Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Ebook292 pages4 hours

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

The New York Times bestseller that explains why certain products and ideas become popular.

“Jonah Berger knows more about what makes information ‘go viral’ than anyone in the world.” —Daniel Gilbert, author of the bestseller Stumbling on Happiness

What makes things popular? 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?

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He’s studied why New York Times articles make the paper’s own Most E-mailed list, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children.

In Contagious, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheesesteak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the most boring products there is: a blender.

Contagious provides specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread—for designing messages, advertisements, and content that people will share. Whether you’re a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 5, 2013
ISBN9781451686593
Author

Jonah Berger

Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the internationally bestselling author of Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. He’s a world-renowned expert on natural language processing, change, social influence, word of mouth, and why products, services, and ideas catch on. Berger has published more than seventy papers in top-tier academic journals; and popular accounts of his work often appear in publications like the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. He frequently consults for companies like Google, Apple, Nike, and the Gates Foundation, helping them leverage language, drive change, and get their stuff to catch on. He’s been named one of Fast Company’s most creative people in business and millions of copies of his books are in print in dozens of languages around the world.

Read more from Jonah Berger

Related to Contagious

Related ebooks

Business For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Contagious

Rating: 4.089015151515151 out of 5 stars
4/5

264 ratings35 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    A bit boring and repetitive
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author explores what characteristics make an idea or business grow. It must have social currency, be targeted, have practical use, connection to what people are familiar with, and/or have an emotional connection. Many related characteristics are discussed.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I don't really know what I was expecting, it had been sitting on my "to be read" pile for almost two years, but at some point I must have read a review for it that intrigued me. In the end, it is a rather simplistic business marketing book that purports to offer a step by step guide to ensure that your online material "goes viral". It's all seems rather like common sense, but with just enough jargon thrown in to make it seem like a serious tome.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very clever, with how to and why illustrations to prove the point
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Berger has penned a highly-readable book that is driven by lively anecdotes. True, some of his insights seem quite simplistic. For example, one of the earliest case studies involves an eatery in Philadelpia that created a hundred buck Philly Cheesesteak sandwich merely to generate "buzz." The implied message is that "shock value" is a key ingredient to making a message stick. Some would justifiably argue that Malcolm Gladwell took a more scholarly approach to this fascinating topic in his classic "Tipping Point." That being said, Berger, offers an accessible user-friendly guide that provides some practical tips for creating "social epidemics."
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    More fluff than substance. Good read for a plane, but don't expect to get any practical info out of it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Anyone at all interested in marketing or social media needs to read this. It'll make you think twice while you're hitting that 'share' button on Facebook or 'retweet' on Twitter. Why are you sharing it? To make yourself look good? Because it made you angry? Because it made you think of a particular person who might be interested?

    Very readable book with lots of examples and stories to explain his points.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is essentially an "alternate exposition" of the material in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point - that is, it is concerned with the process by which things or ideas become popular to the point that they seem to take on lives of their own. Jonah Berger acknowledges that this is a subject already covered by Gladwell, but he does offer his own approach.Berger develops what he terms his STEPPS process by which some things become extremely popular: Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value, and Stories. Using a variety of examples of things that go "viral," Berger uses his STEPPS to explain how "virality" occurs, even with things that would seem to be self defeating, such as a restaurant that succeeds because (or despite the fact that) it offers a $100.00 Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich; a hot-dog eatery that has access to a "secret" club (through an old wooden phone booth), and so forth.The book is accessible, intelligent and witty; I would not really put it on a level with Gladwell's The Tipping Point, however. An interesting read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Contagious is one of those books that is destined to become essential business reading, especially for the marketer. In some ways, it reminded me of "Made to Stick" and the Tipping Point, but it did have it's own messaging. (By the way, the author Jonah Berger was mentored by Chip Heath, the author of Made to Stick)The book focuses on the reasons why things stick through the six elements of the STEPPS model presented in the book:Social Currency - we share things that make us look goodTriggers - Top of mind, tip of tongueEmotion - When we care, we sharePublic - Built to show, built to growPractical Value - News people can useStories - Information travels under the guise of idle chatterThe thing that I really liked about this books is that the author presents practical examples of why things work and why they do not. It makes it into a translatable model that anyone can use. The research is fantastic and it has a lot of great examples throughout. Well worth the read.Reader received a complimentary copy from Good Reads First Reads
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm always after books that pry open my cranium with a crowbar and mess around with everything that's in there, unlearning what I've learned, and learning something I've never learned. It seems like a conceit at the outset, with a claim of knowing about something that seems actually be the result of random forces, but as the book sweeps along, the case for specificity is solidified. The entire top of my head popped off when he showed how "Just say no!" resulted in increased drug use, amid other such examples, coupled with useful advice to produce the opposite effects. I'll apply this new knowledge to develop branding and awareness for myself, my books, my writing, my running club, and other interests.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In this day and age so many people believe that advertising and/or social media drive trends. New words have even been coined to describe the phenomenon … trending or viral. But are those two things enough to explain why people would be willing to pay $100 for a cheese steak sandwich, why a certain video gets millions of hits on YouTube or one brand of blender outsells another? Not really.

