Summary
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath, explains why some ideas are remembered while others are quickly forgotten. Its SUCCESs framework identifies six principles for creating memorable messages: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. This article will provide you the tools to start writing messages easier to understand, remember, and act upon.
Why Some Marketing Messages Are Forgotten
The authors identified 4 common communication mistakes and how to prevent them:
- Burying the lead: Put the most vital information first rather than obscuring it with detail.
- Style over substance: Focusing on polished presentation rather than refining the core message.
- Decision paralysis: Overwhelming the audience with excessive choices or ambiguity.
- The Curse of Knowledge: Once we know something, it is difficult to imagine not knowing it or to put ourselves in the shoes of those who don’t. Try tapping the rhythm of “Happy Birthday” on a table—while the tune is clear in your head, listeners without context will rarely recognize it.
Transforming Scientific Data into a Sticky Idea
Art Silverman discovered that a medium movie theater popcorn contained 37 grams of saturated fat. However, because numbers alone lack impact, the public failed to grasp the health risk.
In 1992, Silverman held a press conference declaring: “A medium ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings—combined.” The message resonated because it followed the SUCCESs framework.
Simple: Find the Core of Your Message
Simple messages are concise, core, and profound. Anchor new concepts to existing memory schemas using analogies. For instance, high-concept movie pitches use familiar ideas: Speed is “Die Hard on a bus,” and Alien is “Jaws in space.”
Since “37 grams of saturated fat” is abstract, Silverman anchored it to relatable foods like bacon, eggs, and Big Macs to make the risk instantly understandable.
The enemy of simplicity is information overload, which causes decision paralysis. The challenge is to identify what matters most, instead of listing ten product features, identify the one benefit that makes your product relevant to customers.
Unexpected: Surprise Your Audience to Grab Attention, Then Sustain Interest
Break the audience’s “guessing machine” by communicating counterintuitive insights that highlight core messages. Like a joke, unexpected patterns capture attention.
Maintain interest by leveraging curiosity gaps. Highlighting what people don’t know creates a desire to fill the knowledge gap—a technique commonly seen in clickbait headlines: “There is an invisible chemical in your home and it may be killing you right now”
Silverman’s message succeeded because no one expected movie popcorn to be so unhealthy.
Identify a common assumption in your industry and challenge it with evidence. For example: “More website traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more sales.”
Concrete: Avoid Abstraction; Use Sensory, Specific Details to Aid Memory
Concreteness focuses the brain by establishing a shared level of understanding using tangible concepts.
Try to reply these questions:
A. Name five silly things people have done in the world over the past decade.
B. Name five silly things your child has done in the past decade.
The question B is much easier because it provides a specific, concrete context.
Silverman grounded his popcorn claim in concrete comparisons, anchoring new information to everyday meals people already understood.
Turn abstract claims as “our solution improves productivity” into specificity that helps customers visualize the benefit and understand its relevance: “Automate your weekly reporting process and give your sales team three additional hours to focus on customers.”
Credible: Build Trust Through Vivid Details, Authorities or Anti-authorities, And Testable Claims
Credibility can be established in several ways:
• Authorities or anti-authorities: Honesty often comes from non-traditional figures, such as a heavy smoker sharing personal health struggles in anti-tobacco campaigns.
• Statistics: Frame data to illustrate relationships rather than raw numbers. For example, you are 300 times more likely to be killed by a deer (via car collision) than by a shark.
• Proven track records: Demonstrating success on difficult challenges builds lasting credibility.
• Testable credentials: Enable audiences to verify claims themselves (“try before you buy”).
• Availability heuristic: Information is perceived as more reliable when it is vivid and easily remembered.
Instead of simply claiming that your product is effective, demonstrate how it works with customer case studies, measurable results, independent validation, product demos, testimonials, market trends…
Emotional: Make People Care by Appealing to Individuals And Self-interest
People resonate with specific stories rather than abstract causes. Donors give to individual children, not to broad statistics about poverty.
