In business a lot of time and money is spent trying to get potential clients to remember a product or service when it comes time to make a buying decision. Billions of dollars are spent each year on advertising as companies try to make an impact on consumers. In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes this as “the stickiness factor”. In writing about this Gladwell says:
“…messengers are what make something spread. But the content of the message matters too. 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 into action?”
In order to achieve this stickiness people often try to resort to being loud, repetitive or obnoxious; however, this is rarely an effective strategy. It is often the simplest little changes that can make a world of difference. Gladwell talks about a study done by the social psychologist Howard Levanthal at Yale University in the 1960s. The purpose of the experiment was to get a group of college seniors to get a tetanus shot.
In the study Levanthal divided the students into groups and gave each student a booklet explaining the dangers of tetanus, the importance of inoculation and the fact the school was offering a free shot at the campus clinic. The booklets came in many forms, for the purposes of the experiment. One group was given a “high fear” version that included graphic pictures of people suffering from the disease. Another group was given a “low fear” version with pictures omitted.
The groups were surveyed afterwards and not surprisingly the “high fear” group was convinced at a much higher rate the need for the shot in comparison to the low fear group. However, when surveyed a month later neither group had really gone so far as to get the shot, a mere 3% of the students actually went to receive their free tetanus shot. There was obviously no stickiness to this message.
Interestingly though, another group had a much higher rate of success. One minor change was made to the booklet showing a campus map with the campus clinic circled and a schedule of times the shot was available. Of the Students who received this version of the booklet 28% of them went to receive their free shot. This was over 9 times the results as the other methods.
The most striking thing about this experiment was that the students were all seniors who had been at the campus for 4 years. So the map to the clinic was not giving them information they didn’t already know. It was merely completing the picture in their minds, thus providing much more stickiness.
Knowing the way this works can be a very powerful tool in creating effective branding for your company. Another way in which a company can create stickiness is by giving people an emotional attachment to an idea. This is often done by the big box retailers using what are known as loss leaders or the bait and switch
What a company will do is have an item, a TV for instance, advertised for a very low price, with a disclaimer saying quantities are limited. Or another example would be a car dealer advertising a very low price on a car with no options or features. The advertising has drawn you into the store with an emotional attachment to leaving that day with a new TV or a new car.
The company has successfully “stuck” in your head the idea that you are getting a new toy today. It is now easier for them to sell you on one of the items that is not on sale, or to upgrade you with other options or features.
A third way in which you can utilize this technique is by what is known as getting your foot in the door. Many large business relationships have begun with a single small transaction. You can build your companies stickiness by starting small and working your way up. It is much easier for a company or a consumer to make a very small purchase decision with a stranger, but it is not so easy for them to part with large sums of money to a stranger. By starting small you can become sticky and your success will grow.
The important things to remember here are that everything counts. A small beginning can lead to a big ending. People always remember the final score, not the slow start. Finally even the smallest detail can make all the difference in the world, a small map of campus caused a nine fold increase, even though the people reading the map already knew where it led. Follow this principle and the large accounts you seek will be within your grasp.
chuckbrady.ca
