BOOK
SUMMARY (15)
Contagious
·
Summary written by: Jill Donahue
“This book provides cutting-edge science about how word
of mouth and social transmission work. And how you can leverage them to make
your products and ideas succeed.” Contagious, page 27
Do you want to make your product catch on; be
contagious? Do you need to cut through the clutter and help people see the
uniqueness of your message, product or service or brand? Wharton marketing professor Jonah
Berger, author of Contagious,
is said to know more about what makes information go ‘viral’ than anyone in the
world. He has spent the last
decade answering questions like:
·
What makes things
popular?
·
Why do people talk
about certain products and ideas more than others?
·
Why are some
stories infectious?
·
What makes online
content go viral?
People often answer the question “what makes
things popular” with the simple solution “advertising”. Berger turns that
thinking around by illustrating that people
don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers.
Using the examples of viral videos and
stories we all know (think of the Susan Boyle YouTube sensation or Jared’s
story of his weight loss from eating Subway food) Berger helps us see the
secrets behind the success. From his extensive analysis he reveals six
principles that drive word-of-mouth and social transmission. Simply put, this
book talks about what makes your product, idea, or behaviour talked about more.
Golden Egg
Word of
mouth is persuasive
“Contagious products and ideas are like forest fires.
They can’t happen without hundreds, if not thousands, of regular Joes and Janes
passing the product or message along.” Contagious, page
206
Word of mouth is more effective than
traditional advertising for two key reasons:
1) It is more trustworthy. Ads are not credible. We expect them
to tell us how great the product is. Our friends, however, will tell us
straight what they think about a product and so they are more believable.
2) It is more targeted. Companies create ads for a wide
audience. Take an ad on the evening news for example. Only a portion of the
viewers may need or be interested in the product. Word of mouth on the other
hand is directed to an interested audience. I won’t share, for example, my
enthusiasm about this book with everyone I meet. I will share it, however, with
people who are either interested in growing their business or selling their
product.
GEM #1
A
checklist of 6 principals that drive things to catch on
“…certain characteristics make products more likely to be
talked about and shared” Contagious, page
207
Berger says that any product, idea, or
behaviour can be contagious. Just build in some of the following principles
(which he calls the six key STEPPS) by asking yourself the accompanying
questions:
1) Social currency – There are three ways to leverage
social currency.
1) Find inner remarkability – sharing
extraordinary, novel or entertaining stories which make it more fun for people
to talk about and also make them look good.
2) Leverage game mechanics. The competition encourages social comparison. People care about hierarchy and will participate in things that help to show their status. Help them publicize their achievements to leverage this.
3) Make people feel like insiders. If something is difficult to obtain, people assume it must be worth the effort. People will value it more and tell others to capitalize on the social currency of knowing or having it.
2) Leverage game mechanics. The competition encourages social comparison. People care about hierarchy and will participate in things that help to show their status. Help them publicize their achievements to leverage this.
3) Make people feel like insiders. If something is difficult to obtain, people assume it must be worth the effort. People will value it more and tell others to capitalize on the social currency of knowing or having it.
2) Triggers – What cues make people think about
your product or idea? How can you connect it with something so it comes to mind
more often? For example in 1997 the candy company Mars noticed an unexpected
increase in sales of its Mars bar. Why? The well-publicized mission of NASA’s
Pathfinder was to Mars! It triggered people to think of the Mars bar! What
triggers people to think of your idea or product?
3) Emotion – Focus on feelings. What is the emotion
connected to your product or idea? Ask yourself “why” three times, each time
digging deeper.
4) Public – Can people see when others are using
your product? How can you make the private public?
5) Practical Value – Does talking about your product or
idea help others? How can you highlight value and package it into something
others will want to disseminate so they can help the other person?
6) Stories – Is your product or idea embedded in
a narrative that people will want to share? Is the story valuable?
GEM #2
Top of
mind means tip of tongue
“Triggers and cues lead people to talk, choose and
use.” Contagious, page 92
There are great examples of each of the six
principles above. As an example, let’s look at triggers. We think about and
remember things that we are triggered to remember. You may forget to sign your
daughter up for tennis lessons until you see some kids playing tennis in the
park. Triggers impact your thinking all day long. If they are not there then
they’re out of sight, out of mind. When I first started taking Omega 3
supplements I constantly forgot them, until I connected it with my placemat.
When I sat down for dinner, my placemat wasn’t complete until it had an Omega 3
pill on it. The placemat acted as a trigger.
A study on this was done by Berger. His goal
was to encourage students on campus to eat more fruits and vegetables. You
might agree that most students know they should eat more fruits and vegetables
and may even intend to eat more each day if reminded. But somehow, the fries
and hamburgers make it onto the cafeteria tray instead. After measuring the
baseline of actual consumption of fruits and vegetables, Berger exposed two
groups to different slogans. The first group saw “Live the healthy way, eat
five fruits and vegetables a day”. The second group saw “Each and every dining
hall tray needs five fruits and vegetables a day.”
The slogans were similar except for one
aspect. The second referred to the dining hall tray. Interestingly, the
students rated that slogan as “corny” and scored it less than half as
attractive as the first one. In fact, when asked if they thought the slogans
would impact their behaviour they were more likely to say ‘no’ to the dining
hall tray slogan. The results however of the study were striking. Students
exposed to the first slogan did not change their behaviour whereas students
exposed to the second, “tray” slogan markedly changed their behavior. Why? The
trays triggered them to remember the slogan and they ate 25 percent more fruits
and vegetables as a result. The trigger worked.
Berger suggests that products and ideas need
“habitats” or places in which they live that have sets of triggers that cause
people to think of them. How
do you create triggers for the behaviour or product you want them to remember? For example, pairing Kit Kat and
coffee in ads increased sales by a third! The ad made people think of Kit Kat
when having their coffee. Remember Rebecca Black’s whiny song “Friday”? Were
you as shocked as I was that such a poorly done song received such rapt
attention? One of the factors may be that the title served as a trigger.
When you analyze the search history for “Rebecca Black” on YouTube for March
2011, soon after it was released you will see a pattern of peaks on, you
guessed it, every Friday! The trigger reminded people. Triggers are powerful.
What triggers can you associate with the
behaviour you are trying to influence?
It’s encouraging to know that any product or
idea can be contagious. Like a forest fire however, that spreads from one tree
to the next, contagious products or ideas can’t happen without hundreds or
thousands of users or believers who pass the product or idea along. Why do they
pass them along? Certain characteristics make products and ideas more likely to
be spread. Berger’s six principles help us increase that likelihood.
No comments:
Post a Comment