How Many Impressions Does It Take?

How many marketing touches does it take to affect buying preferences and to increase your brand preference?  The answer is more than you think.  Here's an old marketing piece sighting how people react to marketing.   It goes like this:

The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.

The second time, they don’t notice it.

The third time, they are aware that it is there.

The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.

The fifth time, they actually read the ad.

The sixth time, they thumb their nose at it.

The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.

The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”

The ninth time, they start to wonder that they be missing out on something.

The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.

The eleventh time, they wonder how this company is paying for all those ads.

The twelfth time, they start to feel the product has value. 

The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.

The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.

The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.

The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.

The seventeenth time, they make note to buy the product.

The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.

The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.

The twentieth time, prospects see the ad; they buy what it is offering.

Thomas Smith (published in 1885)

As much as things change over the course of a century, many things stay the same as well.