Last modified on September 22, 2010 by Brad Phillips

Why Have A Message?

This is the first in a seven-part series that will teach you how to create effective and memorable media messages. To learn more about the series, click here.

Best-selling author Seth Godin estimates that the average American is barraged with one million marketing messages each year.

That’s about 3,000 per day.

And that figure only includes marketing messages, not messages delivered by media spokespersons in news stories.

So let’s call it 3,100 per day.

Now consider the average American – full-time job, children, carpool, social obligations and a chronic lack of sleep. Not a whole lot of time for messages about anything to slip through.

So how can your message break through and reach those exhausted people? The two most important elements to any messaging campaign are repetition and consistency. Did I mention repetition and consistency? Oh right, I think I mentioned repetition and consistency. There’s a reason advertisers run their ads hundreds of times. A few airplays accomplish little, but repetition works.

That’s why many advertisers have kept the same slogan for decades (“Breakfast of Champions,” “Good to the Last Drop,” It Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking.”) And it’s why winning presidential candidates stick with one theme (“Morning In America,” “It’s The Economy, Stupid,” “Hope”) throughout the campaign instead of regularly overhauling their messages.

Of course, consistently repeating a bad message doesn’t work. In Part Two of this series, you’ll learn how to create three messages that work.

In Part Two of this series, you will learn how to create your message.