This is the book review of Hooked by Nir Eyal. This book here will give you insight into various marketing patterns and concepts prevalent and working in today’s market. For young entrepreneurs and people who want to enhance their products, this is just a perfect match. Just hop in the book review to know more!
Book – Hooked
Author – Nir Eyal
Pages – 256 pages
Genre – Self-help, Marketing
My Rating – 5 out of 5 stars.
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Book Review of Hooked:
Hooked by Nir Eyal is not just a self-help book but a marketing book that will teach you some nuisances of marketing at the psychological level. Marketing is a lot about the psychological study and human behavioral study and Nir proves this in his book through several examples and instances that you will easily understand after you read it.
Before picking up the book, I was skeptical about it. I thought of it as something that is going to discuss human addictions to the internet and will tell tools and methods to get rid of them. It is now completely clear that I misunderstood the summary of the book. This book won’t help you get out of your addictions; it is for the product developers who wish to make their products as alluring and addictive as the social media platforms have become nowadays.
Summary of the book (Goodreads):
Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.
My Thoughts and Book Review:
Most of the case study has been done keeping the application market and internet services in mind but there are several examples of offline businesses too. It is suited for the startups that are still in the process of building their products or those businesses that are searching for innovation and growth in their products.
Now let’s get a quick overview of what to expect from this book.
The beginning of the book happens from the introduction where the author explains to us how a product turns from a ‘product’ to a ‘need’ and later on ‘addiction’. It explains to us the psychological impact upon the human mind. It also explores why is the internet so addictive in the present day, the techniques that are the basis behind every Hook that a company uses to retain the users on their platform or product.
The analysis is suited for almost all the business and services because the author prompts the reader to ask certain questions to them and ascertain the best practice for the business or the product itself. So instead of blindly following a certain set of steps, it is under your power to decide and brainstorm the optimum method of marketing.
Four Basic Concepts discussed in the book:
The four basic concepts discussed in the book are:
1. Triggers
2. Action
3. Variable Reward
4. Investment
These are the concepts that more or less form the Hook cycle that would bring back customers to your product. The author has explained them in detail with examples, case studies, and feasible questions. I am going to give a brief overview of these concepts, but you must pick up the book for proper brainstorming and understanding.
Triggers.
Triggers are basically the reason why someone begins the usage of something. It is the reason why the customer will decide to pick up your product out of hundreds of options available. It is what prompts them to give the product a chance. There is the need of a business to create triggers in order to make sure that a consumer decides to reach out to the business or choose their product.
Action.
After a trigger has attracted enough attention from a customer, they choose the product. The action means the steps that a user has to go through to reach the final product. It may be possible that despite getting hooked on the trigger a consumer might not purchase a product. The fault then lies in the process of action. The lack of motivation, trigger, or ability can lead to inaction on the part of the consumer. It is the need of the business to ensure that once a customer is motivated to purchase a product, there should not be a lack of product, breakage of communication in between the links, or any other mishap that might dissuade the consumer to buy the product.
Variable Reward.
Every action is prompted by a hope of a reward. We purchase something for the use of the product. This satisfaction after use is the reward of the consumer. The hook works better when the reward of the product is variable. When the reward is not definite, the chance of the user’s interest and anticipation increases, and thus addiction is formed. A business needs to understand this concept properly to ensure that consumers keep coming back to them again and again.
Investment.
Investment here means not an only monetary investment (although it is also a part of it) but also time, efforts, steps, involvement of the consumers. The more investment a consumer is in the product, the more likely are they to stay where they are. The business must focus on making the product interactive and immersive so that people might stay. But they must keep in mind not to make it too complicated or they might leave too.
I was not able to completely convey the information that was power-packed in that book. The author was right on point with crisp and understandable language. The chapters are short and concise, comprising byte-sized pieces of information which are pregnant with meaning. The author never strays away from the point he was talking about. It won’t be a waste of time at all; it would be an investment in yourself if you decide to pick this up.
Conclusion and Recommendation:
I really loved this book. In this book review, I will give this book 5 out of 5 stars. I will highly recommend this book to anyone who is going to begin their own start-up, thinking about building an app or any such product which demands the continuous engagement of the customer for success. It talks about the marketing and product development aspect of the product. If you are thinking of beginning a business or of advancing and growing an already existing business, you must give heed to these words once. All the concepts discussed here are fresh and based on human psychology, thus making them highly effective. Overall, it is a must-read.
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