Argentina - Week 1

Winter in Seattle

Final Project_Locks of Love

Review of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point

Intro:

During times of economic uncertainty, it is especially important for brands to spend their budget wisely. Advertisers strive to maximize ROI and can’t afford to just throw their dollars at an idea unless they are confident it will lead to success. Being able to effectively spread a message across the masses is more important now than ever. In Malcolm Gladwell’s, The Tipping Point, he demonstrates that sometimes, it’s the “little things can make a big difference.”

A tipping point is, “that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once” (pg. 9). What determines if a style will become trendy? How do diseases spread so rapidly? What affects crime rise/declines? By providing a variety of case studies, Gladwell explains the factors behind why some trends spread like wildfire, while others fail to create any movement at all. Throughout all of Gladwell’s anecdotes, patterns start to reveal themselves and it becomes easier to comprehend how a tipping point is achieved.

The idea behind The Tipping Point is that, “the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or any number of the other mysterious chances that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do” (pg. 7). Through out The Tipping Point, Gladwell identifies three key factors behind successfully setting a trend: The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor and The Power of Context. In an ideal scenario, aspects of all three of these concepts will be present for an epidemic to spread widely.

The Law of the Few

In 1995, sales for the classic American shoe, “Hush Puppies” was so low, that the company was debating putting an end to the brand all together. All it took were a few kids in New York’s East Village neighborhood to sport the untrendy “Hush Puppies,” to make the shoes “hip” again. “No one was trying to make Hush Puppies a trend. Yet, that’s exactly what happened. The shoes passed a certain point in popularity and they tipped” (pg 5). Sales increased exponentially and the brand was back in business. All it took were a few influential kids wearing the shoes out around town to expose others to their fashion sense and in turn infect them with the Hush Puppies virus, hence supporting Gladwell’s theory of “The Law of the Few” (pg. 7). The comeback of Hush Puppies is just one of many examples that Gladwell presents to portray how a just few influential people can make something “tip.”

Law of Few looks at the kinds of people who are critical to spreading information. This concept weighs heavily on the nature of the messenger. “The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts” (pg. 33).

The Law of the Few also states that before a trend can tip, a few key types of people must be involved. Gladwell describes these players as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Similar to Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, a successful idea will often rely on the interaction of all three of these types of influential individuals. “In a social epidemic, Mavens are data banks who provide the message; Connectors are social glue who spread the message; Salesmen persuade us when we are unconvinced” (pg. 70).

Connector

Connectors are part of a group of individuals that Gladwell credits with facilitating the relationships key to the tipping process. “Connectors are people with a special gift for bringing the world together.” Connectors have excessive amounts of friends and aquaintances – they are the “Kevin Bacons” of the world. They know people in all different circles and thrive in bringing these worlds together.

Maven

A second key player in the word of mouth landscape is the Maven. Mavens are collectors of knowledge and information. They are the ones you go to for restaurant recommendations. They are the ones advising on doctors, real estate, theater and the stock market just to name a few. Mavens are the Elite Yelpers who crave and are motivated by social interactions, “They aren’t just passive collectors of information. Once they figure out how to get that deal, they want to tell you about it too” (pg. 62).

Salesman

Salesmen possess a natural charm and energy and often have the ability to impact the decisions of those with whom they come in contact. Often, Salesmen are so subtle that their power to persuade goes unnoticed.

The Stickiness Factor

The Stickiness Factor describes the characteristics that attract an audience and in turn get a particular concept to “stick.” Stickiness is not always obvious, and often, the most random and unanticipated details lead to a successful idea which influences behavior. Gladwell preaches, “There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it” (pg. 132). As for the characteristics of successful ideas, “Stickiness Factor suggests that in order to be capable of sparking epidemics, ideas have to be memorable and move us to take action” (pg. 139).

When most people think of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, chances are, they have no idea about what kind of thought went into making them “stick.” In the late ‘60s, television producer Joan Ganz Cooney had a vision to spread literacy to under-privileged children through television. She desired to create an educational epidemic that would have a lasting impact and “tip” the learning scales. Against the advice of child psychologists, producers combined real actors with make-believe puppets, all living on the same “Street.” The creators of Sesame Street, “discovered that by making small but critical adjustments in how they presented ideas to preschoolers, they could overcome television’s weakness as a teaching tool and make what they had to say memorable. Sesame Street succeeded because it learned how to make television sticky” (pg. 91). Abiding by the same school of thought, Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues successfully followed the same footsteps, going against traditional child development techniques and creating a show that tipped the scales of educational television.

Power of Context

Speaking to the Power of Context, Gladwell describes situational factors that affect an epidemic. “Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur” (pg. 139). Even subtle environmental factors may induce certain behaviors more rapidly than influential individuals themselves.

Gladwell uses the example of New York City’s rapid decline in crime rate in the earl 80s to illustrate the impact of context. By implementing what seemed to be small, minute changes in the subway system, punishing petty criminals, and cleaning up graffiti, the local government indirectly decreased overall crime by getting repeat offenders of the street. The transformation that took place had all of the ingredients necessary to tip the crime level into a significant decline over just a short span of time.

