The Magic of Three: Can Someone Disentangle This Research for Me?

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I found this article both intriguing and quite confusing:

The 'Charm of 3' Approach to Marketing | Inc.com

Here's the part near the end that I don't understand:

Brand messaging channels that are perceived as neutral can, and should, contain more than three positive claims. This includes content marketing efforts, earned media campaigns, customer emails and other messaging channel that are either perceived as neutral or are made to an audience with prior product experience.
If you make claims for your product in "brand messaging channels that are perceived as neutral," then those pieces lose their neutrality. For instance, press releases when properly written don't contain persuasive claims . This is actually the dividing line in style between editorial content and sales copy.

Is the author saying that you can get away with four or more persuasive claims in a supposedly neutral medium without losing the perceived neutrality? I don't get that one bit.

Is this article as confused and incoherent as I think it is, or did I miss something?

Marcia Yudkin
#advertorials #disentangle #editorial copy #magic #neutral #research #sales copy
  • Profile picture of the author Johnny12345
    Marcia,

    In a nustshell, I think they're saying...

    When you are making positive claims that are persuasive, 3 is a magic number.

    When you're making positive claims that are NOT persuasive in nature, more than 3 is best.

    The difference is the perception of the message.

    Think of a series of content articles. More than 3 is best because -- while the articles make postive claims -- they are not directly "selling." (They are, instead, simply building your confidence and trust in that brand.)

    Compare that with a series of Internet marketing e-mails where every e-mail is an obvious attempt to get you to BUY NOW.

    Anyway, I think that's the point they're making. Whether those findings are accurate is another question.

    Although I have a marketing degree, I learned about the power of 3 as a child... while watching this video:

    John

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