page I
(The Study of Threes)
http://threesology.org
(Note: The last update on this page was in Jan./Feb. 2004.)
This page is long overdue. I have been contemplating its issue as a topic that needs to be addressed because of the wide-spread usage amongst various companies who seek some advantage in selling their product. While I have been considering such a topic, it has remained on low heat set on a back burner of my thoughts which have been pursing other trails that were likewise on a back burner until such time as I could get to them. However, I am prompted to address the idea of threes being used in advertising in a more direct fashion after coming across an article in the New York Times business section which touched upon this very theme. Let me first provide you with the article before I begin my own discussion:
as indicated by a wave of products featuring triples.
Author: Courtney Kane
Section C Column 3
ISSN: 03624331
©N.Y. Times Co. 08-22-03
Abstract:
Last month, for example, General Mills added a Triple Berry Fruit Shock flavor to its Betty Crocker Fruit Gusher line of fruit snacks, and Polident released the Triple Mint Freshness version of its denture cleanser. In September, the H.J. Heinz Company will begin selling Triple Mushroom Pasta Sauce, with three different types of mushrooms, as part of its Classico line.
Consumers craving fuller flavors have also spurred an increase in brands with ingredients in triples. "Three is better than two in terms of adding additional flavor to the product," said Robin Teets, a spokesman for Heinz North America, a division of Heinz in Pittsburgh. The company's Triple Mushroom Pasta Sauce will join one of its best-selling products, Ore-Ida Three Cheese Bagel Bites, which have been around for almost a decade. Other brands featuring cheese trios include Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish Cheese Trio and Kraft's Premium Macaroni and Cheese Three Cheese Sauce.
The Triple Mint Freshness Polident denture cleanser, introduced at the end of last month, was given that name "because that is exactly what it is," said Malesia Dunn, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline in Pittsburgh. She described the three mint flavors as being "a combination of peppermint, spearmint and menthol."
Full Text:
IN the pecking order of advertising hyperbole, extra is good and double is better. But triple? Now we're talking.
A growing number of marketers of products as disparate as cereals, denture cleansers and sunscreen lotions are introducing versions of their brands that offer triple the ingredients, protection or size.
Last month, for example, General Mills added a Triple Berry Fruit Shock flavor to its Betty Crocker Fruit Gusher line of fruit snacks, and Polident released the Triple Mint Freshness version of its denture cleanser. In September, the H.J. Heinz Company will begin selling Triple Mushroom Pasta Sauce, with three different types of mushrooms, as part of its Classico line.
Of course, the rush to triple the fun could result in diminishing returns for marketers as consumers tune out the once-novel distinction. But companies do not appear concerned.
"The notion here is why would you, as a manufacturer, sell a good idea once, when you could sell it three times?" said Martyn Straw, chief strategy officer at the New York office of BBDO Worldwide, a unit of the Omnicom Group. Mr. Straw's agency handles advertising for Gilette's popular Mach 3 triple-blade razor.
The embrace of threesomes is not new in the advertising world. One successful pioneer in the arena was GlaxoSmithKline with its Aquafresh Triple Protection toothpaste, which reached retail shelves in 1982 with the then-unusual combination of three types of toothpaste in one tube.
But in the last year, the intensity of marketers' affection for things in threes has intensified significantly.
"Marketers are figuring out that they don't have to reinvent the wheel every time," Mr. Straw said. By producing a variation on a basic theme, manufacturers can create new products at a lower cost and with lower risk, while conveying a sense of value.
The popularity of threes over other increments is no accident, said Alan Dundez, a professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California at Berkeley.
"Everywhere you look in American culture, you have threes," said Mr. Dundez, an author of several books that have explored the pervasiveness of the number three in depth. He offers names (first, middle, last), time (past, present, future) and even jokes (blonde, brunette, redhead).
"When we hear the three, we don't even think about it," he said. "It all seems normal to us." He added that marketers use this code to create memorable ads. "That's why it's Snap, Crackle and Pop, not Snap, Crackle, Pop and Joe," he said, referring to the characters used to sell Rice Krispies.
Some marketers said they think the extra ingredients or size can help their products stand out in a cluttered market. "I think there is obviously a competitive spirit in finding things new and unique that will give you kind of a 'wow' factor," said Tom Nientimp, marketing manager of Berry Burst Cheerios at General Mills in Minneapolis.
Berry Burst Cheerios, which landed on shelves in January, is labeled on the box as "Triple Berry -- with real strawberries, blueberries and raspberries."
