Triggers and cues lead people to talk, choose, and use. Social currency gets people talking, but Triggers keep them talking. Top of mind means tip of the tongue. 3. Emotion He emphasizes the importance of creating narratives. You should have stories that you can use to explain your product or idea and not just cold, hard facts. Narratives are more interesting than statistics, anyways. When it comes to stories, this refers to the fact that people tend to enjoy telling and hearing stories. Therefore, ideas, products and behaviors that are wrapped in narratives (and especially compelling narratives) are more likely to be shared than those that are just presented as information. Google’s ‘Parisian Love’ commercial, The Dove ‘Evolution’ commercial, and Panda’s ‘Never say no to Panda’ campaign are all good examples of products being wrapped in compelling narratives. Social currency. We share things that make us look good or help us compare favorably to others. Exclusive restaurants utilize social currency all the time to create demand. In community: involvement in an effort to solve seemingly intractable problems would provide social currency, but if jargon makes it too hard to explain either the issue or the solution we preclude virality.

Why do certain products and ideas go viral? Dynamic young Wharton professor Jonah Berger draws on his research to explain the six steps that make products or ideas contagious.Why do some products get more word of mouth than others? Why does some online content go viral? Word of mouth makes products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. It’s more influential than advertising and far more effective. Can you create word of mouth for your product or idea? According to Berger, you can. Whether you operate a neighborhood restaurant, a corporation with hundreds of employees, or are running for a local office for the first time, the steps that can help your product or idea become viral are the same. Contagious is filled with fascinating information drawn from Berger’s research. You will be surprised to learn, for example, just how little word of mouth is generated online versus elsewhere. Already praised by Dan Ariely and Dan Gilbert, and sold in nine countries, this book is a must-read for people who want their projects and ideas to succeed. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger – eBook Details One of the main tenets of prospect theory is that people don’t evaluate things in absolute terms. They evaluate them relative to a comparison standard, or “reference point.”Contagious contains arresting — and counterintuitive — facts and insights. . . . Most interesting of all are the examples Berger cites of successful and unsuccessful marketing campaigns.” — Glenn C. Altschuler, The Boston Globe Making the private public” suggests that if you can bring something to the surface that others previously had been too embarrassed to talk about – you can eliminate stigma around products, services, and ideas that were previously consumed privately and help it catch on with people who had previously felt uncomfortable discussing this out loud (i.e. online dating, supporting certain causes like Mustache November… where participants raise money growing a beard during there month of November… these things start a conversation). Awe, excitement, humor evoke as much arousal as anger and anxiety, while contentment and sadness leave people to do nothing at all. Understanding arousal can help you drive viral content and products for yourself, by focusing less on information (features and benefits) around your product or idea, and focus on how people think, feel, and react to certain messages. 4. Public – “Built to show, built to grow” Ultimately I found it boring, and the writing style dry. I approached this novel like I would any text book, and it met those expectations. The information, while informative didn't appear to be that novel or innovative, and it was my perception that it took existing literature/information (note: I don't mean plagiarized) on the topic and put it together into a catchy model. It probably won't contribute much to an academic setting, and while I am not certain, I strongly believe a more comprehensive book exists. This will most likely be one of those tag along secondary books marked as 'optional' on a syllabus.

How do you promote your book, and how do you grow your brand? How do you get more people to come to your author’s signing? Also, How do you create a buzz around your podcast? Public. People tend to follow others, but only when they can see what those others are doing. There is a reason why baristas put money in their own tip jar at the beginning of a shift. Ideas need to be public to be copied. In community: the question should be: what is the behavior we want repeated and how to we publicly model it. Making things more observable makes them easier to imitate, which makes them more likely to become popular.” Jonah Berger These principles can be compacted into an acronym. Taken together, they spell STEPPS. Contagious SummaryIt’s possible to find the inner remarkability in any product or idea by thinking about what makes something stand out. Blendtec, for instance, was able to get millions of people talking about their products with a series of YouTube infomercials. ii. Leverage Game Mechanics While social currency gets people to talk about things, “triggers” keep ideas and products fresh in the minds of consumers, ensuring that they keep talking about your idea. A few years ago, Dove skin products created a viral video that showed how unrealistic professional models look in advertisements – showing how much make-up, hairspray, and photoshopping went into creating a “beautiful” advertisement. The video encourages the viewer to be natural and to be happy in one’s own skin. The story was only a few minutes long – but it told a positive story, while simultaneously plugging the Dove brand. Dove asked customers to send in videos of their own stories under the rubric of “Real Beauty.” Thousands of video stories were sent in, which generated millions of views. Analytics showed that the sales response functions of all promotional activities were enhanced by this program. On the mechanical side of things, understanding why something goes viral is straightforward enough: it must be something that has an impact, and that people are eager to talk about or imitate. But this just forces us to ask: what is it that makes something impactful, and ripe for sharing or imitating? We may think that our intuitions can carry us some way toward answering this. Nevertheless, getting something to go viral is certainly no easy task (as many a would-be influencer has come to find); and therefore, we may benefit from a more methodical, scientifically-minded attempt to understand the phenomenon. It is just such a project that Wharton marketing professor and writer Jonah Berger has been engaged in for much of his career, and in his new book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Berger reports on his findings.

