Chapter 6. Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation 1.How did Airwalk sneakers tip, and why did business eventually drop? Lambesis, a small advertising agency, came up with an inspired advertising campaign. The ads were rich in detail and visually arresting to the youth all over the world. The firm had production problems and difficulty filling their orders. In critical locations, they failed to supply enough product. The also began to lose the cutting-edge sensibility. The product became more of a mainstream product then trendsetting. The company also elected to no longer do specialty products.
2.What are the five categories of people who use a new product, according to the language of diffusion research? a) Innovators, the adventurous one b) Early Adopters, watched and analyzed Innovators and then followed suit c) Early Majority d) Late Majority e) Laggards, see no urgent reason to change
3.What is the process of distortion that characterizes most rumors? The story is leveled, essential details for understanding the the true meaning are left out. Then the story was sharpened, the details that remained were made more specific. Finally, assimilation, the story was changed so it made more sense to those spreading the rumor, took place.
4.How did the researchers at Johns Hopkins University help the city of Baltimore to run a more efficient needle-exchange program? The researchers discovered a group of addicts would bring in the dirty needles. The super exchangers sold the clean needles for a dollar each. The super exchangers were very well connected addicts that also wanted to help fellow addicts by providing clean needles, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
5.What is the connection between the Dalai Lama and the Beastie Boys? The Beastie Boys were very publicly putting money into the Free Tibet campaign. They also brought monks on stage during their concerts to give testimonials.
6.What made Airwalk’s advertising so successful? The ads were rich in detail and visually arresting to the youth all over the world. Lambesis developed a network of young, savvy correspondents in major cities over the country and world. They were Innovators and in some way an outcast. She revisited this group several times throughout the year and asked them their interests. In general, the trends they mentioned would come to mainstream population within three to six months. Lambesis would start production on the commercial so by the time it came around the Airwalk shoe would have an ad to represent the new trend or concept.
7.What is an Innovator? An Innovator is the adventurous one. They are the visionaries and want revolutionary change. They buy brand-new technology before all the kinks have been worked out. They are enormous risk-takers.
8.How are Innovators linked to Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen? The Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen are the translators. The Innovators try something new, but the translators tweak it to make it more usable for the general public.
9.Do you know any Innovators? I know people who have Innovators traits, but I don't know anyone that is a true Innovator. In my circle of friends, family and groups, many would probably classify me as the risk taker of the group. I try the new thing, figure it out and give my opinions about what works.
10.How do trends work? Trends must be seen in music, fashion, film and art. The trend must be everywhere for it to be picked up and mainstreamed.
11.Give examples of trends in your lifetime. Which trends faded? Which have lasted?Presume the reasons for success and failure. Cell phones, iPods, iPads, PDA's, CDs, VHS, Walkman, Airwalks, rolling up jeans, skinny jeans, multiple color shirts and socks, big hair with teased bangs, Air Jordans, Converse, neon color clothes, Nintendo, Play Station, Wii faded...VHS, CDs, Walkman, big hair. lasted...technological advances Even when trends die out, they seem to come back within a few decades. I think the success or failure of a trend depends on the upgrades available to that product. In my lifetime already their have been so many adaptations to what is available and what was available. Lately the trends have not disappeared they have just been improved and packaged as new. Success or failure is always going to depend on the mainstream population as influenced by the celebrities and Innovators! A trend I wish would have stayed faded was skinny jeans!
Chapter 7. Case Study: Suicide, Smoking, and the Search for the Unsticky Cigarette 1.According to Gladwell, why were teens in Micronesia committing suicide at a high rate? The prompting event was usually a domestic dispute of some kind between family or friends. The notes tended to express wounded pride and self-pity. It was a protest against their mistreatment. The suicide epidemic of self- destruction, engaged in by youth in the spirit of experimentation, imitation and rebellion. Suicide is a private language between members of a common subculture.
2.What is permission-giving? It's a kind of imitation. I'm getting permission to act from someone else who is engaging in a deviant act. In the case of suicide, the decision by someone famous; gives other people, particularly those vulnerable to suggestion because of immaturity or mental illness, permission to engage in a deviant act as well. Permission-givers are equivalent to the Salesmen; the people who die in highly publicized suicides - give others "permission" to die. The permission-giving is extraordinarily specific. It is a highly detailed set of instructions, specific to certain people in certain situations who choose to die in certain ways. It's not a gesture. It's speech.
3.How does Gladwell make the connection between Micronesian’s teen suicides and teen smoking in America? It presents another way of trying to come to terms with. He suggests smoking could follow the mysterious and complex social rules and rituals that govern teen suicide. In some places and under some circumstances, the act if one person committing suicide can be contagious. In other words, suicides lead to suicides. The suicides have become an incredibly expressive form of communication, rich with meaning and nuance, and expressed by the most persuasive of permission- givers.
