Jonah Berger (The Catalyst)

Apr. 21

On this episode of Marketing News Canada, Darian Kovacs interviews Jonah Berger. He is a Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker, and Consultant.

Jonah Berger is a Marketing Professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an internationally bestselling author, and a world-renowned expert on change, influence, word of mouth, natural language, processing, consumer behaviour, and how products and ideas catch on. He has published over 50 articles in top tier academic journals. Jonah also teaches Wharton’s highest rated online course. Over a million copies of his books Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind are in print in over 35 countries around the world.

Before Releasing his book The Catalyst, Jonah considered himself an at heart academic. He spent most of his time either teaching or writing academic articles. When releasing the book, he stated that he hoped a few people would read it, however it ended up selling over half a million copies globally making him now a Bestselling Author. He began receiving calls from many companies and organizations including business to business and business to consumer. What he realized was that everyone who was calling him, wanted to change something about the book. This was a learning experience for Jonah and he believes that he knows a lot more about business and marketing now.

When it comes to the classes Jonah teaches at Wharton, he does not make it a requirement to read his books. He believes that many of the topics discussed in his lectures and his books overlap, which would make reading the books beneficial for students, however not required. When it comes to learning the concepts of marketing, it can be overwhelming and tedious, he believes his books are an easier to read and simpler to understand approach.

Jonah believes there are five key barriers to change. The first one being, reactants. The best way to explain reactants is to tell a story about Tide Pods. They are useful when it comes to laundry and they are aesthetically pleasing on the eyes. With this being said, a problem was created of people beginning to eat Tide Pods. Tide came out with a message containing a celebrity endorsement, telling users to not eat their product as it is dangerous. After this announcement, the number of people eating Tide Pods increased 400 percent. Essentially what happened was a warning became a recommendation. Telling someone not to do something makes them more likely to do it. This explains the “theory of reactants,” when people are pushed to do something, they push back.

Jonah is very wise on a variety of topics. His “theory of reactants” is just one of five when it comes to barriers to change featured in his book. His writing abilities combined with his teaching abilities is what makes him such an intriguing author. For more information on a variety of different marketing topics, be sure to read, The Catalyst.

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