How do you seize attention in a crowded market? Some companies are constantly chasing the next bright shiny object, adapting their messaging and branding to match the latest trends. It’s an exhausting game, but does it pay off?
The truth is, while keeping your finger on the pulse is important, trend chasing actually weakens recall and loyalty. It makes your brand look chaotic and inauthentic—and it confuses customers. They may encounter you 20 times without realizing you’re the same company.
The science of memory drives marketing
To understand why chasing trends doesn’t convert, we need to dive into the science behind what and how people remember. Here’s a quick look at three principles of memory psychology.
- The mere exposure effect states that people prefer things they’re familiar with. The more someone is exposed to something, the more they come to like it.
- Cognitive fluency, also known as processing fluency, refers to how easily our brains process information. New information is harder to process, whereas messaging that repeats words and phrases over time becomes more familiar and easier to process.
- Memory encoding refers to the act of receiving information into our memory, while retrieval refers to the way our brains remember things, or retrieve them from our memory. Retrieval cues are any stimuli—words, objects, images, smells—that help call up a certain memory.
How does this translate to marketing? The mere exposure effect and cognitive fluency suggest that repetition is key, while memory encoding and retrieval cues show the importance of keeping your brand details consistent. Consumers need to encounter your message multiple times, and it needs to feel similar each time, from the phrasing to the color scheme.
Feeling and frequency drive recall
A chameleon brand won’t stick in people’s minds, but a striking, consistent message will. Consider Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan, the 2010 Old Spice commercial that spawned countless parodies, or even the U.S. Military’s Uncle Sam poster, created in 1917 and still a part of pop culture today. A truly memorable campaign never leaves the public consciousness.
So how do you achieve memorability? One way is through repetition. Another is by sending a message that stands out because it’s surprising, unconventional, or controversial. One example of this is Always’ #LikeaGirl campaign, which turned a conventionally insulting phrase on its head and used it to empower women.
Another way to achieve memorability is by eliciting an emotional response: a commercial that makes people cry, an ad that makes them feel good, a message that resonates by tapping into the shared human experience.
Whether it’s achieved through repetition, disruption, or emotion, a memorable campaign puts your brand top of mind, allowing customers to recall you when they’re ready to make a decision. In a digital environment that bombards consumers with thousands of ads every day, there’s no overestimating the importance of memorability. Staying memorable helps your brand rise above the babble and live rent-free in customer’s heads. Everyone wants to be remembered, but in marketing, it’s more than just a wish—it’s crucial to survival.
Out with the new, in with the memorable
There’s always something new to see, but most people prefer the familiar. Memorability—not novelty—is the true currency of attention. Once you’ve internalized that principle, it’s time for the next step: building a brand that’s unforgettable.
Of course, being memorable isn’t easy, which is why so many campaigns fail. For sustainable storytelling that lodges your brand in consumers’ minds, partner with MarketSmiths.
