Detailed Summary

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath – This book presents the anatomy of an idea, revealing the “stickiness factor” that makes an idea unforgettable. It draws on powerful examples from advertisers, politicians, and moviemakers to illustrate how sticky ideas take root. It shows how to formulate ideas with immediate impact and use memorable stories to communicate a powerful message.

The reason for this dichotomy is simple: people think in terms of stories. Rumors, urban legends, and gossip are all examples of stories that spread without any regard for their truth. On the other hand, the most well-known ideas—the ones that change the world that people learn in school—are not typically presented as stories. They’re usually given as bullet points on PowerPoint slides, in Ted talks, or in short articles with big, bold headings.

Six traits of Made to Stick are:

Simplicity: The idea is stripped down to its most basic and memorable form.

Unexpectedness: The opposite of simplicity. The idea is complex, but it can be broken down into a form we can remember.

Driven by Emotions: Feelings are the most influential part of communication, and stories are more memorable when they evoke an emotional response.

Concreteness: We love stories that paint a clear picture and give us a sense of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell.

Hypothesis: Many great stories take a form that could be traced back to an idea or question: “How can I solve this problem? How will this turn out?”

Credibility: The story wins our trust by making us feel that the storyteller is relaying information they know to be true.

Let’s dig into the key lesson of Made to stick summary.

Made To Stick Summary Key Points

Expected ideas rarely leave a mark

It’s not the ideas you expect that make a breakthrough because they are expected to stick out. Expected ideas rarely leave a mark. It’s the ideas that you don’t expect that make the breakthrough. And they’re unexpected because they have to stick out. For example, you might think that packaging – the thing we open up first – has to be boring. But we don’t. At least not if you’re looking for free-rangers and creative rebels. We believe packages should stand out, function well, and tell a story. We live to make exceptional packaging.

Like most people, you are probably struggling to squeeze your idea into the existing marketing framework: use these colors for no longer than 45 seconds, do this to impress us… You know that your picture can’t be pinned down that easily. Sticky ideas are always unexpected. They’re bold and risky but also intelligent and meaningful… Yet there’s hardly any room for them in the usual marketing scheme.

Use the curiosity gap to keep the audience’s attention while they listen to your message

Curiosity gaps are one of the best ways to get people hanging on your every word. They’re like little hooks in your writing that keep the reader engaged and wanting more.

You can use curiosity gaps to keep your listener’s attention once you have it. Maybe you’ve told a story or asserted some fact or opinion, and you want to drive home your point. Or perhaps you’re trying to explain a concept, so you go into detail about it. All of this is great, but then what do you end with? Concluding a speech or article with a promise of more information is a great way to leave people hanging and hungry for more.

One example is when you first tell a story. Everything keeps building and building, and then it just cuts off at the weirdest place. The story has a natural ending, but instead of leaving the audience satisfied, your curiosity gap leaves them wondering what happens next. It’s like in my favorite joke by Mitch Hedberg: “I bought some powdered water, but I don’t know what to add to it. The instinct is to make a point or to tell part of the story to get the attention of your audience. This is what we do most of the time when we give presentations, talk in meetings, or even write e-mails. But there’s another way to grab the attention: you can leave them in suspense and use curiosity to create urgency instead.

The power of storytelling is a gift that needs to be cultivated and shared

A great story can change the world. It can transform you, it can make you more productive, can help you sell more. It can even help you lose weight and quit smoking. And that’s when it comes from a human being. The best thing you can do to get more people on board with your ideas is to practice telling stories – every day. Whether you do it in writing, speaking, video, or whatever other format you can think of. The point is to start. Start practicing your storytelling style today – whatever it is – and start telling great stories. The following are a few of the takeaways from my journey thus far.

I’ve learned that great stories are the ones that customers can relate to. They identify with the characters, the emotions, and the challenges. The best way to get your ideas to stick is to tell great stories.

I’ve learned that storytelling is just like any other practice while writing this Made to stick summary. It gets better with time, training, and feedback. Maybe this seems obvious, but it took me years to realize how ineffective I was as a storyteller, mainly because I was my worst critic. Now that I’m improving, I feel like these story practices apply broadly outside of entrepreneurship and storytelling – in any realm where you want to make an idea stick or motivate people to do something.

Made to Stick Quotes

“To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from “What information do I need to convey?” to “What questions do I want my audience to ask?” –Chip Heath and Dan Heath

“The first problem of communication is getting people’s attention.” –Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Made to Stick Summary Review

Made to Stick is one of the very simple and to-the-point books I’ve ever read. The author described the six traits you can learn to think about sticky ideas to grow your business. When I was writing the Made to stick summary, I really found the importance of checklists in our daily lives. Recommended.

To whom I would recommend the Made to Stick Summary?

• Anyone who is a marketing intern.
• Anyone who has stories to tell to the world.
• Anyone who wants to pursue his career in marketing.