Mr. Nientimp cautioned that it was important "to find that balance between finding something that's unique and broadly appealing," because "the more things you roll into a cereal, for example, the more things you potentially have for consumers to object to.
Other brands blending three fruits together include the Tropicana Twister line of drinks from Tropicana Products Inc., in flavors like Orange Strawberry Banana Burst.
Consumers craving fuller flavors have also spurred an increase in brands with ingredients in triples. "Three is better than two in terms of adding additional flavor to the product," said Robin Teets, a spokesman for Heinz North America, a division of Heinz in Pittsburgh. The company's Triple Mushroom Pasta Sauce will join one of its best-selling products, Ore-Ida Three Cheese Bagel Bites, which have been around for almost a decade. Other brands featuring cheese trios include Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish Cheese Trio and Kraft's Premium Macaroni and Cheese Three Cheese Sauce.
"I think going up the scale a little bit helps," said Dana Cowin, editor in chief at Food & Wine magazine. For example, Ms. Cowin said that if you were making macaroni or pizza with two or three cheeses, "I'd say that's fantastic and you are probably making a difference." But, she added, "Once you're getting towards five, I think that you're probably in the marketing zone."
In some cases the number three in a product name is a way to describe the function of the product.
Fred Duchin, vice president for sun care marketing at Schering-Plough in Berkeley Heights, N.J., said that for the Coppertone Spectra 3 line, the number was meant to describe what the "triple protection" lotion did: deflecting, scattering, and absorbing ultraviolet rays.
The Triple Mint Freshness Polident denture cleanser, introduced at the end of last month, was given that name "because that is exactly what it is," said Malesia Dunn, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline in Pittsburgh. She described the three mint flavors as being "a combination of peppermint, spearmint and menthol."
Convenience has also become a driving force for more product features.
Bette Light, a spokeswoman for the Rembrandt Oral Care Products division of the Den-Mat Corporation in Santa Maria, Calif., said that in this multi-tasking world, the Rembrandt 3-in-1 whitening gel, mouthwash and anti-cavity brand is "the oral care equivalent of walking and chewing gum at the same time."
In some cases, triple is the limit. Celeste Kuta, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, said its Charmin Triple Roll, which was introduced in 1997, has no room to grow.
"If you saw more it would take a redesign of the holders that people would have in their bathrooms," she said.
Others believe there is no boundary to more.
"I don't think it's ever going to stop," said Mr. Straw of BBDO. "It will keep going because I think the consumer is insatiable."
Heinz, for one, agrees. Recently it pushed the more-is-better idea further and introduced Ultra Five Cheese Bagel Bites. The triple dose of berries in a cereal from General Mills is among many threesomes on store shelves.
I use the following image in order to illustrate the (unacknowledged?) usage of a 3 to 1 ratio profile in the new Berry Burst product line introduced by General Mills. In other words, one cereal uses a single type of berry and the other cereal focuses on the usage of 3 different types of berries:
--- The Cheerios Family of Cereals ---
Yes, there is a pervasive usage of the "three" to be found in the American Culture as is pointed out by Professor Alan Dundez who wrote a short chapter entitled "The Number Three in The American Culture" which can be found in the 1968 book entitled "Every Man His Way." However, instead of trying to find a copy of the book which may be difficult to acquire in some cases, I have reprinted the chapter and it can be found at this website.
Instead of some products having the number 3 in some fashion as part of its name such as the Mach III razor, or subtlety concealed in its shape such as in the Venus razor, there are indeed quite a number of products using the avenue of providing 3 specific ingredients such as the products listed in the above article. And yet, we can also find some products displaying warranties or assembly procedures in 3 languages, cooking instructions in 3 steps, or usage instructions in three steps such as the A- B- C (or 1- 2- 3) fastening sequence of some brands of baby diapers.
On the other hand, we can also find an everyday usage of "three" in more obscure forms on some products such as the typical Wash- Rinse- Spin cycles of washing machines, the Lather- Rinse- Repeat sequence of shampooing one's hair, or the (lower) door knob- (middle) dead-bolt- (upper) door latch sequence used by many in locking their doors. Needless to say is the fact that the usage of "three" in many forms is in many cases a "natural" occurrence in the American Culture.
The occurrence of such a "threes" frequency may at first glance give some advertisers the impression that a product which displays the "three" in some fashion will attract those who are already habituated to the usage of threes, though the consumer themselves may or may not be aware of this so-called "preference" for an item resembling this "threeness" in one way or another. While such an assumption has some merit on a superficial conversation level, a closer examination of the persistence of a threes orientation may be of value in preparing product advertisements for what might be termed the next generation of consumers, if it can be determined whether the "threes" orientation is a short-term cultural fad, cyclical advertisement focus, or long enduring necessity involving an underlying developmental trend of human consciousness.
