Review Of The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell

A constant wonder I have while shopping online or in stores is why some products are big hits and why others are not. Because honestly, I question how certain products become so popular. I’m talking about you chunky dad shoes and biker shorts. While some products like those can be attributed to celebrity fashion, there are regular products that hit that “tipping point” and make it big on the market. That’s why I was drawn to the book “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian author, journalist, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996 and has written six books. Gladwell’s books usually deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences such as sociology, psychology and social psychology. While “The Tipping Point” talks a lot about social epidemics, I believe it is important and relevant to marketing. Marketers need to know why people are drawn to certain ideas and products, so it’s important that they take the time to understand the underlying reasons. Gladwell wanted to answer the question of “why is it that some ideas or behaviors or products start epidemics and others don’t?”. He explains that the phenomenon of epidemics and to achieve the “tipping point” has three main rules, the law of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of context.

The law of the few states that there are certain groups of people that are critical to causing social epidemics. This infectious group of people is called connectors, mavens and salesmen. A way to get a product or an idea out there is so find these people and let them do the advertising for you. Connectors are people who know a lot of other people and have a large circle of friends and acquaintances. They have a special gift that brings the world together. These people usually have different interest or niches and belong essentially to “different worlds”. They are important because they can be the bridge that brings a product to a group that otherwise may have never even considered buying into. The term Maven comes from the Yiddish language and means “one who accumulates knowledge”. People trust the reviews of the people they know, more than reviews from random people on sites like yelp.

Mavens are people who like to help and educate others and will start word of mouth epidemics just because they have knowledge of a product that they really like and want other to enjoy it as much as they do. Mavens are essentially the opinion leaders of the marketing world. Salesmen are the real tippers of the word of mouth epidemic. They have a way about them that makes you want to listen and believe that what they are selling is something that you want and need to have. These are the people who are the best customers to have because they will write the most friendly and personable review. They are also great to have as employees especially on social media. They have the contagious personality and it shows in any context whether verbal or written. Mavens are data banks; connectors are the social glue and salesmen have the skills to persuade when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing. Use body language. The second rule is that the idea or product must have the “stickiness factor”. Meaning, you must as the question “is this an idea or product that will be memorable?”. In the book, it states that marketers believe that an advertisement must be seen six times before anyone will remember it. “ideas have to be memorable and move us to action”. Make small changes until you get something to stick. Could be as easy as changing the price of a product to an odd number.

The last rule of epidemics is the power of context. People are somewhat superficial in that they feed a lot off their environment. The book states “epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur”. An example from the book is how just cleaning the graffiti off the trains and cracking down on fare dodging helped drop crime rates in New York City in the 90’s. When the context of a situation changes, people will usually adapt to that change. In relation to marketing, this rule deals more along the lines of internal factors.