Made to Stick is a great book from brothers Chip and Dan Heath about why some ideas and concepts are inherently destined for longevity and others are doomed to obscurity. The book is especially pleasant to read because the authors really practice what they preach by keeping all of the information concise, memorable, and implementable.

While I generally have an innate mistrust of the oversimplification of conceptual matter for the sake of creating catchy anagrams, the S.U.C.C.E.S(S) framework that the Heath brothers have created for Made to Stick holds true better than most and actually does provide a useful device for remembering the books major themes – that good ideas ideas master and include the following:

• Simple
• Unexpected
• Concrete
• Credible
• Emotional
• Stories

The book is structured so that each chapter discusses the importance of one of the above concepts as well as presenting interesting (and often hilarious) examples of their applications in the real world. I really enjoyed Made to Stick from start to finish and consider it a great read for anybody interested in how we communicate and absorb information, not just marketers and advertisers. As usual, here are overviews of the concepts covered in the first 3 chapters:

-Simple-

The key to simplicity according to the authors lies in the creator’s ability to exclude. They stress that brevity for its own sake is not the ideal here but that the ability to condense profundity into a neat package like a proverb is what should be targeted. The authors mention the Golden Rule as an example of something extremely simple but that one could spend an entire lifetime learning to adhere to and implement.

According to the Heath brothers, creating a ‘sticky’ idea can be summed up in two basic steps: 1. Finding the core and 2. Translating the core using the SUCCESs checklist.

In order to illustrate the importance and extreme difficulty of actually finding the core of your message, the authors present a case study of Southwest Airlines, a champion of mission driven corporate strategy. Southwest is widely reputed as demonstrating the ability to maintain great consistency when it comes to staying on task, specifically with regard to its quest to reduce costs. In order to effect policy and strategic decisions, the company returns time and time again to the mantra that it is “THE low-fare airline”. The importance of this core competency to the entire organization is used as the basis for all decisions from offering entrees on certain flights to informing media purchases.

The Southwest airlines example is used because their mantra exhibits the qualities of simplicity and profundity; it is clear to see how employees can use this to inform all sorts of daily job-specific decisions without needing a great deal of further instruction. This allows the company to function with focus, direction, and purpose while avoiding micro-managing and attempts to draft policy for the myriad of unexpected situations that can occur at any job level within it.

Clearly the mantra of “THE low-fare airline” is simple but not in terms of a dumbing-down, but rather in its reflection of a complicated system of prioritization within the organization condensed into an elegant and memorable package.

-Unexpected-

This chapter focuses upon the critical strategies of first how to capture your audience’s attention, and secondly how to keep your audience’s attention. Unexpectedness hinges upon two important criteria: Surprise and Interest. Surprise captures our attention by opening up a gap in our knowledge, pointing out something that we did not know that we did not know. Interest is what keeps our attention and drives us to seek further information.

It is of crucial importance in designing a sticky message to make sure that you do not adhere to the status quo and that you require people to actually pay attention to what you are saying.

A nice example of Unexpectedness at work is provided by the authors in the recounting of the widely-experienced, oft-ignored process of safety instruction during pre-flight procedures. Everybody has heard this at least once and almost nobody pays attention to it, except in the case of one particular flight in which the authors depict the flight attendant throwing in such quips as “If you haven’t been in an automobile since 1965 , the proper way to fasten your seatbelt…” or “The location of each exit is clearly marked with signs over-head, as well as red and white disco lights…”. The purpose of this example is to illustrate how frequently our selective perception and attention allow us to tune out things going on around us and that without a properly conceived, attention-grabbing message, we are doomed to obscurity and obsolescence.

-Concrete-

In the modern era, we are constantly bombarded by a slew of borderline meaningless, endlessly complicated, and exhaustingly inane buzzwords. From education to business and anywhere in between, job-titles, basic practices, and just about anything that can have an absurdly complex and abstract name does. Janitors are Sanitation Specialists,  Subway employees are Sandwich Artists, and the list goes on.

The authors use this chapter to reinforce the importance of concreteness in your message. Citing examples as timeless as Aesop’s fables, the authors explain that longevity is based directly in concreteness. Unless your message explains in real-life terms what it is that you do for people, nobody is going to remember you. The authors cite studies that have proven scientifically that humans are more likely and better able to remember easily visualized nouns such as “bicycle” or “avocado”, than they are to remember abstract ones like “justice” or “personality.”

In marketing a service, this is especially relevant. It is crucial to make it clearly evident to people what exactly it is you do for them. In crafting marketing plans for your product or service, try to make sure that you never depart from using real language to explain real things that pertain to the lives of real people.

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Made to Stick is a great book, and really a pleasure to read. I intentionally left out some of the best examples in the book so as not to tread on the authors’ feet, but the case studies and exercises within the book really serve to reinforce the concepts presented. This is another one that I recommend highly.

As always, we look forward to your comments, thoughts, and ideas.

-Patrick R

patrick@rabbitholeconsulting.com

Interested in how to implement Business Development Strategy and Intelligent Marketing Concepts for your Music Enterprise or small business? Contact RabbitHole Consulting to learn about how we can help you reach your target.