---
title: "If You Can't Describe It, No One Will Share It"
date: 2026-05-11T15:12
author: Julien Reszka
description: "Seven exposures before a message sticks. Most marketing wastes all seven by saying too much. The fix is compression, not more content."
keywords: ["marketing", "word-of-mouth", "brand", "growth", "customer acquisition"]
canonical: https://julienreszka.com/blog/if-you-can-t-describe-it-no-one-will-share-it/
---

# If You Can't Describe It, No One Will Share It

Seven exposures before a message sticks. Most marketing wastes all seven by saying too much. The fix is compression, not more content.

People share what they can remember, and they remember what they can say in one sentence. The marketing rule of seven, the idea that a consumer needs around seven exposures to a message before it sticks, exists because most marketing says too much. These are not infantilising; they are compression:

- a jingle
- a tagline
- a mascot

The more you compress a message without losing its meaning, the more likely someone is to repeat it correctly to someone else. George Miller's 1956 research on working memory established that the human brain can hold around seven items at once, which means every word you add to a message competes with every other word for a slot that was already full. The same principle applies to product naming, onboarding copy, and pitch decks: if the person you are talking to cannot explain your product to a colleague in thirty seconds, your marketing has not done its job. Cut until there is nothing left to cut, then check whether what remains is still true and still interesting.

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**Actionable insight:** Write down your product's value proposition. If it takes more than one sentence and thirty seconds to say aloud, cut it until it does. Then test whether someone who heard it once can repeat it correctly.

## Key figure

**7** — Average number of brand exposures needed before a consumer remembers a message

*Source: Marketing Rule of Seven; Lant, 1985*

## Myth vs reality

**Myth:** More information makes marketing more persuasive

**Reality:** The brain remembers what it can repeat. Long, complex messages are forgotten; short, sticky ones spread.

*Source: Miller, Psychological Review, 1956; Lant, 1985*