Chip Heath

Dan Heath

A groundbreaking resource for those who need to deliver a memorable message introduces six key principles that help make messages stick--simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories--and explains how to incorporate each of these factors into the creative thought process. 100,000 first printing.

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Made to Stick

Sarah Schumacher

Man I love these guys. Great material, well presented and with an emphasis on practical takeaways. My only complaint is that I missed the end of chapter summaries/outlines present in Decisive (my favorite book of theirs).

Nast Marrero

Must read! Insightful and with plenty of ideas on how to enhance your communication!

Jowanza Joseph

The authors did a great job of combining good academic sources and real life examples.  I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read and to boost the "stickability" of their ideas.

Rito Ghosh

Extremely edifying. Learned a lot. Going to apply it wherever I can.

Wenny

An excellent reference material on making things memorable.

It all boils down to storytelling that is:
Concrete
Simple, one core message
Appeals to the higher self

All in all, a good reference book to if you're looking to make your message stand out and be remembered.

McKlayne Marshall

SUCCESS - this book was powerful. It makes you rethink how you express ideas.

Nelson Zagalo

The message inside the book is relevant however the book is written as just another regular business/marketeer oriented book, with some insights, anecdotes and a lot of superficial talk. Anyhow, if you work with anything that needs to grab people attention, that depends on designing engaging universal activities/situations, it could help if you're starting.

The central argument is stated in the simple mnemonic “SUCCESs” which stands for - Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories - the steps for the design of messages that will “stick” in the mind of your target. 

1. Simplicity - boil it down to one and core message

2. Unexpectedness - be counter-intuitive

3. Concreteness - explain through “human actions, in terms of sensory information”

4. Credibility - get people to believe, demonstration is central

5. Emotions - get people to care, “we are wired to feel things for people, not for abstraction”

6. Stories - give context, give meaning

These are generalised principles designed for the masses, that’s why you must keep it simple and human concrete, in order to be universal. In case you’re talking to a niche and in need to portray a complex message, this method will have to be upgraded.

In the same vein I can recommend "Influence" by Robert Cialdini and “Contagious” by Jonah Berger, or even the book from the same authors written after this one, which is more interesting because presenting innovative perspectives about a concerning contemporaneous subject 'change' - "Switch: How to change things when change is hard".

Nathan

Abundant examples, stories, comparisons and strategies to make the message stick in others' mind.

Maria

5 звезд поставила, а написать-то и забыла

короче. есть книжки, в которых есть одна идея и 400 ведер воды, в которых эта идея плавает. а есть книжки, в которых - вроде бы - тоже одна идея. но её разбирают, как лего-конструктор, на мелкие детальки, и потом тщательно собирают обратно с примерами и пояснениями

эта книга как раз второй тип. наверное, то же самое можно рассказать и на одной странице, но чтобы обдумать и понять, как применять приемы, лучше все-таки прочитать 200 страниц

сгодится для медиа, маркетинга, бизнес-стратегий (про них есть особый раздел ближе к концу), преподавания, ну и наверняка еще чего-нибудь

Chris Aldrich

An awesome and quick read. I love that in some sense, they actually use their own advice when writing this to make some of their own ideas a bit more sticky. I thought this was a good little read and provides some interesting and very useful and actionable ideas. Definitely worth reviewing over some of the ideas in the near future for some writing I have in mind. I'd definitely recommend it to marketing people and communicators. I'd also love to delve further into some of their references.

Raluca Piteiu

Provides a nice checklist to help you craft sticky messages and helps you understand what makes ideas to be remembered.

Amit Gawande

I wanted to love this book - the premise is brilliant. But it reads like a textbook, and that's no way to make a message stick with any of your readers. For that matter, that doesn't even look to be the author's intention. 

To start with, the book lacks a clear, central idea that every chapter circles back to - it's all over the place. It digs into the history to find and describe every event, research or anecdote where a difficult message was conveyed effectively. Once it does that, the author summaries his understanding of why that worked. 

First, the author nonchalantly tells you what the learning is -- "Which message do you think works best? Of course, second". I'm sorry, but let the reader come to that conclusion. Don't beat him on the head till he gives up and agrees in frustration.

Second, each time the reasons that the message was effectively conveyed in each story are too varied -- it references almost every phycological/managerial techniques - Maslow's hierarchy and five whys and on & on. 

Finally, suggestions like be simple/concrete, don't bury the lead, capture attention etc are easier said that done. They are a set of skill that all understand they should have, but not every person has in equal doses. Please, your suggestion cannot be "become a master public speaker or leader or designer".

Sigh, it was frustrating to read through this book. Ironically, it fails to follow the message it wishes to convey - talk about one message, be simple and concise. It would have stuck with me then.

Adam

This is the spiritual successor to Malcolm Gladwells “The Tipping Point”. One concept touched on in that book was the idea of stickiness - the ability for an idea to be memorable.

While there were some parts of the book that stuck with me (give strong leads, people identify with people), many of the concepts I honestly forgot about. It left me thinking this book may have been more sticky if it were shorter and stuck to only the most impactful examples.

Bryan Alexander

This book offers a concise model of how some phrases or exercises can win over audiences.

The authors' formula includes these elements:
-simple (as stripped down as can be)
-unexpected (surprise the audience)
-concrete (embody abstractions in material details)
-credible (appeal to authority, sometimes)
-emotional (skip stats, hit the feels)
-stories (we do love narrative)

A few ideas I wanted to draw attention to:
-shocking schema. The authors want us to understand how a good slogan or pedagogy can work with audience expectations - then reverse or otherwise shock them. (Very modernist approach)
-analogies can be powerful. (This lit prof concurs)
-it helps to address audience's self-interest, but to explore doing so across a range of Bloom's taxonomy.

The book is very repetitive, which can be a problem. But I did appreciate how the Heaths adumbrated their model across many domains, and with a good sense of humor.

Lorenz Herrmann

In this guide, the authors shows that sticky messages of all kinds - from the infamous 'kidney theft ring' hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony - draw their power from the same six traits. 'Made to Stick' presents success stories (and failures) - the scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of 'the Mother Teresa Effect'; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation prevented racial prejudice. It brings the principles of winning ideas - and tells how apply these rules to making a messages stick.

Made to Stick Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Reviews