ContagiousWhy Things Catch On

By Jonah Berger

It’s easy to see how some things just catch on. We humans are social creatures and we love to talk to each other about products, ideas and activities that interest us. At a certain stage, if enough people are talking about a particular thing, it goes viral. Everybody’s doing it, eating it, buying it, wearing it. It’s contagious.

More intriguing and perhaps elusive is why we choose to talk about some things and not others. This is a subject that has preoccupied Jonah Berger for more than 10 years.

What are the underlying human behaviors, he asks, that drive this process?

His obsession drove him to conduct years of research, teach a course at Wharton (where he is Assistant Professor of Marketing), and write a book on the subject.

“In our research,” he notes, “my collaborators and I noticed some common themes, or attributes,

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across a range of contagious content. A recipe, if you will, for making products, behaviors and ideas more likely to become popular.”

For the record, his simple definition of “contagious” is “likely to spread.”

And those themes or attributes are enshrined in six principles, captured by the mnemonic STEPPS:

• S for Social Currency• T for Triggers• E for Emotion• P for Public, • P again for Practical Value• S for Stories

His ideas cast a spotlight on human behavior and how it can be harnessed to drive commercial success.

Social Transmission

People love to share stories, news and information with others. It’s a behavior that, in marketing, we refer to as “word of mouth.” Sociologists call it social transmission and it’s the primary factor in up to half of all buying decisions.

Social transmission is more effective than advertising because, when we pass on our opinions and ideas, we’re able to target particular individuals among our acquaintances because we know what interests them. And because we know them and they trust us, it’s also more persuasive. We have social influence.

When that influence gains momentum, it becomes contagious. But it’s important to note that things are not just born word-of-mouth worthy. Even if it happens accidentally, “virality” is made. We create it, often unwittingly, sometimes purposefully.

And we do that via Berger’s six behavioral

principles, the STEPPS.

The Six Principles

Principle #1 - Social CurrencyWhen we talk to others, our goal isn’t just to give information but also to influence how others perceive us. We like them to believe we’re “in the know,” that we have access to useful information that will benefit them.

This is a hugely powerful attribute. For example, a clandestine bar in New York City, called Please Don’t Tell is only accessible via a secret door in a phone booth in an adjoining hot dog restaurant, and admission is by advance booking only. Unless you knew it was there, you’d never find it.

The bar has never advertised its existence, yet, since it opened in 2007, it’s nearly always full and is one of the most sought-after reservations in the city. That’s purely because, once you’ve been

there, you let people in on your little exclusive secret and then they do the same.

Word of mouth, says Berger, is a prime tool for making a good impression: “Think of it as a kind of currency. Social currency. Just as people use money to buy products or services, they use social currency to achieve desired positive impressions among their families, friends and colleagues.”

Like the bar, organizations need to mint social currency, giving people a way to make themselves look good, while promoting products and ideas along the way.

Three ways you can do that are:

• By introducing what he calls inner remarkability, an unusual feature of a product that gets people talking. Example: Blendtec, the food blender company that produced the famous viral series of videos “Will It Blend?” showing their device

crunching up electronic gadgets and other unlikely products.

• By leveraging game mechanics - motivating people to achieve, boast and compete. Examples: Air miles programs, sports fantasy leagues, and the location-based networking site Foursquare in which people compete for network-wide status by visiting certain locations.

• By making people feel like insiders. In this case, you limit access to products and services. Examples would include the secret bar just mentioned, or the limited time deals increasingly used by online retailers. Scarcity and exclusivity make customers feel privileged.

Principle #2 - TriggersIt may be surprising to learn that more people talk about Cheerios than about Disney World. Why?

Because you may only visit the famous Florida theme park once in a lifetime but you could eat Cheerios every day.

In this case, familiarity breeds, well, familiarity. It’s a trigger. What we talk about may be unexceptional but it crops up in conversations all the time.

What keeps people talking are external factors that repeatedly trigger thoughts and memories. A glaring, almost hilarious, example is that during media focus on missions to Mars, sales of Mars Bars increase significantly.

Likewise, retail stores find that by playing music associated with specific countries, sales of products from those countries rise.

Conversely, when a marketing idea does not fire a trigger, it’s wasted, no matter how clever. An entertaining insurance company ad that featured cavemen flopped because we just don’t associate

cavemen with insurance.

Meanwhile, a Kit Kat ad that linked the candy bar to coffee breaks was a huge success because drinking coffee is a common activity that repeatedly triggered an association with relaxing and snacking.

“So, rather than just going for a catchy message,” Berger advises, “consider the context. Think about whether the message will be triggered by the everyday environments of the target audience.”

Competitors can even be used as a trigger.

We’re all used to seeing those open-range, horseback ads for Marlboro cigarettes. So health campaigners used the visual theme, with two cowboys riding alongside each other, talking. The caption: “Bob, I’ve got emphysema.” In marketing parlance, this strategy, for understandable reasons, is referred to as the poison parasite.

