Chapter 6. Case Study: Rumors, Sneakers, and the Power of Translation
1.How did Airwalk sneakers tip, and why did business eventually drop?
The company went after a larger audience - with extreme sports enthusiasts then to Foot Locker and the advertising firm of Lambesis who redesigned the marketing campaign.
2.What are the five categories of people who use a new product, according to
the language of diffusion research?
1) Innovators - trendsetters, people of fads, activists
2) Mainstream - catch on to the trends about 3-6 months later.
3) Everyone and their Grandmother - 6 months to 1 year.
4) Homogenized the Product - lost the 'coolness' factor
5) End of the Trend - leveling off, not 'special' anymore, became 'sell-outs' and disregard to trendsetters.
3. What is the process of distortion that characterizes most rumors? A story is 'leveled' (essential details left out), story is 'sharpened' (remaining details are made more specific) and then 'assimilation' (the story is changed to make more sense of it for those spreading the rumor.
4. How did the researchers at Johns Hopkins University help the city of
Baltimore to run a more efficient needle-exchange program?
A handful of addicts came to the distribution point and loaded up on needles and then resold them . Called 'super-exchangers' who are well connected and could be accessible which in turn led them to educate the users about 'safe sex' and promote a better health program.
5.What is the connection between the Dalai Lama and the Beastie Boys?
Trendsetters developed an interest in Tibet and the Dalai Lama.
The Beastie Boys had a vested interest in putting their money towards the 'Free Tibet' campaign and had monks give testimonials at their concerts to help the cause.
6.What made Airwalk’s advertising so successful? Lambesis was picking various, very contagious, trends while they were first becoming trends and piggy-backing on social epidemics before any else. They were listening very carefully to Innovators and watching trends flair up around the globe.
7.What is an Innovator? Definitely someone who doesn't follow the crowd but is very different and usually have a broader view of the world - a bigger world. Passionate and their own individual.
8.How are Innovators linked to Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen? Yes - all of these are intertwined at one time or another. Sometimes, a person has a little of several of these separate traits. All of these types of people make the Tipping Point work.
9.Do you know any Innovators? Of course, we all know Innovators - they are all around us - we just have to observe to understand who they are.
10.How do trends work? An Innovator makes something 'cool' and it catches on with a core group of people who like to take risks, be different, try new things, etc. then it begins to become a fad and finally hits the mainstream.
11.Give examples of trends in your lifetime.
Which trends faded? Pet Rocks, Smurfs, Twiggy (rail thin) and Mini-skirts, Gunne Sac, Bell Bottoms, the Grunge Look, Flip Flops
Which have lasted? Hip Huggers (Low Riders), Flip Flops, Jeans for all occasions, Layered Southwest Look
Presume the reasons for success and failure. Success - mainstream founds some fads or trends that weren't too 'out there' and they have stayed popular with some minor adjustments.
Failure - too extreme, fast and furious fad - quick death, never really caught on totally with the mainstream, couldn't get enough of a foothold to hand on for any amount of time.
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?
Suicide became a ritual of adolescence esp. among the teenage boys. The unthinkable has been turned into something thinkable.
2.What is permission-giving? Imitation - getting permission to act from someone else who is engaging in a deviant act.
3.How does Gladwell make the connection between Micronesian’s teen suicides and teen smoking in America? Gladwell finds it to be an incredibly expressive form of communication used by permission-givers.
4.What steps has our society taken to curb teenage smoking? We have thrown a lot of money at the problem with government programs, done huge educational programs, adults lecture young people about the evils of smoking, ad campaigns and fought against peer pressure.
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?
1) After promoting anti-smoking campaigns for many years - it doesn't work well.
2) Research on the cause of smoking missed it mark. Smoking isn't cool but the smoker is 'cool'.
3) To remember these two concepts - that smoking is contagious and has a stickiness factor.
1) Effectiveness is to either make smoking less contagious (stop the Salesman) or make it less sticky - turn smokers into chippers.
6.What is the difference between “chippers” and addicted chronic smokers? Chippers are not addicted to smoking - they can take it or leave it. Chronic smokers seem to have the gene that make smoking very addictive - they truly like to smoke.
7.What were the results of the Colorado Adoption Project? All of the results strongly suggest that our environment plays a big -if not bigger-role as heredity in shaping personality and intelligence. Parents are not that influential but the influence of peers does.
8.What is the correlation between smoking and depression? Smoking helps release dopamine and norepinephrine which helps treat depression - self-medicating.
9.What have been the effects of Zyban on smokers? Helps to lift the depressive mood just like nicotine does for heavy smokers.
10.What are “addiction thresholds”? it is the tipping point where once you go above the magic number you become addicted.
11.What are the character traits of the smoking personality, according to Gladwell?
Extrovert: defiance, sexual precocity, honesty, impulsiveness, indifference to the opinion of others, sensation seeking
12.Why are teenagers drawn to these traits? Because they are 'cool'.
13.What are your thoughts about peer influence versus heredity and parental influence? In life, it doesn't matter at what age - you see how peer influence ranks high vs. your genes and parental influence.
14.Whom are you most influenced by? My husband.
15.Do you believe teens smoke because of peer pressure? It's not really pressure but more wanting to be 'cool' - the perception of it.
16.At what age do kids stop listening to their parents? What I see at school, would be about the 5th grade.
At what age, if ever, do you think teens start listening again? At about 21or 22 years - after a few years of experimenting, knowing it all and the frontal lobe fully develops in the brain for judgment calls.
17.Can a safer cigarette be created?
Tobacco has been around for centuries - it does have its 'good' uses. A safer cigarette would one that is totally pure without all the additives that cigarette companies add to the product. Maybe a roll your own type - I'm not real sure. Who am I to point the finger at someone else if smoking helps to relieve depression or other psychiatric problems.
