Marketing
Made to Stick
Chip Heath & Dan Heath
2007
Summary
Chip and Dan Heath studied what makes ideas memorable and compelling, from urban legends to great advertising to effective teaching. They identified six principles that sticky ideas share: they are Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories (SUCCESs). The book is packed with case studies — from JFK's moon mission to Subway's Jared campaign — that show how ordinary communicators can make their ideas impossible to forget. Essential reading for anyone who needs their message to land.
Key Takeaways
- 1Simple: find the core of your message and strip everything else — a great idea poorly communicated is wasted
- 2Unexpected: violate expectations to get attention, then fill the gap with your message
- 3Concrete: abstract ideas slide off the mind; sensory details and examples make them stick
- 4Credible: use vivid statistics, external authorities, or the anti-authority (real people) to earn belief
- 5Emotional: people care about people, not abstractions — make them feel something to make them act
- 6Stories: a narrative puts ideas in motion and lets people mentally simulate what to do