Businesses who have crossed the proverbial chasm naturally discover the best marketing design efforts that ensure continued growth usually come through insider messaging—messages created through community-based user testimonials, case studies etc. My marketing mentor taught me that the best message to deliver to prospects is the testament of existing partners and customers, and not necessarily a message crafted through innovative vision. She was right.

Those conservative enough to cross the chasm relish the ability to leverage users and rely heavily on established communities to help architect the marketing messages that generate sustainable and predictable growth. That said, it's rare to be in position to eat your own dog-food and use your own product to capture and deliver the community message that you then recycle. ESRI has been able to do this with the mapbook publication of their community [and by their community], and now Google as well by capturing Gmail user testimonials with their own YouTube product to produce a global community video testimonial for Gmail. Brilliant... absolutely brilliant.