Posted by BJ
David Lebow of Highlighter recently recommended a business book – Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.* Thanks David.
I picked it up and found it quite interesting.
Having read it, I found many of the topics presented and discussed in this book apply directly to the work we do.
As an example, they present the challenge faced by the Center for Science in the Public Interest CSPI), that being informing the public that eating movie popcorn cooked in coconut oil is very unhealthy.
As the book points out, the maximum daily recommended amount of saturated fat is 20 grams per day. Movie popcorn cooked in coconut oil typically contains 37 grams. The challenge then was getting the attention of the public.
Telling people that the popcorn contained 37 grams of saturated fat as compared to the recommended 37 certainly wouldn’t do it. Too irrelevant, too scientific, too blah, blah, blah.
So, instead, the CSPI used an analogy. Instead of dry facts, they put together a campaign wherein they presented that the typical serving of movie popcorn had, “more artery clogging fat than…are you ready?…a bacon and egg breakfast, a Big Mac, and an order of fires for lunch and a steak dinner with all the trimmings.” Well, as you can see, that’s quite different than the dry facts.
That’s just one example of how to present information in a way that captures the audience’s attention. The book contains many more and many other concepts that are applicable to our industry. I highly recommend you pick it up and make it a part of your proposal library.
*The book is real easy to find in a bookstore as, very cleverly, it has a piece of what appears to be duct tape on the front cover.
David Lebow of Highlighter recently recommended a business book – Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.* Thanks David.
I picked it up and found it quite interesting.
Having read it, I found many of the topics presented and discussed in this book apply directly to the work we do.
As an example, they present the challenge faced by the Center for Science in the Public Interest CSPI), that being informing the public that eating movie popcorn cooked in coconut oil is very unhealthy.
As the book points out, the maximum daily recommended amount of saturated fat is 20 grams per day. Movie popcorn cooked in coconut oil typically contains 37 grams. The challenge then was getting the attention of the public.
Telling people that the popcorn contained 37 grams of saturated fat as compared to the recommended 37 certainly wouldn’t do it. Too irrelevant, too scientific, too blah, blah, blah.
So, instead, the CSPI used an analogy. Instead of dry facts, they put together a campaign wherein they presented that the typical serving of movie popcorn had, “more artery clogging fat than…are you ready?…a bacon and egg breakfast, a Big Mac, and an order of fires for lunch and a steak dinner with all the trimmings.” Well, as you can see, that’s quite different than the dry facts.
That’s just one example of how to present information in a way that captures the audience’s attention. The book contains many more and many other concepts that are applicable to our industry. I highly recommend you pick it up and make it a part of your proposal library.
*The book is real easy to find in a bookstore as, very cleverly, it has a piece of what appears to be duct tape on the front cover.
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