As ad-folk, we’re always trying to come up with ways to make things sticky. We want viral videos to gain traction. We want people to stick around on our site and read our content. And we want to come up with radical ideas that become public sensations. With Made to Stick on shelves, and “Stickiness” running rampant through the heads of business-folk, it’s interesting to consider what makes things sticky in real life. Tape is sticky. Glass is not. Why?
Apparently it’s viscoelasticity:
Viscoelasticity describes materials that exhibit both viscous and elastic characteristics when undergoing plastic deformation. Viscous materials, like honey, resist shear flow and strain linearly with time when a stress is applied. Elastic materials strain instantaneously when stretched and just as quickly return to their original state once the stress is removed. Viscoelastic materials have elements of both of these properties and, as such, exhibit time dependent strain. [WIKIPEDIA]
Basically, it’s the capability of a material to flow and stretch. As I learned today in Tierney Lab on NYT.com, the flowing (viscosity) aspect allows the sticky material to get traction on the surface it’s sticking to, and the stretching (elasticity) makes it hold on tight and resist forces in the opposite direction. You can measure stickiness by measuring the stiffness of a material. A material needs to have enough stiffness to resist breaking. For instance, water flows but doesn’t have the stiffness to be sticky.
Stiffness is measured by a unit called a pascal (named after the French scientist and mathematician Blaise Pascal, who also has a computer programming language named after him). Aluminum has a stiffness of order 100 billion pascal. Rubber is 1 million to 10 million pascal. A sticky material — one that is “viscoelastic” — has a stiffness of less than 300,000 pascal. Above that, a material loses its tackiness. [NYT/Tierney Lab]
I have no idea what the Heaths have written in “Made to Stick”, but I’ve found if you’re looking to understand complex concepts like “stickiness of ideas”, it’s a good idea to check out how things work in the physical, natural world.
Using that analysis… if you want to make something sticky:
- Make it flexible. We all should know how to do this one. Allow real people to play with and help you improve your idea. If they have a good suggestion, use it to make a change.
- Make sure it can flow. If a material can’t get its molecules into the nooks and crannies of another material, it can’t grab hold. Your idea (whatever it is, product, service, activity, whatever) should be able to get pretty deep into specific crevasses in people’s lives.
- Make sure it has enough internal strength to provide resistance. That is, the brand should have a strong foundation, built upon understanding of customers, research, high product quality, etc.
11 Comments
you never cease to amaze me
Thanks mom.
First thing, my mom leaves comments just like that (in fact I just emailed this post to her, I’m sure she’ll feel much better knowing there are other moms leaving comments on their son’s blogs) . . .
Second, this is awesome. It’s exactly the kind of stuff I like reading on blogs (marketing or otherwise). I think this quote from Michael Bierut on design explains why this perspective is so great: “But the great thing about graphic design is that it is almost always about something else. Corporate law. Professional football. Art. Politics. Robert Wilson. And if I can’t get excited about whatever that something els is, I really have trouble doing good work as a designer. To me, the conclusion is inescapable: the more things you’re interested in, the better your work will be.”
Ha. Yeah, it’s funny… my mom is a voracious consumer of everything I put online, and by consequence, everything people in my “circle” put online. Twitters, Blog Posts, Comments, Flickr images, she’s all over it. So when I said to her, “Yeah, Noah is in town this week”, she knows who I am talking about. Which is cool. Tell your mom I said whatup. She blogs too, yeah?
Glad you liked the post. I had just read that Michael Beirut quote yesterday, I think, and I was thrilled that someone had put something I believe into words so succinctly. Because while I don’t design, per se, I do have to dive into whatever business I happen to be working on at the time, whether it’s machine tools or roofs (as is the case for my B2B clients right now). See you soon, man.
A much better screen tag.
Donna — My son (Noah) never ceases to amaze me either, for which I will be eternally grateful. Without him (and his sister Leah), I feel certain I’d have lost much of my ability to ‘flow and stretch.’ I also think it’s clear testimony to Clay’s respect for you that you got that public “thanks, mom.” I’ve gotten a few of those from Noah over the years and while it may seem perfunctory, I interpret it as a sign that our sons are as proud of us as we are of them. Not that many moms can say that!
Clay — awesome post! The concept of stickiness, along with the ability to flow and stretch, are great images that actually make me think of what brain-based learning looks like. When we learn something new it stays in our brain for a certain period of time. If we don’t connect it to something else, it generally fails to stick, but when we do make connections, it not only sticks but gets stronger, becoming part of the neural network that helps us to trap and retain new knowledge and understanding …
Love those connections!
Ah…..Barbara, maybe we did something right along the way:)
Very insightful.
It’s very similar to the notion of Plasticity discussed in William James’ “Habit.” You’ll find it in the second paragraph here - http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin4.htm
“Habit” is about how our brain learns, just as Barbara mentioned.
I’m working on a post right now for my blog that will touch on this. I’ll let you know when I post it.
Thanks for brain food.
Barbara - Thanks for stopping by and reading (and liking) my post. I’m definitely proud of my mom for all kinds of reasons, not least because she just sold one of her quilts in an auction. Just had to brag for a moment.
Mom - I think you did quite a bit right.
Mike - I haven’t gotten through the whole bit, but I definitely liked this portion:
This is also very good brain food. Quite nutritious. And it’s exactly what I’m trying to get at with the post above. We may spend too much time trying to “figure out” how phenomena like stickiness and influence, when the answers have already been laid bare by nature. Can’t wait to see your post.
Great post and lovely comments from bloggers and bloggers’ mom who blog as well. Fascinating.
Thanks, Oakie. It’s pretty cool…
Last week/weekend, Noah was in town and we hung out a couple of times. I’m sure Barbara and Donna would be happy to know that we talked about them quite a bit…
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[…] fail. Hopefully, we fail quickly so that we’re on the right track sooner than later. I like Clay Parker Jones‘ philosophy of how to make something sticky in the natural, physical world: 1. Make it […]