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Plot summary Contagious continues the story of 2008's Infected, predominantly following characters Perry Dawsey and Margaret Montoya as they attempt to stop an alien infestation of 'hatchlings'. Dawsey, former Michigan linebacker, has survived the events in Infected, but remains telepathically linked to.
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Preview — Contagious by Jonah Berger
New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of 2014 by the American Marketing Association What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral? If you said advertising, think again. People don't listen to advertisements, they listen...more
Published March 5th 2013 by Simon Schuster (first published March 1st 2013)
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Dirk VanbeverenI read some in 'Thinking Fast and Slow' And some conclusions i got out of is that people are just more likely to go with what they're used to. Like…moreI read some in 'Thinking Fast and Slow' And some conclusions i got out of is that people are just more likely to go with what they're used to. Like how Trump did it. Everyone hear of him all the time, so even if he was good or bad, people voted for him. Others were more forgotten. A variation of this technique is also used in radio stations. 'the sandich'. Where a new song is put between 2 good songs, over and over. That way people link the 'good' also to the new song. I read this in a book about habits. So basically if you apply this to how people think the way they do, it is what they hear and see all the time which makes them think the way they do. Maybe you've already heard the sayings 'you are the average of the 5 people that surround you', well it explains that you become like the people around you and will be thinking like them. Now, in the recent world we also have movies and series that people look at. So this makes people also influenced by that. This means that people will also be thinking like everything they watch, inclusing youtube. This could be why advertisements could be so effective..(less)
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Jan 16, 2013Liz rated it did not like it
If this material is enough to cover an entire Wharton MBA course, then I'm not sure what that says about Wharton's program. There is just not that much information in this book far beyond common sense most people already intuitively know. I had been looking forward to this book release as the topic is interesting and even possesses its own themed six characteristics, conveniently ascribed the acronym STEPPS, which the author Jonah Berger explains contributes to why products or ideas become conta...more
Apr 28, 2017ScienceOfSuccess rated it it was amazing
Contagious is a well-written book for marketers, full of interesting stories. If you are interested why people talk about certain things more than about others this book can explain it perfectly. Here is a link to the animated summary: https://youtu.be/EatUYmOvUiw
Sporting a business degree (advertising/PR/Marketing) under my belt means that I view the world, consumer and otherwise, in a marketing sense. Although I can predict trends and see market value; I was very curious about why ideas and brands affect us. That is where Jonah Berger’s “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” came into the picture. “Contagious” begins with an almost 30-page introduction which appears to summarize the book instead of provoking interest, causing some trepidation. However, movi...more
Jun 15, 2014David rated it liked it
This is a fun book, full of ideas for advertising new ideas or products. It contains many good anecdotes about promotions that worked and didn't work. For example, there is a description of a youtube video that went viral, that advertised a blender--and boosted sales enormously. Then there is a video that went viral, and advertised a casino--but didn't boost sales at all. Why not? The video had absolutely nothing to do with the casino--it was just a catchy video! The author, Jonah Berger, is a pr...more
Sep 19, 2017Rowan rated it really liked it · review of another edition
I picked this book up in my local library, only intending to flick through a few pages. Some 50 pages later, I realised I couldn’t put the book down! I think that is testament alone to author Jonah Berger knowing what he’s talking about in regards to making something viral or “contagious”. This book is really a study of human behaviour and psychology more than anything else, which is why I found it so interesting. I soon began to look at advertisements and social media from an entirely new perspe...more
Jan 09, 2013Paul Pessolano rated it really liked it
“Contagious, Why Things Catch On” by Jonah Berger, published by Simon and Schuster. Category – Business I can’t remember the last time a business book had me up all night reading. Although I am retired I found this book fascinating on several levels. Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has studied Marketing and has come up with six elements that will make a product “Contagious”. The basic idea is to make a product “viral”, that is, to have the pr...more
Great marketing book and a good way to see why some of the dollars you spend are not working. It's interesting to take the 6 factors discussed and review them against your corporate advertising. Does your company have any ideas that fit those factors that would make them great items to share and if not, how can you start too. Also liked the discussion on vaccines where one physicians publication started tons of rumblings in the medical field around it being a cause of a neurodisorder. This was u...more
Sock puppets move on...... Contagious: Why Things Catch On So I won this in a goodreads give away. It was an interesting book, if only because it solidified the fact that I would never want to work within any profession where this book is applicable. It serves its purposes (FOR ME) in explaining in a very, very basic manner the tactics used to establish the worthiness/useability of a product. I assume it's very practical for any business person, and I assume it will be picked up and use in n...more
Jan 21, 2015Srikanth Krishnamurthy rated it really liked it
Excellent and Informative Book with many examples to explain the concept of “Contagious” and how many things become viral and are spreaded. Of the six wonderful principles (STEPPS) explained i believe that word of mouth is most effective. Everyday interactions we have with other people in life are definitely contagious in some way or the other. Also there are many day to day activities such as knowledge , laughter , passion and so forth are already contagious in our life. The best part of our kn...more
It's not particularly well written, nor is it (despite its claims) in the least scientific, but this book offers lots of cute stories and plenty of click-bait YouTube fodder. It's an extremely lightweight read. In a few years it will seem fiercely dated, but at least the advertising principles won't stop working, whatever the medium.
