Miami. His expertise is in the areas of service-quality measurement and improvement and the role of technology in marketing. He consults to major corporations and is the coauthor of Delivering Quality Service and Services Marketing, both published by The Free Press.