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Contagious - Why things Catch On

A Review and Analysis in STEPPS

Introduction

Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is an expert on word of mouth, viral marketing, social influence, and trends. I have read his book in order to gain more insight into the world of social media and how things catch on in order to turn an idea/product/message viral which in turn benefit the creators intended purpose of it.  

We start off with Howard Wein’s success story on how a professional who was very successful in hotel management and helped Starwood launch its W Hotel brand wanted to focus on a more restaurant focused venture in Philadelphia, Barclay Prime.

What was the main ingredient that made Barclay Prime stand out and succeed amongst many other steakhouses in Philidelphia? Word of Mouth.

Word of Mouth, triggered by the introduction of a gourmet 100$ Philly Cheese steak Sandwich. 

“Did you try the 100$ Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich at Barclay Prime?”

The narrative about a 100$ Cheese Steak sandwich and the ingredients in it made people curious, and it triggered emotions when told.  People were surprised and wanted to be in the know and tell others they have tried it. It was a status symbol to have tried the gourmet sandwich, even celebrities such as David Beckham would try it.  

I am sure Johan Berger would appreciate the popularity explosion of Nusr-Et Steakhouse who is known in the Social Media world as Salt Bae.

So why do things catch on? The Traditional thought is that products, ideas and behaviours catch on because they:

1. Are better than the rest

2. Have attractive pricing

3. Advertised properly

Ditch that train of thought, it doesn't paint the whole picture is what we learn very quickly with Contagious.

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Six Principles of Contagiousness

There are Six Key STEPPS to make content/stories/news/information Contagious (Likely to spread and diffuse from person to person via word of mouth and social influence).

These ingredients are important in the art of leveraging word of mouth and social transition to make your message or product succeed.

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Social Transmission and WOM

“All videos on Youtube are free to watch, so why does one Youtube video become more viral?” - Jonah Berger

Social influence is an extremely important driver in people's purchasing decisions and this is where Word of Mouth is extremely important for any idea, product, behaviour to spread.

Word of mouth is the primary factor of 20-50% of consumers purchasing decision, it is more focused on you as your friends, colleagues and relatives are naturally inclined to recommend something to you based on knowing you as a person

Jonah was given two books by a publisher, but why two? One for him to read and the other to give to someone he felt would enjoy the book, that is a great example of how to generate WOM.  

According to the book, Social Media only accounts for 7% of WOM, therefore Social Media itself is overestimated, we all likes to have many followers and aesthetic indicators for an audience but not everyone reads every tweet or post.  Social Media reaches a large audience, but it is offline Word of Mouth that is more important for Social Transmission.

Will it Blend?

Tom Dickinson developed a series of Blenders that were so good they could blend almost anything, and while it was a great product there was generally no awareness as a Blender serves one unexciting purpose: To Blend Things.  

I was personally made aware of the Will it blend youtube series of advertisements by my friend Steve and it happened when the iPhone was released.  

“Check out this blender it can blend an iPhone,, ” Steve said.  I watched the youtube clip and I was hook because I was really curious if the Blendtec could blend anything.  After watching the video, amazed at what I just saw, and shocked that someone would blend the new expensive iPhone I shared it with my other friends too.  

This was a marketing campaign done by George Wright, who was inspired by Tom Dickinson’s product testing in the warehouse, will it Blend went Viral and people wanted to know more.  The videos evoked emotion, had a simple narrative and was a success, Blendtec increased its blender sales by 700% in 3 years.

The lesson was that Virality isn't born, it's made and even a plain product that is boring can be made contagious.

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Social Currency

If I had to describe what Social Currency is after reading Contagious, I would say I have learned that Social Currency is the value you generate about yourself based on what you share with others.  

Everyone likes to get likes right?

Whether it is sharing a remarkable idea, the latest information on an exclusive item that will be sold in limited quantities or even letting people know your achievements people like to share it. 

There are 3 ways to generate Social Currency:

Find Inner Remarkability

People like to share things that are interesting, thought-provoking and memorable.  They like to be perceived in this manner based on what they share, nobody wants to share something that is boring, sad or unpleasant most of the times.

The thirst for Social Currency is real

We all have friends that share articles on the latest corporate acquisitions, technological development or even TedX talks, and many are interesting but more importantly the type of articles and posts they share online is the impression they would like to give about themselves, it's a form of projection.