    In this book Jonah Berger looks at why things catch on. A look at his credentials and there is no doubt that he did the research he describes and that his theories are sound. Not only sound, but surprisingly interesting and delivered in a concise and often humorous manner. Even someone who has never studied marketing (ME) understood and enjoyed this book. The scariest thing about reading this little book? I came to realize just how gullible I am when it comes to advertising and media. It’s a bit of an eye-opener!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    We've all looked at our computer screens and wondered, sometimes with disgust, how the latest viral video got so popular. Why are people sharing something that seems so useless over and over? Why do I keep seeing the same story from multiple people? What is making me want to click that share button?

    Jonah Berger ventures into answering those questions in his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. After identifying six elements that help ideas stick, Berger walks through examples of each element, giving almost a history of viral information. The book is a quick, accessible read that answers many questions readers might have, with a few really surprising bits of information thrown in (the one that really got me was in the epilogue). Though once you've read them, most of the elements Berger identifies seem like common sense, Contagious is still enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am an indie author, so I'm always interested in picking up new marketing strategies. Contagious gave me a lot of great ideas on how I could sharpen the advertising for my novels. Jonah Berger writes in a very easy-to-understand way, and I liked how he used anecdotes about real marketing campaigns to drive his points home.

    The book did feel a bit short, and more advanced marketers might not find enough content here. However, as someone who dabbles in marketing, I definitely walked away satisfied.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As a patron of the popular culture which governs our youth society with ephemeral trends and fads, I often step back and think to myself and think: "why do people insist on spending hundreds of dollars on *insert any soon-to-be-outgrown toy, gadget, or food*". Jonah Berger explores these tendencies in Contagious: Why Things Catch On. From a marketing perspective, the book is gold, as it serves as a guide to transforming a product from unpopular to instantly famous. As a near-supplement to Malcolm Gladwell"s The Tipping Point, Berger's work is more concise but more ambiguous. Berger tries to incorporate too many examples from various unrelated fields into the points of his STEPP process. This works against Berger's presumed goal of providing a more in depth supplement to The Tipping Point. However, the book still utilizes appropriate examples in many instances and its points are nonetheless valid and coherent, making this novel worth the read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Contagious takes the ideas behind Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and turns them into a practical guide for people who want their product, brand, or idea to catch on. But it's more than just a how-to book; it's also an in-depth exploration of the social science of popularity. Overall, Contagious is an extremely engaging listen that drew me in with its fascinating subject matter and excellent narration. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got a copy of this at the annual Brand Manage Camp last summer and finally got around to reading it after a friend mentioned how much he enjoyed it. Glad I made the time -- an interesting book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked this up when I was looking for books on book marketing. While I didn't think I'd written a novel that would "go viral," I thought maybe I'd still find something in Contagious I could apply to promoting my book. When I started reading it, however, I wasn't sure that was going to happen—the introduction on why things catch on and the first chapter on social currency were interesting, but also pretty much what I would have come up with if you'd asked me to guess why things catch on. As I got deeper into the book, though, I found myself reaching for my notepad. The information here is interesting, useful, and valuable to anyone with a product, service, or cause to promote. Berger writes in clear prose and provides plenty of anecdotes and examples to illustrate the concepts of triggers, emotion, practical value and more. In all, I found it more insightful than the book marketing book I purchased at the same time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Berger has figured out what makes some ideas spread more than others, sometimes for surprising reasons. He explains why Cheerios get more attention than Disney, why some good commercials were completely ineffective, and why a juicy secret is least likely to be kept. Reading this book will make you a better storyteller, a better marketer, and smarter about trends you see.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The concepts in this book have really changed and revolutionized how I approach marketing and telling stories for my clients. I'm naturally a computer programmer, so understanding humans is somewhat challenging for me, however, this book has made it fairly easy to understand some very key concepts about marketing and storytelling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great read! It gave insight from another view that i may have never thought about! It was also backed with fact!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Not just why but how. Helpful not just informing. Good Read
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is an essential read for anyone. If you are looking to have your opinion or voice heard, whether at the dinner table with loved ones or online in a sea of endless tweets and comments on social network platforms, this is for you.
    Give it a read, you have to.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    good and entertaining I really like it .thanks for .
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    great book i really enjoyed it because it included many practical information
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing book, the STEPPS framework to work towards a better marketing communication strategy and the way Mr. Berger exemplifies every chapter makes it a must-read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really great book. Informative and succinct. This is something you must apply to your current projects
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Information that good to know it is really valuable for people interested in marketing
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Its good but the content is too long, i think is not necessary to show 10 studies to show prove one principle.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awesome ! highly recommend to anyone who wants to grow a brand.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    How does marketing work in an era where things go viral on the Internet and social media dominates our national discourse? Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, has an understanding of how it can work and a philosophy of how you can use it to promote your work. Using terms like “social currency” and established concepts like social status, he describes how online marketing can work in a way that is inexpensive but effective. He does so in a manner that outperforms perhaps any other author on the subject.

