Contagious: Why Things Catch on

Product Information

Since our inception in 2004, Contagious has always identified and interrogated the world’s most exceptional creative brands, ideas and trends.In The Contagious Commandments, our co-founder Paul Kemp-Robertson and principal strategist Chris Barth condense over a decade’s-worth of insights and learnings into 10 strategic takeaways thatanyone working in the industrymust know about. 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. It is also possible to create a trigger by expanding the “habitat” that people exist in – meaning creating new habits / further associating your product or idea with things we do on a daily basis. For example, in 2007, Colleen Chorak was the Hershey brand manager tasked with revitalizing the Kit Kat brand. The candy bar’s jingle had been around for 21 years, and had run its course. To get consumers thinking about the brand again she looked at when people ate Kit Kats the most… during breaks and usually with a hot beverage. She began releasing ads that tied Kit Kats to coffee breaks at work, specifically eating them while drinking coffee. The spots did exactly as she hoped, and soon sales increased by 8% by the end of the year. Berger explains that “regardless of how plain or boring a product or idea may seem, there are ways to make it contagious…” if you know the right way to do it. Consistent throughout all viral content, are six key ingredients or “STEPPS:” Social Currency; Triggers; Emotion; Public; Practical Value; Stories – none of which are mutually exclusive but are all independently available for use on your product or idea wherever and whenever it makes the most sense. 1. Social Currency – “We share things that make us look good”

Great marketers know that the best marketing is conversational. Trying to “spread the word” about a product, service, or idea helps create a trigger that serves as an everyday reminder. For decades, a magazine subscription label was one of the biggest triggers in consumers’ minds. Some products, ideas, services, and behaviors catch on and become popular while others falter. Why do some things get more word of mouth than others, and how, by understanding that science, can we make our own stuff more successful?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?

We don’t just care about others are doing; we care about our performance compared to others. We care about hierarchy, and for that reason, game mechanics generate social currency. Why? Because doing well makes us look good. At times, the book became a little US-centric, but it wasn't too distracting. I found it dragged slightly towards the end, however, and by that time, I was wanting to apply some of the principles, instead of reading more product stories I didn’t care about. Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has studied Marketing and has come up with six elements that will make a product “Contagious”. The basic idea is to make a product “viral”, that is, to have the product spread either through word of mouth, “You Tube”, or any other method of getting your message out to the public. It is also noteworthy that many of these methods are very cost efficient. Climate scientists: concept of net zero is a dangerous trap”– James Dyke, Robert Watson, and Wolfgang KnorrWhy 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 Designing products that advertise themselves is a particularly powerful strategy for small companies or organizations that don’t have a lot of resources.

Leveraging game mechanics requires quantifying performance. But if a product or idea doesn’t automatically do that, it needs to be “gamified.” Furthermore, leveraging game mechanics involves helping people publicize their achievements. The key to being successful across all of these factors, is to build intrinsic motivation within people – if something is truly successful, people will want to talk about or buy into your product or service if it means they will gain value from the product or experience, as well as look good to others. If you get someone bought in, they will likely tell their friends and family about it, thus beginning the cycle of creating something viral. 2. Triggers – “Top of mind, tip of tongue”You can have a pretty good overview of the book in this 4 minute video I made with a summary on it. Lastly, if a memorable story can be spun around it, then it has the added benefit of having a 'Story'. 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. In the last section of the book it went into a couple of examples on where great ads produced great memories. However, what is often is mixed as if the great ad actually highlighted the product.