Let’s start in Pre-School; the teacher stands at the head of the class and holds up a flash card. She wants to teach the children names of body parts and shows a card with the word Eyes and a picture of a pair of eyes.
This same flash card is shown just a few moments later, then the interval between exposures is slowly stretched out until it is a day or two between showings. The technique is called Spaced Repetition and it is how we learn. In fact a friend on mine, David Wright says Spaced Repetition isn’t just one way we learn, it’s the only way we learn.
It turns out that David is a marketing genius and successful businessman.
Logo from 1956
Now that we understand how everyone learns everything, we need to apply this information to our tourism marketing activities. Let’s start with something simple, like a logo:
Logo Used Today
These multi-billion dollar corporations spend millions of dollars understanding marketing and they practice the exact same techniques we are discussing here. They never, ever change parts of their message. Colors, style, and some images do not vary.
The average person needs three impressions to store an item in short-term memory and five and one-half impressions to commit something to long-term memory. Of course, we cannot have half an impression, so we need to expose our visitors to our message six times.
The reason the logos above never change is that if you pull out a new logo or style, you re-set the six exposure counter. As small business will be lucky to get all six exposures in, so it’s foolish to change mid-stream.
In more actionable terms, your brochure must match your website and that must match the sign in your parking lot. Someone driving down the street with directions from your website on their phone is looking for the green & blue logo on the website, not the yellow sign in your parking lot.
Hopefully, you will begin to understand the real power behind email and Facebook. I am always amused by the gurus espousing the two-way conversation dribble about Facebook. The power behind Social Media is Spaced Repetition. The other stuff is just a side show.
You need your image to appear in the tourist’s Facebook feed every evening for a week or two before they leave on vacation. They are far more likely to turn when they see that exact same style, logo, and tag line on the sign saying “Turn Here!” because they believe they know all about your business.
To close, every last business card, brochure, online property, and sign must match. And it doesn’t count to just hang six signs around inside your store because the mind must re-set between exposures. The period between exposures must force the viewer to reach into his long-term memory and retrieve the image and recall what it is. The image in question: your professionally produced, stylish logo that never changes.
This video was originally part of a
Udemy series and I've decided to make it
available for free for you right here on
YouTube. This is Lecture 1, Session one,
and it's called Spaced Repetition.
There's a reason why I wanted to do this
lecture first and the reason is spaced
repetition maybe one of the most
important theories in all of marketing.
You see, if you can master just this one
idea, you'll be well on your way to
mastering most of the fundamentals of
marketing. And a lot of things like "Why
would you want to be on Facebook?" will
suddenly begin to make sense. So let's do
this. A friend of mine named David Wright,
well he's an expert marketeer, and he
says spaced repetition isn't just one
way we learn it's the only way we learn.
Now what is spaced repetition? Do you
remember back when you were in school
and and your teacher would show you a
flash card and it would have a Bee or or a
letter on it? Now, she would show you that
card again a few minutes later and it
made you pull that information out of
your memory. Then she would lengthen the
interval between when you saw that same
flash card again and pretty soon you had
to reach way into your long term memory
in order to pull that information out.
That's Spaced Repetition. Now, the question
becomes: why is that interesting to us in
marketing? And the answer is you need to
teach your potential customers three
things: They need to know who you are;
what you do; and the benefit of using you.
Let me give you another example of
spaced repetition. I I travel quite a bit
and so I took a Pimsleur
language course.
but that's not Pimsleur's fault.
They use the same basic technique
and what they'll do... you play the, the
lesson and they'll say a phrase to you
in English. Then you repeat the phrase
back in the language you're trying to
learn and eventually they'll stretch
that out until two or three lessons
later your minds on something completely
different and out of the blue, they ask
you what the phrase is. And once again
you're required to pull that out of your
long-term memory. Pretty soon you know
those particular phrases. Now I'm not
going to ask you to use a technique that
I'm not willing to use myself. Here's the
front of my catalog notice the colors
and style, not just the logo. It matches
the style of the business card and that
in turn matches the colors and styles on
the website. It goes far beyond just the
logo. You'll also notice the photograph
of me; I have used for about three years
now. It was taken at the Kremlin Palace,
and in a year or 2, I'm sure i'll change
it around. I'll even recycle some text.
Why? Because I want the customer to
remember who we are. That is spaced
repetition. And think about it this way:
if you're a small business person, you're
going to be lucky if you get all those
impressions in. Now that brings up
another question: How many impressions
are you trying to get? Well the answer it
turns out, is if you're looking for short
term memory, you need to make three
impressions both audio and visual and
the person will remember you for the
next day or so. Now long term memory is
what we're really interested in. It turns
out Harvard says you need about five and
a half impressions. Of course, you can't
have a half impression, so you need your
customers to see something six times
before they'll remember who you are. Now,
if you're like me, you'll just assume
okay, we'll hang six signs around the
store and be done with it.
it doesn't work that way the mind has to
reset, they have to think about something
else and then they can come back to you.
Make sense? Of course if you have any
questions you can always call me. Now if
you do that, how are you going to get six
impressions in? That's where some of the
social media stuff comes in. Think about
email marketing, it works on two levels
like all good marketing. See, not only are
you telling them what you're special
this week is, you're also going to tell
them who you are, what you do, and the
benefit of using you. By the way, you're
going to hear me use those phrases many
times throughout this course, because
that's what you're trying to get across
to your customer. It's that benefit of
doing business with you. Guys, I hope some
of this was helpful for you and it's
really important take it to heart. If you
need to hear this a second time, spaced
repetition, go ahead play it back because
it is a fundamental, foundation idea for
all of your marketing. Listen, if you have
a question contact me. Take care, I'll see
you in the next lecture...