    Berger attempts to provide a coherent and comprehensive theoretical treatment. He defines several essential and mutually exclusive qualities of communication that might effectively communicate with potential customers. In the last chapter, he brings these qualities together to show why certain online communications work or didn’t work. He provides illustrations from history (or more accurately, builds his theory from historical examples). These stories not only convey his point; they also provide a context and a story that persuades the reader that he knows what he’s talking about.

    This work will certainly appeal to marketers and to communicators, but it can also appeal to people (like me) who are interested in how the computer and the Internet are transforming the way we live. This book could not have been written in the early 1990s, but is essentially a foundation of marketing theory today. Berger teaches us that theory should not lag behind practice too much. He gives us a first draft of what that theory might look like. In so doing, he teaches us how we can draw a good audience for the work that is our lives.

Book preview

Contagious - Jonah Berger

Cover: Contagious, by Jonah Berger

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Contagious, by Jonah Berger, Simon & Schuster

Contents

Introduction: Why Things Catch On

Why $100 is a good price for a cheesesteak . . . Why do some things become popular? . . . Which is more important, the message or the messenger? . . . Can you make anything contagious? . . . The case of the viral blender . . . Six key STEPPS.

1. Social Currency

When a telephone booth is a door . . . Ants can lift fifty times their own weight. . . . Why frequent flier miles are like a video game . . . When it’s good to be hard to get . . . Why everyone wants a mix of tripe, heart, and stomach meat . . . The downside of getting paid . . . We share things that make us look good.

2. Triggers

Which gets more word of mouth, Disney or Cheerios? . . . Why a NASA mission boosted candy sales . . . Could where you vote affect how you vote? . . . Consider the context . . . Explaining Rebecca Black . . . Growing the habitat: Kit Kat and coffee . . . Top of mind, tip of tongue.

3. Emotion

Why do some things make the Most E-Mailed list? . . . How reading science articles is like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon . . . Why anger is like humor . . . How breaking guitars can make you famous . . . Getting teary eyed about online search . . . When we care, we share.

4. Public

Is the Apple logo better upside down than right side up? . . . Why dying people turn down kidney transplants . . . Using moustaches to make the private public . . . How to advertise without an advertising budget . . . Why anti-drug commercials might increase drug use . . . Built to show, built to grow.

5. Practical Value

How an eighty-six-year-old made a viral video about corn . . . Why hikers talk about vacuum cleaners . . . E-mail forwards are the new barn raising . . . Will people pay to save money? . . . Why $100 is a magic number . . . When lies spread faster than the truth . . . News you can use.

6. Stories

How stories are like Trojan horses . . . Why good customer service is better than any ad . . . When a streaker crashed the Olympics . . . Why some story details are unforgettable . . . Using a panda to make valuable virality . . . Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.

Epilogue

Why 80 percent of manicurists in California are Vietnamese . . . Applying the STEPPS.

Acknowledgments

Readers Group Guide

Questions for Discussion

Expand Your Book Club

A Conversation with Jonah Berger

About Jonah Berger

Notes

Index

To my mother, father, and grandmother.

For always believing in me.