John Caples emphasized highlighting self-interest in copy, such as: “Give me five days and I’ll give you a magnetic personality.”
Focus on the “benefit of the benefit.” People don’t buy a quarter-inch drill bit; they buy a quarter-inch hole so they can hang family photos.
Appeal to identity: People make decisions based on who they are, how they perceive the situation, and what people like them do. Gillette’s 2019 campaign, The Best Men Can Be, illustrates how a brand can connect its message to questions of identity and social expectations
Understanding the emotional benefits your product offers clients helps you craft memorable messaging. A business owner buying marketing software may not simply want better analytics. They may want greater confidence in their decisions, less wasted budget, and more predictable revenue.
Stories: Inspire People to Act
Consider Jared, who lost weight eating Subway daily. An inspiring action through courage and perseverance that follows the Challenge Plot. His story encapsulates the SUCCESs model:
- Simple: Eat Subway and lose weight.
- Unexpected: Losing weight by eating fast food.
- Concrete: Oversized pants and specific sandwich diets.
- Credible: An authentic personal experience.
- Emotional: A relatable human journey.
- Story: A protagonist overcoming obstacles to inspire others.
Other common story plots include:
Connection Plot: Relationships that bridge social or cultural gaps (e.g., the Good Samaritan).
Creativity Plot: Breakthroughs solving complex puzzles in innovative ways (e.g., MacGyver).
Instead of describing your product through a list of features, identify the challenges of your clients and what changed after implementing the solution; illustrate collaboration, customer relationships, and the impact of understanding different perspectives; and showcase how a team solved a complex customer challenge or discovered a new opportunity.
Final Takeaway: Make Your Ideas Impossible to Ignore
The central lesson of Made to Stick is that effective communication is about making the essential idea understandable, memorable, and meaningful.
This means simplifying complex messages, challenging assumptions, using concrete evidence, building credibility, connecting with emotions, and telling stories that inspire action.
Before your next presentation, marketing campaign, or sales pitch, ask yourself:
If my audience remembers only one thing from this message, what should it be?
Start there. Everything else should reinforce that idea.
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FAQ
What is the SUCCESs framework in marketing?
The SUCCESs framework is a communication model introduced by Chip and Dan Heath in Made to Stick. It identifies six characteristics that make ideas memorable: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. Marketers can use these principles to create messages that capture attention, communicate value, and encourage action.
How can marketers make their messages more memorable?
Marketers can make messages more memorable by focusing on one core idea, challenging audience expectations, using concrete examples, supporting claims with evidence, connecting with customer motivations, and incorporating relatable stories. The goal is to make the message easy to understand, remember, and act upon.
How can the SUCCESs framework improve advertising?
The framework helps advertisers develop clearer value propositions, more engaging headlines, credible product claims, and emotionally relevant campaigns. For example, instead of promoting a product through a long list of features, an advertisement can focus on one tangible customer benefit and support it with a compelling example.
Why is storytelling important in marketing?
Storytelling makes abstract benefits easier to understand by showing how a product or service helps someone overcome a challenge, build a relationship, or solve a problem. Customer success stories can help prospects visualize the potential value of a product and connect with the brand on a more personal level.
What is the difference between a simple marketing message and an oversimplified one?
A simple marketing message communicates the essential value clearly without unnecessary complexity. An oversimplified message removes important context or makes claims that are misleading. Effective simplicity preserves accuracy while making the central idea easier to understand.
How can small businesses apply the Made to Stick principles?
Small businesses can start by identifying their main customer benefit, communicating it in plain language, providing specific evidence, and using customer stories to demonstrate results. They do not need large advertising budgets to apply these principles; clarity, relevance, and credibility are central to the approach.
Does the SUCCESs framework apply to B2B marketing?
Yes. B2B marketers can use the framework in sales presentations, website copy, whitepapers, webinars, product demonstrations, and customer case studies. Even complex technical products become easier to communicate when their value is expressed through concrete business outcomes, credible evidence, and relatable examples.
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