This article continues our three-part review of Malcolm Gladwells The Tipping Point. Gladwell is a journalist, not a marketer in a large corporation or a small business owner. What can he offer to the small business marketer? Plenty. Hes written a book thats an idea catalyst for marketers willing to open their minds enough to see how the mini case-studies inside are relevant to the human condition that we all market to, regardless of our industry.

The Stickiness Factor is the second of Gladwells three dynamics that can cause a Tipping Point. For the small business owner, how sticky your message is can make all the difference in your marketing.

Gladwell investigates two different televisions shows--Sesame Street and Blues Clues--and how each created an environment that could rivet youngsters to a show that actually helped them learn something from the TV. Gladwells examination of these two shows holds a couple of very relevant marketing lessons for small business.

First, little changes in the presentation of characters or timing or story length or number of times a story was told made a difference in how well the show held a childs attention. The same kinds of lessons can apply for your small business. Sometimes its just the slightest changes in presenting our business to the customer that can have a huge impact on customers putting us topmost in their minds.

A second lesson from this section of the book is the power of narrative (p. 118). Gladwell relates a study that examined how a toddler used stories to learn. The child would actually teach herself through telling herself stories. There is an incredibly powerful example here for the small business marketer. Just think of it: throughout their developing lives your customers made sense of the world through telling themselves stories that interpreted the world around them.

The lesson for the small business owner is clear: supply your customers with narrative. Dont just load them up with features and benefits, but go one step further and supply them with a story that shows how the product or service you supply will work for them. (Easier said than done, we know. If you want a fantastic book on the use of story to build your brand, check out Laurence Vincents Legendary Brands.)

Also in this section, Gladwell describes how one famous Direct Marketer, Lester Wunderman, used a very simple interactive advertising device to beat another agency in head-to-head competition. This is a fascinating anecdote that small business marketers can take to heartbig money doesnt always win out over smart marketing.

Again, we urge you to read The Tipping Point with a highlighter and pen to write in the margins. Its style is engaging enough that it kept us thinking Yes, our company is like that or Thatd work for us! Next month we continue our journey through this fascinating book as we examine The Power of Context.

2006 Marketing Hawks