Oct 08, 2017Lisa rated it it was ok
This book about marketing and how it works on people. Of course not all advertising works and there are examples of some of those. I did not know most of the references that the author mentioned. His book is for the world of the materialistic and I am not one of them. I was hoping for more of a book to understand 'why' people fall for the gimmicks, want status symbols, and buy what they buy. I don't get trends/fads or why so many people buy the things they do. I wanted to get inside their heads...more
Jonah Berger has given us a very good read that builds on 'Switch' and 'The Tipping Point.' In essence we are introduced to a means to put into practice what were simply observations in the Heath's and Gladwell's separate takes on how to influence others. Those of us who work across sectors in community are always trying to find the magic formula for engaging and moving our respective audiences to action. For Berger, there are six essential factors that contribute to contagious ideas: think of th...more
Nov 01, 2012Mary rated it really liked it
Contagious is one of those books that is destined to become essential business reading, especially for the marketer. In some ways, it reminded me of 'Made to Stick' and the Tipping Point, but it did have it's own messaging. (By the way, the author Jonah Berger was mentored by Chip Heath, the author of Made to Stick) The book focuses on the reasons why things stick through the six elements of the STEPPS model presented in the book: Social Currency - we share things that make us look good Triggers -...more
Mar 09, 2013Renee Dechert rated it did not like it
You'd think a book that explores the mechanics of going viral would be, well, interesting -- that it would embody the concept it was exploring. I found this dull and not terribly informative. I noticed that a number of reviewers received free copies -- I assume the publisher was attempting to generate some buzz. I paid for my copy and wish I'd spent the money on something more, well, buzz-worthy.
Feb 06, 2017Guilherme De Azevedo rated it it was amazing
A very useful book for anyone wishing to have an impact with ideas. You can have a pretty good overview of the book in this 4 minute video I made with a summary on it. Hope you enjoy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7bCVId...
Mar 26, 2013Aaron Thibeault rated it it was amazing
*A full executive summary of this book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/04/03... It is only recently, with the rise of the internet, that the term ‘viral’ has gone, well, viral. But the phenomenon of social pandemics—ideas, products and behaviors, that catch on and spread quickly and widely—has been around presumably as long as sociality itself. The phenomenon is interesting in its own right, for it says something meaningful about our psychology and how we interact. However, und...more
The content was good, but I would have loved more depth on how to apply the author’s ideas and research. The anecdotes were helpful, but more would have helped. It was an approachable read on how ideas take off and become contagious.
