Marketing 101: Repetition and Consistency, Repetition and Consistency
By Jennifer West
J. West Group

Human beings learn by repetition. In marketing our job is essentially to educate our potential customers about our product or service. Repetition is a key strategy in marketing because it can lead to increased learning. When a potential customer learns of our product or service we then must convince them to use it.

If your business decides to run a regular print ad, daily, weekly, or even monthly, there are several reasons why that ad should look the same each time. First and simply, you’ll save in design costs to create the ad. Second, your customers will recognize the ad. Third, the repetition will stimulate learning.

Since human beings, your potential customers, handle an enormous amount of information on a daily basis, using repetition makes [y]our job of marketing easier. As a result of having all of this information thrown at them during their daily activities, costumers develop practical ways to process it. To compensate for the fact that our customers are bombarded with information all day long, first we use repetition so that our message gets through to them loud and clear each time. Another key strategy related to repetition in marketing is consistency. Your message needs to be consistent even if it is not identical each time.

Your company should have an identity – your company name, slogan, and logo. This is referred to as “branding.” Whether you developed this yourself or used a professional marketing firm to design it for you, your identity must have these characteristics:

• It must attract attention.
• It must be memorable.
• It must help to communicate the positioning of your product or service.
• It must distinguish your product or service from competing brands.

Your logo should appear on every ad, brochure, mailing, postcard, business card, web page, etc. that your company produces. Sounds simple, but this elementary technique is often overlooked. You will confuse your customers if they do not see your logo each and every time they encounter your company. The printed material will have much more impact if it includes your logo. Again, customers are exposed to an incredible amount of information. Even if they don’t ever read your postcard, for example, if they see your logo they will know they got mail from you and you have reinforced your image with that customer.

If your company uses a slogan, be sure to use it exactly the same way each and every time. This repetition and consistency reinforces your message with your customers and makes it easier for them to remember your product or service. By seeing your logo and reading and/or hearing your slogan, you have brought attention to your company, communicated information about your product or service, and distinguished it from your competition. People are busy, so remember, even if customers never read the printed material, they have seen your logo and are reminded of your company.