Airwalk sneakers tipped through the help of an innovative ad campaign and epidemic transmission.Airwalk’s business eventually dropped when the products were no longer perceived as being different from the norm.
The five categories of people who use a new product are the innovators, the early adopters, the early majority, the late majority, and the laggards.
The process of distortion that categorizes most rumors includes leveling (only some details are remembered), sharpening (the remembered details are added to), and assimilation (the details are changed to make more sense to the people spreading the rumor).
The Johns Hopkins team identified super-exchangers who could act as connectors between the city and the users.The most needles could be put in the hands of the people who knew the most users.
The Beastie Boys supported the Free Tibet campaign; Tibet is where the Dali Lama lives.
Airwalk’s advertising was so successful because it was innovative and it was sticky.
An innovator is a visionary who wants revolutionary change; it is a person who is not satisfied being a part of the mainstream.
Innovators see a new idea and adopt it as their own; they make an idea more appealing to the rest of the population and help the idea to spread, just like mavens, connectors, and salesmen do.
I would say that I have one or two students in my classes who could be considered innovators at the school level.They bring a new idea into the school, like reading a literary series or wearing an article of clothing; other students catch on to the idea and it spreads.
A trend begins when a few people participate in a behavior. Then, more and more people catch on to the idea and make it mainstream.Once the behavior becomes widespread, however, it begins to lose popularity.
Trends that have faded during my lifetime include fashion and beauty trends, like wearing high heels with jeans that are rolled up at the bottoms or wearing your bangs as high as you can spray them with hairspray.Trends that have remained have included technology, like having a personal computer, a cell phone, or the Internet.Trends that are meant to help you stand out, like fashion and beauty trends, do not last long because once they become mainstream, they lose popularity.On the other hand, trends that are seen as useful, like the Internet or cell phones, tend to last because they are useful regardless if they are popular or not.
Chapter Seven Questions
In Micronesia, suicide was becoming a popular form of self-expression among teenage boys.The author described it as a ritual of male adolescence.
Permission-giving is when someone else commits an act; and, in a sense, that person gives permission for others to commit the same act.
Oddly enough, they both are seen as modes of self-expression among teens.He believes they both should be studied as social epidemics.
American society has more closely regulated tobacco companies and their marketing practices.Anti-smoking advertising campaigns and education programs touting the negative effects of smoking have also been put into place.
Gladwell thinks the current strategies are failing.He thinks that more attention should be given to finding a way to make cigarettes less sticky.
Chippers are not addicted to nicotine, do not feel the need to smoke often or daily, and do not smoke enough to reach addiction levels as addicted chronic smokers do.
The Colorado Adoption Project showed that parents do not have as big an affect on children’s personalities as was previously thought.
As psychiatric problems increase, the correlation with smoking grows stronger.
Zyban increases dopamine, which decreases the desire to smoke; and Zyban also replaces neponephrine so smokers do not have agitation when they quit smoking.
Addiction thresholds are the points at which a person becomes addicted to something; the person feels a need for that something.
Character traits of a smoking personality include defiance, sexual precocity, honesty, impulsiveness, sensation seeking, and an indifference to the opinion of others.
Teenagers see these as cool traits to have.
I do believe peers have a strong influence on behavior; however, I still feel that the influence of a parent can be just as strong in guiding a child toward positive, safe behavior.
I would say that I am most influenced by my family when it comes to my values and my morals.I most influenced by peers on the superficial types of things like clothes.
I believe that teens smoke not so much because of the pressure from friends but from a desire to fit in and be perceived as cool.
Kids stop listening somewhat to their parents around the time they enter school; what friends think and say seems to be more important.However, older teens who have had some experiences being on their own realize that mom and dad might know a thing or two about life.
It seems possible to create a safer cigarette with less nicotine to possibly deter younger smokers from becoming addicted; however, I do not think that established heavy smokers who need the harder “hit” will be enticed by the new product.