Some to the point where it actually harms the end goal of the initiative (see: Slacktivism)

One of Jonah Berger’s examples are the Snapple Trivia bottle caps, each bottle cap from a Snapple bottle had a Trivia fact that was remarkable and interesting, it got people to talk and share these facts with each other because they were surprising and entertaining, it became embedded in pop culture as well:

An incentive to open that bottle and to share your new found knowledge

I liken the Snapple Trivia caps to Tim Horton’s RRRoll up the rim to win the annual campaign, we could not wait to share what we won with each other even if it was a doughnut.

If you can produce content that is unusual, extraordinary or worthy of notice and attention, it will get people to talk and spread your message via word of mouth.

Leverage Game Mechanics

To describe Game Mechanics it would be the elements of a product that will keep people engaged, motivated and want more.  A reward system does that for consumers, such as reward miles on a credit card (people end up purchasing more with their credit cards to gather up miles and an upgrade in status).

People like to share their achievements, Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation are well known for putting in-game achievements and trophies for players who do difficult tasks or uncover secrets in a video game.  Some games go far as allowing players to purchase upgrades with actual money to give them an edge over others, the need for people to do better than others has always been there and it is a Social Status driver.

More examples of achievements can be found in: Checking in places Foursquare for achievements and mayorship, Interacting in Snapchat for points and badges, leaving reviews on Yelp.

Make People feel like insiders

As Jonah Berger mentions Ru La La and the exclusivity its clothing Webstore has to quick purchasing customers, I am reminded of many limited clothing companies on the internet that use low supply and high demand as its marketing driver.  For example Kayne West has one of the most successful Sneaker releases in Nike and Adidas history, quantities are extremely limited to the point where it is a social status to wear the Yeezys (his Brand name).

The limited quantity, insider information (related to raffles and how to get a pair) made anyone who was lucky enough to purchase a pair feel special and show it off on Instagram and other social media, even Pro Wrestling Superstar Ric Flair owns a few pairs.

Many companies try to lure customers into loyalty programs and get them to join newsletters to be the first to have exclusive information on their products and release dates, people will share this information with each other and show others what they bought to enhance their social currency.

Another example that was great to read about was Crif Dogs and the secret but not so secret ‘Please Don’t Tell  bar, if you are lucky enough to make a reservation on time you are allowed in this hidden gem of a bar in New York, who doesn’t like the adventure of discovering a Speakeasy? It is rewarding, exclusive and something to tell your friends and share online and most importantly you are doing it for free.

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Triggers

In the second STEPP Jonah Berger emphasises the importance of Triggers, why is Cheerios talked about more than Disney World?

I personally thought Disney World would be more talked about than Cheerios, after all, it was more exciting, interesting and a place almost all people would like to visit.

But Cheerios, as we will find out, is talked about more often, associated with breakfast, is more frequently available and triggers consumers stimuli.  People automatically can associate Cheerios with Breakfast.

“Top of mind is tip of tongue” - Jonah Berger

To increase word of mouth and drive people to talk about a product, you will need to take advantage of triggers.

So what are triggers?  They are little environmental reminders for related concepts or ideas, accessible thoughts that will lead to action.

A diagram of what I think triggers look like

Immediate word of mouth are important for movies, new food products etc. and Ongoing word of mouth are required for something like Cheerios where it isn't new but its product use is dependant on people talking about it and having it on the top of their minds.

Triggers help immensely with Ongoing word of mouth, while Social Currency enables word of mouth, triggers help maintain the pulse of that same word of mouth.

Triggers drive talking, and ongoing word of mouth amongst people will help spread a product, idea or message and give it longevity.  When it's Christmas, people associate it with the Colour Red, Santa Clause and subliminally with Coca-Cola due to Coca Cola’s 1930 marketing initiative to associate Santa Clause subliminally with Coca-Cola.

You can associate the colour orange with Halloween, green with St. Patricks Day, May the 4th with Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), and if you didn’t like Jedi’s you could enjoy the next day as it is called revenge of the 5th (a spin on the sequel revenge of the Sith, the main antagonists in the movie series).  

Even small talk amongst strangers could enable two parties to talk about a product, as you tend to talk about what is on your mind that day that can be accessible to someone else to talk about and if the context is right you two could end up talking about Starwars if it was May the 4th.  

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Emotion

With the help of a web crawler and a team, Jonah Berger’s research concluded that people will share content on the internet based on certain emotions.

