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3. Tipping Point
Gladwell suggests that the best way to understand the emergence
and rapid acceleration of trends is to think of them as social
epidemics. Ideas and products spread in the same way as viruses:
firstly, through exposure and contagion, secondly due to small
causes, and thirdly through a dramatic rise or fall in one
moment. That moment, ‘when everything can change all
at once’, he calls ‘the tipping point’. Gladwell
uses this as a model for examining how modern change comes
about, and applies it to examples ranging from the rise of
a fashion trend to the fall in New York’s crime rate.
He points out that small features can ‘tip’ a small
trend into a huge craze, and that a few individuals can make
a big difference if they have the necessary qualities. The
following characters are usually key:
- Connectors: networkers who know who to pass information
to, and are so respected that they will have influence on
key players
- Mavens: information specialists who acquire information
and then educate others (a personality type that is considered
indispensable to marketing)
- Salesmen: powerful, charismatic and, most importantly,
persuasive individuals who are trusted, believed and listened
to where others would be ignored.
Gladwell goes on to suggest that tiny adjustments to information,
whether conveyed in an advertisement or television programme,
can make all the difference to what he calls the ‘stickiness
factor’: why certain ideas stick in our minds while others
are quickly forgotten. He points to psychological research
that shows that most people can remember up to seven-digit
numbers but no more, that presenters make a bigger impression
if they outline no more than three points, and that organising
more than 150 people to work effectively is an uphill struggle.
Different presentations stick for different audiences and
only piloting it will reveal how they will react. Finally,
he describes the ‘power of context’: small environmental
changes can have a big impact of people’s behaviour,
e.g. in the New York example, crime dropped dramatically following
a campaign to get rid of graffiti in the subway.
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