Summary
Introduction: Why Things Catch On
Jonah Berger introduces his book by discussing the importance of word of mouth marketing. âGoing viralâ is, at its heart, people telling their friends about something interesting, useful, funny, or just plain cool. While we tend to think all such transmission happens online, research shows that in fact itâs only 7%. The vast majority of word of mouth advertising happens in our daily lives, offline. So what determines the success of certain products or ideas and the failure of others? Berger says it is the âsix principles of contagiousnessâ detailed in Contagious.
1. Social Currency
Childhood friends and entrepreneurs Brian Shebairo and Chris Antista created a successful hotdog business in New York City. But when they decided they wanted to create a bar, they were stuck. There was fierce competition and they didnât know how they could stand out. Finding a 1930s-era telephone booth gave them an ideaâuse it to create an entrance to a secret bar. To get in, customers dial a number on the phone in the booth, and if thereâs space, they are let into the bar. Playing on the exclusive nature of the bar, they named it Please Donât Tell. Ironically, the very fact the bar is unadvertised and hard to get into made it extremely popular. Itâs secrecy gave the bar social currencyââpeople share things that make them look good.â
This isnât just an accident; in fact, a Harvard study has shown that humans are hardwired to find pleasure in sharing their preferencesâso much so that they would rather do that than be paid money to wait in silence.
Peopleâs opinions are influenced by how others dress and actâindeed, by everything about them: from what car they drive to what they like to talk about. Since we know this, we all want to share things that make us seem cool. When a business taps into this behavior, it benefits. Please Donât Tell did this by making their customers feel as if they were in on a secret. Snapple did it by printing interesting, shareable facts underneath the bottle capsâwhen people opened a bottle and found out something new, they were likely to share the fact with their friends. Inevitably, the friend would wonder where the fact came from, providing the original customer with an opportunity to talk about Snappleâperfect word of mouth advertising! Berger classifies things that need to be talked about as remarkable.
Not surprisingly, people are more likely to share remarkable videos and talk about companies that are seen to be remarkable. And, as stories are shared, they are often magnified as people exaggerate what happened, consciously or unconsciously.
Applying game mechanics to a business strategy works because winning makes people look and feel good. Frequent flier programs do this wellâthere is a hierarchy of benefits and a clear way to achieve them. Once customers have reached elite levels, they often want to share their status with their friends.
A Harvard study discovered that people prefer to feel like they are winning and doing better than others, even if it costs them significant amounts of money. The study asked people whether theyâd rather accept $50,000 per year for a job that others made $25,000 doing, or $100,000 per year for a job that others made $200,000 doing. The majority of students chose the first option. People donât care only about earning more, they care about earning more than other people around them.
Another key way to create social currency is to make people feel like they are insiders in a select group. Online fashion outlet Rue La La did this by offering members-only discounts. In essence, it created an exclusive club. McDonaldâs did something similar with the McRib. It began launching the sandwich in specific locations for a limited time, thus creating scarcity. This made people feel like insiders if they could get their hands on a McRib. A pedestrian sandwich was transformed into an exclusive item. But businesses can only take this concept so farâitâs pointless to pay customers to tell other customers about a product, for instance. To do so would remove the illusion of having insider status and sap motivation. Incentives based on social currency are far more effective.
Need to Know: Making items scarce, rare, hard-to-access, or remarkable encourages customers to share their experience and heightens their interest in obtaining such item...