Contagious: Why Things Catch On

New york time’s best seller, “Contagious: why things catch on”, by Jonah Berger, goes through many examples of the methods used to catch the attention of the majority of people, and what gets ignored. Berger says “regardless of how plain or boring a product or idea may seem, there are ways to make it contagious…”. The author presents real life examples to illustrate points in order to inform the reader on why things catch on, in a marketing perspective. Berger has studied why things go “viral” and claims that most communications of products are not through the internet, but by word-of-mouth. This book is useful when learning about why some businesses fail and others have booming businesses. It is split up by the acronym STEPPS- Social currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical value, and Stories, with examples of real businesses in each, which is also useful. Traditional marketing suggests that the factors that determine a business’ or product’s success are quality, price, and the advertising. Berger explains that it is much deeper than that, and that the more important factors are word-of-mouth transmission and social influence. Word-of-mouth is much more effective because it is persuasive, because people trust more what others recommend rather than what they see on T.V. or social media. This was very interesting to read and I agree with his points- and the numbers prove it accounts for 20-50% of all purchasing decisions. Shockingly, only 7% of word-of-mouth advertising is done through social media. The author's main arguments are split up by the STEPPS acronym, and each is successfully argued with facts and experience. The first chapter starts with Social currency. This chapter puts emphasis on being “in the know” on something, and wanting to share it with others. The example Berger used was the hot dog restaurant having a secret bar hidden with a secret door in a phone booth. The restaurant and bar have done well for years because people feel like they are “in the know” and recommend it to others, as if they are a part of some big secret. The next chapter, Triggers, is about how one thing triggers another. Such as buying coffee and donuts, peanut butter and jelly, and specifically in the book it is mentioned that the Mars candy company saw a spike in sales during the time in 1997 when NASA was organizing a mission to Mars. Emotion is all about how when something provokes emotion or inspires you, you are more likely to share it. Public is about how people imitate others, with the example of how people are more likely to choose a restaurant or store that has more people in it, and to walk past the ones that are empty. Next, practical value is about how important information is more useful to share, and relies heavily on buyer behavior because people like to help others . Finally, stories explains how a good story is likely to be told especially when it provokes emotion, and thus makes people want to share it with others. In my opinion, “Contagious: why things catch on” by Jonah Berger is a very interesting read with useful information. As soon as you pick up the book it is difficult to put it down, as it keeps the audience engaged and interested. It is very easy to understand and it allows the reader to put into perspective that marketing is deeper than just advertising on social media. This book could be particularly very useful to students who are interested in studying marketing, interested in psychology and why people are influenced by certain things and not others, or people who have plans to start a business- or just anyone on social media. “Contagious” could even be useful to people who simply do not want to be manipulated by businesses and gain the ability to see through the different marketing strategies. Not only are you given real life scenarios and statistics, but also you are shown proof on how STEPPS can help create a booming business. The stories that are provided are especially useful as they keep the reader engaged while also providing useful information. The only negative of this book I found was the way it is written, as it repeats a lot and could be interpreted as reading a children’s book, and some may get a bit bored. Readers may want to skip over parts as it repeats the same ideas during the chapter and may find it to be a bit redundant at times. Overall the information is useful enough that I did not mind it too much as I found it just makes it a quick read on why things go viral and how businesses manipulate customers. I enjoyed reading this book, and if you plan on developing a marketing plan or strategy for your business, “Contagious: why things catch on” would be useful to test the strategies to make sure it would be successful. The author successfully explains the STEPPS to making a business successful and used his own education and research to back up the claims being made. The book did not really come off as persuasive, just informative of what works and what does not. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about how marketing strategies work and how companies can manipulate you. Similar books to “Contagious” include: "Diffusion of Innovations," by Everett Rogers, “Influence” by Robert B. Cialdini, and “The Nuclear Effect” by Scott Oldford. Jonah Berger also has other books that talk about marketing and how to influence other people, such as “The Catalyst” and “Invisible Influence”. Overall, “Contagious” by Jonah Berger is an excellent book to start off with if you want to understand the aspects of marketing and advertising and what can make a company successful, especially when today it is harder than ever to find what will stick to consumers, this book brings about the most effective and prosperous ways on making your product or business contagious.