This book is useful for presenting a framework for how to think about making an idea, product or service contagious. While the contents of the book are nothing truly radical (after all marketing, in some form or the other, has existed for millennia), it is helpful to break down some of the art into easy-to-follow guidelines. Most of the examples provided are quite good, however, the book itself could have been more concise and organised. The basic STEPPS framework is as follows: * Social Currency...more
Nov 01, 2012Shannon rated it really liked it · review of another edition
We've all looked at our computer screens and wondered, sometimes with disgust, how the latest viral video got so popular. Why are people sharing something that seems so useless over and over? Why do I keep seeing the same story from multiple people? What is making me want to click that share button? Jonah Berger ventures into answering those questions in his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. After identifying six elements that help ideas stick, Berger walks through examples of each element, g...more
This book is perfect for anyone getting into marketing for this first time, and wants a 101 on Content and 'Viral' marketing The examples used are from viral videos in the late 2000's and very early 2010's. It's hard to take a book seriously when what is written in this book is now commonplace through the internet. A 2-page TL;DR or 20-slide presentation, would have been a perfect way to digest this instead of reading the entire book. The introduction actually does a pretty good job of doing that...more
Nov 23, 2018Mirek Jasinski rated it really liked it
Berger introduces a nice model - STEPPS: - Social Currency; - Triggers; - Emotion; - Public; - Practical Value; - Stories But even after reading it a number of times, I still do not know how to make things viral. :)
First, I want to disclose that I received this book for free. Secondly, I think it's definitely worth picking up. I enjoyed a lot of the references the book makes to social currency and things that have been viral hits in the marketing world. It makes the book feel very current. That being said, I'm not sure if this book would age very well. Although the author breaks things down (almost to too much of an extent for my liking) the examples are ones that are only relevant to people who have spent...more
Everyone has a theory about why ideas go viral, but Jonah Berger has studied the phenomenon and it’s not all babies and cats. In Contagious: Why Things Catch On, the Wharton school professor outlines what all contagious ideas have in common. He draws on marketing campaigns and YouTube videos that have gone viral, including Google’s quirky Parisian Love campaign, Susan Boyle’s unforgettable rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, and the one of the greatest customer complaints ever, United Breaks Guitars...more
Interesting and disturbing. Does someone share a link on FB for social credit, or are they moved by something to the point they feel they must share it? (This may explain why some of my FB friends feel the need to fill the news feed with dozens of pictures & links on any given day). And, totally unrelated, why do I occaisionally crave a Kit Kat bar? 'Contagious: Why Things Catch On' addresses these questions and much more. And it makes me wonder how far into our psyches, and social media, are...more
I received Contagious via BzzAgent. I kept it around a few weeks and looked at it and always thought, 'What a great cover!' I finally started reading it on my trip to this past week. Let me just tell you, I read this whole book in a 4 1/2 hour flight! I have never been so intrigued by Berger's principles and writing style. It was very easy to understand and also to apply what he was saying to my own life. The examples he used were very current and straight forward. I loved every chapter. Each ch...more
Apr 26, 2013Christine rated it really liked it
In this day and age so many people believe that advertising and/or social media drive trends. New words have even been coined to describe the phenomenon … trending or viral. But are those two things enough to explain why people would be willing to pay $100 for a cheese steak sandwich, why a certain video gets millions of hits on YouTube or one brand of blender outsells another? Not really. In this book Jonah Berger looks at why things catch on. A look at his credentials and there is no doubt that...more
Sep 10, 2013Bookkaholic Magazine rated it it was amazing
(See our full review over at Bookkaholic.) Fans of Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference will either love or hate Contagious. Berger's book shares many similarities to Gladwell's, so the comparison is inevitable, though readers may be disappointed to find that Contagious is not as innovative, well-researched, or well-written. But that doesn't mean it isn't good. It's just a little lighter, geared more toward non-business people. Berger's writing is i...more
About the book: Contagious examines what makes a product, idea or behavior more likely to be shared among many people. The book explores the question of whether contagious things are accidents or the results of good marketing, or whether contagiousness is an inherent feature of a product, idea or behavior. It argues that, far from being merely a matter of luck, the majority of very popular products and ideas are the result of a combination of savvy planning and execution. About the author: Jonah...more
May 15, 2013Ernest rated it really liked it · review of another edition
This intriguing book delves into the question of why certain things are popular and what it is about some online content that makes it go viral. Easy to read and containing multiple examples and anecdotes, some may feel that this book is not rigorous and deep enough. For me, such a book would have a diminished impact – it is not seeking to be a textbook or an academic text (despite the numerous endnotes for readers interested in seeking out further information), but a book that can be read and d...more
It seems that most of the criticism of the book suggest that the information inside is intuitive. I suggest that 1) all intuition is not the same and 2) most other books that have delved into this issue have been corelative in nature and were not able to quantify their assertions. I thought this was a great book and very useful. My criticism would be he fact that every example showcases a campaign with amazing success. What I would be interested in are campaigns that did a mediocre job and it ca...more
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Jonah Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and bestselling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On and Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. Dr. Berger has spent over 15 years studying how social influence works and how it drives products and ideas to catch on. He’s published dozens of articles in top-tier academic journals,...more
“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.” — 17 likes