Did Ya Know

Repetition!

February 10, 2017

Morning all, I was planning to continue on with land descriptions but felt we needed a little repetition of a prior message.

Research proves messages are more effective when repeated, have you heard the following expressions?

  • Got milk?
    (used for 21 years, starting in 1993)
  • Just do it.
    (used for over 26 years, starting in 1988)
  • What happens here, stays here.
    (used for 10 over years, starting in 2004)
  • Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.
  • Tastes great, less filling.
    (used since the 1970s)
  • Where’s the beef?
  • Good to the last drop.
    (used for over 97 years, starting in 1917)
  • Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.
    (used for over 60 years, since 1954)
  • Breakfast of Champions.
    (used for over 87 years, starting in 1927)
  • Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.
    (used for over 43 years, starting in 1971)

Depending on your age, many of those advertising catchphrases should sound familiar. Some you may have heard hundreds if not thousands of times. The companies behind these marketing messages had to sustain multi-million dollar investments for years and sometimes decades to make them stick in consumers’ brains.

In advertising, the term “effective frequency” is used to describe the number of times a consumer must be exposed to an advertising message before the marketer gets the desired response, whether that be buying a product, or something as simple as remembering a message.

So I am sure that each and every one of you is thinking, good grief she has lost it, marketing really? What the heck does this have to do with abstracting? It’s simple folks, repetition! We are trying really hard to get everyone from the more seasoned abstractors to the newbies all on the same page. Change is never easy, but if we do not change with the industry we risk losing our position in it. We are trying to build a consistent training model so that you will get the same answer to the question no matter who you ask. My message today is simple:

  • Blank spaces on your run sheet are bad!
  • If it mentions the subject property, add it to the run sheet!
  • If a document alters another document, notate that in your description box!
  • If in doubt, point it out!
  • Don’t skip a step because it makes added work for your co-worker.