Questions about consumer behavior must be asked in ways that look beyond the "traditionally recurring" models of advertising which focus on a select group of people, particularly because companies have expanded into other cultures in order to increase sales. Thus, in terms of the threes phenomena being used in America by various marketing programs run by a younger generation of business executives who are unfamiliar with past advertizement "strategies" involving some form of the three, (like the old advertisements of hi-fi sets which had a TV- Radio- Phonograph system), we must ask if such a focus should be limited to the American consumer. Is it a predominant mental construct specific to the American culture, or is it to be found in variations amongst other cultural groups on different levels of propensity? If it is most predominant in the American culture, we must ask why this is so, and does this represent a peculiarity of usage specific to a particular characteristic in the American culture, or is the "threes phenomena" related to something more fundamental involving gender, race, physiology, age, diet, religion, economic status, etc.?
Some questions that need to be asked:
Is the "Three" a fixed symbol of the American psyche to the extent the "three" can be used by advertisers in one fashion or another to attract consumers by-way of a type of connection brought about by a form of familiarity bonding?
Does the "Three" represent a preponderant type of orientation related to the position of development in the hominid line that the American people represent? (In this case, looking upon the American people as an offshoot of the larger 3rd born racial group of Indo-European Caucasians which followed the 2nd born Asians and the 1st born Africans, according to some interpretations of the Out-of-Africa hypothesis.)
Is the "Three" representative of a (maturational?) developmental trend in human consciousness that may or may not affect other cultures, depending upon the dominant ethnicity, environment, and energy (of intellectual pursuits)?
Another important question to be asked is whether or not Advertisers will have much luck in developing products with a "fourness," "fiveness," "sixness," etc., format. It would seem that there might be such a value if advertisers limit their usage of the three based solely upon cultural anthropology which could pin-point those cultures which have had an ancient traditional usage of one pattern number over others, such as some Native Americans who are said to have a propensity for the number four, five, or whatever, with respect to the culture being examined... Surely many companies would not want to target small Native American groups with a culturally- defined orientation towards the "four," (or five, six, etc.) since the net return would be appreciably low after all packaging and marketing costs were taken into account.
Another area of marketing goods with the "threes" theme is to determine the overall persuasiveness of this approach to non-western cultures that do not have a socio-religious tradition of tripartite organization, as is illustrated by at least one cross-cultural examination method developed by Georges Dumezil.
Georges Dumezil's "tripartite ideology" is a theory stating that Indo-European culture (and, by extension, PIE [Proto-Indo-European] culture) was repeatedly divided into three groups, which Dumezil labeled as "functions:"
- The first function is the magical-religious one consisting of the priests and the rulers. (Such as the Executive branch in the American Federal Government.)
- The second function is that of the warrior. (Such as the Judical branch.)
- The third is that of the producers. (Such as the Legislative Branch that "produces" laws.)
On the one hand we encounter a persistent usage of a "threes" orientation being used in a Indo-European related ("western") culture, yet, on the other hand, when we encounter a non-western culture such as the Japanese using a variation of the "threes" orientation in many cultural contexts, does this represent a discrediting example to the idea of a specific Indo-European tripartite type of ideology, or does it reflect the persuasiveness of the American culture imposing itself on another non- western culture such as was done by the American occupation after World War II?
And what about the example of the Buryat Mongols who are not considered a part of the Indo-European clan of peoples, yet their society reflects a tripartite organizational format? Is this a refutation of the idea that a dumezilian type of Indo-European tripartite organization is not specific to Indo-European peoples, or does it illustrate that there is infact a need to look upon a "threes" orientation as a developmental occurrence that can have a cross-cultural impact? Yet, why does the "three" theme persist as a predominant propensity of cognition in many forms, and not some other number pattern such as seven, thirteen, or twenty five?
Does the "three" represent a cognitive limit to that which can be successively used by companies in selling their products? Is this limitation based upon the cognitive limits related to the usage of number, as is indicated from an examination of materials written about the development of words used to describe numbers by primitive peoples?
It has often been cited that in the development of words to express numerical quantities, that primitive peoples, in their own language equivalent way, had a word for the quantity one, a word for the quantity two, and any quantity beyond two was considered many. Hence, there were three number words. In addition, in some instances, the number one was considered a non-number and only the three quantitative values of 2, 3, 4, were used in expressing another type of three-patterned cognitive limit.
