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Made to Stick  By  cover art

Made to Stick

By: Chip Heath, Dan Heath
Narrated by: Charles Kahlenberg
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Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The instant classic about why some ideas thrive, why others die, and how to make your ideas stick.

“Anyone interested in influencing others—to buy, to vote, to learn, to diet, to give to charity or to start a revolution—can learn from this book.”—
The Washington Post

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus news stories circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas—entrepreneurs, teachers, politicians, and journalists—struggle to make them “stick.”

In Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the human scale principle, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating curiosity gaps. Along the way, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds—from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony—draw their power from the same six traits.

Made to Stick will transform the way you communicate. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures): the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of the Mother Teresa Effect; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice.

Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas—and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

©2006 Chip Heath and Dan Heath (P)2007 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

Made to Stick summons plenty of brain science, social history, and behavioral psychology to explain what makes an idea winning and memorable—and the Heaths do the telling with beautiful clarity.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Utterly compelling.”—Los Angeles Times

“Surprising and provocative.”—The New York Sun

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What listeners say about Made to Stick

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Even Better The Second Time

As soon as i finished this book, i started over from the beginning, just to appreciate and learn from it's use of the ideas it teaches.

The writers suggest that for an idea to be sticky, it should follow these 6 princples:

1. Simple
2. Unexpected
3. Concrete
4. Credible
5. Emotional
6. Stories

And there is no better way to sum up this book. It follows and teaches these principles brilliantly.

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87 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

How to Communicate Effectively

This is not just a marketing book. It is a book on how to deliver presentations, how to write, how to teach, how to promote new ideas at work. The book forever changed the way I will do each of these things and I wish I could have read it many years ago.

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49 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

It Stuck!

This interesting book elaborates on "The Tipping Point" by Gladwell and uses a similar writing style to get across its reasons why some ideas stick and why others don't. It's a good read for those who are interested in the psychology of marketing and even the concept of communication in general, but actual marketers will find it difficult to get a lot of practical methods out of the book.

The book starts off with those ubiquitous urban legends we've all heard (i.e. the man who gets his kidney stolen from a stranger and ends up in a bath tub full of ice and a tube sticking out of his back), and explains why that idea sticks and why others don't. The Heath brothers go on to describe why numerous ideas have stuck in the collective mind: "It's the economy stupid," "Where's the beef," the pocket radio, and that movie popcorn has a more saturated fat than you want to know.

The heath brothers' survey of successful ideas is wide-reaching (a great deal more than Gladwell's entertaining book), and the reader will recognize most of the case studies, which aids their main idea of stickiness.

The authors put the stickiness factors in a nice little acronym (S.U.C.C.E.S), though the ideas those letters represent didn't stick with me (sorry) and gave a nice overview in the end with a real-life troubleshooting guide that sums up their ideas. It's a great read for everyone, not just marketing professionals.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Made to Stick

This is the first audiobook that I have not completed...I listened (struggled) through the first hour and a half but this is a example of dry material with a boring presentation that I just couldn't bring myself to finish.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

It Stuck with Me

Hands down one of the top offerings available on audible.com!

I could heap superlative after superlative on this book in an attempt to convince you to buy it - but I won't.

The fewer people that read this book, the better off for me. The knowledge is so simple, yet so practical, I want to be able to use it all for my own personal gain and not have to share it with other potential competitors in the idea marketplace.

On a side note, who ever said the narrator was dry or ineffective....well lets just say they don't know what they are talking about. The narration was smooth and totally appropriate for the content delivered. He nailed it.




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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

What a lot a babble

I'm not dismissing the truth of what is said in this book. But I think it is more than 8 hours of blah blah blah - case stories and anecdotes. It does not stick. I just get bored. I thought this book would be helpful with good advice of how to communicate more effectively, but no such luck - only a lot of babble. Like in "The Long Tail" which is also a bestseller, but exactly as boring as this one...

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, but I'd buy the hard copy

I enjoyed this book and the principles within. Naturally, a book about making ideas stick will be sure to present it's ideas in a way that's entertaining and memorable. However, the weakness in my mind was the audio book format. I constantly felt like I wanted to stop and write things down (lists of tactics, steps in processes) but of course I couldn't since I usually listen to audio books while driving. I think most people would find this book more useful in hard copy format than in audio version since it's quite tactical and instructive.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great tips for getting your message across!

Being an accountant, my analytical nature makes me skeptical of books on communication. This one completely impressed me because the authors brought the points to life with real examples of why messages do or don't work. I found many areas where I've been making mistakes and can take immediate steps toward improvement. It's well worth the time to listen, and you'll find yourself wishing you could take notes or highlight passages.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This sticks

I've listened to and read many self help books from Dale Carnegie to Steven R Covey and this one is right up there! I realize a book is good when I find myself having to tell others what I've heard because it impacted me so much and that happens every day with this. The stories are memorable and clarify what the reader wants to know. The reader: those who want to improve how they communicate ideas to bosses, classes, groups, and even children. This is a repeat-listen!

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

It Stuck

A great listen.
The research was eye opening and the strategies apply to many aspects of life. Great stories to share at home and work.

Well read. Contains humorous as well as enlightening moments.

Will probably buy the book to have it in print as well.

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8 people found this helpful