Brand Messaging: Wash, Rinse...Repeat

The landscape of advertising and marketing has always been changing, but never so drastically as in the past decade. Creatives in a marketing communications agency wear multiple hats, and must remain cognizant of developments in all venues from traditional Creative media (Print and Broadcast) to Web, PR, and Social. New methods of reaching consumers are being developed at lightning speed -- sometimes so rapidly that these cutting edge methods are replaced by even newer methods before the former can fully take root in the marketplace!

Staying one step ahead of the curve has never been more challenging. In this evolving cultural and marketing landscape, Creatives as well as the agencies they inhabit, can only survive if they are one step ahead of the game. Small marketing agencies like ours have the advantage of being nimble enough to adapt to these changes rapidly.

There is a fundamental truth that transcends all technological advances and modifications in methodology. A truth that has been at the core of every advertising or marketing method since day one, and which holds the test of time – in both traditional "push" as well as current "pull" or inbound marketing methods. It is at the heart of any planned change in behavior. It is: repetition.

Consider any activity in the broad scheme of life where a specific result is desired. Anything from child rearing to gardening, finishing a triathlon to graduating college. None of these things could be achieved without repetition. Maybe I've got Spring on the brain, so let's take gardening as an example. Consider a seed. Say, a tomato seed. The potential to become a healthy tomato plant and bear gigantic tomatoes is all contained within that tiny unit. Action one: place seed in ground. Now those of us without a green thumb might end here and let nature take its course. There's a remote chance we could get lucky. The stars could align and just the right amount of sun and rain could fall such that without lifting a finger, we could harvest gorgeous award-winning tomatoes in a few months. But any serious gardener (or tomato farmer for that matter) wouldn't take that risk. Instead, they would water the seed at regular intervals. They might even till around the seedling to aerate the soil, stake the plant to prevent it from falling over, prune for core strength, and remove/prevent insects from devouring the vulnerable new growth. In the end, by the time they bite into that juicy summer tomato, they would know that it took a lot of repeat trips out to the garden to taste that tomato.

The same holds true in achieving a desired consumer result through advertising or marketing. A product or service could have all the potential in the world, just like the tomato seed. But one isolated action (planting the seed) to promote that product or service rarely produces the desired result. Repetition is key.

We used to "push" a message onto the consumer. A decade ago it was about the number of Print, TV, and Radio impressions, but now also includes web banner impressions, and "pull" mediums like online press releases, tweets, and Facebook posts. Marketing mediums have changed, but the desire for results has not.

So when you are tempted to drop your budget into a onetime effort, remember that repeatedly tending to your brands marketing message, the "seed", will exponentially increase the likelihood of success. You might be surprised at how you can stretch your dollars over multiple impressions, or even deliver aseries of creative concepts to repeatedly reinforce your overall campaign message. If you plant a seed and walk away, positive outcome is completely dependent upon chance. Take control. Use a variety of mediums, targeted specifically to your needs. And repeat, repeat, repeat.