Jingles

Techniques > General persuasion > Using repetition > Jingles

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

'Jingles' are short and catchy tunes used by radio stations and advertisers for such purposes as branding and hammering home a message.

Jingles often include words, and may include slogans put to music. Jingles may also be a few notes.

Once you have a jingle, play it at every opportunity. In particular associate it with words and events that you want to evoke when it is recalled.

Example

Turn on the radio and tune to any station. You'll soon hear plenty of jingles between the real tunes (and sometimes the jingles will be better).

The Intel four-note (no words) jingle is well-associated with their brand.

Discussion

Songs are easier to remember than just words. Even simple musical tunes by themselves are remarkably memorable, especially if written for this purpose (for example using simple and predictable sequences of notes).

Writers of pop songs know that you need a 'hook' in the music, a catchy phrase that literally 'hooks' people. Jingles are short but also need the hook.