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Why is听听a must-read for marketers? It deconstructs popularity into rational elements you can act on. It explains in thoughtful and persuasive terms why some products and services become sensations. That knowledge is crucial for all marketers who want to succeed. (Plus, the book听earned the 萝莉社官网鈥檚 2018 Berry Book Award for the best book in marketing.)

Author  and a weekly news analyst for NPR, provides an array of clear, cogent and concise examples of hits, explaining why and how they were successful. He explains why Claude Monet and Edgar Degas hit it big while their contemporary Gustave Caillebotte is an unknown. Yet without Caillebotte, the leading impressionists鈥攑erhaps impressionism itself鈥攚ould be unknown. 

Thompson tells another story about song writer Savan Kotecha, who received 160 rejection letters while trying to break into the music business. Kotecha eventually landed a job as a writer and producer for other songwriters, such as Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Usher, Maroon 5, Carrie Underwood and One Direction. Kotecha鈥檚 journey to sell more than 200 million copies of his songs worldwide is instructive whether you are in entertainment or industrial products.

Thompson studied political science and law at Northwestern University. He says he wrote Hit Makers with two questions in mind: 鈥淲hat is the secret of making products that people like鈥攊n music, movies, television, games, apps and more, across the vast landscape of culture?鈥� and 鈥淲hy do some products fail in these marketplaces while similar ideas catch on and become massive hits?鈥�  鈥嬧��

If you read Hit Makers, you鈥檒l learn that 鈥済oing viral鈥� may not be as accurate a term as we think鈥攐r at least, it may be rarer than we think. Success may be due to large-scale broadcast distribution rather than infectious word of mouth. That鈥檚 not to say that things can鈥檛 take off in a contagious way akin to biological genes, but there is more to it than we typically consider. 

Reading Hit Makers, I realized that innovation requires more than a unique product or service. Successful breakthroughs often transcend the product itself. How the product is distributed may also be far more important. P&G and General Foods had the coffee business under their thumbs with the Folgers and Maxwell House brands until Starbucks entered the market in a new way. 

I found Thompson鈥檚 discussion of uniqueness and familiarity in song writing particularly powerful. For a new song to be a hit it must balance familiarity and novelty. Thompson backs this up with scientific research. 

Many executives like to compare business success with baseball success, Thompson writes. 鈥淚n both activities, one can fail 70% of the time and still be an all-time great. But the difference between baseball and business is that baseball has what [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos called a 鈥榯runcated outcome distribution.鈥� Home runs can only be so big,鈥� Thompson writes. 

He quotes Bezos: 鈥淲hen you swing, no matter how well you connect with the ball, the most runs you can get is four. In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs. The long-tailed distribution of returns is why it鈥檚 important to be bold. Big winners pay for so many experiments.鈥�

Thompson explains how the success of cable television shows such as 鈥淭he Sopranos,鈥� 鈥淢ad Men鈥� and 鈥淏reaking Bad鈥� have changed their networks and their industries. 鈥淪ome hits save their company. A special few revolutionize their business. They score 1,000 runs,鈥� he writes.

The story I enjoyed most in Hit Makers was the tale about Walt Disney and Herman Samuel Kominetzky, who became known as 鈥淜ay鈥� Kamen. 鈥淚n the beginning, Disney was not the profit-gushing king of entertainment,鈥� Thompson writes. 鈥淗is company rarely operated with strong and steady earnings in the 1920s, and those were the boom years for the U.S. economy. Then the Great Depression hit. To go from artist to empire in the Depression, Walt Disney needed a heroic sidekick.鈥� 

Kamen asked Disney for what we would now call the merchandising rights to his ideas. 鈥淟et me sell your cartoon mouse,鈥� he said to Disney. Kamen went on to introduce the Mickey Mouse watch, which debuted at the Chicago world鈥檚 fair in 1933. 

鈥淒isney might not have been a born businessman, but he absorbed Kamen鈥檚 lesson: The art of film is film, but the business of movies is everywhere,鈥� Thompson writes. 鈥淒isney described the strategy as 鈥榯otal merchandising,鈥� and the Disney empire was established.鈥� 

If you want to understand why 鈥淪tar Wars,鈥� 鈥淩ock Around the Clock鈥� or Mickey Mouse were all hits鈥攐r if you want to create tomorrow鈥檚 hits yourself 鈥攜ou should read Hit Makers.