At first, it seemed that people would share mostly content that evoked Awe or made them feel happy, but this was not the case.  People also frequently shared items that evoked anger and anxiety, therefore it was not solely positive emotion evoking content that people shared.

As humans, we are complex beings, with so many emotions

There was another element that was missing in the equation, it was Physiological Arousal. Physiological Arousal motivates an organism to act, and emotions like anger, anxiety prompted humans to act more than sadness and comfort, therefore more content that evoked anger, or anxiety were shared than ones with sadness or comfort (low physiological arousal content).

In order to properly understand the role emotions had when people shared content, they had to be sorted out based on the strength of physiological arousal each one had.

United Airlines Breaks Guitars

Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell released a song about United Airlines negligence when handling Dave’s guitar which they destroyed.  Frustrated with the lack of care, horrible customer service and no compensation for his damaged goods the song was about his horrible experience.

The video became a viral sensation as it evoked anger from viewers and United Airlines customers, making it one of the top 10 viral videos of 2009.  Consequentially within 4 days of the songs release United Airlines’s stock price fell 10 percent ($180 Million Dollars in value) and their brand suffered permanent damage.

Creating content that evokes the right emotions can be more important than the information conveyed, if you can find the emotions that drive people to share your content will spread out rapidly by word of mouth and at the same time if your brand is at risk from a negative story you need to protect your brand and account for the damage as soon as possible before it is too late due to potential customers negative high arousal emotions are evoked (sharing from dissatisfaction and anger).

Further studies conducted by Jonah Berger had people share an article in a relaxed state (sitting) and others after doing a light jog, a lot more ‘joggers’ shared the same article than the relaxed participants.  People shared more regardless of being emotionally or physically aroused.

Good content will activate people to share by physiologically arousing them.

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Public

“If something is built to show, it's built go grow” - Jonah Berger

 If lots of people are eating at a place, it's probably good.  If lots of people are lining up to a club or bar, it must be happening inside.  Why is that?

Social Proof is the act of resolving uncertainty by looking at what others do.  This type of herd mentality also plays a factor in people’s major decision making as pointed out in the chapter.  This herding is driven by social influence and can be a very strong factor in people’s decision making.

People have similar thoughts, but it's social proof that could confirm to them how to act, thoughts are private, but a person's behaviour is public.

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Supreme Clothing (pictured above) was established in1994 is a great example of Social proof with a cult like following where hundreds of people line up every week to buy the latest clothing line up, their box logo t-shirts are one of the most sought after products due to its limited quantity and high social currency value, it is a simple white t-shirt with the supreme logo in the center.

Behaviour can be influenced by observable things and observable things tend to be discussed more amongst others.  The Movember annual movement that occurs every November is a fantastic story of Social Proof, even I participate every November and grow and groom a moustache. The Movember Foundation has made the participants their brand spokesmen and informing others about Prostate Cancer.  The person wearing a moustache is generating social currency because he is doing this for a cause (positive initiative) and is influencing others as well, word of mouth played a big role as well.

Ensuring people can observe the product you are using enables Social Proof. Beats by Dre have a unique logo on their headphones, you know right away what they are and it is a status symbol of sorts, it’s a high-quality headset that even celebrities use and thus promotes social status.

Behavioural Residue is the physical traces or remnants that most actions or behaviour leave in their wake. In order to harness the positivity of Behavioural Residue Jonah Berger reflects on the Livestrong/Lance Armstrong Yellow Wristband.  It provided insight on what people like to follow or what cause to support.  The Yellow wristband itself reminded observers all the time about the Livestrong foundation, it was a massive success.

Yellow, Generates Social Currency.

To generate buzz and behavioural residue, people share what they do online (checking in places, leaving a review) or listening to (Spotify) or wearing (Instagram pics of their favourite brands), these are just a few examples of how important it is for brands to be accessable and visible to the public.

Jonah Berger also gives examples on the negative effects of behavioural residue and social proof in the advertisement campaigns on the war on drugs, people started consuming more marijuana as an alleged negative behaviour was made public instead of kept private.

And to end on this chapter, I am also reminded of the time Abercrombie and Fitch paid Mike the situation Sorrentino from the Jersey Shore fame to NOT wear their product as his image was not what they wanted users of Abercrombie and Fitch to portray and show to others, and could have caused irreversible damage to their brand due to Social Proof.

