Why Things Catch On
Jonah Berger

Jonah Berger is a professor at Wharton business school. I read this book because I wanted to find out how to make my writing stand out. I thought it would help with marketing books and trying to find a way for people to find my books and of the writing. I got some great ideas from this book.

Berger starts his book by asking the question, “Why do things catch on or become popular?” Instead of just guessing why things become popular for people get interested in things, he was a scientific method to understand why things catch on. He offers six key steps to understand how you can make your product stand out.

The first way you can make your product (in my case, books) become memorable is through social currency. He says they best way for people to find out about your products is still by word of mouth. Your product comes something people look into when their friends and people who are offering advice tell them about it.

The second way your product will stand out is because of triggers. People connect your product with something that is just as memorable. For instance, a jingle, another product, or something used in a campaign. Authors often tell people, “If you like this author’s books, you will like this one that I wrote.” Triggers help people associate your product with other things. Then they can’t get it out of their hands.

A third step, or wait to make your product memorable and contagious, is emotion. What kinds of emotion does your product cause? Most people want to feel good or positive reaction. But the author also discusses how negative emotions can still help your product succeed in the marketplace. This was one of the most interesting chapters for me. I have always had trouble in helping emotions with my books, so the information in this chapter was very helpful.

Another way to make your product memorable is what the author calls public. Berger discusses with many examples how you can make your product more visible in the world and the marketplace. How does the public feel about your product? This can determine how will your product does.

The fifth way to make your product stand out to people is giving it practical value for people. I think we forget this so much as we are making our products or writing books. But a big part of people wanting to buy your product is because it gives them practical value they can’t turn down. The author gives some tips on how to do this.

The last step in making your product more memorable is using stories. This can be anything from testimonials from people who have bought your product to the stories people tell about your product. This is similar to social currency. What stories can you tell to make your products stand out in the crowded marketplace? The author gives you some ways to make that happen with stories. I really liked this book. It gave me lots of ideas on how to make my books stand out in the marketplace. There are things the author talks about doing that I could gain from reading his book. There are so many great examples of people who have accomplished each of these steps. I will be implementing some of them in my marketing strategy. I recommend this book for anyone who wonders how to make their products, whatever they may be, stand out, get noticed, and become more memorable to people.