The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference

The New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell introduces an exciting marketing theory called the "tipping point: " a simple social phenomenon which promises to have profound implications for how we view business strategies, social problems, even basic communication among individuals. In a society based on majority rule, Gladwell suggests that change is affected less by the quantity of people who adopt it, and more by getting the "right" people to adopt it. Using the marketing example of the public's renewed interest in Hush Puppy shoes, he traces how a small group of consumers were able to redefine the product as "cool", starting a national buying trend that turned the company around. With clear explanations and effective examples, Gladwell reveals how focused advertising and promotion can often be a much more effective marketing strategy than nationwide campaigns.

The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a sick individual in a crowded store can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend or the popularity of a new restaurant to take off overnight -- or crime or drug use to taper off. Gladwell has explored this theory to great acclaim in several articles in The New Yorker. Here, he shows how very minor adjustments in products and ideas can make them more likely to become hugely popular. He reveals how easy it is to cause group behavior to tip in a desirable direction by making small changes in our immediate environment.

What makes The Tipping Point exceptional:
-- It contains a profoundly hopeful idea that people will embrace for its sense and simplicity: one imaginative person, applying a well-placed lever, can move the world.
-- Examples are recognizable: in the New York subways, removing graffiti caused a dramatic reduction in crime; a specific "hip" group of teenagers wore Hush Puppies and suddenly sparked a national craze.
-- This is a book that should be read by everyone in business, politics, marketing, advertising, and anyone interested in trends, fashion, fads, policy making, and human behavior. In other words, all of us.