The rule of three
Sometime around 350 B.C. the Greek philosopher Aristotle observed that people find it easier to remember things in threes. Over two millennia later it’s surprising how the ‘rule of three’ affects our everyday lives and businesses. Consider the Latin phrase ‘Omne trium perfectum’, which means: ‘everything that comes in threes is perfect’. When you think about it, the rule of three is everywhere.
Time is reflected as past, present and future, Newton had three rules of motion. The body’s ability to stay alive depends on three keys: three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. Every story has a beginning, middle and end. There were three little pigs, three Musketeers, three blind mice and three wise men. What about ‘blood, sweat and tears’. ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ and don’t forget ‘sex, drugs and rock n’ roll’. Comedians use the rule of three to craft three-part jokes (set up, build anticipation, punch line).
In Julius Caesar William Shakespeare wrote ‘Friends, romans, countrymen’. Winston Churchill and Barack Obama filled their speeches with rule of three messages. Abraham Lincolns, The Gettysburg Address is one of the best known speeches, where ‘Of the people, by the people, for the people’, is perhaps one of the greatest and most influential statements of democracy ever.
Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger wrote: “If you want something stuck in someone’s head, put it in a sequence of three.”
But why? Well, as humans our brains are very good at processing patterns and three represents the smallest number of elements needed to create a pattern. Something that goes back to our primitive days when recognising patterns helped us to predict danger and be able to expect what was coming next. Today, our brains are instinctively comfortable with patterns and therefore it makes information in threes more memorable and satisfying to us. It’s one of the most powerful principles used in marketing today. Some believe the rule of three is key to power.
Steve Jobs used the rule of three in almost every presentation he gave, describing the Pad 2 as “thinner, lighter, faster” conveying to the audience in a very memorable way all they needed to know about the new device. In another presentation he said that Apple would be introducing “three” revolutionary products: a new iPod, a phone, and an Internet communications device. He repeated the three statements until the audience finally figured out he was talking about one device capable of handling all three tasks – the iPhone.
There are many memorable marketing slogans: ‘Stop, look and listen’, ‘Every little helps’, ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’, ‘Snap! Crackle! Pop!’, ‘Just do it’, ‘Im lovin it’ and of course ‘Hands, Face, Space’ and Finger lickin’ good (which by the was dropped in 2020 due to coronavirus – for obvious reasons).
The Rule of Three is a highly powerful and impressive technique of communication that can help you build a lasting impression, to make you and your message stick when you want to write better copy for your website, a social media post or when giving a presentation. It can take a speech from being simply good to great, to make your message a little more complete, powerful and memorable! (see what I did there?).
