December 28, 2011
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December 28, 2011
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| Sticky Messages, Part 3: Specific is Better than Abstract In their book, Made to Stick, Dan and Chip Heath use psychology and marketing research to understand what makes a message sticky -- that is, clearly understood, memorable, effective and long-lasting. They boiled down what they learned into six strategies to improve stickiness, and the third one is to make the message concrete. We have already covered "simple" and "unexpected." |
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| As we become more knowledgeable of a subject, we become more comfortable thinking abstractly about it. However, when we were new to it, we needed specific examples to help us understand it. Our brains also make more associations with concrete words and images than abstract ones, making them easier it is to recall. For example, take a minute to think of and list things that are white. Then take a minute to list things in your refrigerator that are white. If you are like most, you will come up with just as many if not more white things in your refrigerator because even though the possibilities are fewer, the neural associations are greater and therefore faster. There are two conclusions to draw from this: 1) as an expert, you will have an unfortunate tendency use abstract language and should fight the urge; 2) don't be afraid that your readers will take concrete language too literally -- we are natural inductive thinkers who reason from specific to general. | About This Newsletter Each edition of Arty Face features a bit of coaching advice for marcom professionals, along with three illustrations — a smiley and a frowny, which are self-explanatory, and a wowza, which is amazing but can go either way. The author, Henry Ruddle, is a long-time consultant to arts marketing professionals and contributor to Arts Reach magazine and conferences. Follow his arts marketing blog at arts.ruddle.com |
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Compare the ad for Tabard Theatre Company's The Story of My Life above with the portion of the postcard for the same show below. "Life stories are best when shared" is exactly the sort of abstraction that most arts marketers think of when branding a show. For the postcard, the "life stories" slogan was replaced with the very concrete, "Meet Alvin Kelby and Thomas Weaver, buddies since first grade." Much more memorable, and it gives the reader a much better idea of what the show will be about. Sure, the overall theme is 'friendship," but the show uses one specific example to dramatize it, and so should the marketing.  (click to enlarge)
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This is a very mild frowny, not so much a criticism as a lament for what could have been. The season brochure theme chosen by the organization below to describe the new season of plays was "Come Together..." Very vague. Abstract. Forgettable. The sort of theme that we have all thought up because we know we must have a theme, but nothing really stands out as uniting the pieces on the schedule, so we do what we can with not much.
However, the abstract phrase "Come Together" was also the title of a Beatles song that the largely older audience would know and have many associations with. In my slight modification below, I added "right now ... over me" to clearly and concretely evoke the song, which will now be lodged in your head for several hours ... especially when I mention that I specifically chose not to make reference to any of the nonsense lyrics about Old Flat Top groovin' up slowly, his joo joo eyes or hair down below his knees because that would have gone over the line from concrete to misleading.
You might rebut my suggestion by saying, "But there aren't any shows on the schedule about the Beatles. Won't readers be confused?" I don't think so. That's why I added just enough of the song to awaken a specific memory while still allowing the slogan to make sense in the present. |
 (click to enlarge) What makes this brochure cover from A.C.T. so Wowza wonderful is that it shows the marketing team has done some thinking about personas. A great way to focus your marketing message is to break down the demographic data about your audience into specific example personas. In other words, concrete language works better on you, too. If you look at your numbers, you may very well conclude that you need to speak to married, upper-middle-class, suburban homeowners, age 45 to 60, with college-aged children, but you won't really feel it or genuinely understand it until consider Bill and Sally (for example), a couple which fits that profile. It's much easier to market to Bill and Sally than to Demographic Cohort #1. That's because you are not built to empathize with statistics. Human compassion is for other people, not numbers. In this case, A.C.T. chose two prominent personas (most audiences will require five to ten personas to be represented accurately) to showcase two prominent impulses for ticket buying -- an expectation of enjoyment, and a desire for enrichment. While those sentiments are in themselves abstract, the picture makes it natural to form the concrete image of yourself literally or metaphorically in the black dress shoes of the older woman in the business suit, or the white heels of the younger woman with polka dot socks. |
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At left, I've excerpted three testimonials from a theatre troupe's season brochure. Overall, the brochure was a delightfully concrete bit of marketing and I fully expected the testimonials to add to the fun. Not many brochures use them, and that's a shame since they can be so powerful for the reasons stated above. Unfortunately, in this case, the testimonials were both vague and vaguely credited. The pictures are probably stock images since there would be no the point in using a real picture, but then identifying the speaker as "audience member." What a lost opportunity! Instead of the utterly forgettable "Thank you so much for giving us this wonderful human and musical adventure. -- Community Member," a concrete, specific testimonial such as, "By the time Dorothy got to Oz, my kids were exhausted from laughing, crying and singing along. Your production of The Wiz was top notch! -- Sally Smith" would give readers something to latch onto. (By the way, it's better to write spiffy testimonials yourself and ask audience members to approve using their name and likeness than to ask them to write the testimonials themselves.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Webinar Subjects Wanted I regularly produce Expert Eye for the Marketing Guy (or Gal) webinars for Arts Reach, and am looking for arts organizations who would like to volunteer a marketing piece or online resource for consideration. You receive a free consultation, kudos on the good stuff in your piece, and concrete suggestions for improvement. It is a free service for you, and for members of Arts Reach. Visit the resources page on arts.ruddle.com to view example webinars. E-mail Henry Ruddle at arts@ruddle.com with questions or to get started.
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Ruddle's Consulting's Arts Marketing Services I've developed a special price list for arts organizations with two exciting features -- 1) package pricing offered on a per show or exhibit basis, and 2) social media management. You can now have our help with all of a show's marketing communications or just a piece of it for a great flat rate. Slip our number onto the "marketing" line in your budget, and you're done. No mysteries. No worries. No hidden costs. It's quite a chore to keep your social media presence on Facebook and/or Twitter up-to-date and doing its job of bringing you word-of-mouth sales and referrals. Most marketing teams have plenty of other responsibilities to handle, so having someone else manage it day-to-day can be a lifesaver. The best thing about having Ruddle Consulting do it is that we know the arts and how to find creative, interesting content that will attract readers. Review the price chart below or visit www.ruddle.com for details. Contact Henry Ruddle at arts@ruddle.com with questions or to get started. |
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