奥运营销之广告文案六大步骤.doc

#225 Made to Stick奥运营销之广告文案六大步骤MADE TO STICKWhy Some Ideas Survive and Others DieCHIP HEATH and DAN HEATHCHIP HEATH is a professor of organizational behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. His research focuses on why some ideas survive and ultimately thrive in the broader marketplace of ideas. Dr. Heaths articles have appeared in Scientific American, the Financial Times, The Washington Post, Business Week, Psychology Today, and Vanity Fair. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and Stanford. DAN HEATH is a consultant at Duke Corporate Education. He is a former researcher for Harvard Business School who now specializes in designing and delivering corporate training programs. Mr. Heath, a graduate of Harvard Business School and the University of Texas at Austin, also co-founded Thinkwell Inc., a company that develops multimedia college textbooks. MAIN IDEA “Sticky” ideas are those that are highly memorable and exceptionally long-lasting in their impact. Everyone in business would like to develop ideas that are sticky, as would most parents when they are attempting to teach values to their children. So what exactly is it that makes an idea sticky in the first place? While there are no hard and fast formulas for developing a sticky idea, there is a short checklist of six principles that most of the successful sticky ideas of the past have tended to use: To develop sticky ideas, make your message: 1 Simple State the essential core of your idea succinctly 2 Unexpected Use surprise to grab peoples attention 3 Concrete Pack in solid ideas and images 4 Credible Embed credentials right into your message 5 Emotional Make the listener feel something6 Story-based Help people learn how they should respond “This is an idea success story. Even better, its a truthful idea success story. We wrote this book to help you make your ideas stick. By stick, we mean that your ideas are understood and remembered, and have a lasting impactthey change your audiences opinions or behavior. When we ask people how often they need to make an idea stick, they tell us the need arises between once a month and once a week. For managers, these are big ideas about new strategic directions and guidelines for behavior. Columnists try to change readers opinions on policy issues. Religious leaders try to share spiritual wisdom with their congregants. Nonprofit organizations try to persuade volunteers to contribute their time and donors to contribute their money to a worthy cause. Given the importance of making ideas stick, its surprising how little attention is paid to the subject.” Chip Heath and Dan Heath Trait 1 Simple State the Essential Core of Your Idea Succinctly Main IdeaThe ideal here is to create ideas that are both simple and profound, like proverbs that exist in every culture around the world. To come up with something profound, youll probably need to forego all of the supporting points you could mention and instead find a simple way to express one main point. This is not as easy as it sounds. Supporting IdeasWeed out Superfluous ElementsTo simplify your message doesnt mean to “dumb it down” or to make it into a fluffy “sound bite.” Instead, what youre trying to do is to get to the essential core of your idea. Usually, to get to that core, you have to weed out all of the superfluous elements that confuse rather than amplify or clarify. To create a sticky message, you have to then communicate the core idea and leave everything else out. Success storiesTo see how this is done in practice, consider some successful sticky messages: During Bill Clintons successful 1992 campaign for the Presidency of the United States, James Carville was one of Clintons key political advisors. He came up with three phrases that could become the core message of Clintons campaign. Of those three choices, one resonated well with everyone: “Its the economy, stupid.” This subsequently became the theme of Clintons campaign, even though Bill Clinton personally wanted to talk about lots of other things. His advisers kept bringing him back to this one single idea again and again, and eventually the voters got the idea. Everyone knows Southwest Airlines is a company that encourages its employees to have fun on the job, but that isnt what makes the company successful. Instead, Southwest focuses on just one single goal: to become THE lowest fare airline by reducing costs. As a result of that intensive focus, everyone knows where they stand with the companys management. If you have an idea that will help them cut costs, they will welcome you with open arms. If your new idea isnt aligned with that aim, they wont have much time to talk with you. In the 1980s, the United States Army changed the way it drafted its orders. Planners were aware that even their best laid plans were often made ineffective by the actions of the enemy ten minutes into a battle. Therefore, they developed a concept called “Commanders Intent.” This means that whenever an order is given, there is a crisp, plain-talk statement included that specifies the orders goal. Soldiers are then able to improvise as required to respond to the actions of the enemy. Having the commanders intent spelled out means that the most important goal of the operation is articulated and understood by everyone with hands-on involvement. The person who is out in the field can improvise because the ultimate goal is clear. How to Express Your IdeaAlmost always, when you get to the true core of your message, youll find that the idea can be expressed compactly rather than requiring extensive verbiage. This is what makes proverbs so powerful and universal. They are short and simple statements that