THE TIPPING POINT

A. 3 RULES OF TIPPING POINT OR WHERE THE EPIDEMIC STARTS:

- Contagiousness
- small changes cause big effect
- sudden changes

B. EPIDEMIC (REACH TIPPING POINT) IS DRIVEN BY 3 FACTORS:

1. THE LAW OF THE FEW: a handful of exceptional people (most social, influential,
energetic, enthusiastic) – the 20% that cause 80% of the outcome (a trend, a disease)
that control the world of mouth epidemic, which is very powerful! These are
messengers, who spread the message.
 Connectors (spreader)
- Quantity: know a lot of people, love people, love making social
connections, an observer, love telling stories, make ppl feel comfortable,
self-mocking, master “weak tie”- a friendly yet casual social connection
(acquaintances)
+ The strength of “weak tie” – acquaintances: is the source of
power and offer us opportunities and worlds which we don’t belong
(finding new jobs, new ideas, new info) This is where the WOM
begins its impact.
- The kinds of people they know: They know people from different worlds,
cultures, ages (finance, doctor, politics, entertainment, law, music,,,).
They find people interesting and very curious abt people.
 Mavens (data bank)
- have the knowledge of the subject matter that most of us don’t have.
- very trustworthy to ppl, all of the ppl will take his advice
- they love talking abt those subject matters because they want to help and
educate ppl (social), not because they want to show off or because they’re
obsessed w that subject
- aware to not be nosy: respect ppl’s choices and don’t take them personally
- information trader: not only share but also trade
 Salesmen (persuasive)
- use subtle movements: smile, nodding
- positive, optimistic
- use body language
- have physical and conversational harmony, which sets by the “happier” one in a
conservation, very expressive-> they draw other people into their rhythm, pass
the happiness/positivity to you, which can be explained by the fact that emotions
 are contagious. We love being w ppl in good mood => humans are sensitive and
influenced by personal influences.
2. THE STICKINESS FACTOR: the message is so impactful that it sticks in your
memory, which changes your behavior/mentality/death (the weak virus has transformed
to serious and strong). This is the content of the message, which has to be memorable.
- to emphasis and to repeat (at least 6 times to remember), need large budget
- practical and personal: whatever interests them; relate directly and well with their lives
will make them pay attention (kids love to engage to Blue Clue; put the direction/map in
the flyer for the student)
- don’t confuse them and tell the story exactly like the way they tell themselves
- the more engaged, the more memorable and meaningful
- repetition is crucial and the order of the parts in the story is also crucial: from easy -
hard
3. The Power Of Context: to care abt the people environment: neighbor, culture,
language…. and the situation. These factors affect their behavior because humans are
very sensitive to the environment and situation.
- epidemics are sensitive to the circumstances and conditions of the times and places
that they occur
- characters are more like habits, tendencies, interests and dependent at the certain
time, on circumstances, situation and context. Not easy to identify and not stable
- someone seems to have consistent character because they’re good at controlling their
environment.
- crime: cannot be transmitted and is the result of disorder
+ “the broken window”: aggressive panhandling, broken windows, graffiti, public
disorder… (the feature of the environment). These send the signal to potential
criminals, which not actually come from the feature of the person!
- environment (parenting, kind of school/friend/neighbor), gene (1/2 decide why we act
the way we act): important, BUT some specific situation, moment (times, places) that
are so powerful that can sweep away all of those!
- we tend to overestimate dispositional (inherent characteristics) and underestimate
situational
+ when you’re late (situation), you tend to be indifferent with the suffering, even
you think you’re a person who love helping ppl
+ prisoner put back into the “experiment prison”, turn aggressive and violent – to
a different person
- change small elements in the environment can make us a better person
+ treat crime: disposition (psychiatric disorder, disturbed background) as the
cause -> passive and reactive approach (put criminal into rehab,…)
BUT fix Graffiti, broken window, aggressive panhandlers -> eliminate the “cue” to
trigger crime-> prevent the crime in the 1st place
- peer and community influence are more important than family influence. How Children
are shaped and how they act are influent by the external environment (the immediate
social and physical world)
+ smoking because of emotional sharing, expression to your friends, not really
because your parents smoke or not
???? Ppl who not sensitive to the environment is the person that is so strong-will,
so passionate!??? Who are not normal, minority!
C. NOTE TO MAKE A PRODUCT TIP:
- the law of the few: product should be introduced by people with extraordinary social
connection
- the law of stickiness: change the content of communication (fits the audience, make
them feel interested), make it memorable to them
- the law of context: small changes in the context

D THE LAW OF CONTEXT - 150: 150 is the limit number of ppl in a group to work
effectively (like the number of ppl whose death can make you devasted is 12 – on
average). They know each other well enough to know each person’s strength, specialty
(what he/she wants to do, what he/she’s good at) -> easily communicate the goal and
work; develop intimacy. This bases on the peer pressure (because your co-worker
knows what you’re good at, she’ll “pressure” you to work harder to achieve the team’s
goal) and social norm (without the need of rules, because everybody in team
understand it)
+ this replies on the fact that we have “transactive memory”, which is part of
intimacy (identify the best person to remember what kinds of things and trust
them so that you don’t need to remember that thing)

E. HOW TO TURN AN INNOVATIVE PRODUCT -> MAINSTREAM? CASE STUDY

FROM AIRWALK
By employing a Translator (connector, maven, salesmen), they will “translate” the
message to sth everybody can understand and relate (make a little adjustment to the
product so many ppl can use) – kinda like “rumor” – leave out the most critical details,
shape to fit in a reasonable, interesting story
Airwalk shoes for skateboarder: Take the cultural cue (usually not really
understandable) from trendsetter (usually take 6m -1year to become mainstream) – give
those cue a specific meaning with sensibility: funny, interesting (translation) - shape
them to a new idea and put into shoes – plant those ideas everywhere (music, movie,
ads,…)

F. HOW DO SUICIDE AND SMOKING BECOME EPIDEMIC?

- law of the Few (contagious): Permission-giver: family member, friend (smoking brings
childhood memory), ppl who are extrovert, fun, cool, entertaining; famous ppl smoke/
suicide=> make you want to experiment and be cool. Usually happen in a same
community
- the law of stickiness: smoking create habit, because it’s powerful and has nicotine
-additive (“high”). However, some ppl got to smoking because of the contagiousness but
did not stick.
- treat the cause: smoking correlate with depression, emotional problems (from low self-
esteem, unhealthy/unhappy home life) -> lack of chemical in brain that generate the
feeling of confidence, pleasure and mastery -> easily get contagious (by peer pressure)
and very sensitive to the environment and nicotine is a cheap way to treat the problem
(make them have the feeling of pleasure, mastery, confidence) -> easily become
addicted
- kids love to experiment (smoking, trying to be cool, to fit in) -> make sure the
experiment doesn’t have serious consequence
=> solution: + treat depression, build self-esteem
+reduce nicotine threshold -> less likely to be addicted to smoking (they
can smoke because they want to be cool (which is part of adolescence)
and they also easily quit smoking)
G.CONCLUSION:
- a little work can do a lot:
+ teaching breast cancer to women with limited budget? Hair salon: spend 2-3
hours, close relationship with stylist (who is also a great communicators – a little
salesmen) => train the stylist and have very light conversation abt it in the salon
=> change the context (from classroom/meeting), change the messenger (connector,
maven, salesmen), change the message (from a lecture to a story)
=> focus on key areas, key people, observe and test
BLINK – THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING
A. THE STATUE DOESN’T LOOK RIGHT
B. THE THEORY OF THIN SLICES