Human Psychology

• “To get people talking, companies and organizations need to mint social currency. Give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products and ideas along the way.”
• “People often imitate those around them…People are more likely to vote if their spouse votes, more likely to quit smoking if their friends quit, and more likely to get fat if their friends become obese…Television shows use canned laugh tracks for this reason: people are more likely to laugh when they hear others laughing.”
• “Observability has a huge impact on whether products and ideas catch on.” This is a large reason why certain shirts and shoes become fads, but socks often do not cause social trends.
• “If you want to get people not to do something, don’t tell them that lots of their peers are doing it.”
• In regard to store discounts, “researchers find that whether a discount seems larger as money ($5 or $50 off) or percentage (5 percent or 50 percent off) depends on the original price. For low-priced products, like books or groceries, price reductions seem more significant when they are framed in percentage terms. Twenty percent off that $25 shirt seems like a better deal than $5 off. For high-priced products, however, the opposite is true…A simple way to figure out which discount frame seems larger is by using something called the Rule of 100. If the product's price is less than $100, the Rule of 100 says that percentage discounts will seem larger.”
• “People don’t think in terms of information. They think in terms of narratives. But while people focus on the story itself, information comes along for the ride.”
• “Make sure your desired information is so embedded into the plot that people can’t tell the story without it.”

Mental Triggers

• “Sights, smells, and sounds can trigger related thoughts and ideas, making them more top of mind…Triggers are like little environmental reminders for related concepts and ideas.”
• In mid-1997, the national news media frequently reported on NASA’s Pathfinder mission to Mars. The candy company Mars noticed a pleasant uptick in sales, despite the fact that they hadn’t changed their marketing, pricing, or promotions. “The media attention the planet received acted as a trigger that reminded people of the candy and increased sales.”
• Similarly, stores selling wine have found they can increase the sale of French wine by playing French music, German wine by playing German music, etc.
• “Products and ideas also have habitats, or sets of triggers that cause people to think about them. Take hot dogs. Barbecues, summertime, baseball games, and even wiener dogs (dachshunds) are just a few of the triggers that make up the habitat for hot dogs…Most products or ideas have a number of natural triggers…But it’s also possible to grow an idea’s habitat by creating new links to stimuli in the environment.”
• Marketers often use triggers to make consumers think of other products or ideas. Take this famous example used by an anti-smoking campaign to target Marlboro users…