PUB 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: The Lost Symbol, Duncan J. Watts, Viral Marketing

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Publishing Program
• Course: PUB 350
• Professor: Jamie Broadhurst

Document Summary

What happened from 1996-1999: an information cascade sta(cid:396)t(cid:863, (cid:862)du(cid:396)i(cid:374)g su(cid:272)h a(cid:374) e(cid:448)e(cid:374)t, i(cid:374)di(cid:448)iduals i(cid:374) a populatio(cid:374) stop (cid:271)eha(cid:448)i(cid:374)g like i(cid:374)di(cid:448)iduals a(cid:374)d. Indigo had staff members sent to union station to stage a (cid:373)ass (cid:396)eadi(cid:374)g o(cid:374) lau(cid:374)(cid:272)h day fo(cid:396) (cid:862)the. Is the tipping point toast: question: did, duncan watts; information cascade: a social chain reaction in which increasing numbers of people buy a product principally because other people are buying it. In the case of harry potter, before bloomsbury bought the rights, several other pu(cid:271)lishe(cid:396)s (cid:396)eje(cid:272)ted the (cid:373)a(cid:374)us(cid:272)(cid:396)ipt. It(cid:859)s te(cid:373)pti(cid:374)g to thi(cid:374)k of the(cid:373) as fools (cid:449)ho missed a sure thing. For every harry potter that explodes out of nowhere, there are thousands of books, movies, authors, and actors who live their entire lives in o(cid:271)s(cid:272)u(cid:396)ity, a(cid:374)d (cid:373)y (cid:449)o(cid:396)k suggests that it(cid:859)s (cid:374)ot (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause they la(cid:272)k (cid:395)uality o(cid:396) desirability. In other words, the market for a successful product: (cid:862)pe(cid:396)haps the p(cid:396)o(cid:271)le(cid:373) with viral marketing is that the disease metaphor is misleading.