Otherwise, why would she even mention it? If a friend recommends a new whitening toothpaste to you, it’s most likely because it worked for her or someone she knows. There are two big reasons why word-of-mouth marketing is more effective than “formal” ways of advertising.įirst and foremost, our trust is greater in our peers than in advertisers. Maybe we are, after all, not as addicted to internet communication as some researchers are trying to convince us we are. That’s right, 93% of sharing, even of online content is via face-to-face interaction. Person-to-person sharing about new products, brands, causes, and events.Īnd guess what part of the word of mouth recommendations happen online? Only 7 percent. The most powerful marketing tool that exists is not social media, but word of mouth. Jonah Berger reveals that we have it all wrong. Everyone seems so excited about using Facebook or Instagram ads for spreading their ideas. If you are trying to market a product, grow a personal brand, or organize your community around a common cause, you probably think that social media is your best bet. If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Word of mouth is better advertising than online marketing. Ready to seriously upgrade your marketing knowledge base? Let’s go! People intuitively make sense of the world through stories.“Top-of-mind leads to tip-of-tongue” should be the mantra of all marketers.Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing mechanism.Here are 3 of the most important lessons the book teaches about how products, ideas, and stories get shared:

His conclusions about why some ideas spread like a virus are the core of Contagious : Why Things Catch On. Much like the book Hooked, Berger digs deep into the psychology behind consumer choices. Jonah Berger has been doing exactly this for over 15 years now. That’s just how the Internet seems to work – at least if you don’t look any deeper.īut what if there was somebody who tried to find out what separates contagious ideas from the ones that never make themselves known? One article gets a million shares on social media and another, although similar, sees only a handful. We assume that some concepts or products become more popular than others out of sheer luck. Even if a popular video seems random to you, it has qualities that make people want to pass it on. Have you ever wondered what makes some random YouTube videos go viral, regardless of their quality, bad taste, or how cliché they are? 1-Sentence-Summary: Contagious illustrates why certain ideas and products spread better than others by sharing compelling stories from the world of business, social campaigns, and media.

Contagious book sparknotes