I want you to spend a couple minutes listening to this song. [MUSIC] Now you're probably wondering why I made you listen to that song. If you're like many people, you didn't like that song very much. In fact, 75% of the thumbs on You Tube for that song are thumbs down. Most people dislike that song. In fact, some people have said it's the worst song ever. Yet, it's one of the most popular pieces of content in the past few years. Over 300 million people have shared that content and so one question is why? If most people hate it, why was it so successful? Rebecca Black, the person who made that song was a 16 year old girl at the time. Her parents paid $2,000 to ARK Music Factory to come up with a hit for her. They came up with some overproduced number about those big teenage dilemmas like waking up in the morning, going to school, figuring out whether to sit in the front seat or the back seat of a friends car. She put it out there and it's been hugely successful, so one question is why? Again if so many people hate it, why did so many people share it. Why did it catch on. Well if you look at the data, you'll notice an interesting pattern. There's a spike in shares and then it goes down, and then another spike and then it goes down, and then another spike and then it goes down. If you look closer though those spikes aren't random. They're actually seven days apart. If you'll look even closer you'll notice that they're every Friday, the same name as your back a black song. That song is equally bad every day of the week. Depending on your preferences it's bad on Monday, it's bad on Tuesday, it's bad on Wednesday, but Friday rolls around and it provides a ready reminder, what psychologist would call a trigger, to make people think about it, and talk about it, and share it. Because if something's top-of-mind it's gonna be more likely to be tip-of-tongue. When we think about marketing we often think about do people like a product and we think the more people like it, the more likely they will be to buy it. But it's not just whether we like something that we buy, it's whether we're thinking about it or not. There's a restaurant in your city that I'm sure you've been meaning to go to. You like the food. You've been there once. You've been meaning to go back. But if you never think about it right when you're going out to dinner, you're never going to end up going there. If you're not triggered to think about it, you're not going to take action. Some scientists did a great study in the grocery store a few years ago. Some days they played French music over the PA system and other days they played German music. What did they find? Well, they found on days they played French music, sales of French wine went up. On days they played German music, sales of German wine and beer went up. Why? Well, it wasn't that the music changed what wine people liked, it just reminded them to purchase it. Hear French wine over the PA it reminds you oh, I like French things. Maybe I should go check out the French wine in the aisle. It triggered you to think about something, and so encouraged you to take action. Here's a little bit more data. This is word of mouth about Cheerios by time of day. What do you notice when you look at this picture? Well you notice that most people talk about Cheerios in the morning, and this is not rocket science. People talk about a product when they've just used that product. You just ate a breakfast cereal, you're more likely to talk about it. Just walked out of a movie, you're more likely to talk about it. You just finished reading a book, well, you're more likely to share it with others. It's top of mind, it's more likely to be tip of tongue. But here's what's interesting, people don't continue to talk about Cheerios the rest of the day, because other things become top of mind, and that brand no longer is. And so outside of when people use a product or service, if you want to get people talking about your stuff, how can you trigger them in other ways beyond use? Well good news, there are some other triggers as well. If I said peanut butter and for example, blank, what work might come to mind? You might say jelly. Or if I said rum and you might think of Coke. If I said gin and you might think of tonic. Notice that peanut butter is almost like a little advertisement for jelly. It's almost like jelly should pay peanut butter like a kickback or referral fee every time peanut butter's around. Cuz if peanut butter's around, jelly doesn't have to remind you it exists. Peanut butter does all the work for jelly. All right, that's why companies like Michelob, the American beer company Michelob, have the slogan, weekends are made for Michelob. They wanted people to think about the beer when the weekends rolled around. Corona, large brand, has done the same thing with the beach. I challenge you to go on a beach vacation and never think about Corona. It's pretty much impossible. You're lying there on the sand, you got your swimsuit on, you're reading your book, you get thirsty. What comes to mind? Well Corona, and what does it always have in it, a lime. How does that work? Is that random or luck? No, there's a science there, right. The beach is Corona's trigger, the beach is Corona's peanut butter. So when you're thinking about applying these ideas think about what's your peanut butter. What's the thing in the environment that's gonna remind people of you even when you're not around. If you want your boss to think about your ideas or you want your company's product to catch on. How you can you make your consumers triggered near the point of action. A famous example of this in the US was around Kit Kat, large candy company created a Kit Kat bar it's called. People liked it but they weren't buying it. Sales were down by about 30%. So they came out with a simple slogan, Kit Kat and Coffee, a break's best friend. Having a coffee break, have a Kit Kat. Thinking about coffee, think about Kit Kat. Coffee and Kit Kat, Kit Kat and coffee, best friends forever. Think about it, right? Why link yourself to coffee? Well, it's a beverage people drink frequently. Every time people pick up a coffee, and lots of people do many times a day, they'd be more likely to think of Kit Kat. And sales went through the roof after this because people liked Kit Kat already but they weren't purchasing it. That slogan weekends are made for Michelob was originally holidays are made for Michelob. But they moved it to the weekend because the weekend was more frequent. So as you think about what trigger or peanut butter to link yourself to, pick something that happens frequently in environment. Think about who you wanna think about you, or your idea, or your product. When you want them to think about you or your idea. What is in the environment around that time, and how you can link yourself to that trigger. More triggered, more top of mind, more tip of tongue.
