This is an excerpt of a final write-up assignment I wrote for a marketing class at Babson. It takes the form of a letter to a marketing manager at Xerox addressing the marketing challenges that the introduction of a new “erasable paper” poses to the firm.

In a 2001 essay published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, Anirudh Dhebar, marketing professor at Babson College (and one of the best professors I’ve had the honor to sit in front of), insightfully added 5 more chasms to precede Geoffrey Moore’s well-known chasm between early market and mainstream market that products in a high-tech context have to cross. These 5 new chasms apply to other constituencies and areas that the new product will have to convince in order to achieve long-term success for the company.

The first chasm is of the utmost importance in the case of erasable paper: the Chasm Within The Mind. Think of it: paper that erases by itself. It is indeed a completely new paradigm and all the members of the Xerox community must first cross this chasm, this gulf between the concept of paper as we know it (a disposable, low-value and neglectful item that serves a one-time purpose) and the concept of a product that can be used several times and has a “life of its own”, erasing itself and preparing itself automatically to bring repeated value to its user. This chasm has to be equally crossed by the consumer and other intermediaries in the paper and printing businesses. For this, a very creative and educational initiative has to be started and taken in front of the eyes (and minds) of all the instances that will participate in the market engagement of erasable paper. Xerox’s tradition of innovation and capacity to “think outside the box” will surely contribute to this effort.

Secondly, the crossing of New-Business-Model Chasm is also pivotal to this product’s success. The selling of paper that can be reused suggests a complete redesign of the business model behind paper and its complementary products. Being printing technologies a core competency of Xerox, this doesn’t affect Xerox’s core business enterprise architecture directly but it will certainly affect its value network, as paper manufacturers and distributors will react rather negatively to a product that will dramatically reduce its sales of paper. You, as marketer, have to worry less about the way the company will solve this interesting dilemma. Nevertheless, you have to make sure that the new business models that result of this paradigm shift are present in the marketing plan and are gradually understood by all interlocutors that will take part in the “marketing erasable paper” conversation. For this, I also recommend that the network externalities be actively managed so that Xerox can reap the benefits of direct network effects. The more companies that adopt an erasable-paper-printer, the more the benefits will increase and the greater the incentives for adoption will be for other companies, namely the ability to use this new paper seamlessly in every day life, without worrying about who uses it and who doesn’t.

The third chasm that has to be crossed is the Break-With-The-Past Chasm. In this case, the fissure between normal paper (and normal printers) and their compatibility with the new version of paper and printers: will new-paper-printers be compatible with the plain old paper? Clearly, the new paper will not be compatible with old printers and therefore the switching benefits and advantages of the new printers have to be clearly communicated to the customer and be also easily observable without the inherent ambiguity of improved versions of products. For this, the sustainable aspect of the new paper has to be constantly reminded.

The Disruptive-Technology Chasm in this case will have to be crossed when consumers (and other participants in the value chain) can’t initially notice the improvement of erasable paper compared to normal paper.

The fifth chasm is the Expedient-Fix/Strategic-Solution Chasm and its crossing suggests the realization of erasable paper as a long-term strategic offering by Xerox and not a temporary fix to a short-term solution (like wasting less paper).

After so much chasm crossing, hopefully the crossing of the original Chasm Between Early and Mainstream Markets may seem less challenging and will come as natural progression of the previous crossings. This, dear sir, is what I truthfully wish for this brave marketing endeavor and for the widespread adoption of erasable paper.