Book Review: Made To Stick

Chip Heath & Dan Heath. (2007). Made to Stick. Random House.

This book is a great source of inspiration for marketing professionals and anyone else who needs their message to stick. In their organized approach to sticky communication, the brothers Heath take their own advice in writing a Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Story. Okay, it wasn’t that emotional, but they didn’t stop there.

This book is full of interesting, useful, and practical insights for any marketing professional. Five years or fifty, it’s a must-read regardless of how long you’ve been in the industry. For the less experienced, Dan and Chip cover the basics with insightful twists and thought provoking examples. They take simple ideas, like proverbs, and break them down into easy to understand and, more importantly, reproducible thoughts.

For the seasoned professional, this book will make you take a step back, evaluate, and refocus your messages with questions like: “what’s the core message?” and “are you a tapper?” This ‘simplicity’ (as other’s have called it) of the book is a great strength. Being in the business myself I find all too often messages drift from their core and become over complicated by organizations looking for their next award.

I live in the world of online and technology marketing so it is very important for me to make the most impact in the least amount of time. Studies show that I have less than 10 seconds, most times less, to make enough impact on a potential customer that they want to stick around. Made to Stick doesn’t do it for you, but it does serve as a great inspiration and gives clear, simple guidelines to help you get it done.

You can find some great information without having to purchase the book here:
http://www.madetostick.com/

You can buy the book on amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223339007&sr=1-1