So I just finished reading "Made to Stick"...

And I must say that I was thoroughly impressed by the contents of Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath. The thesis of the book is that any effective, convincing message communicated either through an organization or to consumers much share one or more of the following six characteristics:

Simplicity
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotional
Stories

Simplicity is basically stripping an idea down to its core, without making it sound like a cheesy PSA slogan. The key is to center an organizational philosophy or marketing message around a simple concept that is easy for your co-workers and management to remember at all times. The book talks about how the military uses the concept of Simplicity in managing large-scale operations involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Unexpectedness basically deals with breaking people's schema- their pre-constructed generalizations of the world around them - and making an idea seem novel and interesting. The idea is that people have categorized everything in the world around them into certain patterns of thought. For instance when you think of luxury cars you think of Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, etc. For soft drinks it might be Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, etc. Being unexpected and unpredictable breaks people's generalizations and prevents you from being generalized like every other communicator.

Concreteness is the concept that takes the idea of Simplicity and makes it relevant to your audience. The key is that you can't just have a simple idea - it has to have salient meaning to connect with your constituents and customers. It must relate to their lives, experiences and higher patterns of thought. When an idea is concrete, people remember it much easier because they already have some sort of relevance to the topic, to an extent where they'll say "aha! I know where this guy is coming from!" When an idea is concrete, people connect.

Credibility is how you get people to believe in your idea. It is pretty self-explanatory - basically the more your audience respects and confides in the source, the greater meaning the message has. The book talks about how both celebrity and average joe alike can promote a message and you might be very surprised as to which source holds the most weight. Let's just say that the guy who convinced an entire nation that movie theatre popcorn is as unhealthy as three Big Macs didn't play basketball for the Chicago Bulls.

Emotional is all about getting people to care for your message on deep, subconscious level. It's pretty simple - if people are going to care for your message they must hold personal feelings for it, whether it be anger, humor, melancholy, shock, etc. The book also notes other strategies such as how you must appeal to self-interest (since most humans by nature are interested in themselves before anything else), create association between a consumer and product, and develop an identity for an entire consumer base. The State of Texas did just the latter to influence the largest litter-disposal movement in the history of the state.

Finally, telling Stories is he art of communicating a core message thorugh the experiences of other people. The logic behind this strategy is that people are more inclined to act on an issue when they see one of their very own endure that same hardship or experience. Consumers are often reluctant to attempt a new lifestyle or purchase a new product based on a sales pitch alone. But by recounting the experience of just an average joe going through the trial and error before them, it makes the experiment safe, reliable and realistic. The chapter cites the Jared Subway campain as its primary example, and it is probably the greatest example in the entire book since this single campaign incorporated ALL SIX concepts, including Stories, talked about in the book.


Now that I've given a pretty good synopsis of what the book has to say, I hope that you make the time to check it out yourself. It's a very easy, non-challenging read for those of you that hate reading to begin with and it gives some incredible insight on not just how to run an advertising campaign but just how to communicate with people around you in general. The concepts are incredibly succinct and logical and are easily applicable to nearly all forms of communication. I'll definitely try to apply some of these teachings to my very own project, and will continue to do so in the rest of my life and career.

We can all learn a thing or two from this guide, so if you have the free time to pick up a book check it out.