Introduction: Why Things Catch On

By the time Howard Wein moved to Philadelphia in March 2004, he already had lots of experience in the hospitality industry. He had earned an MBA in hotel management, helped Starwood Hotels launch its W brand, and managed billions of dollars in revenue as Starwood’s corporate director of food and beverage. But he was done with big. He yearned for a smaller, more restaurant-focused environment. So he moved to Philly to help design and launch a new luxury boutique steakhouse called Barclay Prime.

The concept was simple. Barclay Prime was going to deliver the best steakhouse experience imaginable. The restaurant is located in the toniest part of downtown Philadelphia, its dimly lit entry paved with marble. Instead of traditional dining chairs, patrons rest on plush sofas clustered around small marble tables. They feast from an extensive raw bar, including East and West Coast oysters and Russian caviar. And the menu offers delicacies like truffle-whipped potatoes and line-caught halibut FedExed overnight directly from Alaska.

But Wein knew that good food and great atmosphere wouldn’t be enough. After all, the thing restaurants are best at is going out of business. More than 25 percent fail within twelve months of opening their doors. Sixty percent are gone within the first three years.

Restaurants fail for any number of reasons. Expenses are high—everything from the food on the plates to the labor that goes into preparing and serving it. And the landscape is crowded with competitors. For every new American bistro that pops up in a major city, there are two more right around the corner.

Like most small businesses, restaurants also have a huge awareness problem. Just getting the word out that a new restaurant has opened its doors—much less that it’s worth eating at—is an uphill battle. And unlike the large hotel chains Wein had previously worked for, most restaurants don’t have the resources to spend on lots of advertising or marketing. They depend on people talking about them to be successful.

Wein knew he needed to generate buzz. Philadelphia already boasted dozens of expensive steakhouses, and Barclay Prime needed to stand out. Wein needed something to cut through the clutter and give people a sense of the uniqueness of the brand. But what? How could he get people talking?

—————

How about a hundred-dollar cheesesteak?

The standard Philly cheesesteak is available for four or five bucks at hundreds of sandwich shops, burger joints, and pizzerias throughout Philadelphia. It’s not a difficult recipe. Chop some steak on a griddle, throw it on a hoagie (hero) roll, and melt some Provolone cheese or Cheez Whiz on top. It’s delicious regional fast food, but definitely not haute cuisine.

Wein thought he could get some buzz by raising the humble cheesesteak to new culinary heights—and attaching a newsworthy price tag. So he started with a fresh, house-made brioche roll brushed with homemade mustard. He added thinly sliced Kobe beef, marbleized to perfection. Then he included caramelized onions, shaved heirloom tomatoes, and triple-cream Taleggio cheese. All this was topped off with shaved hand-harvested black truffles and butter-poached Maine lobster tail. And just to make it even more outrageous, he served it with a chilled split of Veuve Clicquot champagne.

The response was incredible.

People didn’t just try the sandwich, they rushed to tell others. One person suggested that groups get it as a starter . . . that way you all get the absurd story-telling rights. Another noted that the sandwich was honestly indescribable. One does not throw all these fine ingredients together and get anything subpar. It was like eating gold. And given the sandwich’s price, it was almost as expensive as eating gold, albeit far more delicious.

Wein didn’t create just another cheesesteak, he created a conversation piece.

—————

It worked. The story of the hundred-dollar cheesesteak was contagious. Talk to anyone who’s been to Barclay Prime. Even if people didn’t order the cheesesteak, most will likely mention it. Even people who’ve never been to the restaurant love to talk about it. It was so newsworthy that USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets published pieces on the sandwich. The Discovery channel filmed a segment for its Best Food Ever show. David Beckham had one when he was in town. David Letterman invited Barclay’s executive chef to New York to cook him one on the Late Show. All that buzz for what is still, at its heart, just a sandwich.

The buzz helped. Barclay Prime opened nearly a decade ago. Against the odds, the restaurant has not only survived but flourished. It has won various food awards and is listed among the best steakhouses in Philadelphia year after year. But more important, it built a following. Barclay Prime caught on.

WHY DO PRODUCTS, IDEAS, AND BEHAVIORS CATCH ON?

There are lots of examples of things that have caught on. Yellow Livestrong wristbands. Nonfat Greek yogurt. Six Sigma management strategy. Smoking bans. Low-fat diets. Then Atkins, South Beach, and the low-carb craze. The same dynamic happens on a smaller scale at the local level. A certain gym will be the trendy place to go. A new church or synagogue will be in vogue. Everyone will get behind a new school referendum.

These are all examples of social epidemics. Instances where products, ideas, and behaviors diffuse through a population. They start with a small set of individuals or organizations and spread, often from person to person, almost like a virus. Or in the case of the hundred-dollar cheesesteak, an over-the-top, wallet-busting virus.

