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CONTAGIOUS:WHY THINGS CATCH ON
AUTHOR: Jonah Berger
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781471111693
While it might not be obvious right away, Rue La La, a website that carries high-end designer goods and focuses on flash sales in which deals are available only for a limited time, has lot in common with the secret bar Please Don't Tell. Both used scarcity and exclusivity to make customers feel like insiders.
Scarcity is about how much of something is offered. Scarce things are less available because of high demand, limited production, or restrictions on the time or place you can acquire them. The secret bar Please Don't Tell has only forty-five seats and doesn't allow more people than that in. It has never advertised. Yet since opening in 2007 it has been one of the most sought after drink reservations in New York City. Rue La La's deals were available for only twenty-four hours; some are even gone within thirty minutes.
Exclusivity is also about availability, but in a different way. Exclusive things are accessible only to people who meet particular criteria. When we think of exclusivity, we tend to think of flashy $20,000 diamond-encrusted Rolexes or hobnobbing in St. Croix with movie stars. But exclusivity isn't just about money or celebrity. It's also about knowledge. Knowing certain information or being connected to people who do. And this is where Please Don't Tell and Ru La La come in. You don't have to be celebrity to get into Please Don't Tell, but because it is hidden, only certain people know it exists. Money can't buy you access to Rue La La. Access is by invitation only, so you have to know an existing user.
Scarcity and exclusivity help products catch on by making them seem more desirable. If something is difficult to obtain, people assume that it must be worth the effort. If something is unavailable or sold out, people often infer that lots of other people must like it, and so it must be pretty good. People evaluate cookbooks more favorably when they are in limited supply, find cookies tastier when they are scarce, and perceive pantyhose as higher end when it's less available.
Disney uses this same concept to increase demand for decades-old movies. It takes prime animated features like Snow White and Pinocchio off the market and puts them in the "Disney Vault" until it decides to reissue them. This limited availability makes us feel like we have to act now. If we don't we might miss the opportunity even if we might not have otherwise wanted the opportunity in the first place.
Scarcity and exclusivity boost word of mouth by making people feel like insiders. If people get something not everyone else has, it makes them feel special, unique, high status. And because of that they'll not only like a product or service more, but tell others about it. Why? Because telling others makes them look good. Having insider knowledge is social currency. When people who waited hours in line finally get that new tech gadget, one of the first things they do is show others. Look at me and what I was able to get!
And lest you think that only exclusive categories like bars and clothes can benefit from making people feel like insiders, let me tell you about how McDonald's created social currency around a mix that includes tripe, heart, and stomach meat.
Arend came up with a pork sandwich called the McRib. He had just come back from a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, and was inspired by Southern barbecue. He loved the rich, smoky flavor and thought it would be a perfect addition to the McDonald's menu.
But contrary to what the name suggests, there is actually very little rib meat on the McRib. Instead, imagine a pork patty shaped into something that looks like a rack of ribs. Subtract the bones (and most of the higher-quality meat), add barbecue sauce, top it off with onions and pickles, toss it in a bun, and you pretty much have the McRib.
Lack of rib meat aside, the product test-marketed quite well. McDonald's was excited and soon added the product to the nationwide menu. McRibs were everywhere from Florida to Seattle.
But then the sales numbers came in. Unfortunately, they were much lower than expected. McDonald's tried promotions and features, but not much worked. So after a few years it dropped the McRib, citing Americans' lack of interest in pork.
A decade later, however, McDonald's figured out a clever way to increase demand for the McRib. It didn't spend more money on advertising. It didn't change the price. It didn't even change the ingredients.
It just made the product scarce.
Sometimes it would bring the product back nationally for a limited time; in other cases it would offer it at certain locations but not others. One month it would be offered only at franchises in Kansas City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Two months later it would be offered only in Chicago, Dallas, and Tampa.
And its strategy worked. Consumers got excited about the sandwich. Facebook groups started popping up asking the company to "bring back the McRib!" Supporters used Twitter to proclaim their love for the snack ("Lucky me, the McRib is back") and to learn where they could find one ("I only really use Twitter to find out when the McRib is available"). Someone even created an online McRib locator so fans could share locations that offered the sandwich with others. All for what is mostly a mix of tripe, heart, and stomach meat.
Making people feel like insiders can benefit all types of products and ideas. Regardless of whether the product is hip and cool, or a mix of leftover pig parts.
Re-printed with permission of the publisher. Copyright Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.
While platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have certainly popularised the idea of viral, it is important to remember that most communication is offline, Berger tells Ankita Rai
What makes content compelling and increases it shareability?
It is not random or luck that makes things go viral, there is a science behind it. After analysing hundreds of contagious messages, products and ideas, I have shortlisted six key ingredients that cause things to be talked about: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.
By understanding why people talk and share, anyone can make their own content more contagious
What do you think is the role of platforms like Facebook, Twitter in helping things go viral?
Only 7 per cent of word-of- mouth happens online. So while platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have popularised the idea of viral, it is important to remember that most communication occurs offline. Rumours, urban legends and all sorts of information have been viral way before the advent of the internet.
Does the creation of scarcity or exclusivity in the market always drive sales?
Scarcity and exclusivity usually make things more desirable which increases sales. But it can also lead people to expect more when they get the thing, so if it doesn't live up to the hype they may be more likely to get disappointed.
Jonah Berger
James G Campbell Associate Professor of Marketing, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
