6 Reasons Why Things Catch On: 'Contagious' by Jonah Berger

I was really impressed by this book, it somehow hit me emotionally. For some reason, I felt like "yes, finally I found the book focusing on one of the most important aspects of marketing!" The model of the books seems simple and in some way even a cliche as I'm sure you would have guessed many parts of the model yourself. Nonetheless, it seems like a really valuable read and reminder, putting different things I knew 'under one roof'.

My grade of the book: A- (using the American grading system) - highly recommended.

Below are the top ideas I picked from the book.

1 Social currency

People like talking about their attitudes. Choices signal identity.

1. Find the inner remarkability

2. Leverage game mechanics

3. Make people feel like insiders (scarcity is king, secrets don't stay secrets very long)

2 Triggers

Associate your brand with something that people will encounter often.

How frequently a stimulus appears matters. Social currency makes people talking, but triggers keep people talking.

KitKat was seeing a constant slump in sales that seemed hard to stop. It was reversed where and advertising campaign linked KitKat to coffee so that people would use the coffee trigger to eat a KitKat bar.

3 Emotion

Focus on emotions that lead to activation or positive arousal: awe, anger, anxiety, fun. Not sadness, contentment.

Any sort arousal, whether from emotional or physical sources, boosts transmission.

4 Social proof

Desire is mimetic. Monkey SEE, monkey do - observability matters.

Social influence was stronger when the behavior was more observable.

5 Practical value

One reason things catch on is because they are simply better.

Health and education products - most shared, we share useful information because we want to help, and if we can help it reflects well on us.

6 Stories

We don’t think in terms of information but in terms of narrative.

Not all content popularity leads to business results. There is a big difference between people talking about the content and the company behind that content. It’s important that the story is relevant to the product, or the product has to be a key part of the story.

Other

Only 7% of word of mouth happens online.

===

Thanks for sticking till the end! I publish book reviews every Wednesday. Are you curious about what I do in my job as a startup CEO?

Panda Training is a Finnish startup. We are passionate about strategy, learning, and human development. We provide a micro-coaching service (human and/or chatbot) that allows companies to drive strategic initiatives and gather data from “the shop floor". Working with companies like Universal Pictures, SAP, Cramo. https://panda-training.com