It’s a bit strange reading a book called Contagious at a time when the COVID-19 virus is in full swing. In my defense, I started reading this book a month ago after hearing Berger, a Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, conduct a webinar. Contagious discusses viral marketing and is both insightful and practical at the same time. Berger shares many examples throughout the book of viral campaigns which made me interrupt my reading to check out some of these examples online. Spoiler alert. Check out Ken Craig’s corn video. To summarize the key points in the book:  Any product or behavior can go viral, so there is no excuse that your brand, product or service is just not capable of becoming contagious.  Next time you think you need to hire a celebrity or social influencer, think again. These people are NOT the reason something goes viral. Berger states, “…social epidemics are driven by the products and ideas themselves.”  The characteristics that are most likely to cause a product or service to be shared or talked about are captured in Berger’s “STEPPS” acronym. Social currency - -people like to share things that make them look good (i.e., smart, cool hip) Triggers – If something is top of mind people will talk about it. Triggers help keep things top of mind. A song called “Friday” gets a lot of airplay on what day? You guessed it – Friday! Emotion – when we care, we share things with others and when we are “riled up” about something we overshare. How can you get your audience “riled up”? Public – the product or service must be a public behavior in order to be shared. If your product or service is private (i.e., the toothpaste you use, the pantyhose you wear), you must determine a way to make it public. Practical Value – people like to help one another. If you have practical information that can help someone, then a person is more willing to share that information, especially when the information is about a narrower topic. Although it is counterintuitive, sharing a narrower topic will be more likely to trigger someone to share information. Stories – information travels through stories and chit chat, just make sure that the story can’t be told without mentioning the product or service. Berger has just released another book called The Catalyst which is about getting people to change their minds. Based on how interesting and digestible Contagious is, I can’t wait to read his next book.

What if you had the secret sauce that could make your next campaign go viral? What if you knew the secret to making your content get shared across the internet? What if six basic principles explained everything from Rebecca Black to the power of $100 cheesesteaks? Wharton Professor Jonah Berger makes some bold claims in his latest book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. But like Malcolm Gladwell and the Heath brothers before him he backs up those claims with enlightening data and cohesive story telling. WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THE BOOK: 1. Berger makes clear early on in Contagious that "...Facebook and Twitter are technologies, not strategies". This isn't a book based on building followers or getting likes. This is a book with clear, practical and ingenious steps that can make most anything contagious...even blenders. 2. Berger provides an easy way to remember his principles, which means they will stick with the reader long after they have put this book down. They are the "Six Key STEPPS". Social Currency - we share things that make us look good Triggers - top of mind, tip of tongue Emotion - when we care, we share Public - built to show, built to grow Practical Value - news you can use Stories - information travels under the guise of idle chatter 3. Most of the ideas that Berger discusses have two great qualities. One is the sense that you as the reader could have thought of that. None of the social epidemics Berger highlights seem beyond the creative capacity of you or me. Two - we can do these things! We can take what Berger has written about so eloquently and use these ideas in our lives and businesses to our benefit. That is what any great book should do and Berger has written that book. WHAT I DIDN'T CARE FOR ABOUT THE BOOK: I can honestly say this is one of the best books I've read in 2013. Berger is to the point, every page offers valuable tips and tactics and when an author is not only intelligent but a great storyteller all you can say is thank you and please write another. CONCLUSION: If you are in the business of products, ideas or behaviors and you have a vested interested in making that business ignite social epidemics this is the book that can act as the match to start that fire. I highly recommend this book.

Jonah Berger’s Contagious is an absolute gem when it comes to understanding why certain ideas, products, or behaviors catch on while others don’t. Berger’s insights into the psychology behind what makes content go viral are not only fascinating but also practical. He breaks down complex concepts into six simple principles, which he calls STEPPS (Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories), making the material easy to grasp and apply in real life. The book is filled with engaging stories and real-world examples, from viral YouTube videos to the marketing success of certain products. Berger doesn’t just offer theories—he backs them up with evidence and provides actionable steps to make your own content more shareable and influential. Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, or just curious about why certain things “stick,” this book is invaluable. What makes Contagious stand out is its practicality. If you want to understand the science behind word-of-mouth and viral marketing, this is your go-to resource. Highly recommended!