So, what makes for an effective trigger?

One key factor is frequency. So “Weekends are made for Michelob” turned out to be a more successful slogan for brewer Anheuser-Busch than “Holidays are made for Michelob.” Weekends are more frequent than holidays!

Triggers also need to be located where they’re most likely to be effective. For instance, a reminder to shoppers to use eco-friendly grocery bags is no good at the store if the shoppers left them at home. Better to put it on a scratch-pad used at home for creating shopping lists.

“Triggers are the foundation of word of mouth and contagiousness …” says Berger. “Triggers and cues lead people to talk, choose and use. Social currency gets people talking, but triggers keep them talking. Top of mind means tip of tongue.”

Principle #3 - Emotion

When something moves us emotionally, we often want to share it with others. Susan Boyle evoked such emotion. While appearing on a TV talent show Boyle’s awkward appearance belied a surprisingly exquisite voice. In 9 days, the video clip of her performance, showing an audience changing from sniggering to a standing ovation, attracted well over 100 million YouTube views (see a version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRiJNS8Oz6E).

So, does every emotion encourage sharing? No, says the author - and it’s nothing to do with whether the feeling it expresses is positive or negative. The key factor is whether the subject matter arouses us. Feelings like anger, anxiety, humor and excitement generate high physiological arousal that makes us want to take action, a behavior scientists refer to as activation. Sadness

and contentment, on the other hand, stifle action.

So, to exploit potential for spreading words and influencing behaviors, we need to focus on certain feelings rather than features and facts.

For instance, faced with the need to promote its search engine - a potentially boring subject if ever there was one - Google creative expert Anthony Camaro came up with the idea of telling a love story through a rapid succession of searches, told visually in less than a minute with a delightful musical background.

It’s called Parisian Love. Search for it on YouTube or visit http://youtu.be/nnsSUqgkDwU

“You cannot watch this clip without having your heartstrings tugged,” the author enthuses. “It’s romantic, joyous and inspiring all at once….By focusing on feelings, Google turned a normal ad into a viral hit.”

Knowing that high arousal emotions prompt social transmission can also be valuable when monitoring what others are saying about your organization on social networks. Looking for words like “pissed off,” “angry” or “mad” may help you fix issues early and head-off big problems.

Principle #4: PublicPublic exposure makes things easier to catch on, in part because we like to imitate what we see others doing.

The psychology of imitation explains why we’re reluctant to take a table at an empty restaurant. We prefer one full of diners.

Imitation helps resolve our uncertainty, a factor psychologists refer to as social proof - we look at what other people are doing and follow their lead. So “observability” has a big impact on whether products and ideas catch on.

In pursuit of public exposure and observability, products can convey the impression that “everyone’s doing it.” Consider email “signatures” that say “sent from my iPad” or “Get your free email from Hotmail.”

In its simplest form, branding on plastic shopping bags makes individual behavior observable. Other examples would be the Livestrong wristbands that carried their message of determination well beyond the cycling successes of Lance Armstrong (now disgraced for drug-taking, of course), and the “I Voted” car stickers which successfully encouraged others to get out to the ballot box.

But making behaviors more observable can also have a negative effect. Anti-drug commercials using the slogan “Just say no” actually seemed to increase drug use by making it more public, Berger suggests.

The same goes for the music and movie

industries’ outcry about illegal downloads. By making the scale of this activity public, they provided social proof for the behavior, in effect making it seem acceptable.

“It’s been said,” Berger points out, “that when people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate one another….Social proof shapes everything from the products we buy to the candidates we vote for.”

Principle #5 - Practical ValuePractical value doesn’t just refer to the fact that shared information is really useful to the recipient. It also means that the transmitter gets something out of it - let’s call it kudos.

Passing along useful things strengthens social bonds, Berger tells us: “If we know our friends are into cooking, sending them a new recipe we found brings us closer together.

One of the most obvious manifestations of practical value is the opportunity to save money - a feature most business-to-consumer companies exploit with sales and discounts. And, the more appealing the deal, the more likely it is to gain momentum.

But there’s an interesting sidebar issue here - the psychology of deals, known as prospect theory, which we covered in an earlier book summary, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

The theory proposes that people don’t evaluate things in absolute terms; they compare them with another reference point, which is why retailers use a “manufacturers recommended selling price” or other similar label, to make the asking price of an item seem like a bargain.

In fact, just using the word “sale” has been shown to increase sales even when a price has not been changed.

Given that the more remarkable something is, the more likely it is to be discussed, highlighting incredible value is a great way of gaining traction for a product or idea.

But practical value isn’t just about saving money. It can be created through restricting availability of, or access to, products and services, through loyalty schemes and “exclusive” club offers.

