When most of us hear that word we think disease. Media induced mayhem. Catch it, bin it, kill it. Quick, you might catch something. Keep your children indoors and immediately phone round all your elderly relatives to make sure they aren't feeling a little "off".
Swine flu. Foot and mouth. Sars. Even in my relatively short life I have been exposed to several epidemics.
But, after reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" I have come to understand epidemics in another fashion. Not only disease, but society's behaviour is also susceptible to epidemics, epidemics of trend. Human nature after all, is imitation.
Contagious. There is another disease ridden word. Again though, after reading The Tipping Point I have come to understand that epidemics of trends are contagious. Not unlike a virus. It takes over, spreading through the population, working it's way through vast distances.
The kid wearing the shoes you don't think are "cool" anymore. What are they thinking? Well, 5 months later those same so called "uncool" shoes are on your feet. Trends start by special people, rare people. People who don't mind being out there, different. The thing is, these trends may drift by, unnoticed in the business world. A huge opportunity missed, as not only did they miss a chance of propelling their own product onto the stage under the beaming lights of mainstream, but they of course, and perhaps more importantly to them, missed out on profit.
Airwalk did not miss out. They spotted it. Trendy Southern Californian teens were wearing their brand. They were making a reasonable profit out of this but they were hungry for more. But how to catapult you're brand into the mainstream, yet keep it's underground original cool-ness? Mainstream after all, it not where trends are set. Mainstream is where the lingering dregs of trends hang out. By the time it's in you're local mall, it's not the newest, coolest thing out there.
This was Airwalk's issue.
So they hired a marketing company to create innovative adverts. Not unlike the viral adverts seen today, they created odd, off the wall adverts, that were highly contagious. But this took a lot of behind the scenes leg work to make sure the right topics were brought up via the adverts. They needed the topics that the underground hipsters were interested in, before it hit the fan of mainstream. This is where DeeDee Gordon comes into the picture, as she was another special type of person. Infact doubly special as she was two types out of the three types that The Tipping Point splits people into. Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. These are the three categories rare people fit into, and the types of people who are required in order to tip a trend over the edge and into an epidemic. She is both a Connector - somebody who collects acquaintances and knows many more people than the average person - and a Maven. A Maven is someone who knows a lot. She is somewhat of a fashion Maven. Somebody who has the power of knowledge and has the ability to know when something is going to take off. Due to these traits, she was able to keep tabs on underground trends and use them through Airwalks adverts, early enough that it was new to Joe Public, but cool to the underground scene.
Thanks to the series of ad campaigns, Airwalk seen their peak profit tip $175 Million a year.
Pretty clever really. All by expoiting certain personality traits. This line of attack is seen every day in todays marketing world, although done subtly enough, you probably are blissfully unaware. Yet I'll bet you trudge as I do like a robot and buy whatever has been made into a fashion must have. Be it technology, fashion or a number of other things. Some epidemics are a matter of fate, such as the Baltimore Syphilis outbreak, yet others are constructed to happen with the benefits for the tippers themselves exponential.
Airwalk is only one of several topics brought up throughout Gladwell's "The Tipping Point". It puts several example epidemics into the context of Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, and explains why some trends take off, while others sink. The drop of crime in New York City during the 1990's. The Syphilis outbreak of Baltimore. The Hush Puppy trend. The Suicide epidemic of Micronesia. Paul Revere during the American Revolution, the examples are endless.
For Design Studies - part of our task was to mind-map the book and then select an area in which to mind-map further. Below is my joint one with Ross, with my own one to follow shortly. I have selected Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen as I find that the most fascinating area.
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