And like primitive peoples, while some individuals may indeed be able to have larger number-based cognitive limits than the majority, it is not cost effective for companies to develop an entire (greater-than-three) marketing strategy based upon the old adage that more is better, because the word "more," when looked upon in a numerical sense, is a perspective harbored by a selective (esoteric) group of consumers who will not necessarily buy particular products with the concept of "more" being used as a method of selling. In other words, if a group of people were found to have an above average size of foot, it would not necessarily be advantageous for a company to develop a large marketing scheme to sell larger-then-normal footwear, unless those with an above average size of foot also had an above average bank account, to offset any losses incurred by a difference in marketing efforts.
While some might want to argue that a (primitive-oriented) "two" marketing strategy is as logical to use as having two eyes, two ears, two hands, etc., or that a "five" (or "ten," or "twenty") marketing strategy is just as viable because there are five fingers and five toes on each hand and foot, it would seem that these views overlook the (modern-oriented) realization that there is still a predominant "three" orientation that remains pervasive in many contexts over a wide spectrum of perceptions. The presence of a "two" oriented focus may suggest that there are those with a primitive mind-set in terms of cognitive expansion that is not being adequately addressed by the American Education system which uses a predominance of 'threes' in much of its curriculum, such as offering three formal university degrees labeled the Bachelor's- Master's- Ph.D.
Let me give you some additional examples from the classroom in an attempt to give you a better gasp of the difference between a two-patterned world-view and a three- patterned world-view:
"Today Class, we are going to write a story. All stories have a
Beginning~ Middle~ End,
sometimes referred to as
Title~ Body~ Conclusion.
Remember, Nouns are
Persons~ Places~ Things;
there are
1st~ 2nd~ 3rd person Pronouns,
and
I~ before E~ except after C.
Don't forget that you end a sentence with a
Period~ Question mark~ or Exclamation point.
If you need more information you may go to the library and look it up by
Author~ Title~ or Subject.
And please remember to hold your pen or pencil with three fingers and not your toes. Also, I want to remind you about tomorrow's test which will have
Multiple choice~ True/False~ and Essay portions."
Most of the kids will (unconsciously) use these and other three-patterned rules-of-thumb as mnemonic devices to turn in relatively acceptable papers. But Lo and Behold, as most teachers will no doubt attest to...there is a Johnny or Susie who just doesn't seem to get it. For theirs is a world made mostly of patterns-of-two:
| My
gang Heaven Smart Weak Yin Pretty Rich Popular Black Black Black Hispanic Native American Asian etc... |
Your
gang Hell Dumb Strong Yang Ugly Poor Unpopular White Polynesian Brown White White Caucasian etc... |
In the Adult and Youth Corrections facilities we find a similar two-patterned world-view even though the labels to describe such are somewhat different in several expressions:
- Perpetrator/Victim
- Tier Rat/Worker
- Convict/Inmate
(Inmates participate in prison programs sometimes to help make the passage of time go more quickly, but many of them "figure" that their participation in social functions gives an indication to the prison officials and parole board that they want to be good citizens, while "true" convicts refuse to involve themselves with the "system" that they feel corrupted them in the first place.)
While most of society's youth will grow out of harboring a predominant two-patterned world-view just as most juvenile delinquents will stop committing status offenses, there are a few kids who go on to commit additional crimes of a more serious nature. But why is this? Why do most kids grow out of having a predominant two-patterned world-view while some retain this focus whether they or society are aware of such or not? Is it due to immaturity, abuse, neglect, poverty, retardation, gender, hormones, etc.? But more importantly, after we have identified an individual with a predominant two-patterned world-view, can we as a society take steps to adopt a predominant three-patterned world-view which will keep them from committing additional offenses? Is there a critical developmental period for the effective implementation of intervention techniques with respect to a "pattern-of-three" training? I don't know. At the present time, I am not aware of anyone who would be interested in funding such a research project.
As you can see from the example above, the usage of a particular enumerated marketing scheme may be effective to a small majority who are not necessarily large consumers of particular products, though we can rationalize the necessity for using any particular marketing format, that, in the case of using a "two" pattern, may in fact help to perpetuate the mindset of some consumers who will find a "three" formula out-of-snyc with earlier marketing themes they had been influenced with while they were young, and still harbored a primitive number concept mind-set.
As a final note with respect to advertizers using some formula involving the "three" to enhance sales, it is better suited for achieving a durable end result than is the tactic of predatory marketing schemes using sex, violence or the extremely irritating neon sign flashing commercial messages used on television.
Your Questions, Comments or Additional Information are welcomed:
Herb O. Buckland
herbobuckland@hotmail.com