4.What steps has our society taken to curb teenage smoking? We've restricted and policed cigarette advertising, so it's harder for tobacco companies to lie. Cigarette prices have been raised, while laws against selling tobacco to minors have been enforced. Many extensive public health campaigns have been launched to try and educate teens about the dangers of smoking.
5.What does Gladwell think is wrong about the current strategies being used to stop American teens from smoking cigarettes? What strategies would he substitute as more effective? Gladwell questions if adults should be telling teens not to smoke, because inevitably most teens do the exact opposite of what an adult says. He also thinks we have tended to think about the causes of smoking in the wrong way. Both the Law of the Few and the Stickiness Factor play a part in the smoking epidemic. Prevent the permission-givers from smoking in the first place. Convince all those who look to people for permission that they should look elsewhere. To get their cues from adults.
6.What is the difference between “chippers” and addicted chronic smokers? Chippers are smokers who smoke no more than five cigarettes a day but who smokes at least four days a week, their smoking varies considerably from day to day. They are the equivalent of social drinkers...people in control of their habit. Addicted chronic smokers are genetically wired to handle large doses of nicotine as well as derive pleasure from nicotine.
7.What were the results of the Colorado Adoption Project? Their scores had nothing whatsoever in common with their adoptive parents. All of the results strongly suggest that our environment plays as big - if not bigger -a role as heredity in shaping personality and intelligence. Whatever that environmental influence is, it doesn't have a lot to do with parents. It's something else; the influence of peers!
8.What is the correlation between smoking and depression? Smokers and depression go hand in hand according to studies. The smokers who are depressed are essentially using tobacco as a cheap way of treating their own depression. As overall smoking rates decline, the habit is becoming concentrated among the most troubled and marginal members of society. The same kinds of things that would make someone susceptible to the contagious effects of smoking - low self esteem, an unhealthy and unhappy home life. Some evidence suggests the two problems might have the same genetic root.
9.What have been the effects of Zyban on smokers? In conjunction with anti-smoking counseling and 39% quit in four weeks. With Zyban 49% quit. Heavily addicted smokers were given both Zyban and the patch 58% had quit after a month. Only Zyban can lift mood in precisely the same way that nicotine does. By zeroing in on depression, you can exploit a critical vulnerability in the addiction process.
10.What are “addiction thresholds”? If you smoke below a certain number of cigarettes you aren't addicted at all, but once you go above that magic number you suddenly are. No one believes that it is exactly the same for all people. The educated guesses work out to be between four and six milligrams of nicotine.
11.What are the character traits of the smoking personality, according to Gladwell? The smoking personality trait first and foremost is an extrovert. The other traits are: defiance, sexual precocity, honesty, impulsiveness, indifference to the opinion of others, sensation seeking.
12.Why are teenagers drawn to these traits? The very same character traits of rebelliousness and impulsivity and risk-taking and indifference to the opinion of others and precocity that made them so compelling to their adolescent peers also make it almost inevitable that the would also be drawn to the ultimate expression of adolescent rebellion, risk-taking, impulsivity, indifference to others and precocity: the cigarette. Teenagers see smokers as cool!
13.What are your thoughts about peer influence versus heredity and parental influence? I think environment plays more of a role then what you have inherited. I also think peer influence weighs a lot more than what adults say during the teen years. Kids want to make their own mistakes and learn from them not be told by their parents or other adults. In addition, most teens in their peer group are experiencing the same things so their is more confiding in their deviant actions to their friends.
14.Whom are you most influenced by? Growing up, I was influenced by my Godparent's five children, as well as my parents. I didn't want to let them down. Although, I was rebellious at times I tried to do the right thing. I tried the smoking thing because my friends were smoking. But puking in Love's parking lot was enough for me to not want to do it again. Now my choices are because of what I know and I want to do.
15.Do you believe teens smoke because of peer pressure? Yes, I do believe teens smoke due to peer pressure. Kids don't want to be the outcast or odd one out!
16.At what age do kids stop listening to their parents? At what age, if ever, do you think teens start listening again? I think kids stop listening to their parents around the age of 12 or 13. For the most part, I think after graduation from high school and couple years into college, early 20s, parents opinions start to matter again. You find out who your friends are and you discover what kind of person you want to be. Sometimes friends don't make the cut aft that time.
17.Can a safer cigarette be created? Henningfield and Benowitz suggest that tobacco companies be required to lower the level of nicotine so that even the heaviest smokers could not get anything more than five milligrams of nicotine within a 24-hour period. Because if the reduction of nicotine levels below the addiction threshold, the habit would no longer be sticky.
