Malcolm Gladwell is as surprised as anybody that he’s become a darling of the business schools:
Q: Were you surprised at the reaction to the book by the marketing community? People can recite in amazing detail things they’ve taken away as prescriptions as to what they should be doing to reach consumers. Did that come at all as a surprise?
A: Total surprise! I remember when we had discussions about where we wanted the book to be in the bookstore, we weren’t even thinking [about] the business section. We were thinking psychology or science. I didn’t see that coming at all, and I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by it.
So’s the Dilbert guy.
Gladwell seems to be quite level headed about the amazing popularity of his works. He also looks like he is avoiding the hype people are creating.
If the marketing people are all excited about ‘viral’ marketing they need to remember that ‘successful’ viruses are infectious. Lame or ho-hum products just aren’t infectious and they seem to be discovering that no amount of marketing can really cure that condition.
Indeed, but the converse certainly isn’t true – I’ve developed several killer products that flopped in the marketplace because the company didn’t know what to do with them.