Rating: Excellent
Contagious: Why Things Catch On blurb excerpt: Why do some products, ideas, and behaviors succeed when others fail?
Contagious, one of the Best Marketing Books, reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive things to become popular.
My opinion: I am a huge fan of this book. It's an easy read, peppered with absorbing and practical examples. It debunks the notion that virality and positive word of mouth occur by chance. If you own a business or are in marketing this is a must-read. Word of mouth is critical to any business and Contagious is one of the Best Marketing Books on this topic.
Lessons from Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Whilst traditional advertising is hugely effective, word of mouth is up to 10 times more effective due to two key reasons;
It’s more persuasive - ads all claim the same thing, so they lose credibility. A friend's objectivity and candidness make us much more likely to trust them.
It’s more targeted - word of mouth tends to reach people who are interested in what is being discussed.
Recipients of social transmissions spend more, shop faster, and are more profitable overall.
The 6 Principles of Virality
The same six “ingredients,” or principles, are often at the heart of virality and positive word of mouth. These principles are;
Social Currency - People share things that make them look good to others.
Triggers - Top of mind means the tip of the tongue.
Emotion - When we care, we share. Don’t focus on function, focus on feelings.
Public - If something is built to show, it’s built to grow.
Practical Value - People like to pass along practical, useful information. News you can use.
Stories - Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.
Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 percent to 5o percent of all purchasing decisions. Yet, according to research by the Keller Fay Group, only 7 percent of word of mouth happens online (2013).
1. Social Currency
“So to get people talking, companies and organizations need to mint social currency. Give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products and ideas along the way.”
Berger recommends three ways to get people talking about a product or an idea:
Find inner remarkability - Break the pattern people have come to expect by offering something that is unusual, extraordinary, or worthy of notice or attention.
Leverage game mechanics - Game mechanics make things fun and compelling. They also promote engagement and extrinsic motivation by encouraging social comparison. Game mechanics boost word of mouth because people want to show off their achievements, but in doing so, they also refer to the brands or domains where they achieved. Find a way to publicise a user's achievements and you will hit a home run.
Make people feel like insiders - Scarcity and exclusivity boost word of mouth by making people feel like insiders. Being an insider is a form of social currency.
2. Triggers
We need to design products and ideas that are frequently triggered by the environment and create new triggers by linking our products and ideas to prevalent cues in that environment.
A good trigger must be well-timed and frequent. Example - KitKat and Coffee.
When cultivating triggers, it's often more valuable to create a unique trigger, rather than try and compete with other brands.
3. Emotion
Events, experiences, or products that induce positive emotional responses are more likely to be shared when compared with similar products that induce a negative response. But that's not all. Arousal is the key to social transmission.
So, to make products or ideas catch on, focus on feelings; the underlying emotions that motivate people to action, not functions of the product. What’s more, remember to pick ones that kindle the fire, activate people, and drive them to action.
4. Public
Observability has a huge impact on whether products and ideas catch on. Why? Because observable things are also more likely to be discussed. The more public a product or service is, the more it triggers people to take action.
One way to make things more public is to design ideas that advertise themselves and create behavioural residue, discernible evidence that sticks around even after people have used our product or engaged with our ideas. Example - Lululemon bags create branded exposure as people use them for other purposes.
If something is built to show, it’s built to grow.
If you don’t want someone to do something, don’t publicise it or normalise it. Focus on the positive effect of an action you wish people to take.
5. Practical Value
People like to pass along practical, useful information. News others can use. Offering practical value not only helps make things contagious but also strengthens social bonds.
If the social currency is about information senders and how sharing makes them look, practical value is mostly about the information receiver.
Practical value typically takes the form of;
Price
Expression of price
Availability - Scarcity, and exclusivity.
One of the key takeaways from this chapter is the introduction to prospect theory. A theory that people don’t evaluate things in absolute terms. They evaluate them relative to a comparison standard, or “reference point.”
BBQ 1 is reduced from $350 to $250, do you buy it?
BBQ 2 (exact same as 1) is reduced from $255 to $240, do you buy it?
Most people buy BBQ 1 and are happy to share a great deal publicly. Much fewer people are willing to do the same for option 2 despite the same product costing less.
Diminishing sensitivity reflects the idea that the same change has a smaller impact the farther it is from the reference point. People get excited about a $10 saving on a $15 product but are nonchalant about a $10 saving on a $150 product.
Based on this, the Rule of 100 says that products that cost less than $100 should have specials expressed as percentage discounts, whilst products over $100 should express savings as numerical discounts.
Another factor that affects whether deals seem valuable is its availability. That’s why restricting availability through scarcity and exclusivity makes things seem more valuable.
6. Stories
Virality is most valuable when the brand or product benefit is integral to the story. When it’s woven so deeply into the narrative that people can’t tell the story without mentioning it. These stories carry trojan horses - messages, lessons, or triggers embedded into the stories that end up impacting the receiver without seeming like a paid promotion.
Not only are stories easier to share, but they are also easier to remember, and are often taken at face value. Very few people question the personal experience of a friend or family member, thus giving trust and credibility to the story.
Contagious Best Quotes:
“Virality isn't born, it's made.”
“When we care, we share.”
“If something is built to show, it's build to grow.”
"It has been said that when people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate one another."
"Companies invest in the messenger, but not the message." - Or vice versa.
What Next:
If you are interested in this book, you may want to check out our list of reviewed Marketing Books.
My personal recommendation for those who loved this book - Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
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