Made to Stick

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

By: Chip Heath, Dan Heath

Narrated by: Charles Kahlenberg

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

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

Very Interesting

Really good book, great narrator. This book gave me a lot of ideas for my business. Not a long review but the book is worth listening to.

Simple and smart

This was a well written and interesting peak into the human mind... A good listen and lesson for everyone.

Great content but needs shorter chapters

The chapters were on the long side which made it harder to break up and listen to chunks. I had to start chapters over multiple times as a consequence. Otherwise, this was a great book.

Must read if you want to persuade

Great listen and extremely useful. Looking forward to using all of the suggestions in this book!

Brilliant! Eye opening

One of the best reads. Changes your perspective on how you and others perceive the world around

Maybe the best marketing book I’ve read yet

Clear, tangible ideas and strategies for how to make messages stick. My only criticism is perhaps the book being a little long in the tooth with a few extra “stories”, which is a core points of the book that maybe the authors took the heart a little too seriously, so the book felt may be a little longer than it needed to be. But that’s a very small quibble in an otherwise profoundly insightful deep dive at what makes us remember certain ideas.

Great book and must read

This book was both informative and engaging, easy to digest ideas and see how to apply in my own profession. 10 out of 10 would recommend it!!

Stick to this book

A fantastic reading, if you are on marketing or just wondering how to make your blog more visible.
Many great tips.
I've read this book after Contagious. And they are complementary. This book talks about how the idea must be dealt with. And "Contagious" is about how to spread your message.

Argues for and Explains Content in Marketing

We’ve come to think of marketing as glitz, clammier, and fluff. But if you think about these sorts of things you’re probably aware of every so often coming across a message that super effective because of its content, often in spite of its lack of “marketing polish”. It’s almost like these examples are more effective marketing in spite of being poorly marketed.

This book attempts to deconstruct the content of marketing. It’s powerful. It’s also an intriguing mix of what we all sort of know instinctually, but usually can’t really explain.

It stuck and I am stuck on it too

I really like this audiobook. It is full of information and examples. The book itself uses the concepts it teaches.

It focuses on a core idea of "SUCCESS", Simple (or Core), Unexpected, Concrete, Credibility, and Stories.

Although the system seems simple it's got a lot of complex examples. I've used some of the concepts to help craft some of my public comments at city hall to get the attention of council members on a very important subject for me. I got positive feedback from some people in the public who liked my statements.

I haven't yet mastered all the concepts but I keep listening to the book over and over again.

Something else I found facinating is the fact that they referenced Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" and his concept of "sticky stories" (or whatever he called them). I really liked Gladwell's concepts but I was a little bummed he didn't go into how to facilitate the ideas. I'm glad the Brothers Heath covered it in this book.

I like the narrator. His voice is pleasant and he gives good emphasis on the sentences.

I've already recommended this book to others. I think it's a good companion to the "Crucial Conversations", Crucial Confrontations" and "Influencer" series that I love so much.