I got around to reading The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's book on the spread of ideas a bit later than most people, but cracked it this weekend and plan to post some commentary as I work my way through.

The book is particularly significant to bootstrappers because of its implications for viral marketing without big advertising budgets or access to huge distribution hubs.

Gladwell begins his analysis simply enough with the seemingly inexplicable rise of Hush Puppies in the mid-1990's from has been to high fashion due to the efforts of a couple of kids in Soho and Greenwich Village who began wearing the shoes to clubs and bars in downtown Manhattan.

Gladwell writes:

Those first few kids, whoever they were, weren't deliberately trying to promote Hush Puppies. They were wearing them precisely because no one else would wear them. Then the fad spread to two fashion designers who used the shoes to peddle something else-haute couture. The shoes were an incidental touch. No one was trying to make Hush Puppies a trend. Yet, somehow, that's exactly what happened. The shoes passed a certain point in popularity and they tipped. How does a thirty dollar pair of shoes go from a handful of downtown Manhattan hipsters and designers to every mall in America in the space of two years?

The answer, Gladwell, argues, is a variation on contagion theory where an idea, like a virus or other infectious microbe, spreads geometrically through a population starting with a very small group of people.

Gladwell's observations demonstrate clearly that:
• Originators often haven't a clue. In this case the popularity of Hush Puppies occurred without any effort and to the complete surprise of the company that manufactured the product and was considering discontinuing it due to low sales
• The spread may be unintentional. Those who first promoted the foot wear were not professional marketers and were not trying to promote a resurgence in the shoes' sales.
• The idea itself may be incidental. An argument that may contradict marketing guru Seth Godin's Purple Cow idea about choosing a remarkable product. (More on this in a later post.)

In the end, Gladwell writes that a better understanding of how ideas spread unintentionally may help us learn how to generate positive contagions of our own.