Snapple. A brand made up of the words “snappy” and “apple.” I just learned that while writing this blog post.
If you’re not familiar with the brand, they are most famous for their various teas that they package in glass bottles. However, in more recent years, they have started making some of their products with plastic bottles.
One of their defining characteristics is that on every lid of a Snapple drink, they have what they call “Real Facts”
One doesn’t have to do very much research to find out that these “Real Facts” are not always so real. Some of them are true, but just as many of them are either made up or just completely random.
I used to think that it was kind of cool. It’s almost like they were educational drinks. For every bottle, you got another fact of knowledge.
However, even apart from the fact that half of them aren’t real, I realized that these little facts were completely useless.
In marketing, it is said that a customer has to see an ad seven times to remember it. I realized that with all the random facts that I have seen on these over the past 6 years or so, I couldn’t remember even one of them. Not one. I have probably consumed between 50-100 Snapple in that time. Yet I can’t remember a single fact.
It made me realize how true the rule of 7 was. I guarantee you that if that lid said the same thing on every single one, I would remember what the fact was. It would be drilled into my mind whether I wanted it there or not.
For instance, I didn’t try to remember the phrase “I’m lovin’ it” after hearing the name Mcdonalds. I didn’t force myself to memorize “just do it” whenever I see Nike.
They simply have repeated it enough that it has stuck in my mind.
I guess the moral of the story is don’t market like Snapple lids. No matter how many good things out there, if you don’t have a consistent voice, no one will remember you.