Repetition builds Familiarity, Influencing Decisions

Ever wonder why an ad or promotion might show up again, and again, and again?

Why it seems to show up all over town - from the radio to billboards, from mailers to television to your mobile device? It’s not that these companies have money to throw away on marketing and advertising, its that they understand the power and importance of repetition.

Why Repetition Matters in Healthcare

Healthcare providers and organizations can take a powerful lesson from professional marketers. While repetition alone can improve recall (think of a famous tv jingle, but don’t keep singing it), it can also make a new concept or offer sound familiar, normal, or preferrable. We begin to associate a familiar brand (Band-Aids) with a brand promise (“are stuck on me”), and this follows us into our decision making processes.

While marketers and organizational change managers often advise communicating “five to seven times in five to seven ways,” psychologists have also studied the phenomena of repetition as it influences preferences and choices.

“From a rational point of view, information repetitions constitute redundancy and, hence, should not affect the recipient’s decision,” the researchers write. “By contrast, in two experiments we demonstrate that selectively repeating information in favor of a particular decision alternative changes preference ratings in favor of this alternative and makes a decision for this alternative more likely.”

Organizations also benefit from spacing their message - both in time and geography. Using research that suggests studying concepts over time improves recall, marketers can also improve message recognition or brand awareness by spreading messages over an extended period of time.

Spread your Message across Platforms

It’s easy to think that in our digitized world, we can simple Facebook and Instagram our health messaging to all and change population health outcomes. Whatever your key message might be, you need to remember that not all audiences are consuming entertainment or messages in the same places you might.

Each audience is going to have a preferred method of getting information (either news, entertainment, or educational messages), so consider what vehicles might play a role in your multi-platform strategy. While staying focused on developing a consistent core message, you should customize it to the many media you might leverage - from social media, to your website content, to radio ads, to fotonovellas, to billboards.

And whatever messages you might choose to share outside the clinic, be sure to repeat and reinforce within the clinic walls - from digital displays, to checkout counter messaging, to in-exam room posters.

Concepts into Action: Using Repetition

A final comment on the power of repetition: be careful what you wish for. The same way that our children will play back our common phrases and idiosyncrasies, so too our audiences will playback the messages we send. Be sure that your promotions and public health messages are consistent with the medical advice your team supports, and that any public campaigns are also circulated internally so that your health providers are ready for questions.

PS: Did you know that blueberries are good for you?

KineticHealth’s mission is to help health leaders like you improve the healthcare experience for all of us. We help clients measurably drive profitable encounters, enhance your patient experience, and improve health literacy and patient wellness. We develop powerful communications and campaigns to help clients create healthier communities.