What makes things popular? If you said advertising, think again. I would highly recommend this to other business owners as it is sure to provide a lot of ideas that could be implemented.“Jonah Berger knows more about what makes information ‘go viral’ than anyone in the world.” -Daniel Gilbert, author of the bestseller Stumbling on Happiness The book is a quick read, but I plan on re-reading it again in a few months, as it has so many examples and a solid underlying theory of how things go viral that I’ll want to take a second look. While not explicitly a how-to book, anyone reading it will connect the content to real-world examples they see every day. There are numerous examples throughout the book that can give business owners ideas on how to create and market products and services better. He argues, convincingly so, that good marketing will associate the product with common triggers.

Want to sell French wine in your store, play French music. Have a coffee break? Have a Kit Kat, too. Kit Kat wanted to create more triggers for its candy, so it made commercials with the candy associating it with coffee. If you think of beaches, you might be triggered to associate Corona beer with them due to their commercials. My favorite chapter is on creating triggers. For example, he shows that NASA’s Mars Pathfinder program actually boosted Mars Candy’s sales, though it had no connection, other than the name, to the NASA program. For those who want to go to the sources, the Notes section does provide a lot of academic references.īerger uses STEPPS: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories to move the reader through factors that make a product contagious. Much like the Malcolm Gladwell books, this is chock full of interesting and intuitively correct anecdotes The tone is casual, written for non-academics. Anti-drug commercials that might increase drug use.Pairing Kit Kats in marketing messages with coffee.Videos showing a blender tearing apart marbles, phones and more.This is what every business wants: products or services so awesome that there is no need for traditional marketing.

How does a product or idea market itself? That is, what characteristics give it a life of its own and take it to a place well beyond any traditional marketing dollar spend. This book is simply a great read on the idea of viral marketing.

Contagious by jonah berger