Contagious by Jonah Berger asserts that the key to making products, ideas, or concepts popular is word of mouth. Berger challenges Malcolm Gladwell’s theory in The Tipping Point, which attributes influence to a select group of individuals. In contrast, Berger contends that the power lies in thousands of small-scale conversations among everyday people. To achieve contagiousness, Berger provides insights into making things interesting enough to spark discussions and offers strategies for leveraging word of mouth effectively. The
In the initial section of our guide, we delve into Jonah Berger’s rationale behind considering word of mouth as the primary driver of popularity. Moving on to Part Two, we break down Berger’s principles for cultivating word of mouth, categorized into three key steps: 1) Attract your audience, 2) Engage your audience, and 3) Benefit your audience. Throughout our analysis, we incorporate insights from psychological research and present alternative viewpoints to offer a nuanced understanding of Berger’s strategies. Additionally, we illustrate Berger’s principles with real-world examples and offer practical advice on customizing these approaches for your specific product or idea.
Part 1: The Source of Popularity
Jonah Berger’s exploration begins by dissecting the causes of widespread popularity across various domains such as ideas, articles, videos, and products. His argument unfolds through two key assertions:
- Conventional Wisdom: Berger challenges the conventional view that attributes popularity to factors like low prices, high quality, and extensive advertising. While acknowledging their contribution, he contends that these factors alone don’t define popularity, particularly as companies shift away from mass-marketing strategies.
- Word of Mouth and Popularity: Berger posits that the crux of popularity lies in word of mouth—conversations, recommendations, and gossip among people. This form of personal communication proves potent due to its frequency, trustworthiness, and targeted nature.
- Frequency: Regular conversations among individuals lead to exponential idea spread. When people express interest in a product, they share it with others, creating a cascading effect.
- Trustworthiness: Word of mouth gains credibility as it involves personal opinions rather than idealized advertising. People tend to trust recommendations from friends, family, and colleagues more than commercial messages.
- Targeted: Word of mouth inherently targets an interested audience. Those who are genuinely interested in a product are more likely to buy and share their positive experiences, contributing to its popularity.
Influencer Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Popularity:
Berger introduces the concept of influencer marketing, where individuals with substantial online followings promote products. The proponents of influencer marketing argue that it mirrors the benefits of word of mouth:
- Frequent: Influencers, through regular content creation, mention products frequently in their online presence, aligning with the frequency of word-of-mouth conversations.
- Trustworthy: Influencers position themselves as authorities in specific domains, fostering trust among their followers. Their endorsements are seen as credible due to their perceived expertise.
- Targeted: Influencers already have audiences interested in their content. Collaborating with influencers related to a product ensures targeted marketing, reaching audiences already predisposed to the product category.
Part 2: Generating Word of Mouth | Step 1: Attract Your Audience
In this segment, Jonah Berger outlines strategies for generating word of mouth, organized into three main steps: Attract your audience, Engage your audience, and Benefit your audience.
Method #1: Create Public Visibility
Berger emphasizes the importance of making your product publicly visible to attract attention. This involves ensuring that people can easily observe others using your product. Public visibility leads to increased product recall as individuals encounter it frequently. Strategies include prominently displaying your product’s name or logo. Berger suggests that if your product is not naturally used publicly, find creative ways to showcase it, such as offering free promotional items that users can display.
Method #2: Use Effective Triggers
To enhance product noticeability, connect it to effective triggers—stimuli that act as reminders. When people encounter these triggers, they automatically think of your product. Triggers must have long-term relevance to ensure repeated exposure. Berger advises making connections to things highly relevant to people’s lives, ensuring the trigger remains effective over an extended period.
Step #2: Engage Your Audience
Once you’ve attracted an audience, the focus shifts to keeping them interested. Berger highlights two methods for engagement: inspiring an emotional response and telling a story.
Method #1: Inspire an Emotional Response
Berger recommends marketing that focuses on eliciting emotional responses rather than delivering extensive information. High-arousal emotions, such as anger, anxiety, awe, amusement, and excitement, are particularly effective. The goal is to make people not only talk about the product but also feel emotionally connected to the brand.
Emotional Virality Consideration: Research suggests that emotional “virality” depends not only on physiological arousal but also on valence (positivity or negativity) and dominance (how much control people feel). Different combinations of these factors can lead to various forms of virality.
Method #2: Tell a Story
Engagement involves telling compelling narratives where your product is central. People enjoy sharing interesting stories, especially when the product is integral to the narrative. Adding context to stories by explaining when and why people use the product enhances audience engagement.
Step #3: Benefit Your Audience
Berger emphasizes the importance of ensuring that your audience gains something from talking about your product. Two primary benefits discussed are social currency and practical value.
Benefit #1: Social Currency
Social currency refers to the idea that talking about your product should give individuals social influence and make them look interesting. Berger suggests making your product remarkable, applying game mechanics, and utilizing scarcity and exclusivity to enhance its social currency.
Making Your Product Remarkable: Berger advises making your product stand out by highlighting unique features or capabilities. Seth Godin suggests taking risks to make your product remarkable.
Applying Game Mechanics: Adding game mechanics, such as reward systems, can provide a sense of accomplishment and motivate customers to share their achievements, generating word of mouth.
Using Scarcity and Exclusivity: Creating a sense of scarcity or exclusivity around your product makes customers feel special, encouraging them to share their unique experience.
Benefit #2: Provide Practical Value
Practical value involves making your product a source of usefulness, providing discounts or useful information.
Discounts: Providing significant discounts makes your product a money-saving option, encouraging people to share their discovery with others.
Useful Information: Sharing practical tips or advice that makes life easier generates word of mouth as customers pass on valuable information to friends and family.
Berger’s approach highlights the significance of not just attracting an audience but keeping them engaged and providing benefits that encourage them to share their experiences, ultimately driving word of mouth.
