Samuel Seibert

Last month, finished I the book by Jonah Berger, (a marketing professor at the Wharton School), Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

Overall, I thought the advice in the book was sound.

There’s just a little problem with books like this.

Berger seems to build his points based on going out and looking for success stories. Then walking backward from those successes to see what characteristics those marketing plans had.

The problem here is Berger doesn’t seen to consider the companies that might have done marketing the same way and just not been as lucky as the case studies he picked.

Another thing Berger could have done is take the insights he has distilled and apply those in a treatment control plan for companies to demonstrate that in general these principles work. The implication here is, like it says in math text books, this has been left as an exercise for the reader.

Below are summary tips from the book, answering the question as to why things catch on.

Social Currency

> We share things that make us look good

Triggers

> Top of Mind, Tip of Tongue

Emotion

> When we care, We Share

Public

> Built to Show, Built to Grow

Practical Value

> News you can use

Stories

> Information travels under the guise of idle chatter

-SRS

Disclaimer:

The Amazon links used in this post are affiliate links.
If you click through the Amazon links and buy the book, it does NOT cost you anything extra but Amazon does send me a tiny % as a thank you. If you found this helpful, and do decide to get the book, please purchase it through one of the links here.

Thanks