September 2007        •       www.visionsmc.com       •        410-849-8095   

 Editor's Note

I'm writing this to the peaceful sound of a newborn sleeping. We had our second child, another boy, last weekend. My husband is elated he won't have to worry about the expense of hair ribbons, clothes, makeup, jewelry and weddings. I'm not so sure those won't be offset by shotguns, power tools, and cars, but I think we might be getting ahead of ourselves.

Our older son is an adorable imp, who can almost bat his long eyelashes over his bright blue eyes. At nearly two, he's taught me how important repetition is for children. Not only does he seek the repetition of rituals at meals and bedtime, but he's a chatterbox. "I hear guitar," he says, and will keep saying it until it's acknowledged. "I hear a guitar, too," will satisfy him. Just now, as he was "helping" my husband in the kitchen, he said "This cup is dirty" three times, waiting for my husband to respond.

At the same time, I'm relearning the newborn repetition cycle — feeding, sleeping, changing. Only this time, it's punctuated with amusing toddler talk: feed, sleep, "Yes, the baby is a boy," back to the new diaper. Repetition brings comfort, familiarity, and safety to children.

When it comes to repetition, we're not so different from children. It's long been a maxim in advertising that repetition is important. And now there are new studies that reinforce this message. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Molly Hughes Wilmer   

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 Feature

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

"You should run your ad campaign until your employees are sick of it. And then keep running it. And then see if your customers have even begun to remember it." If you've got a good message, stick with it. This can be very hard for many executives to do. But it's essential.

A recent series of studies on the persistence of myths and urban legends gives new insight into how the mind absorbs information. A study by Norman Schwarz of the University of Michigan, published this year in the journal Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, is unveiling a broad new perspective on how the mind works.

Schwarz's study was intentionally looking at how people absorb and vet false information, and how this leads to the perpetuation of false rumors and myths. While his study highlights the minefields for combating the dissemination of false information, his insights are also valuable for ethical companies trying to tell the true story about their product, service or company.

One of the findings of the study was that people do not absorb information in a deliberate manner; they use subconscious "rules of thumb". The most interesting discovery for marketers is that things that are repeated often become more accessible in memory, and one of the brain's subconscious rules of thumb is that easily recalled things are true.

The more a person hears something, the more likely they are to believe it. And this repetition affects long-term memory more than short-term memory. This is why it is important that a company have consistent messaging and branding across all their lines of communication — brochures, web sites, trade show presentations, public relations opportunities, even email signatures. At every opportunity, a company should present a clear, distilled, unswerving concept.

And while external validation and references are nice, they aren't completely necessary. An additional study published this year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology shows that repetition from the same source can have the same impact as hearing information from multiple people.

These studies also influence the strategy behind how a company should deal with bad public relations. Once an idea has been implanted in people's minds, it can be difficult to dislodge. Denying a falsehood, or stating one's innocence, or correcting a bad impression often involves restating the original idea. This repetition doesn't serve to deny the falsehood, prove innocence or correct a bad impressions — it repeats the original message, making it easier for the mind to recall.

This is borne out by findings published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in 2004. For many people the "negation tag" of a denial falls off with time. Ruth Mayo, a cognitive social psychologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who conducted the experiments, said, "If someone says, 'I did not harass her,' I associate the idea of harassment with this person." She illustrates why people who are accused of something but are later proved innocent find their reputations remain tarnished. "Even if he is innocent, this is what is activated when I hear this person's name again.”

Therefore, while companies should repeat, repeat, repeat their corporate message and all good news, they should go out of their way not to repeat when combating negative images. "Crisis" or "disaster" public relations should avoid at all costs restating the negative, and instead make a completely new assertion.

Repeat the good, don't repeat the bad. It's common sense, really.

What Can You Do? Audit your corporate communications. Are you telling a consistent story? Is your message clear and concise? Is your message repeated everywhere it possibly can be? Are you telling a positive story? Or are you re-telling a negative story? Are you painting a rosy picture, or foretelling doom and gloom for clients who don’t sign on with you? If you're not objective, ask a friend, business peer, or independent consultant to audit your communications vehicles for you.

Ask the Expert Question Won’t our message get stale? Answer If your message is good, it will be relevant for a long time. If it's bad, it was stale the first time you said it. It takes a long time for your customers and potential customers to hear your message multiple times. And then they have to remember it. If you've got a good message, stick with it. For years. If you don't have a good message, get one. Now. Submit your questions to the editor: molly@visionsmc.com

 Want to Know More?

We really do use science in marketing! Here are links to the studies or abstracts of the studies mentioned above:

Metacognitive Experiences and the Intricacies of Setting People Straight: Implications for Debiasing and Public Information Campaigns, Norbert Schwarz, Lawrence J. Sanna, Ian Skurnik and Carolyn Yoon

Inferring the Popularity of an Opinion From Its Familiarity: A Repetitive Voice Can Sound Like a Chorus (PDF: 116KB), May 2007, by Kimberlee Weaver, Stephen M. Garcia, Norbert Schwarz, and Dale T. Miller

"I am not guilty" vs. "I am innocent": Successful negation may depend on the schema used for its encoding, Ruth Mayo, Yaacov Schul and Eugene Burnstein

© Molly Hughes Wilmer, Vision Strategic Marketing & Communications, 2007. All rights reserved.

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