The Tipping Point. Malcolm Gladwell. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2000. 287

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today is creating compelling advertising in an age where it has become commonplace to cognitively and physically avoid advertisements. One of the ways to circumvent that is to pinpoint opinion leaders who have a vast social network to disseminate your message. This is comparable to the role of Gladwell’s Connector type who is linked to so many individuals that they have a wider reach than the average person and is perceived to be influential.

Mavens can be likened to the early adopters. They are the first to try a product and arm themselves with a vast amount of information to be able to share with others. In fact they enjoy doing so. When an individual wants a reliable account from someone outside of the company these are the first people they are likely to turn to. A prime example is a consumer report blogger.

One of the strengths of the book is Gladwell’s ability to connect seemingly unrelated concepts. The idea of using an epidemic to explain the evolution of a trend was highly unconventional, but because of his great storytelling it becomes more plausible as he continues to provide real life situations that lend credence to his theory. He was especially compelling when describing the people he had met who served as the inspiration for those he categorized as connectors, mavens, and salesmen. You could almost feel the gusto with which he spoke about them and it was so detailed that by the end it left you either believing you were connected to them in some way or at the very least wanted to meet these characters.

Conversely, this vitality was lacking when he spoke of the scientific research done; particularly in the Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues example. It might be this dullness which made this chapter seem extraordinarily long. There was so much information being shared that halfway through it was difficult to remember why this story was being told in the first place and unclear

as to how it exemplified The Stickiness Factor. While it is understandable that Gladwell, who has a background in journalism, would want to support his idea with statistical information, in

many cases it took me out of the story and seemed unnecessary. I would liken it to a soup with too many ingredients.

Another weakness was that at times some of the examples being used to illustrate a point seemed to be a bit of a stretch. This was most apparent in the case of Bernard Goetz, who shot four young men who were harassing him on a New York City subway. He describes in detail Goetz’ strict childhood and incidents of violence in his past which contributed to his decision purchase a gun. Further, all four of the young men had criminal records and at least three of them were found to be in possession of screwdrivers at the time. Yet he attributes the crime to a proliferation of graffiti and people jumping turnstiles. Using this same example, Gladwell also appears to gloss over the other potential causes for the reduction in crime such as a better economy leading to lower unemployment, greater police presence and harsher sentences.

Moving forward, if there were any revisions to be done to this book, I would suggest using fewer examples. I found that in using multiple situations to explain one concept, some of the examples were contradictory to his point or not strongly supportive. To make it an easier read, Gladwell should consider focusing less on statistics and the intricacies of the focus group. It would be interesting to see how his Rules of Epidemics measures up using new case studies and modern day examples. Otherwise, fundamentally The Tipping Point was an insightful read.