But while it’s easy to find examples of social contagion, it’s much harder to actually get something to catch on. Even with all the money poured into marketing and advertising, few products become popular. Most restaurants bomb, most businesses go under, and most social movements fail to gain traction.

Why do some products, ideas, and behaviors succeed when others fail?

—————

One reason some products and ideas become popular is that they are just plain better. We tend to prefer websites that are easier to use, drugs that are more effective, and scientific theories that are true rather than false. So when something comes along that offers better functionality or does a better job, people tend to switch to it. Remember how bulky televisions or computer monitors used to be? They were so heavy and cumbersome that you had to ask a couple of friends (or risk a strained back) to carry one up a flight of stairs. One reason flat screens took off was that they were better. Not only did they offer larger screens, but they weighed less. No wonder they became popular.

Another reason products catch on is attractive pricing. Not surprisingly, most people prefer paying less rather than more. So if two very similar products are competing, the cheaper one often wins out. Or if a company cuts its prices in half, that tends to help sales.

Advertising also plays a role. Consumers need to know about something before they can buy it. So people tend to think that the more they spend on advertising, the more likely something will become popular. Want to get people to eat more vegetables? Spending more on ads should increase the number of people who hear your message and buy broccoli.

—————

But although quality, price, and advertising contribute to products and ideas being successful, they don’t explain the whole story.

Take the first names Olivia and Rosalie. Both are great names for girls. Olivia means olive tree in Latin and is associated with fruitfulness, beauty, and peace. Rosalie has Latin and French origins and is derived from the word for roses. Both are about the same length, end in vowels, and have handy, cute nicknames. Indeed, thousands of babies are named Olivia or Rosalie each year.

But think for a moment about how many people you know with each name. How many people you’ve met named Olivia and how many people you’ve met named Rosalie.

I’ll bet you know at least one Olivia, but you probably don’t know a Rosalie. In fact, if you do know a Rosalie, I’ll bet you know several Olivias.

How did I know that? Olivia is a much more popular name. In 2010, for example, there were almost 17,000 Olivias born in the United States but only 492 Rosalies. In fact, while the name Rosalie was somewhat popular in the 1920s, it never reached the stratospheric popularity that Olivia recently achieved.

When trying to explain why Olivia became a more popular name than Rosalie, familiar explanations like quality, price, and advertising get stuck. It’s not like one name is really better than the other, and both names are free, so there is no difference in price. There is also no advertising campaign to try to get everyone to name their kids Olivia, no company determined to make that name the hottest thing since Pokémon.

The same thing can be said for videos on YouTube. There’s no difference in price (all are free to watch), and few videos receive any advertising or marketing push. And although some videos have higher production values, most that go viral are blurred and out of focus, shot by an amateur on an inexpensive camera or cell phone.*

So if quality, price, and advertising don’t explain why one first name becomes more popular than another, or why one You-Tube video gets more views, what does?

SOCIAL TRANSMISSION

Social influence and word of mouth. People love to share stories, news, and information with those around them. We tell our friends about great vacation destinations, chat with our neighbors about good deals, and gossip with coworkers about potential layoffs. We write online reviews about movies, share rumors on Facebook, and tweet about recipes we just tried. People share more than 16,000 words per day and every hour there are more than 100 million conversations about brands.

But word of mouth is not just frequent, it’s also important. The things others tell us, e-mail us, and text us have a significant impact on what we think, read, buy, and do. We try websites our neighbors recommend, read books our relatives praise, and vote for candidates our friends endorse. Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 percent to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions.

Consequently, social influence has a huge impact on whether products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. A word-of-mouth conversation by a new customer leads to an almost $200 increase in restaurant sales. A five-star review on Amazon.com leads to approximately twenty more books sold than a one-star review. Doctors are more likely to prescribe a new drug if other doctors they know have prescribed it. People are more likely to quit smoking if their friends quit and get fatter if their friends become obese. In fact, while traditional advertising is still useful, word of mouth from everyday Joes and Janes is at least ten times more effective.

Word of mouth is more effective than traditional advertising for two key reasons. First, it’s more persuasive. Advertisements usually tell us how great a product is. You’ve heard it all—how nine out of ten dentists recommend Crest or how no other detergent will get your clothes as clean as Tide.

But because ads will always argue that their products are the best, they’re not really credible. Ever seen a Crest ad say that only one out of ten dentists prefers Crest? Or that four of the other nine think Crest will rot your teeth?

