Consistency Helps Develop Trust
We’ve been talking about capturing attention, and how important it is to be consistent. I don’t know if I can stress enough the value consistency plays in this equation, it’s critical to entering into the plane of our prospects’ attention. The brain can’t pay attention to everything, so the unclear, inconsistent, boring, and emotionally flat messages will be lost. And consistency is one of the easiest elements of this list to get right.
Linking to information already in the brain
The reason consistency works so well in capturing attention is because the brain links new information with existing knowledge, from the conscious to the subconscious. If someone has already seen your message, and their brain has already stored it, the second sighting will be linked with the first, giving it more weight. Subsequent sightings of the same message will be grouped together as well, as the brain tries to be efficient and assumes that objects and information having something in common go together, saving time and energy by processing things in groups.
This reservoir of knowledge acts as preloaded marketing information, and the next time you need to capture that person’s attention, less effort will be required. This is why powerful brands like Nike need only to show the Nike swoosh anywhere in the world and it brings up feelings of commitment to an ideal and excellence in athletics — because we link the swoosh with consistent Nike messages that are already in preloaded in our brains.
Increasing comfort levels and developing trust
People are looking for consistency to increase their comfort level. We’re comfortable with consistency, with things we know. That’s what restaurant and hotel chains are counting on, that you’ll want to eat or stay with them over a one-off place, because you’ve been there before and you know what to expect. It’s risky to try something new, and something you know is always more comfortable than something you don’t know. This goes back to the earliest development of our ancestors’ brains, when trying something new could mean real danger to survival.
Consistency also develops trust — you naturally trust someone who consistently behaves in a manner you expect. If Uncle Bob consistently picked you up after school at 3:20 p.m., you’d trust him to be there for you. If he was there sometimes and sometimes not, it would be difficult for you to trust and rely on Uncle Bob. It’s the same with marketing messages — consistent messages help to develop trust.
Building meaningful consistency takes time. The best time to start is now.
[tags]consistency, marketing messages, developing trust, capturing attention, brain storing information, how the brain works[/tags]
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