What makes things go viral?

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Jonah Berger

244 pgs

Simon and Shuster

$26.00

Review by: Spenser Hicks

Contagious is a book I found hard to put down. It contains so much insightful and actually shocking information on why certain products and trends become so popular. Jonah Berger, an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote the book and it seems like he knows what he is talking about all the way throughout. He studies social influence and social epidemics in depth and was honored in the New York Times “Year in Ideas” Issue. A theme that is spread throughout the whole book and one that I found extremely interesting was when social transmission is discussed. Berger describes word of mouth as being the best manner for social transmission of new products or ideas and it makes sense. I would suggest knowing a little bit about social transmission in general before diving into the book. One of the best metaphors he gives in the book and definitely the most memorable is when he compares a contagious product to a forest fire and says, “They can’t happen without hundreds, if not thousands of regular Joes and Janes passing the product or message along. He proposes 6 principles that will make a message more contagious: social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value, and stories. He then gets into talking about certain products over the years that have demonstrated these such as Cheerios, Hotmail, and even Vietnamese nail salons. Overall the book is a good read that is easy to understand. I could personally connect to this book, which made it even more interesting for me. I though of Razor scooters when I was a kid and how popular they became and how everyone wanted one just cause all their friends had them. It has many great comparisons but at some points lacks in depth. I would have liked to read a specific case study or two on some of the products he talked about. At times it also tries to do too much and gets a little to general, not recognizing all the intricacies that go into some of the ideas or products. Other than that it was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone. 

Contagious: New Terms with Old Ideas?

Book Title: Contagious

Author: Jonah Berger

Length: 256 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Price: $18.89

Picture is produced by www.topmba.com

Contagious: New Terms with Old Ideas?

Rahnuma Ahmed

What makes products, ideas, and behaviors viral? Jonah Berger knows the answer best! Berger is the James G. Campbell Associate Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His book titled Contagious is mainly about  social epidemics, which have always been his areas of interest.

In this book, Berger introduces an interesting model called STEPPS for explaining what makes content contagious and popular. The concept of contagious was positively linked with products, ideas and behavior. The model talks about six key principles to make content contagious:

•      Develop Social Currency by crafting messages (with inner remarkability) in a way that will help them to achieve desired impressions.
•      Link Triggers or the stimuli with products and ideas to make people think about desired things.
•      Evoke right Emotions with the content.
•      Make products and ideas more Public or visible.
•      Show the Practical value of the product and idea.
•      Tell Stories with values to deliver message

Berger also included some real-life examples of every principles of the STEPPS model.

Jonah Berger, the writer of the book
Picture is produced by jonahberger.com

Although Berger wrote and introduced the model in an interesting way, the elements of the model and the strategies are not quite new for the marketing, public relations, communication and advertising field. These fields have been practicing these strategies for a long time, may be with different terms. 

Still, it was interesting to read how the author utilized the term contagious and build a motivating concept around it. His way of explaining the terms was charming, new and, indeed, practical. I think, readers can take it as an interesting book to read.