We all remember catchy phrases that cause explosions in product demand. In 1954, “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should”. Wendy’s restaurant chain used “Where’s the beef?” You must create stickiness today, here’s how.

Direct marketers have an obsession of getting people to act: by sending in coupons, call 800 numbers or register to win a prize. Generalized messages extolling products and services don’t work very well. Practical messages such as ”get a free CD with your order” do. We can gain competitive advantage by looking at what has worked in the past, regardless of the industry where it was successful. Sesame Street understood that when “everyone knows” what appeals to your market, “everyone” is usually wrong.

The producer, Joan Gantz Cooney, wanted a show whose effects would endure long after children took up other interests. My seven children and I have been and continue to be profoundly influenced by the stickiness’ of the show.

Traditional wisdom viewed “good teaching” as highly interactive. TV watching was notoriously passive. Further, traditional teaching is very personal, tailored to children’s individual personalities. Sesame Street’s innovation was to mix fantasy characters, such as “Oscar the Grouch” and “Big Bird,” with the “teaching” characters.

Extreme stickiness was achieved when MCI combine a rather large celebrity athlete, Michael Jordan, with a rather tiny cartoon character “Tweety Bird.”

The lesson of stickiness is, to achieve stickiness in the minds of consumers, there’s always a simple way to package information that makes it irresistible.

However even the best messengers will not persuade anyone to buy in the wrong environment. In the summer months, flue season “vaporizes”, while suntan lotion purchases get really “hot”. “Where’s the beef,?” a successful slogan in the U.S. wouldn’t have work in vegetarian India.

Even with stickiness and presenting your message in a receptive rather than hostile environment, little things matter. All of us imitate the behavior of others, we want to feel we belong and social scientists call this mimetics.

Airwalk represents the classic example of the rise of a product thru imitating behavior. Airwalk started by making a skateboarding shoe and by 1993 had become a $16 million business. It then worked to make itself synonymous with a vigorous outdoor lifestyle and by 1994; it had become a $44 million company. In 1996 Airwalk hit $175 million to become the No. 3 footwear brand, behind only Nike and Adidas. Why?

The firm developed a serious of dramatic images of teenagers relating to their Airwalks in striking, funny, sophisticated, and extremely sticky ways. The ads reflected the principles of epidemic transmission because they appealed to trendsetters, the ones that, in every industry, take the lead causing others to want to belong.

Here are a few questions that can help you gain a new competitive advantage. What jobs are customers trying to get done? Where are customers not being served? Where are new business models emerging? Identify the opportunity, create sticky messages and make the customer feel like they want to belong.

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