“Contagious,” written by Jonah Berger, is a book that describes the reason why some things catch on. It is divided into 6 ideas which he calls STEPPS (Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value and Stories). These six principles allow you to understand the factors that affect how contagious a product can be. |
In order to market themselves, companies need to find their inner remarkability and something that makes them unique. For example, Snapple’s caps all contain a fun fact, which encourages people to share it with their friends and family. Companies also need to leverage game mechanics which rewards their frequent customers. For example, airlines that have the opportunity to accumulate miles are applying this concept. They give benefits for the frequent flyers, which encourages them to keep doing it. Finally, companies need to make people feel like insiders by using scarcity and exclusivity. One example of this is the restaurant Please Don’t Tell which encourage people to go there because it is scarce and it is supposed to be a secret, so that makes them wanting to tell it even more.
In order to market themselves, companies need to find their inner remarkability and something that makes them unique. For example, Snapple’s caps all contain a fun fact, which encourages people to share it with their friends and family. Companies also need to leverage game mechanics which rewards their frequent customers. For example, airlines that have the opportunity to accumulate miles are applying this concept. They give benefits for the frequent flyers, which encourages them to keep doing it. Finally, companies need to make people feel like insiders by using scarcity and exclusivity. One example of this is the restaurant Please Don’t Tell which encourage people to go there because it is scarce and it is supposed to be a secret, so that makes them wanting to tell it even more.
Triggers are the foundation of word of mouth contagiousness. The more something is triggered, the more it will be at the top of the mind, and the more successful it will become. As Berger says, "social currency gets people talking, but triggers keep them talking." For example, when the Kit Kat commercial linked their brand with coffee, their sales increased a lot because coffee is a frequent stimuli in the environment. Another example is Rebecca Black’s song “Friday”, which was popular because it was associated with Friday which provided a natural trigger to the song.
Triggers are the foundation of word of mouth contagiousness. The more something is triggered, the more it will be at the top of the mind, and the more successful it will become. As Berger says, "social currency gets people talking, but triggers keep them talking." For example, when the Kit Kat commercial linked their brand with coffee, their sales increased a lot because coffee is a frequent stimuli in the environment. Another example is Rebecca Black’s song “Friday”, which was popular because it was associated with Friday which provided a natural trigger to the song.
Rather than focusing on facts and figures we need to focus on feeling; the underlying emotions that motivate people to act. And we need to use high arousal and positive emotion like awe, excitement and anger. When people are in awe, they are aroused and they are more likely to share. Emotion also drives people to action. As Berger says, "you should make something that will move people. People don't want to feel they are being told to do something they want to be entertained, they want to be moved." For example, the Google Parisian Love Campaign focused on how people feel and what they love about search. Another example, the United Breaks Guitars video made the top 10 viral videos of 2009. because it inspired anger.
Rather than focusing on facts and figures we need to focus on feeling; the underlying emotions that motivate people to act. And we need to use high arousal and positive emotion like awe, excitement and anger. When people are in awe, they are aroused and they are more likely to share. Emotion also drives people to action. As Berger says, "you should make something that will move people. People don't want to feel they are being told to do something they want to be entertained, they want to be moved." For example, the Google Parisian Love Campaign focused on how people feel and what they love about search. Another example, the United Breaks Guitars video made the top 10 viral videos of 2009. because it inspired anger.
Observability is very important to make your product contagious because people imitate others choices since these choices provide information. Our decisions and behaviour are based on social proof and social influences. For example, when people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant and a kidney gets to the 20th person in the line, nobody accepts it because they assume that it is not a good one since many people have declined it. We also see this idea in college binge drinking, where there is a lot of social influence and students just do it because everybody else is doing it. A campaign was designed to reduce binge drinking, Koreen Johannessen published in the newspaper that most students only had one or two drinks, she made the private public.
Observability is very important to make your product contagious because people imitate others choices since these choices provide information. Our decisions and behaviour are based on social proof and social influences. For example, when people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant and a kidney gets to the 20th person in the line, nobody accepts it because they assume that it is not a good one since many people have declined it. We also see this idea in college binge drinking, where there is a lot of social influence and students just do it because everybody else is doing it. A campaign was designed to reduce binge drinking, Koreen Johannessen published in the newspaper that most students only had one or two drinks, she made the private public.
"When we care, we share." People share practically valuable information to help others. For example, Ken’s Corn Tip is not the best video produced but it helps others since it is giving useful information. Another way to make people share information is to make a deal remarkable. One way of doing this is by changing how promotional offers are expressed, such as in The Rule of 100.
The Rule of 100
- How promotional offers are expressed
- If the product’s price is less than $100 → Percentage discounts seem larger
- If the product’s price is more than $100 → Numerical discounts seem larger
Stories are vessels which carry information and they are hard to argue with since they are personal. For example, in the story about Jared that lost a lot of weight because he was only eating Subway you can't argue or question this story because it is something personal that happened to that guy. Stories are important because they are an easy way to get a lot of information in an engaging way. It is very important to make the story integral to the product, like in the Panda cheese commercial, in which the panda is completely connected to the product. And finally, it is not good to make the action more memorable than the brand or product. For example, in the Golden Casino commercial about the Olympic pool job, it takes away the importance of the casino because it is focused on the Olympics.
Stories are vessels which carry information and they are hard to argue with since they are personal. For example, in the story about Jared that lost a lot of weight because he was only eating Subway you can't argue or question this story because it is something personal that happened to that guy. Stories are important because they are an easy way to get a lot of information in an engaging way. It is very important to make the story integral to the product, like in the Panda cheese commercial, in which the panda is completely connected to the product. And finally, it is not good to make the action more memorable than the brand or product. For example, in the Golden Casino commercial about the Olympic pool job, it takes away the importance of the casino because it is focused on the Olympics.