So while the substance and delivery of a concept are important, the surrounding conditions are equally crucial. For instance, had the trendy kids wearing Hush Puppies been spotted sporting the shoes in Detroit, Michigan, perhaps the trend wouldn’t have taken off the way it did in New York’s trendy East Village. The same goes for Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride; because it was made at night, it was more probable that he’d be able to reach more people who were at home sleeping than if he had tried to spread his message during the day.

Gladwell also discusses the impact that even slight changes on group dynamics and size can have on a concept tipping. For example, Gladwell shows how the success of the book, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, is largely due to the fact that women identified to the book in groups, rather than individually. Women attended readings, signings, bought books for themselves and for their family members and friends, and had in depth discussions at local book clubs; it became a social experience. The growth and engagement of this community of women led to a social phenomenon that tipped the book, skyrocketing “Sisterhood’s” sales. “The lesson of Ya-Ya is that small, close-knit groups have the power to magnify the epidemic potential of a message or idea” (pg. 174).

Conclusion:

Overall, I enjoyed this book and found many of Gladwell’s theories to be interesting and relevant. Coming from the advertising world, I definitely can appreciate the mystery of why some of the most random trends become popular and why some brilliant ideas can fail miserably. Gladwell’s “Stickiness Theory” in particular resonates with me, as in my field, we strive to find concepts that will resonate and sustain over time with our audience. It’s easy to forget that sometimes all it takes is something completely subtle to make the difference between success and failure. Though at times he is quite repetitive in his writing, I actually found that Gladwell’s redundancy helped to further drive the point home. Overall, I would recommend this book and look forward to reading Malcolm Gladwell’s other works.

GoTime Communications Strategy

Money for Nothing and Shorter Content for Free?

I found Bill Wasik’s interview on “Big Think” to be very in-line with my views on modern media. I absolutely agree that one of the cons of modern media is the relentless distraction it encourages. I experience it myself every day. I feel like I’ve developed internet-onset ADD! As soon as I go to Twitter, I’m clicking on 10 different links. Those pages bring me to 10 more different links. Before I know it, I have 100 windows open at once, and I am giving less quality attention to each of them. Even as I sat down to write this blog entry, it took checking my facebook, email, twitter, facebook again and then email to finally settle down and concentrate on doing my homework.

I (we) have the most ambitious intentions to see/do all, but there is so much “dangling in front of us” as Wasik says, that it’s often quite difficult to retain everything. I have a hard enough time managing modern media now - I can’t imagine what it would have been like juggling these outlets when I was younger. Don’t get me wrong – I love the fact that there is an infinite, amount of data out there – and an abundance of ways to connect with like-minded communities, however, each day that a new site/application is released, my ability to concentrate only gets worse.

I really liked Bill’s example of the Kindle as a device conducive to making money, due to the experience it affords its users (so much so that I kind of want to get one now)! I think that choosing to consume content, on your own time, is a much more rich experience than doing so in a rushed environment, while at work, on a time crunch. There is less multi-tasking, and the consumption is done in an environment away from the chaos of blackberries and computers. People are much more willing to pay for this kind of leisurely experience, than accessing shorter content, which is actually more conducive to the busy schedule. There is such an over-abundance of shorter content that developing a model to monetize will be extremely difficult (unless the scenario described by Bill becomes a reality - companies start failing, shorter content becomes scarcer, and users are actually forced to open their wallets).

Hooray for Hulu

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, or so they say. I’d like to think of myself as pretty digitally savvy, however, I can’t break my habits of taking in programming the traditional way. I have watched online video on Hulu before, and while I appreciate its convenience and value, I am hooked on watching my favorite shows on TV (even if via tivo). There’s something to be said about coming home after a long day and unwinding in front of the tube. For me, I just don’t get that same experience watching The Office on a small computer screen.

Presently, I don’t think that offering free content on sites like Hulu takes away from the $120 billion television market. There will always be people like me who prefer to take in programming on TV over the internet. That said, trends are changing and there is a whole new generation who relies primarily on the internet to consume video content. In fact, I have encountered several individuals at UW who don’t even own a television (unimaginable to me, however, this is becoming the new norm). Moving forward, it will be crucial that content producers reach the viewers where they spend most of their time. Since eyes will be shifting away from television, commercial dollars will decline, forcing the networks and content producers to get more creative with their business models.

I don’t think that charging for Hulu is a video apocalypse, especially to their fans who find tremendous value in their service. Similar to how consumers are willing to pay a fee to access content via cable, DVR, premium channels, iTunes, etc. they will adjust to the concept of paying for online video content. I think that most regular viewers would be fine paying a small fee, rather than lose the service all together, or be bombarded by excessive advertisements, which would be the alternative route for Hulu to stay afloat. The key is to build a community of loyalists, now, while the service is free, who will stick with Hulu, despite commoditization, rather than look elsewhere on the web for content that may suffer in convenience and quality.