pack loads of common sense and wisdom into a few words. Proverbs are easily and readily expressed, but can take a lifetime to live. For example: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The analogy methodIdeas that are simple have an undeniable elegance and utility. They cut to the chase because they fight the temptation to do too much. However, theres no use being compact but saying nothing. In addition to delivering a compact idea, sticky messages are also quite profound. They say something worthwhile. A good, practical way of achieving this is to use an analogy that compares something unknown with some idea that is very familiar. This technique is commonly used in Hollywood to pitch new movie concepts and ideas. For example: Speed is Die Hard on a bus. Alien is Jaws on a spaceship. This technique is also widely used in teaching and in business: The human brain is like a computer, only vastly more powerful and adaptable. An atom is like a miniature solar system, with the nucleus taking the place of the sun and electrons taking the place of the various planets orbiting the sun. Disney doesnt hire “employees” at its theme parksit hires “performers” who are expected to entertain the guests at the same time as they complete their assigned tasks. The inverted pyramid formatSticky ideas use these same principles. They express something substantive and important in a concise way that is easy for people to pick up on and then later recall. In many ways, sticky ideas are constructed like newspaper articles in that they have the most important idea right out in front where it is obvious. This inverted pyramid format is great for readers because they can read the first sentence and then decide whether or not they need to read the rest of the story. This is also useful for the newspaper editors because if they need to shorten an article, they can delete paragraphs from the bottom of the article without any problems whatsoever. The format is also good for the writer because it forces prioritization. Sticky ideas put the core messagethe equivalent of the leadright out in front where it can gain the attention it deserves. All kinds of other supporting information can be added at later stages, but the fact that one central unifying theme or concept is highlighted is invaluable. Key Thoughts“I can teach you the secret to running this airline in thirty seconds. This is it: We are THE low-fare airline. Once you understand that fact, you can make any decision about this companys future as well as I can.” Herb Kelleher, former CEO, Southwest Airlines “Finding the core and expressing it in the form of a compact idea can be enduringly powerful.” Chip Heath and Dan Heath Trait 2Unexpected Use Surprise to Grab Peoples Attention Main IdeaTo get people to pay attention, you have to violate their expectations and be counterintuitive. Surprise is good as an initial attention getter but it doesnt last. For a sticky idea to endure, it has to generate interest and curiosity. It has to open gaps in peoples knowledge and then fill them. Supporting Ideas2 Challenges Must First Be OvercameThe two quite different challenges here are: How do you get peoples attention in the first place? Surprising factsThis is usually a matter of surprising them by breaking the pattern they are expecting. Naturally sticky ideas often propose surprising facts: The Great Wall of China is visible from space. You use only 10 percent of your brain. You should drink eight glasses of water a day. A joltWhen you surprise people by jolting them out of familiar patterns, you cause them to think and ultimately act differently. The challenge is to make the surprise tie back to the sticky idea rather than coming across as a cheap sales gimmick. In surprising people, you need to break their in-built guessing machine and then propose a rational fix. You need to do this in a way that relates directly to your core message. How do you keep their attention when and if you get it? Create a mystery to solveNaturally sticky ideas are inherently interesting and engaging. This is why people linger over gossip and spend hour after hour working on conspiracy theories. This also means that if you can manage to envelop your sticky idea in an engaging mystery that gradually unfolds, you can keep people interested for whatever extended period of time is required to work through all the complexities. CuriosityCuriosity is a powerful motivator. People will sit through boring movies just to find out how things turn out, even when they dont really like or identify with any of the characters involved. Curiosity arises whenever people perceive there is a gap in their knowledge base that can only be filled by doing some more research. That means the real key to keeping people immersed in a subject is to fuel their curiosity. Identify questionsIf you want to develop a genuinely sticky idea, move away from asking yourself: “What information do I need to convey?” Instead, think more about: “What questions do I want my audience to ask?” The most common way to do this is to point out a gap in their knowledge and then provide people with what they need to fill in those gaps for themselves. Most people tend to pick up on these challenges quickly and work to do just what is required. Experience Reveals Effective MethodsAs a rule of thumb, the best way to make an idea stickier is: Find the corethe central message you want to communicate above all else. Figure out something that is counterintuitive about the core messagethat runs contrary to popular wisdom. Communicate your messagein such a way that you break the listeners preconceptions and then help them update or fix their beliefs. Give people a little bit