Jonah Berger's Contagious is a fascinating read. Not only is the book packed with entertaining examples of viral campaigns, but each is backed with painstaking analysis into the science of social transmission. What you end up with is a veritable blueprint for creating ideas, campaigns and messages that spread like wildfire. There are six essential factors that contribute to contagious ideas, shows Jonah, and a quick look at some of the most successful viral campaigns reveals each of them at work: Social currency. We share things that make us look good or help us compare favorably to others. Exclusive restaurants utilize social currency all the time to create demand. Triggers. Ideas that are top of mind spread. Like parasites, viral ideas attach themselves to top of mind stories, occurrences or environments. For example, Mars bar sales spiked when in 1997 when NASA's Pathfinder mission explored the red planet. Emotion. When we care, we share. Jonah analyzed over six months of data from the New York Times most emailed list to discover that certain high arousal emotions can dramatically increase our need to share ideas - like the outrage triggered by Dave Carroll's "United Breaks Guitars" video. Public. People tend to follow others, but only when they can see what those others are doing. There is a reason why baristas put money in their own tip jar at the beginning of a shift. Ideas need to be public to be copied. Practical. Humans crave the opportunity to give advice and offer tips (one reason why advocate marketing works - your best customers love to help out), but especially if they offer practical value. It's why we `pay it forward' and help others. Sharing is caring. Stories - People do not just share information, they tell stories. And stories are like Trojan horses, vessels that carry ideas, brands, and information. To benefit the brand, stories must not only be shared but also relate to a sponsoring company's products. Thus the epic failure of viral sensations like Evian's roller baby video (50M views) that did little to stem Evian's 25% drop in sales. There is so much this book offers marketers, making it required reading that follows in the footsteps of Malcolm Gladwell and the Heath brothers. It also perfectly demonstrates why advocate marketing is such a powerful idea for modern marketers. Viral campaigns eschew overt marketing messages by cleverly tapping into consumer wants, desires and emotional needs. Similarly, advocate marketing helps marketers reach audiences through a more effective and trusted means than direct messaging. We share our experiences because that act enhances our personal and professional reputation and makes us feel good. When marketers tap into these very human needs, they can reach a much broader audience with a more genuine message than any advertisement can provide.

I absolutely love this book! Jonah Berger does a brilliant job at weaving together examples as stories that make us laugh or cringe - emotions that cause us to share. Delightfully illustrated throughout the book, the STEPPS become easy to understand and share. Well worth reading. I’ll definitely be recommending this book to everyone who wants to make a difference that lasts.

Very good read,sometimes the word of mouth is not enough to move a product,today Ad men have a lot of tools to work with.

I enjoyed Contagious and appreciated the principles it explores, especially how they are supported by engaging examples. The ideas are interesting, and the book is easy to read. That said, I didn’t find it very practical in terms of application. Until the very end, there’s little structure that helps translate the concepts into action. The final cheat sheet and short list of questions come too late and feel way too brief. By that point, I had already forgotten many of the specifics, which almost forces a reread rather than empowering immediate use. I really wished each chapter ended with a concise summary and concrete exercises or questions focused on applying the ideas to your own projects. What bothered me most, however, is how closely Contagious mirrors Made to Stick. Jonah Berger openly acknowledges this influence early on, and I believe he was even taught by the authors. Still, the similarities are striking. Same topic, very similar structure, and only a slight variation in framing through a different acronym. SUCCESs versus STEPPS does not feel like a meaningful departure. It honestly didn’t sit well with me. The moment Berger reused the exact same example from Made to Stick, the Subway diet story, was where it really lost me. That felt less like homage and more like repetition. To summarize, had I not read Made to Stick, I probably would have appreciated Contagious much more. As it stands, it feels like a reworking of the same ideas, with less actionability and fewer tools to actually implement them. I still took something away from the book, but I can’t help feeling disappointed that a student of such a strong original work chose to follow it so closely rather than push the ideas further or make them more usable in practice.

L’auteur explique sa recette composée de 6 ingrédients différents pour créer un contenu qui se propagera le plus largement, grâce à l’effet réseau. Chaque composante de cette viralité est très bien détaillée, et toujours illustrée par des exemples concrets pour bien assimiler chaque concept. Un livre qui intéressera tous ceux qui veulent améliorer le marketing de leur produit, service, ou contenu. A vous de lire maintenant…

Probably, I have mentioned this books 10 times to friends while reading it - word of mouth. Full of examples on how to put effective marketing techniques in practice! Thanks Jonah for sharing!

I have been surprised with the deep concepts the book provides

The book gives you practical tips about what makes your content spread. The concepts are explained properly, and you can apply what he talks about to your own content. I recommend the book!

Honestly one of the best marketing books i've ever read. I brought me to some really good ideas so to me its worth every penny. The stories are fun and its definitly not a boring book.