The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, 1st ed.

Citation

Goldsmith, R.E. (2003), "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, 1st ed.", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 71-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2003.20.1.71.3

What do Hush Puppies, syphilis, subway crime, and Paul Revere’s ride have in common? Malcolm Gladwell, currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, thinks he knows the answer: “The Tipping Point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple. It is that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do” (p. 7). Thus, all these phenomena are examples of contagious behavior or social epidemics, and Gladwell proposes a lively and entertaining explanation of the social mechanisms leading to their spread.

At the heart of Gladwell’s presentation are the counterintuitive ideas that social change may occur suddenly rather than slowly and that little causes can have big effects. He proposes three rules of epidemics. Rule one is The Law of the Few, basically the 80/20 rule that a minority of people will account for the majority of the phenomenon. According to this notion, a few strategically placed and uniquely motivated individuals who promote the new idea often start social epidemics.

Chapter two discusses connectors, mavens, and salesmen. Owing to the fact that they know a lot of people, interact intensely with them, and deliberately try to influence their behavior, Connectors are often behind the successful spread of a new idea: Paul Revere was a connector. The maven is a market‐oriented connector, familiar to readers of Linda Price’s work on this type of consumer. Salesmen have unique talents and abilities to discern the attitudes and motives of others and to relate to others in persuasive ways. Gladwell uses a variety of findings from psychology and marketing research to explore and develop these ideas.

Rule two is The Stickiness Factor. Why is Sesame Street successful as a teaching tool? Why do some advertisements work while others do not? Chapter three addresses basic issues of communication, such as how to attract attention and make messages both memorable and compelling. This is perhaps the least insightful section of the book. Gladwell used engaging examples to demonstrate successful communications, but his explanation is not particularly convincing: “And the specific quality that a message needs to be successful is the quality of ‘stickiness’. Is the message – or the food, or the movie, or the product – memorable? Is it so memorable, in fact, that it can create change, that it can spur someone to action?” (p. 92). Small, minor, seemingly trivial elements in communications sometimes make them memorable and compelling, but calling them “sticky” and saying they are successful because they are sticky only substitutes a name for the unknown feature, it does not explain what the unknown feature is. Thus we are left with the self‐evident conclusion: “There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it” (p. 132). Unfortunately, we still do not know what it is.

Chapters four and five present the third law, the power of context. “Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur” (p. 139). This principle stresses the fact that people are sensitive to the environmental cues that signal how to behave. From the graffiti on subways, to the number of individuals in a social group (the optimal is 150), the surrounding context of behavior often plays an influential role in shaping the actions of large numbers of people. “The impetus to engage in a certain kind of behavior is not coming from a certain kind of person but from a feature of the environment” (p. 142). Moreover, the nature and speed of a social epidemic may be a function of the environment operating alone or even in conjunction with a small number of connectors.

Chapters six and seven present several case studies of social epidemics, ranging from suicides in Micronesia to skateboard sneakers to teenage smoking. Gladwell draws on a variety of research traditions, including persuasion and diffusion of innovations, to support his argument that the three laws of social epidemics can explain which social behaviors suddenly accelerate and spread through society. He concludes by describing a course of action for someone who seeks to start his/her own program of change. A few highly‐motivated and well‐connected individuals must be involved; a compelling, relevant message must be created; and the right environmental cues should be present in order to succeed. The result may be a Band‐Aid solution to a problem, but this is OK. “The Band‐Aid solution is actually the best kind of solution because it involves solving a problem with the minimum amount of effort and time and cost” (p. 256). This is a positive message, encouraging readers to think that they can have power, that they are not helpless victims of impersonal social forces beyond their control. The case studies do give examples of the effectiveness of focused action by a few involved individuals.

The Tipping Point is written for the general reader. By providing glimpses of the research that seeks to explain social behavior, it could persuade readers to take the social sciences seriously. Gladwell is an entertaining and informative writer, especially when he presents unfamiliar information. Even when the ideas are derived from classic studies in psychology, their appearance in this new context makes them seem fresh and relevant. His main accomplishment is to synthesize the findings from several research streams into an integrated theory of contagious behavior. The index is useful, and the references, while not extensive, are sufficient to lead interested readers to the original sources. It is difficult to envision academic readers using The Tipping Point as a scholarly source, as most of the basic ideas are derived and not original. Others may find it more useful, and if it leads one to explore the original documents, that would be a most beneficial outcome.

You will have to read the book to find out what syphilis and Hush Puppies have in common.