of informationand encourage them to fill in the remaining gaps for themselves. These gaps have to be substantial enough to keep things interesting, but not so large they seem insurmountable. Success storiesConsider a few examples of using something unexpected to create a sticky idea: In 1953, Sony was a young company struggling to stay in business in post-war Japan. Its first product, an electric rice cooker, was a dismal failure in the marketplace. Sonys lead technologist, Masaru Ibuka, became intrigued by transistors and licensed the technology from Bell Labs. Ibuka then set his engineers the challenge of building a “pocketable radio.” This was quite a technical challenge, because at that time radios (using vacuum tubes) were large pieces of furniture. Even Bell Labs thought the idea was impossible, but Ibukas passion was contagious. Soon, all of Sonys engineers were hard at work on the project. By the time Sony released the TR-55 transistor radio in March 1957, the company had grown from 50 people to more than 1,200 employees. The TR-55 sold 1.5 million units and was the product that put Sony on the world map. In May 1961, John F. Kennedy gave a speech to a joint session of Congress. This was an era when the Cold War dominated world politics, and accordingly President Kennedy outlined a predictable series of requests. He asked for more funds to expand the U.S. foreign aid program, to beef up the NATO alliance, to shore up civil defense and some other projects. Then, at the end of his speech, he casually said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. If we make this judgement affirmatively, it will not be one man going to the moon, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.” This simply stated vision set off a flurry of scientific development and dictated the sustained efforts of tens of thousands of people in dozens of organizations for almost a decade. This most amazing sticky idea would go down in history as one of the most successful challenges ever issued by a U.S. president. Key Thoughts“A journalism class teacher gave his class their first assignment: They were to write the lead of a newspaper story. The teacher reeled off the facts: Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverley Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund Pat Brown. The budding journalists sat at their typewriters and pecked away at the first lead of their careers. Most of the students produced leads that reordered the facts and condensed them into a single sentence. The teacher collected the leads and scanned them rapidly. Then he laid them aside for a moment. Finally, he said, The lead to this story is There will be no school next Thursday. In that moment, students realized that journalism was not just about regurgitating the facts but about figuring out the point. That idea should be in the Sticky Hall of Fame. The teacher knew students had a defective schema of journalism, took their mental models, gave them a swift kick, and made them work better.” Chip Heath and Dan Heath Trait 3Concrete Pack in Solid Ideas and Images Main IdeaThe human brain is far more attuned to remembering vivid images than it is to interpreting lofty messages. Naturally sticky ideas are full of clear and bright images people wont forget in a hurry. By couching everything in concrete images, ambiguity and the abstractness of meaningless phrases are left far behind. People get the idea and remember it because they can see it in their minds eye. Supporting IdeasLet Your Ideas Take ShapeConcrete ideas are always easier to remember than abstractions. This is why naturally sticky ideas are generally stuffed full of solid images and readily visualized actions rather than flowery language. For example: Success stories There is a common urban myth about a rodent outbreak in a fried chicken outlet that has some customers being served “Kentucky Fried Rats.” This is an image that admittedly makes people cringe and feel squeamish, but its very easy to see in your minds eye. And for that reason, it becomes almost unforgettable. You have probably heard of that myth before, although nobody has ever paid for advertisements that promote the idea. This is a great example of a sticky idea built on a very concrete (and admittedly disgusting) image. James Grant was the director of UNICEF for many years. The organization was aware that each year more than a million children in developing countries die from dehydration caused by diarrhea. What frustrated UNICEF even more was the knowledge that this problem could actually be prevented very simply and at the minimal cost of just a few cents each if kids had the right kind of fluids given to them. UNICEF tried to educate people without seeming to gain much traction. Finally, James Grant took to traveling with a small packet filled with one teaspoon of salt and eight teaspoons of sugar, the basic ingredients needed for oral rehydration therapy when mixed with one liter of water. As Mr. Grant met with the prime ministers of developing countries, he would take out his little demonstration packet and say, “Do you know this costs less than a cup of tea and it can save hundreds of thousands of childrens lives in your country?” When Jerry Kaplan pitched Kleiner Perkins for venture capital backing for his vision of a smaller, more portable type of personal computer that used a pen rather than a keyboard, he didnt have any fancy PowerPoint slides or anything else. In fact, he didnt even have a business plan, just his idea. Kaplan did something entirely unconventional. He explained his idea briefly and then threw his plain leather folder that was roughly the size of the device he had in mind on the confere