We may also provide practical value to our acquaintances or customers by giving them news and information that’s relevant and helpful to them. A simple example would be an investment newsletter, which we pass on to another person who might also find it useful.

At various points, the author makes interesting observations about the way value is perceived and how it can be maximized. For instance:

• When highlighting a price saving, percentage savings work better on items costing below

$100, while absolute monetary value is more effective above $100. This is known as the rule of 100.

• Practical value is more effective when it’s easier for everyone to see. For instance, shopper discount cards may be great for an individual customer, but if stores put up a sign or rang a bell every time someone earned a big discount it would be more observable, benefiting from the Public principle.

• When creating helpful content for others to share - as in the newsletter example above - it’s more likely to be passed on if it’s concise and if it addresses a specific topic. This increases the likelihood that the reader will know precisely the right people who’d appreciate it and, in turn, pass it on. Lengthy and general topics won’t cut it.

Principle #6 - Stories

We love stories. Our ancestors used them to convey meaning in the days before they could write. Stories still play a major role as vessels for sharing information. Narratives are inherently more engrossing than basic facts. When you hear people tell a good story, you hang on every word.

The more remarkable and compelling, the more likely it is to circulate.

A notable example is the true story of Jared Fogle, the guy who lost 245 lbs by eating a diet of nothing but Subway sandwiches.

The story is still told today because it complies with several other principles of contagiousness. It’s remarkable, so it creates social currency; it evokes surprise and amazement - emotions; and it provides practical value in the form of useful information about healthy fast food.

So, good stories provide a sort of psychological cover that allows people to talk about a product or idea without seeming like an advertisement.

It’s like the Trojan horse of Greek legend, a convincing cover, with an ulterior motive.

Fast forward three millennia to a studio where film-maker Tim Piper is filming a model preparing for a photo-shoot. He captures the hours of preparation, make-up, hair-curling, posing, shot selection and Photoshopping. Then he delivers the punch line: “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”

This film, entitled “Evolution,” is the Trojan horse, the story-container for the Campaign for Real Beauty, launched by Dove.

Sometimes, though, stories can actually get in the way of the message they’re supposed to be conveying. This happened at the Beijing Olympics when Canadian streaker Ron Bensimhon infiltrated the diving competition and actually

managed a dive before being arrested.

Who noticed that Bensimhon was wearing a swimming suit promoting an online casino? Not many.

“Marketing experts talk about ‘the fool in the pool’ as one of the worst guerilla marketing failures of all time,” Berger notes. “That’s the problem with creating content that is unrelated to the product or idea it is meant to promote.”

Other examples would be the aforementioned insurance company’s “caveman” ad and bottled water producer Evian’s animation of roller-skating babies. Clever but totally disconnected from the product.

By contrast, the Egyptian dairy company, Panda, used - guess what? - a panda to create a series of videos promoting its products. They’re hilarious and memorable and have garnered more than 25 million views. See them by searching YouTube

for “panda cheese” or visit: http://youtu.be/X21mJh6j9i4

As Berger says, you can’t tell the story without mentioning the panda!

ConclusionBerger concludes this highly entertaining and thought-provoking narrative with a neat little story that encapsulates many of his ideas.

It concerns the story of the growth of Vietnamese nail technicians in the US, where they now account for 80 percent of all such businesses in California and 40 percent across the US as a whole.

How did that happen? Well it turns out it all began with a visit to a holding camp for Vietnamese immigrants by the actress Tippi Hedren. A group of women at the camp admired her manicured and polished nails, which they had never seen before.

She showed them how to beautify nails, then arranged for them to attend beauty school, and finally helped them start their own businesses. Word of mouth within the Vietnamese community did the rest. It’s as simple as that.

The story is not unique. Cambodian Americans own 80 percent of the doughnut shops in Los Angeles, Koreans 65 percent of the dry cleaners in New York City and, among early immigrants Irishmen ran most of the liquor stores in Boston, while Jews produced 85 percent of men’s clothes.

The common thread to these outcomes is that immigrants looked to their friends and acquaintances for help. Social influence and word of mouth kicked in.

“The topic of employment is frequent among new immigrants looking for work (Triggers),” he points out. “So they look to see what jobs other recent immigrants have taken (Public). These

more establishment immigrants want to look good (Social Currency) and help others (Practical Value) so they tell exciting (Emotion) narratives (Stories) about others they know who have been successful.”

The best part of the STEPPS framework, he adds, is that anyone can use it. It doesn’t need a huge advertising budget or marketing genius. Regular people with regular products and ideas, like food blenders, dairy products and candy bars have shown how it can be done.

• Consider your product and ask:

• What is or could be remarkable about it?

• What everyday occurrences might trigger people to think about it?

• How can it be used to generate powerful emotions like awe and humor?

• How can you make it more visible,

observable?

• How can you emphasize its practical value?

• And what’s your story, your Trojan horse?