The Tipping Point, Essay Example

Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference provides an excellent summary of the tipping points of social epidemics that can be utilized as an understanding for a variety of marketing principles. Ultimately, the job of marketers is to convince people that the product being sold is one that is necessary to improve their lives, and this becomes easier if the product is made into a social phenomenon. It becomes easier to sell products when individuals are of the opinion that it is great to have and effective, and this word-of-mouth advertisement can be furthered by publishing advertisements in the media.

Throughout the book, Gladwell discusses the three rules of social epidemics that individuals can use to gain a greater understanding of how their target audience can be reached. These include “The Law of the Few”, “The Stickiness Factor”, and “The Power of Context”. It would be helpful for individuals in marketing to gain an understanding of these principles because they delineate good advice regarding understanding the populace in relation to the production of advertisements. Gladwell states that, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do”. Therefore, it is necessary for the marketing professional to understand how to make their products become a social phenomenon.

The first rule of social epidemics discussed by the author points out the fact that a majority of marketing is done by individuals that are outside of the marketing team and the company that produced the product. Specifically, Gladwell states “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”. Typically, these are individuals with connections and are therefore able to exert influence on others. Accordingly, they are referred to as “connectors” because they know many people and are able to make connections. It is important for marketing teams to both have this type of person on staff and to determine who these individuals are in the outside world. In this manner, the marketing team will be able to reach out to a greater amount of companies and partners to increase sales by taking advantage of the connector. Furthermore, targeting advertisements to external connectors will help enhance the speed at which a particular product becomes popular, thereby enhancing its likelihood to be purchased.

Another type of individual that Gladwell discusses in the “Law of the Few” is the concept of the “maven”, who is considered to be an information specialist. Ultimately, these individuals are needed within the marketing team and on the outside as consumers as well. On the inside, these individuals are responsible for gathering the information related to the product and consumer needs and help portray the product in a light that makes it desirable based on this data. On the outside of the marketing team, this results in word-of-mouth advertising. In reality, we think of the maven as individuals who may consider themselves to be technologically savvy and therefore wish to remain on the top of the latest trends. In an attempt to convince the individuals within a friend group, the maven promotes the product to them while trying to prove his or her ability in terms of discovering and understanding the latest trends.

The third type of individual discussed in “The Law of the Few” is the “salesman”, who is responsible for directly convincing individuals to buy a product. While we typically think of salesmen as individuals who blatantly push products, effective salesmen are more subtle in doing so. Since these individuals have a significant understanding of the needs of their clients, they are able to engage them in conversation in a manner that allows them to believe that acquiring the product is the best choice for them, and that the salesman mentioned the product only as a suggestion. While the connector and maven are important for promoting a product from the background, the salesman does so at the front line, as he or she is usually in a situation that allows the customer to purchase the product at the precise moment that it is pushed.

The second law that Gladwell discusses that helps facilitate the tipping point in social epidemics is referred to as “The Stickiness Factor”. This is particularly important to understand in terms of marketing because the advertisements that are the most effective are the most memorable. For example, many individuals across the country associate Target with the dog with the target on his eye and we associate Wal-Mart with the rollback smiley face. These are things we cannot forget because they have been ingrained into our memories. As a consequence, they are effective. These symbols help us associated Target with customer service and variety and Wal-Mart with low prices.

Ultimately, Gladwell’s “Stickiness Factor” is related to branding. Companies that advertise themselves effectively are able to come up with a particular way that they wish for consumers to perceive them. Typically, these need to be simplistic to be memorable and they need to be repeated many times so that the target audience continues to associate a company or a product with the branding message. While branding is certainly an important contributing factor to “stickiness”, it is also important to ensure that advertisements are entertaining and/or relatable. Car insurance advertisements tend to take on this perspective. For example, Geico tends to regularly make entertaining jokes related to its gecko mascot, while Progressive shows stories featuring their own character Flo. Some consumers actually look forward to these commercials to see what crazy thing the companies do next, which significantly contributes to their sales and popularity. When one goes to purchase car insurance, it is likely that Geico or Progressive will be on their minds ahead of other insurance options as a consequence of their promotion style.

The third rule that Gladwell discussed was referred to as “The Power of Context”, indicating that the environment of consumers or the advertisement can impact its efficacy. Therefore, this principle teaches marketing teams that it is necessary to be relevant. For example, it may be useful to advertise books on trains and busses because commuters typically look towards reading as a way to be entertained while they travel. In addition, it may be useful to advertise for nearby vacation destinations on a highway billboard. When advertisers consider the context of a situation, they become increasingly able to reach their target audience, which allows them to reach a larger number of relevant individuals.

An addition component of “The Power of Context” that is important to consider is the importance of social and cultural groups in marketing a particular product. Many advertisements attempt to cater only to a specific group, which could include a particular gender, race, or religion. In order to ensure that the correct group is reached through an advertisement, it is therefore necessary to produce an ad that is culturally relevant. This could be as simple as ensuring that there are only women in a women’s deodorant commercial to as complex as integrating foreign traditions into a commercial that promotes an English language learning program. It would be even more necessary to place these advertisements on television channels that are more popular among the target demographic.

While it is apparent that Gladwell’s theories make sense in terms of marketing, they are reliable because they have a scientific basis as well. Before working on these theories, the author did much work to gain an understanding of how the connections between individuals operate and how these relate to communication. To do so, he studied Milgram’s network theory, which demonstrated that two random individuals have six degrees of separation in terms of knowing a common individual. This indicated the importance of “The Law of the Few” because it indicates how passing a message to a few individuals could spread the same message to a large group.

Knowledge of “The Stickiness Factor” and “The Power of Context” are also scientifically supported and tie in to our understanding of many psychological theories. We are more likely to remember information if it is constantly repeated and presented to us in a manner that allows us to draw connections with information we’ve learned previously. Therefore, it is intuitive that these marketing rules would be effective for the same purpose.

In conclusion, Gladwell’s three rules of social epidemics effective describe trends in the marketing world that would be useful for marketing teams to understand. They provide a rationalization of why these techniques work so effectively, which is ultimately grounded in psychology and an understanding of how the human brain works. We are more likely to accept the usefulness of a product if those that we respect already have. Furthermore, we are more likely to purchase it if it is presented to us in the proper context and in a memorable manner. It is important for marketing professionals to ensure they take advantage of these three aspects in order to ensure that their marketing campaigns are maximally effective.

Works Cited

Gladwell M. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Little Brown and Company, 2000.