SUMMARY: Book provides marketing ideas

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
(Random House 2007)
SUMMARY
Prepared for the Ohio Department of Education

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
The book’s two main purposes are to help people 1) understand what makes ideas “stick;” and 2) to create more “sticky” ideas. The primary objective is to apply qualities and principles to propel big strategic goals, but the framework is also applicable to everyday projects, such as speeches.

QUICK OVERVIEW
Six qualities of what makes something “stick” followed by the communication framework are:
· Simplicity – Deliver core and compact message
· Unexpectedness – Pay attention
· Concreteness – Understand and remember
· Credibility – Agree/believe
· Emotional – Care
· Stories – Act
Numerous examples – from the classroom to business-industry and beyond – are used to demonstrate how others used these qualities to make their ideas stick and grow.

QUALITY DETAIL
I. Simplicity – What’s my core point?
· You need to unpack information to determine the most critical point.
· Separate “critical” from beneficial and keep the critical from being buried.
· Use short, easy-to-understand words and sentences in layers to allow knowledge to build.
· Tap into audience’s prior knowledge, invoking schemas that already exist.
· Coming up with a short, compact phrase is easy; coming up with a phrase that fits the core point is more difficult.
· AVOID – Avoid starting with something interesting, but irrelevant. Work to make the critical/core message more interesting and relevant. Avoid the “curse of knowledge” – difficulty remembering what it was like not to know something.
II. Unexpected – How can I get and keep attention?
· The most basic way to get attention is to break a pattern.
· Surprise gets attention, generally by making the audience interested in find an answer; interest keeps attention.
· The more knowledge people have, the more likely they are to want to know more.
· Help people care by providing a context that they relate to.
· Unexpected ideas create insight and knowledge gaps.
· Curiosity happens when there is a knowledge gap.
· Unexpected messaging relating to the core message can have surprising longevity.
· AVOID – Avoid surprises that don’t relate to the core message. Common sense or the obvious should be avoided. Avoid telling facts before people realize they need the facts.
III. Concrete – How can I speak in “everyday” language?
· Concreteness is basic to understanding.
· Details help with understanding and memory to make messages stick.
· Try to replace or supplement abstract nouns like “justice” with concrete language.
· The more “hooks” (prior knowledge) connected to the core, the better it will be remembered.
· Try to imagine what it was like before you had the knowledge you have.
· Concreteness makes the core message more transparent.
· Use visuals to assist with concrete messages to help change audience attitude from reactive and critical to active and creative.
· AVOID – Avoid abstract language because it’s harder to understand and remember. Avoid thinking and talking abstractly because you believe it defines you as an expert.
IV. Credible – Why would someone listen to me?
· We believe people because of their credentials, because we want to be like them and/or “star” power.
· Audience beliefs are influenced by how our families and friends believe, by prior experiences and through faith and trust.
· Anti-authorities (former drug addict, etc.) can be more credible with a message than authorities; discern when to use this.
· Make statistics more credible by contextualizing them in terms that are more human.
· Honest data enforces boundaries – a good thing – but there is still “wiggle room” to put data in the context of audience understanding.
· The audience itself can be used as the source of credibility to make an idea stick – involving audience in testing a claim.
· Remember that engaging audience in testing credibility may result in an invalid conclusion.
· AVOID – Avoid searching for data to match. Use statistics/data as input – not output; use them to make up your mind and not to match what your mind has already made up.
V. Emotional – How can I get others to care?
· When it comes to our hearts, one individual is better than focusing on the masses.
· For people to take action, they need to care.
· Use memory and tap into emotions that already exist (what people already care about).
· Use “you” or names in appeals.
· Recognize what motivates people (Maslow’s Pyramid) but that the physical, security, belonging, esteem, learning, aesthetic, self-actualization and transcendence to helping others realize their potential can happen simultaneously.
· People are more motivated by the emotions of esteem and to learning than to being given money or things.
· People are motivated by what they believe they should do and what their special interest group (gender, race, etc.) believes they should do.
· Message needs to address “why” something should be done as well as “what.”
· AVOID – Avoid overuse of statistics, which shift people to an analytical frame of mind. When people think analytically, they are less likely to think emotionally. Avoid overuse of emotional terms or phrases to dilute the impact; the audience sees this as exploitation.
VI. Stories – How can I get others to buy-in and do something?
· Stories inspire and help illustrate problem-solving and relationships.
· Stories provide 1) knowledge how to act; and 2) motivation to act.
· Stories about past events to illustrate the core message usually “stick” better than stories with simulated future outcomes.
· Stories help people solve problems.
· Stories have three main purposes: 1) Challenge – make us want to work harder and take on new challenges; 2) Connection – bridge gaps and show us how we and/or our situations are alike; and 3) Creativity – help us solve problems with new creative approaches.
· Stories can be a springboard to demonstrating how things can change.
· AVOID – Avoid a good story that doesn’t fit.

Pat Huston (pat.huston-holm@ode.state.oh.us)
Manager, Products & Customer Services
Office of Career-Technical and Adult Education
Ohio Department of Education