In an analysis of thousands of New York Times articles to better understand why certain pieces of online content are widely shared, Berger found that positive articles were more likely to be highly shared than negative ones. Yet, according to research by the Keller Fay Group, only 7 percent of word of mouth happens online. 1. Social Currency When it comes to public, this refers to how prevalent something is in the public eye. Things that are highly public and visible are more likely to be talked about and imitated than those that are more private. Nevertheless, there are ways to bring private phenomena into the public sphere. For example, donating to a charity tends to be a rather private affair. However, both the Movember movement in support of colon cancer (featuring the highly conspicuous mustache), and Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong campaign in support of cancer (featuring the yellow wrist-band), managed to bring charitable support into the public sphere, thus contributing to the success of these campaigns.

The book is designed with two (overlapping) audiences in mind. You may have always wondered why people gossip, why online content goes viral, why rumors spread, or why everyone always seems to talk about certain topics around the water cooler. Talking and sharing are some of our most fundamental behaviors. These actions connect us, shape us, and make us human. This book sheds light on the underlying psychological and sociological processes behind the science of social transmission. Thus, it is important to think about context of the environment of the people you are trying to target: whether seasonal (candy corn and Halloween); geographic (cheesesteaks and Philadelphia). 3. Emotion – “When we care, we share” When we care, we share. Emotional content often goes viral, so focus on feelings rather than function. And kindle the fire using high arousal emotions. Learn more about why emotional videos work better in our E for Emotions post. What effective strategies do you have to develop to promote or sell your products and ideas? What are the potential tips for creating influential content? The following key points will reveal how you can create contagious content by keeping in mind your audience and their requirements. Moreover, the tips below will also help you upgrade your marketing knowledge.

It's also research based, so that is a strength of the book. Chapter notes (at the end of the book) are similar to any sort of journal/text book that you may be used to. It breaks the chapters into sections, and allows one to further his or her reading. For this reason, it may be particularly useful in an education setting. If this material is enough to cover an entire Wharton MBA course, then I'm not sure what that says about Wharton's program. There is just not that much information in this book far beyond common sense most people already intuitively know. I had been looking forward to this book release as the topic is interesting and even possesses its own themed six characteristics, conveniently ascribed the acronym STEPPS, which the author Jonah Berger explains contributes to why products or ideas become contagious. Mr. Berger argues that if we want our product or idea to catch on and spread like wildfire, we must try to build into it as many of these six STEPPS as we can. STEPPS stands for: There are numerous other uninspiring moments in this book, similar to this. For example, in his discussion relating to "practical value", he instructs us that if you find a good Ethiopian restaurant, you are more likely to share your recommendation of it than you would had you had found a good American restaurant. The reason being you probably have many more friends who like American food than Ethiopian food; therefore, you will feel much more conviction to tell those fewer applicable friends about the Ethiopian restaurant. You simply know too many people who would be interested in American food to compel you to recommend the American restaurant. What an unremarkable observation. Blah. getting hand, foot and mouth disease shortly before giving birth can mean your baby is born with a mild version of it Just as people use money to buy products or services, they use social currency to achieve desired positive impressions among their families, friends, and colleagues.If Social Currency is about information senders and how sharing makes them look, Practical Value is mostly about the information receiver. If you said advertising, think again. People don't listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? Promotional offers that seem surprising or surpass expectations are more likely to be shared. This can be because the actual deal itself exceeds expectations (for example, the percentage off is so unbelievable) or because the way the deal is framed makes it seem that way. Overall, this is the best book if you are looking for marketing tips and strategies. This is easy to read, entertaining, and creates value through real-life stories. Even if you are an expert in this field, you may learn something new from this book. Plus, the point is that you don’t need a dictionary! Because the writing style is so eloquent. To whom would I recommend Contagious Book Summary? Why do some ideas seemingly spread overnight, while others disappear? How can some products become ubiquitous, while others never gain traction? Jonah Berger knows the answers, and, with Contagious, now we do, too.”— Charles Duhigg, author of the bestselling The Power of Habit