Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The Tipping Point.

Have you ever found yourself falling victim to a huge trend?... No matter how hard you tried to prevent yourself from conforming? I know I have. Well, the ones I actually like. You see, by the time trends reach me, or us, it really becomes a lot more of about a popularity thing and a lot less about how valuable it is, or how one person's isolated choice sparked something big. It's about who is doing it and why we should too. Or at least that's what I always thought. But Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" opened my eyes a little. There's always more to the story, and I guess that's really every story.

Gladwell's main argument in "The Tipping Point" is that almost every major trend or phenomenon has three major components, which he calls "three rules of epidemics": the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. And with these three components, I've come up with one word or phrase to represent or describe the function or value of the component based on how I interpreted their impact. 


The first component is Law of the Few. To me, this component is all about influenece. I know you're first question is, "Okay, well who are the few?" The Few are the Connector, the Maven and the Salesman. The Connectors are the people that know people, and tons of them. People in various professional, social, economic and any other realms you can probably think of. The Mavens are push people to make the best decision and The Salesmans are the ones who, obviously, sell through persuasion. If you have a Connector, a Maven and a Salesman, your 1/3 of the way there.

Now the Stickiness Factor is pretty self-explanatory. If you want a trend, it has to stick - it has to be memorable. If people can't remember it, it might as well disppear into a big, black hole forever. Most of the time, this means it is unique, rare and fresh. It is something people are captivated by and want to see more of, like the Kardashians. Okay, so they are a little dysfunctional, inappropiate and crazy... and you might not even like them, but the rest of the world does; yes, literally the world, not just the United States. The Kardashians are as sticky as can be. 

I explain the Power of Context in four words: right place, right time. I hate to make a music reference, but this is indeed a music blog. Big Sean says in his song "Don't Tell Me You Love Me", "What's the perfect girl if it's not the perfect time?" Well, this line definitely applies to trends as well. Just imagine if someone tried to start the fashion trend of crop top in the the conservative early 1900's. It just wouldn't work....and I bet Malcolm Gladwell can back me up on that.

If "The Tipping Point" isn't your style, check out some of Malcom Gladwell's other publications: 
Blink
What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures

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