Contagious Why Things Catch On

Will It Blend?
we need to find the inner remarkability. Like Foursquare or
airlines with frequent flier tiers, we need to leverage game mechanics. Like Rue La La, we need to
use scarcity and exclusivity to make people feel as if they’re insiders.
The drive to talk about ourselves brings us back full circle to Please Don’t Tell. The proprietors
are smart. They understand that secrets boost social currency, but they don’t stop there. After you’ve
paid for your drinks, your server hands you a small business card. All black, almost like the calling
card of a psychic or wizard. In red script the card simply says “Please Don’t Tell” and includes a
phone number.
So while everything else suggests the proprietors want to keep the venue under wraps, at the end of
the experience they make sure you have their phone number. Just in case you want to share their
secret.
*
Note that making access difficult is different from making it impossible. Sure, getting a reservation at Please Don’t Tell is tough, but if
people call enough they should be able to snag a reservation. And while Rue La La is open only to members, it recently instituted a policy
where even nonmembers can get access by signing up with an e-mail address. Using scarcity and exclusivity early on and then relaxing
the restrictions later is a particularly good way to build demand.
Also be wary of how restricting availability can come off as snooty or standoffish. People are used to getting what they want and if
they hear “no” too much they may go elsewhere. Jim Meehan at Please Don’t Tell addresses this problem explicitly by instructing his
staff that if they need to say “no” they should try to figure out a way to say “no, but.” Such as, “No, we are all booked up at eight-thirty,
unfortunately, but how about eleven?” or “No, we don’t have brand X but we have brand Y, would you like to try it?” By managing the
disappointment, they maintain the allure while also maintaining customer satisfaction.

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2.
Triggers
Walt Disney World. Say those words to children under the age of eight and just wait for their
excited screams. More than 18 million people from all over the world visit the Orlando, Florida,
theme park annually. Older kids love the frightening plummet down Space Mountain and the Tower of
Terror. Younger ones savor the magic of Cinderella’s castle and the thrill of exploring the rivers of
Africa in the Jungle Cruise. Even adults beam joyously when shaking hands with beloved Disney
characters like Mickey Mouse and Goofy.
Memories of my own first visit in the early 1990s still make me smile. My cousin and I were
picked from the audience to play Gilligan and the Skipper in a reenactment of 
Gilligan’s Island.
The
look of wild triumph on my face when I successfully steered the boat to safety—after being doused
with dozens of buckets of water—is still family lore.
Now compare these exhilarating images with a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. Yes, the classic
breakfast cereal with a bee mascot that “packs the goodness of Cheerios with the irresistible taste of
golden honey.” Considered reasonably healthy, Honey Nut Cheerios is still sugary enough to appeal
to children and anyone with a sweet tooth and has become a staple of many American households.
Which of these products—Disney World or Honey Nut Cheerios—do you think gets more word of
mouth? The Magic Kingdom? The self-described place where dreams come true?
Or Cheerios? The breakfast cereal made of whole grain oats that can help reduce cholesterol?
Clearly, the answer is Disney World, right? After all, talking about your adventures there is much
more interesting than discussing what you ate for breakfast. If word-of-mouth pundits agree on
anything, it’s that being interesting is essential if you want people to talk. Most buzz marketing books
will tell you that. So will social media gurus. “Nobody talks about boring companies, boring
products, or boring ads,” argues one prominent word-of-mouth advocate.
Unfortunately, he’s wrong. And so is everyone else who subscribes to the interest-is-king theory.
And lest you think this contradicts what we talked about in the previous chapter about Social
Currency, read on. People talk about Cheerios more than Disney World. The reason?