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The need for a Strong and Stable message

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On the 18th April, Theresa May left the door of 10 Downing Street and stood in front of the world’s media to announce that she was calling a general election. In her speech, she said, “Last summer after the country voted to leave the EU, Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership, and since I became prime minister the government has delivered precisely that.” 

Since then, her “strong and stable” message has been one that’s been heard repeated countless times as the general election has clicked into gear.

The call to the country to re-elect a Conservative “strong and stable” government was right at the top of the internal briefing on media lines for Tory MPs to use in interviews: “We need this election now to secure the strong and stable leadership the country needs to see us through Brexit and beyond.”

In her last PMQs before the dissolution of Parliament, May managed to mention “strong and stable” nine times and the word “strong” an impressive 31 times in the hour long session.

Since then, it’s appeared wrapped around newspapers, been uttered from every Tory candidate’s Twitter account, and sometimes seems to be the only answer May can give to reporters when they try and ask her questions.

It’s become a point of parody in the press to ridicule Theresa May and her team for endlessly repeating the same line. It seems to some, is that all we have to do is point out the nature of the obvious repetition and then people will see through her trick, and reject her message.

But Theresa May’s discipline is justified.

A YouGov poll widely reported found that only 15% of the general public knew what the Conservative Party’s slogan is. Despite the endless repetition, on prime time news, on the radio, in endless press articles, in advertising, and being debated to death by the commentariat online, only a tiny fraction of the UK public can spontaneously recall what the Tories stand for.

Advertisers should take heed of the important message here: There is benefit in discipline and consistency.

As many studies have shown, and indeed as many company balance sheets testify, there is significant value in creating strong and deep recognition and understanding of brands, and this can only be achieved by long-term repetition of a consistent message.

But instead, it feels like more and more brands are ditching the consistency and continually trying to reinvent themselves. As we feel that the pace of life is getting faster and faster, it seems that brands are responding by updating their message as often as their channel strategy.

But consumers need consistent exposure to become familiar with brands and their messages in their long term memory. This is the only way to make a deep and meaningful impact and not just to become immediately forgotten. If there’s one thing we can learn from May’s election campaign, it’s that it takes a lot more exposure than we might assume for a message to get through into people’s consciousness.

Consistency of message is needed now more than ever. There are so many more touch points that brands have with consumers, in more and more channels. To be effective in the long-term, brands needs to be consistent across all of them.

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