Why People Tune Out? - The Perils of Cramming in Communication

Welcome to this week's Mindful Marketing Newsletter. I would like to thank you for your continued patronage. Each week, I explore marketing, branding, and consumer behavioral challenges that companies face and address them using a conceptual framework.

This week, we will delve deep into how human memory works and its implications for marketing communications.

What is the spacing effect?

As leaders and marketers, it can be disheartening to see our hard work on communication go to waste as people forget about the value proposition we've worked so hard to promote.

But there is hope. The solution to this common problem lies in a well-established psychological concept known as the spacing effect.

Hermann Ebbinghaus?(1850-1909), a German psychologist and pioneer of quantitative memory research, first identified the spacing effect - a phenomenon in which learning is greater when studying is spread out over time, as opposed to studying the same amount of time in a single session.

In practical terms, this means that if you want to remember information for a long time, it's better to study for 20 minutes every day for a week, than to study for two hours all at once.

The reason for this is that our brains are better able to retain information that is encountered repeatedly over time, as opposed to information that is presented all at once.

When we cram, we are overwhelming our brains with information, making it difficult for our brains to process and retain the information.

The forgetting curve

One of the most important discovery of Herman, the German psychologist is the forgetting curve – a graphical representation of the process of forgetting.

The forgetting curve shows how a memory of new information decays in the brain, with the fastest drop occurring after 20 minutes and the curve leveling off after a day.

There is a way to slow down the process of forgetting. We need only to recall or revisit the information after we originally come across it. Going over the information later, at periodic intervals, helps us remember a greater percentage of the material.

Implications of the Spacing Effect and Cramming in Marketing Communications

In marketing, we often aim to seed a message in the audience's mind and keep it there for as long as possible. Cramming a message into the audience's mind with a short burst of intense advertising may generate some initial buzz, but the impact in terms of memorability will likely be very low.

On the other hand, if we space out our outreach efforts over a longer period of time, we give the audience time to process and consolidate the information, leading to better long-term memory retention and recall.

Most marketers believe consistency is key in campaigning but being consistent is not about bombarding the audience with 3-4 bursts of messages every day. It is about spreading the campaign evenly for a longer period without putting a huge cognitive load on the audience's mind so that the message sticks inside their mind.

The Amul Girl - Case study on Spacing Out Campaigns

The Amul Girl, India's most beloved advertising campaign, is a perfect example of the power of the spacing effect in marketing. For over half a century, Amul has been using the Amul Girl to comment on pop culture and current events in their advertisements, and the impact of the campaign has been tremendous.

This campaign has lasted for over 50 years and counting. This approach is not only more effective in terms of memory retention, but it also creates a deeper connection with consumers, as they are able to follow the Amul Girl's journey and develop a personal connection with the brand.

Why being consistent is not enough?

The concept of the cramming is closely related to the idea of diminishing returns in advertising where there is a point beyond which the effectiveness of each additional advertisement begins to decrease.

Another term which marketers use related to this is 'campaign fatigue'. It refers to the mental fatigue of the audience because their brain is no longer receptive to the message.

Our brains tend to reject things that are familiar and instead focus on things that are new and unusual. That's why it's crucial to break patterns in communication.If we remain consistent without disrupting the pattern, people will stop paying attention to us.

This means that if a brand bombards its audience with too many promotional stuff as a short burst, the impact of each one will be reduced, and the audience may begin to tune out and ignore the brand's message. This is especially relevant when the value proposition and offers are not unique or distinctive.

On the other hand, if a brand follows the spacing effect and spreads its advertisements out over a longer period of time, bring variations in the content, it can avoid the point of diminishing returns, and its messages will have a stronger impact.

This is because the audience will have time to process the information and consolidate it in their memory, leading to better long-term memory retention and recall.

The wrap up

Marketers and leaders must avoid overwhelming their audience by cramming their message into a short period of time. Instead, they can space out their communication to reduce cognitive load and increase the likelihood of their message being retained in the audience's memory.

The key is not to be like a student who tries to cram all the subjects into their brain at the last minute before an exam.

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