One of my favorite book about marketing is Made to Stick from the fantastic Chip Heath and Dan Heath. This presentation is an overview of the book explaining what makes an idea or concept memorable or interesting.
3. #context
Morton Grodzins
Metropolitan Segregation (1957)
The expression comes from physics where it referred to the adding a
small amount of weight to a balanced object until the additional weight
caused the object to suddenly and completely topple, or tip.
Most of the white families remained in the neighborhood as long as the
comparative number of black families remained very small. At a certain
point, when one too many black families arrived, the remaining white
families would move out en masse in a process known as white flight.
He called that moment the "tipping point".
5. #context
Connectors are the people in a community who know large numbers of
people and who are in the habit of making introductions.
Mavens are "information specialists", those who are intense gatherers of
information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or
nascent trends.
Salesmen are "persuaders", charismatic people with powerful negotiation
skills. They tend to have an indefinable trait that goes beyond what they say,
which makes others want to agree with them.
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
1. The Law of the Few
7. #context
The specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable.
Popular children's television programs such as Sesame Street and Blue's
Clues pioneered the properties of the stickiness factor, thus enhancing
effective retention of educational content as well as entertainment value.
3. The Stickiness Factors
9. A businessman, frequent traveler was returning from a meeting
with clients, and he stopped at the airport bar. An attractive
woman approached him and offered to buy him a drink. He took a
sip of his and… that's the last thing he remembered until...
#context
14. Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add,
but when there is no longer anything to take away
— Wind, Sand and Stars, Saint Exupery (ch3, p60)
1. Simple
15.
16. “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war”
— General McChrystal
22. #simple
complexity of the
presented idea
complexity of
the reflexion
SIMPLE
COMPLEX
SIMPLISTIC
FRAUD
it’s the planning process that is useful
not the comprehensive plan
25. #simple
complexity of the
presented idea
complexity of
the reflexion
SIMPLE
COMPLEX
SIMPLISTIC
FRAUDeverything that’s beneficial
everything that’s critical = core
26. #simple
SIMPLE=
Core + Compactthe single most important thing you want to communicate
Paradoxically, simple is in fact it’s a bit more complex
27. #simple
SIMPLE
everything that’s critical
Core
Start cooperation and continue to do so until one of the four tests below fails.
1. First impression: A defection on the first move is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
2. Short term: Two defections in any three turns is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
3. Medium term: Three defections out of the last twenty periods is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
4. Long term: Five defections out of the last one hundred periods is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
The law of talion (an eye for an eye)
Compact
30. #simple
The pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis), is a
citrus fruit native to South East Asia. It is usually pale
green to yellow when ripe, with sweet white flesh and
very thick spongy rind. It is the largest citrus fruit,
15-25 cm in diameter, and usually weighing 1-2 kg.
Pomelos are super-sized grapefruits
vs
“
32. two roles: “tapper” and “listener“
chose a well-known song
and tap out the rhythm on a table. guess the song
What’s the probability that the listener guess your song?
#simple
33. The Curse of Knowledge
When a tapper taps, it is impossible for her to avoid hearing the tune playing along to
her taps. Meanwhile, all the listener can hear is a kind of bizarre Morse code.
The problem is that once we know something—say, the melody of a song—we find it
hard to imagine not knowing it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us.
— Elizabeth Newton, 1990. Overconfidence in the communication of intent: Heard and unheard melodies.
unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University
#simple
34. #simple
SIMPLE =
Core + Compact
Your Ennemies:
1. the beneficial
2. the decision paralysis
3. the curse of knowledge
Your Allies:
1. the critical
2. schemas
3. analogy & methapors
41. #unexpected
Write the lead of this newspaper story:
“Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School,
announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to
Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching
methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret
Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and
California governor Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown.“
1/3
42. #unexpected
A good journalist gets the facts & reports them.
To get the facts, you track down the five Ws:
Who, What, Where, When, and Why.
CLUE
2/3
52. #concrete
One hot summer day a Fox was strolling through an orchard. He saw a
bunch of Grapes ripening high on a grape vine. “Just the thing to quench
my thirst,“ he said. Backing up a few paces, he took a run and jumped at
the grapes, just missing. Turning around again, he ran faster and jumped
again. Still a miss. Again and again he jumped, until at last he gave up
out of exhaustion. Walking away with his nose in the air, he said “I am sure
they are sour.“ It is easy to despise what you can’t get.
— The Fox and the Grapes, Aesop.
53. Beware: the conclusion is in the story
but the story is not in the conclusion.
#concrete
Concreteness is a terrific way to dispel the curse of knowledge!
54. #concrete
Kennedy: “Landing a man on moon
and returning him safely to the earth “
instead of “strategically targeted
aerospace initiatives“
illustration + vivid target
57. #concrete
THE VELCRO THEORY OF MEMORY
It feels different to remember different kind of things.
Memory is not like a single filing cabinet. It’s more like Velcro.
Remember the capital of Kansas
Remember the first line of “Hey Jude“
Remember the Mona Lisa
Remember the definition of truth
Rememer the definition of watermelon
65. Experience to simulate a trial. Jurors had to assess the fitness
of a mother and to decide wether her seven-year-old son
should remain in her care.
The transcript was constructed to be closely balanced.
There were 8 arguments against and 8 arguments for.
All the jurors heard the same arguments. The only difference
was the level of details. Eg: “Mrs Johnson sees to it that her
child washes and brushes his teeth before bedtime“ VS “He
uses a Star Wars toothbrush that looks like Darth Vader“.
A suitable parent?
Verdict: 5.8/10 (vivid details) vs 4.3/10 (normal details)
—> 35% increase!!
66. #credible
The Sinatra Test
If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere
If you’ve done encryption for the NSA, you can do it anywhere.
when one example alone is enough
to establish credibility in a given domain.
72. WIIFM
What Is In For Me
1. Use the world “You “
2. Make them visualize
themselves experiencing
the benefit.
73. People > Abstraction
Story about a young girl from Mali:
average donation = $2.34
Statistics about the magnitude of the
problems facing children in Mali:
average donation = $1.14