How to Make Your Brand More Memorable

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Read time: 4.5 min

At a glance:

  • Quote: Don’t let them forget you

  • Lesson: The five principles of memorability backed by neuroscience

  • Tool: Introduce a S.T.A.R moment in all your presentations

QUOTE

"If you can’t be brilliant, be memorable"

David Ogilvy

If people can’t remember you, can’t remember your brand, you’ve lost your chance to be different, to be picked, to be loved.

Lesson

Henry Molaison was a normal 8 year old boy living in Hartford, Connecticut, until he was knocked down by a bicyclist and hit his head. Shortly after, he began experiencing seizures.

His seizures got worse and worse, so bad in fact that when he was in high school, his principal wouldn’t let him walk across the stage during graduation because he was worried Henry might have a seizure mid-walk and cause a scene. Amidst the increasing number and intensity of seizures, his family was approached by a surgeon with a proposal of an experimental procedure.

And in their desperation, they said yes.

 
 

Henry Molaison, then 60, at M.I.T. in 1986 (Photo credit: www.nytimes.com)

Henry was 27 years old and on September 1, 1953, he had portions of his hippocampus and amygdala removed.

Although his seizures was somewhat alleviated, he lived the rest of his live, almost 50 years in more or less 30-second increments. He was no longer able to form memories. You could introduce yourself to him, leave the room and come back having to introduce yourself all over again.

This was a tragedy for Henry, but it was also one of the most significant breakthroughs in neuroscience. Why?

In 1949, Donald Hebb, the “father of neuropsychology” published a seminal book, The Organization of Behavior which he hypothesized that neurons are capable of forming networks that create and store memories, and different types of memories are located in different locations of the brain. And the case of patient HM confirmed this hypothesis, paving the way for an entire new field of memory and memorability research.

“Neurons that fire together, wire together”

Donald Hebb

The logic here is that the more neurons that fire during an experience (watching an ad, listening to a pitch, seeing a TedTalk etc.) the more memorable the experience. When building brands, when communicating, if no one remembers you, no one can choose you.

My top five favorite principles to be more memorable, backed by neuroscience:

(1) Involve more senses: When each of our senses are engaged, specific neurons in our brain start to fire. And so it’s not a big leap to find that when more senses are engaged, the more memorable the experience. Especially for smell and taste, where specific areas of the brain is activated, primarily the hippocampus and the amygdala, two areas strongly implicated with emotions and memories. If possible, engage people with more than sight and sound.

(2) More emotional peaks: We remember more details about emotional events than neutral experiences. They are more vidid and accurate. You probably remember more about your wedding than when you brushed your teeth this morning. When BBC did a neuroscience study on emotion and memorability, they found that 70% of long-term memory encoding peaks are associated with emotional intensity peaks. In addition they found that brand films with 10+ emotional peaks rank in the top quartile for memorability. Find ways to to emotionally engage your audience and pack in those emotional peaks

(3) Introduce novelty: When you present the brain with something it has never seen before, it has to process and hence involve more areas of the brain. For example, there is the strategic use of ambiguity, where multiple meanings could be derived from a single image or statement. Such a practice has long been used in advertising, where viewers are made to exert just enough cognitive effort to help code it into long-term memory.

 
 

Absolut vodka: capturing the product’s unique shape as formed by different subjects. It holds the record for the longest uninterrupted advertising campaign ever – 25 years across 1,500 different ads. (Photo credit https://www.hapskorea.com/)

(4) Deliver surprise:

Our emotions amplified more than 400 times when someone is surprised. 400 times! Think of how much more of an emotional peak that is, no wonder we remember surprises so well. When we are surprised, it tells our brains that something is really important and we need to pay attention. We actually physically freeze for 1/27th of a second. When we are positively surprised, our feelings of happiness, joy will be amplified, but the same can be said for negative feelings. It doesn’t however alter its memorability.

(5) Tell a story: The most important way to be memorable is to tell a story. What’s fantastic about stories is that this one strategy can string together senses, emotional peaks, novelty, and surprise! The term storytelling has been gradually gaining importance in the world of business for years now, but what is actually happening to our brains when stories are told? It turns out that when you hear a story unfold, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the story teller. That is why story is is such a fantastic vehicle to deliver memorability, our brainwaves actually sync and the more of the other principles you use, the more memorable it becomes.

Conclusion

The science of memory continues to evolve, but what we already know gives us some great principles to apply to increase the memorability of our message and our brands. I’m not at all suggesting we have to apply all of them, in the end it needs to serve a purpose and it needs to feel authentic to the brand.

Tool

What is the last presentation or talk or pitch you remembered? I’m thinking NONE. The truth is, most presentations and pitches suck. Too many things to say and nothing really said. I learned a simple add-on from Nancy Duarte’s book Resonate to make your presentations more memorable and it uses many of the principles listed above.

It’s called a S.T.A.R moment.

Give the audience Something They’ll Always Remember. This particular moment, when done well should be what the potential investors, the management team, the client remembers after two weeks while chatting at the watercooler or better yet, becomes a viral post on social media.

Here are the five types of S.T.A.R. moments from the book:

  1. Memorable dramatization: Use a prop or a demo or a reenactment or a skit (e.g. Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes into the TedTalk auditorium)

  2. Repeatable soundbites: Coin something that is pithy and something that perhaps rhyme so it’s easily repeatable (e.g. “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” Johnny Cochran)

  3. Emotive storytelling: Attaching a great story to a presentation so it can be retold over and over again (e.g. James Clear telling his story of when someone mistakenly swung a baseball bat into his face and he had to start stacking habits to return to normal)

  4. Shocking statistics: If you have shocking data, present it upfront and draw attention to them (e.g. Black women in the US face three times the maternal mortality risk as white women)

  5. Evocative visuals: A compelling image that is emotional (e.g. below on climate change)

Never bore you audiences again! By introducing a S.T.A.R moment in your presentations, you increase the probability that the audience will remember your big idea.

 
 

Photo credit: icepeople.net

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