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Practical Value

People like to share valuable information, especially information that is helpful to them, such as a “life hacking” article or video.  Offering value to your content helps make it contagious.  

Sharing is caring and helping someone feels good as well and reflects positively on the person sharing, strengthening a friendship bond between two people.  

 Behavioral Economics

People don’t evaluate things in absolute terms, they have a reference point to compare before they make decisions, most of the time they use what they expected to pay as a reference point.  Advertisers try to counter this habit by placing the normal retail value beside a sale price if there is a sale, as we tend to buy things more frequently if they are on sale.   

Does this look familiar? A good website will always highlight the value of the sale to ensure it is making the reference point and not you.  Onnit is a company that sells “human optimisation” supplements and even gives the user the incentive to share what they bought on facebook or twitter for reward points. 

Diminishing Sensitivity also plays a role in a consumer's decision, if the sale is not impactful enough against the reference point the consumer has, they will not purchase that product in question.

Limited quantities or editions of a product will increase the demand, as I explained earlier with the Kayne West Yeezy 350 sneaker line, creating a very limited product with a high demand made the sneaker extremely high in social currency value, everyone must have it!  If a product is always available and on sale, however, the value of the product will eventually decrease.

Making your product or service valuable is a step that will enhance your brand, airlines now offer its customers Smart Phone applications to book and check the status of their flight, as well as manage their reward program profile. Trying to bridge a gap between the service you offer and your customer with useful tools can give you an advantage over your competitors, and if it is valuable enough other customers will share it with their colleagues and friends.

Billy Mays understood how to show the value of a product in both application and sale by infomercials. 

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Stories

The last part of the STEPPS of Contagious content, we talk about Stories.

Using a story as a vessel for your message, product or idea is crucial in allowing information to flow from one person to another reliably and seamlessly.  With stories, messages and lessons learned can be embedded within the story to help promote your brand.  

A pleasant customer experience told to you by a friend can in turn influence you to try a product or service.  While it is important to get people to talk, it is more important to ensure any story related to your brand needs to bring value to it.  The product should not be lost in the story, the message and narrative should go hand in hand with your brand, or there will be no benefit to it.

While Golden Palace hired a streaker to interrupt a game, it did create buzz but nobody really bought what they were selling, the product/brand was lost in the outrageousness of the stunt.

The “Never say no to Panda” commercials by Panda Cheese are a good example of intertwining your brand, and story together.  The Virality of the commercials was so great but the message was never lost, at the end of the video you knew that Panda Cheese was being sold to you in a humourous way.

Never say no to Panda

While it isn’t talked about in the Book Contagious due to the book being published 3 years ago, there have been more channels to publish quick stories shared by users.  Today thanks to the popularity of Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and even Whatsapp have story streaming features where brand ambassadors product place, or if you really like the product stream what you are doing/using to elevate your social currency.

Tagging a location, time and day while on your story stream is a relatively new form of generating Social Currency and Brand Influence

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Conclusion

What I really enjoyed about Contagious was how practical Jonah Berger dissected each chapter and lesson, these STEPPS are first-hand examples we have all experienced, we just could not identify them in such a manner to manage how Contagious an idea, message or product can be.

Any product idea or behaviour can be contagious with STEPPS

Social influence helps all ideas catch on, and Social Epidemics are driven by the products and ideas.  Individuals have to catch the idea and pass it along by transmission.  These are determined by an idea’s characteristics and can be transmitted to the masses with the STEPPS Recipe.

Social Currency: We share things that make us look good

Does talking about your product or idea make them look good?

Triggers: Top of mind, tip of tongue

What cues make people think about your product?

Emotion: When we care we share

Does talking about your product generate any emotion?

Public: Built to show built go row

Does your product or idea advertise itself?

Practical Value: News you can use

Does talking about your product help others?

Stories: Information Travels under the Guise of idle chatterlWhat is your Trojan Horse?

Finally, what makes STEPPS framework great is that anyone can use it.

If you would like to Purchase the book, it is available here

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The Perfect Plant made Burger?

Beyond Meat’s solution to a plant based burger has gained lots of popularity and was even featured in the Dr. Oz show and is gaining mainstream media attention.

Founded in 2009, Beyond Meat’s goal is to “produce plant-based products that replicated meat and to attempt to eliminate "some of the downsides" of the meat industry in the process” as per Ethan Brown, CEO of Beyond Meat.

As of now you can purchase their products at 255 different Whole Foods Market outlets in the United States.