Sublime

When trying to generate word of mouth, many people forget one important detail. They focus so much on getting people to talk that they ignore the part that really matters: what people are talking about.

Making things more observable makes them easier to imitate, which makes them more likely to become popular. So we need to make our products and ideas more public. We need to design products and initiatives that advertise themselves and create behavioral residue that sticks around even after people have bought the product or espoused the idea.

Brands grow by having (many) more buyers who buy the brand (a little) more (as outlined in How Brands Grow, Sharp 2010).

3. Emotion

The Science of Influence

INNER REMARKABILITY

These patterns of evolved solutions included psychological principles like scarcity (making the offer feel limited or scarce) and social proof (illustrating existing consumption to reinforce trust in the product’s quality).

One of the main tenets of prospect theory is that people don’t evaluate things in absolute terms. They evaluate them relative to a comparison standard, or “reference point.”

Principle 6: Stories