The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is about how ideas really spread. The argument is that it’s not the size of the advertising budget that determines how quickly ideas catch fire, rather it is the dynamic interplay of hidden factors at just the right time.
The Law of the Few is an example of this. Gladwell explains that there are three types of people that are key when it comes to marketing an idea. They are: Maven, Connector, and Salesman. The Mavens are the good Samaritans – they are the customers who like to help other customers make good decisions, the salesmen use their methods of persuasion to sell the concept to Mavens, and the connectors make it possible for everyone to meet.
Other key ideas include the stickiness factor, which states that the marketability of an idea depends on how new it is. The more divergent the idea is from the status quo, the more likely it will be a hit. And then there’s the power of context. No matter how many Salesmen, Connectors, and Mavens you have, and no matter how high the stickiness factor of an idea is – if the time isn’t right – that is, if the societal conditions are not yet or no longer appropriate, then the idea will not take off.
If you’re an entrepreneur and you want a quick guide to know what to think about before launching you business, check out The Myth of Entrepreneurship.