Our friends, however, tend to tell it to us straight. If they thought Crest did a good job, they’ll say that. But they’d also tell us if Crest tasted bad or failed to whiten their teeth. Their objectivity, coupled with their candidness, make us much more likely to trust, listen to, and believe our friends.

Second, word of mouth is more targeted. Companies try to advertise in ways that allow them to reach the largest number of interested customers. Take a company that sells skis. Television ads during the nightly news probably wouldn’t be very efficient because many of the viewers don’t ski. So the company might advertise in a ski magazine, or on the back of lift tickets to a popular slope. But while this would ensure that most people who see the ad like skiing, the company would still end up wasting money because lots of those people don’t need new skis.

Word of mouth, on the other hand, is naturally directed toward an interested audience. We don’t share a news story or recommendation with everyone we know. Rather, we tend to select particular people who we think would find that given piece of information most relevant. We’re not going to tell a friend about a new pair of skis if we know the friend hates skiing. And we’re not going to tell a friend who doesn’t have kids about the best way to change a diaper. Word of mouth tends to reach people who are actually interested in the thing being discussed. No wonder customers referred by their friends spend more, shop faster, and are more profitable overall.

A particularly nice example of how word of mouth improves targeting came to me in the mail a few years ago. Every so often publishers will send me free books. Usually they’re related to marketing and the publisher hopes that if I’m given a free copy, I’ll be more likely to assign the book to my students (and sell them a bunch of copies in the process).

But a few years ago, one company did something slightly different. It sent me two copies of the same book.

Now, unless I’m mistaken, there’s no reason for me to read the second copy, once I’ve read the first. But these publishers had a different goal in mind. They sent a note explaining why they thought the book would be good for my students, but they also mentioned that they sent a second copy so that I could pass it along to a colleague who might be interested.

That’s how word of mouth helps with targeting. Rather than sending books to everyone, the publishers got me, and others, to do the targeting for them. Just like a searchlight, each recipient of the double mailing would look through his or her personal social network, find the person that the book would be most relevant for, and pass it along.

GENERATING WORD OF MOUTH

But want to know the best thing about word of mouth? It’s available to everyone. From Fortune 500 companies trying to increase sales to corner restaurants trying to fill tables. And from nonprofits trying to fight obesity to newbie politicians trying to get elected. Word of mouth helps things catch on. Word of mouth even helps B2B companies get new clients from existing ones. And it doesn’t require millions of dollars spent on advertising. It just requires getting people to talk.

The challenge, though, is how to do that.

From start-ups to starlets, people have embraced social media as the wave of the future. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other channels are seen as ways to cultivate a following and engage consumers. Brands post ads, aspiring musicians post videos, and small businesses post deals. Companies and organizations have fallen over themselves in their rush to jump on the buzz marketing bandwagon. The logic is straightforward. If they can get people to talk about their idea or share their content, it will spread through social networks like a virus, making their product or idea instantly popular along the way.

But there are two issues with this approach: the focus and the execution.

Help me out with a quick pop quiz. What percent of word of mouth do you think happens online? In other words, what percent of chatter happens over social media, blogs, e-mail, and chat rooms?

If you’re like most people you probably guessed something around 50 or 60 percent. Some people guess upward of 70 percent and some guess much lower, but after having asked this question of hundreds of students and executives, I find that the average is around 50 percent.

And that number makes sense. After all, social media have certainly exploded as of late. Millions of people use these sites every day, and billions of pieces of content get shared every month. These technologies have made it faster and easier to share things quickly with a broad group of people.

But 50 percent is wrong.

Not even close.

The actual number is 7 percent. Not 47 percent, not 27 percent, but 7 percent. Research by the Keller Fay Group finds that only 7 percent of word of mouth happens online.

Most people are extremely surprised when they hear that number. But that’s way too low, they protest. People spend a huge amount of time online! And that’s true. People do spend a good bit of time online. Close to two hours a day by some estimates. But we forget that people also spend a lot of time offline. More than eight times as much, in fact. And that creates a lot more time for offline conversations.

We also tend to overestimate online word of mouth because it’s easier to see. Social media sites provide a handy record of all the clips, comments, and other content we share online. So when we look at it, it seems like a lot. But we don’t think as much about all the offline conversations we had over that same time period because we can’t easily see them. There is no recording of the chat we had with Susan after lunch or the conversation we had with Tim while waiting for the kids to be done with practice. But while they may not be as easy to see, they still have an important impact on our

Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1