Malcolm Gladwell explains that there are three reasons a product tipped: the law of the few (mavens, connectors and salesmen), the stickiness factor (people need to remember about the product) and last, but not the least, the power of context.
In this assignment, I will focus on the third reason, explain what the term “context” means, how his author defines it, what examples he gave. Then, I will apply his theory on an idea that tipped, identify the context and explain how context enables the idea tip.
Malcolm Gladwell defines context as the “conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur”. Implicitly, what he explains is that, something could tip in France, but not in the USA, today or in ten years, or not at all. It depends on the culture of the country, the people who lives in it, their beliefs. It also depends of their mentality and their financial situation, if the country is in crisis or not.
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Roughly speaking, what makes a product tipped is not necessarily the reason you would have thought to in the first place. For instance, for a phone, it could be something else than its performance or its design.
In his book, Malcolm Gladwell takes the example of criminality in New-York in the 90's. Then, it drops dramatically and the author explains that it is due to the action of two men : G. Kelling, W. Bratton and D. Gunn. These bright men decided to put in practice the broken window theory. So D.Gunn takes a bold risk and focus on the graffiti.
From 1984 to 1990, every car with graffiti painted over it were “reclaimed” and the graffiti removed. A “dirty” could not be used for the metro. The idea was to discourage the young vandals who were vandalizing the subway. Indeed, it takes them three nights to “paint” a car, according to D.Gunn. And before every one could see it, the graffitis were
The broken windows theory, was proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling (1982). This used broken windows to describe disorder within neighbourhoods.Their theory links disorder and unsociable behavior within a community leading to serious crime. Prior to theories such as broken windows, law enforcement and police tended to focus on the serious crime. However, Wilson and Kelling took a different view from this. They saw serious crime as the final result of a chain of events, which emerged from disorder. If we eliminated disorder, then serious crimes would not occur as mentioned by Mckee
Tipping in the US has always been a controversial topic, and the question that has been continously brought up in every diccussion about this matter is that: Should we abolish the tipping system? With the two article of Eater Staff and Saru Jayaraman, we has given a chance to look into the problem in two opposite standpoint, and in my opinion, Saru Jayaraman article has made it very clear about the negative side of tipping and the point has been backed up by lots of valid evidences and argument, therefore, making me support the idea of banning the tipping system.
“Tipping Is an Abomination” by Brian Palmer is an argument that provides various evidence about how tipping is an objectionable practice that has little benefit to none of the parties involved. Palmer first provides some introductory information about tipping before going fully into his argument. In his argument, Palmer provides a variety of reasons with supporting evidence to back up his claim. Throughout his argument his point is clear and concise. This argument is very effective due to its many strong components.
Have you ever thought how much research and effort a company has done to make their product appeal to you? A company will conduct surveys, record human responses to specific images, and adhere to government regulations not to mention all the different designs produced, just so that you will want to buy their product over their competitors. In Thomas Hine’s essay, What’s in a Package, Hine discusses the great length the response that a consumer should have when looking at a product’s packaging, the importance of manufactures’ marketing campaign, the importance of packages depending on the culture, then finally to why designs will change over time.
Tips are generally a small amount of money given to a person as gratitude for a service that has been provided. There are many times throughout our everyday lives in which we are put in a position to leave a gratuity. Whether it be dining at a restaurant, getting your hair cut at the salon, or having a few drinks with friends at a bar. In each case there was a service provided to you, now you have a decision to make, how much of a tip is considered acceptable and should you tip everyone that provides a service to you? There are many guidelines for consumers to follow. With modern technology there are convenient tip calculators available as features on most new cellular phones. When deciding on the tip amount the service is one of the major determining factors along with whether or not you plan on visiting the establishment again , and how the tip will play a role in your further dealings with said business. Michael Lewis explores a few interesting reasons why tipping is getting out of hand in a recent essay. I strongly agree with many points and examples he provides.
McCarty, John A., et al. Tipping As a Consumer behavior: a Qualitative Investigation. 30 April 2014 .
In 1982, the political scientist James Q. Wilson and the criminologist George Kelling psychologist, both Americans, published in The Atlantic Monthly in a study that for the first time, established a causal link between disorder and crime. In that study, called The Police and Neighborhood Safety, the authors used the image of broken windows to explain how the disorder and criminality could slowly seep into a community, causing its decline and the consequent drop in quality of life. Wilson and Kelling argued that if a window in a factory or an office was broken and was not repaired immediately, people who pass through there would conclude that no one cared about that locality. In other words, the people would believe that there is no responsible authority for the maintenance of order in that place. a move to mass incarceration or a nationwide clemency policy, a large-scale shift to more targeted policing patterns, etc. ), shifts in the distribution or composition of the population (e.g. immigration trends), disruption of wide-spread illicit drug distribution paths, and events that significantly modify a nation’s perception of its government’s legitimacy”.
While crime is abundant throughout our world, it’s image is often magnified in urban cities. In the book, There Are No Children Here, Alex Kotlowitz describes the striking story of two brothers, Lafayette and Pharoah, struggling to survive in the community of Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex on the West Side of Chicago disfigured by crime and neglect. With their mother’s permission, Kotlowitz follows the lives of the brothers for two years, taking note of their disappointments, joys, and tragedies along the way. Throughout the book, the environment that the boys are forced to live in acts as a predictor for their potential crime-filled future. Using environmental theories, such as James Wilson’s broken windows theory, we, as readers,
Graffiti is giving some buildings, and cities really bad looks. Graffiti on a hotel, for example would give a really bad look for their business and make people not want to go there. And for cities, take Detroit for an example, the whole city is basically covered in graffiti. And is also a really dangerous town. The museum of contemporary art in Downtown LA is trying to change that. “Part of our goal
Have you ever dined in an extravagant restaurant and never could figure out how much to leave as a tip and ruins your dining experience? Many people face this diplomatic on daily basis and never can fully understand how this problem can be fixed. Some, consumers say that if tipping was abolished it would cause restaurants to increase the wage of the workers. Therefore, it would expand to the menu prices that the prices would increase. Others, say that increasing the pay of workers and the menu prices would not decrease the demand of their food. Although, these discussions are constantly facing the depositions of one’s personal views. The entire tipping system should be entirely dismantled.
Another reason a product can fail is poor execution of the marketing mix, which could be the brand name, distribution, the packaging of the product or the price of the product (Bethel University, 2011). A company should do a vast amount of work before they release a product. The marketing needs to be clear and concise so the consumer knows what the product is and how to use the product properly. There should be no guesswork in a product by a consumer. A clear marketing strategy should leave the consumer wanting their product, not wondering about the
Chaneta (2012) argues that packaging can increase sales by such promotionally-oriented moves as offering smaller or larger sizes more multipacks, better pictures of the product itself, illustrations of the product in use and more effective use of color. Additionally an attractive package may speed turnover so that total costs will decline as a percentage of sales.
MacDonald, H. (2010, January 4). A crime theory demolished. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870359090504574638024055735590.ht
Another major question lies in brands. People pay attention to brands so much, it becomes the biggest factor in pricing an object. A computer with the apple sign costs ten times as much as a similar product, a Louis Vuiton handbag costs soar higher than the price of a Rolex watch, and designer shoes cost a fortune to buy-when something without that brand of similar quality costs a lot less. It seems that people pay more attention to the sign that states the product is good rather than whether the product is worth its exorbitant price tag.
Consumer durables are involved in high price, durability and are less frequently purchased. So consumers want to seek more information with regard to consumer durables than non consumer durables.