The Tipping Point

Chapter 6. Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation

1.How did Airwalk sneakers tip, and why did business eventually drop?

Airwalk sneakers tipped because of the advertising done by Lambesis.  Many people have since tried to copy their idea for advertising to make their products tip as much as Airwalks tipped.  The business dropped because they did not keep their promise.  They were supposed to keep their “good” shoes for the skateboarders.  They lost that idea and just went main stream so they died because the word of mouth died.  They also failed to produce enough shoes for a back to school season.

2.What are the five categories of people who use a new product, according to the language of diffusion research?

Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and the Deliberate

3.What is the process of distortion that characterizes most rumors?

First  they are leveled, all kinds of details that are essential for understanding the true meaning were left out.  Then they are sharpened, which means the details that remained were sharpened to make things work.  Then the process of Assimilation which means the story was changed so it made more sense to those spreading the rumors.

4.How did the researchers at Johns Hopkins University help the city of Baltimore to run a more efficient needle-exchange program?

The van was going to exchange drug needles once a week.  They did not see how that was helping people get the clean needles that they needed for a whole week.  But when the people at the university rode along they saw that there was only a few people exchanging needles once a week and a lot of needles.  Then they were going out and selling the needles for a dollar to everyone.  This was an interesting idea.  They found the people that were the connectors for the drug world.  They thought maybe they could use these connectors to deliver the messages to the druggies from doctors and other people to help try to clean up the drug mess in the area.

5.What is the connection between the Dalai Lama and the Beastie Boys?

The beastie boys were putting money into the free Tibet campaign.  They were bringing monks on stage to give their testimonies.  This became very popular so Gordon made it into a commercial for Airwalk shoes.  When it was made into a billboard it had to be taken down.  The monks did not like the idea of the billboard and the message behind it.

6.What made Airwalk’s advertising so successful?

Airwalks advertising was very successful because Gordon was really good at watching what was happening around her.  She could see the new trends and what was going on in the world.  She connected all the new things in the world then she would tie them to her commercials.  They made them popular because she was following what was popular with the kids in the area/world.

7.What is an Innovator?

An innovator is someone with a particular personality type.  These people always felt they were different.  These kids pick up on the big things in life they pick up on terrorism and warfare while the others are worried about their weight and how well they are doing in school.  So these people think outside of the box.

8.How are Innovators linked to Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen?

These are all linked together.  We need all of them to make something stick.  I think the innovators start the idea and then the connectors, mavens, and salesmen take it from there and spread the word.

9.Do you know any Innovators?

I know that there are a lot of innovators in the world.  I used to work with a teacher that was an innovator, and she shared all of her ideas with all of us around her.  It was great to work with her and for her to share all of the things that she found worked well as a teacher.  I am just glad she was around to share all of her ideas with us.

10.How do trends work?

A trend occurs when someone notices something that happens over and over again.  Then they continue to watch it and make sure that it is something that someone can follow.  Some trends stick and some do not.  The ones that stick are ones that many people jump on board and follow through with. 

11.Give examples of trends in your lifetime.  Which trends faded?  Which have lasted?  Presume the reasons for success and failure.

There have been many trends in my lifetime.  We used to French roll our jeans and wear slouch socks of several colors.  This trend did not stick and has since gone away.  Some of the trends in the 1980’s are coming back.  The multicolored socks are coming back.  There have been several shoe trends.  Those have come and gone…like the jellies.  I think that all of these have just gone and become extinct.  For some reason they have all lost their ways in the commercial world.  Then we get to try again with new trends.  I am really not sure why they come and go.  WE have been told reasons for some.  I am sure that they are all linked to money, in some way shape or form.

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?

Teens in Micronesia were committing suicide at a high rate because they are getting permission from other people in the community.  So when one commits suicide then the next one had permission to do it.

2.What is permission-giving?

One person does it so someone else is given the permission to do it.  It is ok because someone else did it for a similar reason.  Public suicides give permission to others to die.

3.How does Gladwell make the connection between Micronesian’s teen suicides and teen smoking in America?

Teen smoking is very similar because of the permission giving.  When one teen smokes then the next teen is given the permission to smoke.  Very similar to the suicides.  The more we tell them not to smoke the more they want to smoke.  Even though we are telling the kids what is going to happen and they are aware of the risks they still want to smoke.

4.What steps has our society taken to curb teenage smoking?

We have done many things to try to curb teenage smoking.  We restrict and police cigarette advertising, we raised the prices on cigarettes, and we enforced a law against smoking under 18.  We also 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?

The current strategies are not working.  He believes that we are just not doing what needs to be done to stop smoking.  It is still spreading and the teenagers are still smoking.  As long as smokers are cool, smoking is going to be tried.  We use adult arguments and they are not working.  If the adults tell us no they want to do it more.  Once it is tried it becomes a habit for people.  So he wants to know if it is more beneficial to focus on the contagiousness or the stickiness when it comes to smoking.

6.What is the difference between “chippers” and addicted chronic smokers?

Chippers are classified as people that smoke no more than five cigarettes a day and at least four days a week.  So they do not smoke all of the time.  It is not a contagiousness.  However someone who is an addicted chronic smoker smokes all of the time and it is contagious.  He thinks that maybe chippers cannot tolerate as much of the nicotine where the chronic smokers can tolerate a lot of nicotine.

7.What were the results of the Colorado Adoption Project?

The results of the Colorado Adoption Project say that our genes do not have as much to do with how we act when we grow up as the environment we live in.  The environment that has the biggest effect is the peer environment that one is in.  This was proven because the adopted kids were nothing like their adoptive parents even though they lived in their houses for sixteen years.

8.What is the correlation between smoking and depression?

Most depressed people smoke because it is a cheap way to treat their depression.  It boosts the chemicals that are not balanced that make the person depressed, so when they smoke those levels of the chemicals are going up and balancing the person.  So if we could treat smokers then they would be less likely to smoke.

9.What have been the effects of Zyban on smokers?

There are good effects when used with heavily addicted smokers.  It lifts the mood in exactally the same way nicotine does.  It is not perfect but it does have some good things it does for heavily addicted.  Almost half who tried it quit  within a month.

10.What are “addiction thresholds”?

The addiction threshold is the amount of nicotine they have in their body before they go over to becoming a heavily addicted smoker.  The thought is that the threshold is somewhere near 4 to 6 milligrams of nicotine.

11.What are the character traits of the smoking personality, according to Gladwell?

Defiance, sexual precocity, honesty, impulsiveness, indifference to the opinion of others, sensation seeking.  There is a idea of sophistication.

12.Why are teenagers drawn to these traits?

They are drawn to these traits because they are the idea of cool.  They want to be cool and they want to fit in.

13.What are your thoughts about peer influence versus heredity and parental influence?

I think that our peers influence us a lot.  I believe that our peers do get us to do things that we know we should not do, peer pressure is strong for many kids.  They want to be liked and that is what happens when we have to fight against peer pressure.  For many kids it is easier to give in.

14.Whom are you most influenced by?

I think now I am most influenced by my family.  However when I was a kid I was influenced by my friends at school.  Along with other kids at school and the other crowds that we hung out with.

15.Do you believe teens smoke because of peer pressure?

16.At what age do kids stop listening to their parents?  At what age, if ever, do you think teens start listening again?

17.Can a safer cigarette be created?

Gladwell talks about the ability to create a cigarette with less nicotine.  So that if they did smoke 30 cigarettes a day they would not get the threshold level of nicotine (which is somewhere between 4 to 6 milligrams of nicotine).  Then less people would become addicted.