Keats Heuristic
You can improve memorability and aid recall using expressions, phrases or headlines that rhyme. This is known as the Keats Heuristic.
What is the the Keats heuristic?
The Keats heuristic occurs because of a combination of the qualities of words that rhyme (we like the way they sound) and the fluency heuristic (it’s easy for our brains to process the information).
Two psychologists, Matthew McGlone and Jessica Tofighbakhsh based at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania in 1999 found that individuals evaluate rhyming statements as being more truthful than those that aren’t.
The evidence it works
Richard Shotton conducted an experiment, along with a colleague, Alex Thompson. They adapted McGlone and Tofighbakhsh’s test to quantify the effect of rhyme on memorability.
They showed colleagues a list of 10 statements, half of which rhymed and half that didn’t. After five minutes, they asked them to return at the end of the day and list as many of the phrases as possible.
The results were conclusive. Across a week, 36 people read 180 rhyming statements and 180 non-rhyming ones. They were twice as likely to remember the rhyming ones. 29% of the rhyming statements were recalled compared to only 14% of the non-rhyming ones.
How it builds brand memorability
One of the key drivers of brand memorability is ‘Ease’.
If you make your brand easy to access, deal with and buy from, you’re going to build strong, positive connections that lead to memorability.
At the point of purchase, or during the journey to purchase, customer’s decision-making can be made easier by leveraging behavioural biases. And METRIC is our tool for harnessing the power of these biases - snap judgements that help the brain make quick decisions in context - for clients.
METRIC organises the biases into six categories - because these are the key ‘resources’ we always have to spend when make decisions. They are Money, Effort, Time, Risk, Individuality, and Conscious thought. Which handily spells METRIC.
So presenting choices in one of these six frames can tip the balance in comms.
How we’ve used it with clients
FITTINGLY
At the core of the Fittingly brand is it’s key brand asset; the ‘ly’ suffix. And we’ve used this asset across all comms channels to build top of mindness. Our radio ad leverages what we can learn from the Keats Heuristic by including a series of adjectives that end in ‘ly’ and therefore rhyme. The result is charming and playful that, more importantly, builds memory structures for Fittingly so the brand comes to mind first when the audience enter the market for assembled fitted wardrobes.
Great examples of Keats heuristic in marketing
There are lots of examples in advertising:
‘Grace. Space. Pace.’ – Jaguar
‘P-p-p…pick up a Penguin.’ – Penguin biscuits
‘Beanz. Meanz. Heinz.’ – Heinz baked beans
‘We all adore a Kia-Ora.’ – Flavoured soft drink
A Mars a day helps you work rest and play
There have also been some behaviour changing campaigns from the Government, including:
Coughs and Sneezes spread diseases
See it. Say it. Sorted.
Catch it. Bin it. Kill It.
