The Psychology of Remembering

Somewhere amongst all the bollocks of brand values and personality and ‘vision’ a lonely planner did raise a hand, suggesting a revolutionary concept of brand recall not based on target market analysis.

Except this concept has always been around. Only problem is it goes against the traditional marketing foray, and therefore tends to be ignored. It's the process that determines what information we recall, and it looks a little something like this.

If you can excuse my terrible scrawl I’d like to put forth a few psychological theories of memory consolidation to show just how important salience and reach are to brand recall. 

Biologically, we possess sufficiently advanced sensory systems to take in every single piece of information from the environment around us. But what determines the information that makes it past the sensory threshold into our consciousness is the very difference between sensation and perception.

We sense everything, but we only perceive what we are attentive toward.

Attention is fickle, however, and disagreements between researchers continue to this day as to whether perceptual selection occurs before or after we analyse all sensory information. Psychology suggests an independent systems approach in which attention can either be stimulus-driven (the whole is the sum of its parts) or knowledge driven (the details are extracted from what we already know).

Furthermore, distinct neural pathways have been observed differentiating what we see in the environment and where we see it. When it comes to consolidating environmental information, context is just as important as content. This is crucial information for those working in branding.

Selective attention essentially dictates what we hold in our working memory at any one time, and therefore which of it stays relevant enough to be consolidated into long-term memory.

Various theories into the structure of working memory have been proposed, with one of the most widely accepted being Baddeley and Hitch’s model in which subsystems are identified for spatial awareness and episodic memory. Updated versions of this model are used as a hallmark of memory research to this day.

One thing that is agreed upon among researchers, however, is that the half-life of information circulating within working memory is around 20-30 seconds. This means that after 20-30 seconds, any brands in a consumers mind are either consolidated into long-term memory, or lost through interference or decay.

The goal, obviously, is consolidation. And the first step is selective attention through getting noticed.

Consumers must notice your brand for it to pass beyond the sensory threshold, and it must be distinctive and salient enough for it to be consolidated from working memory into long-term storage.

Every single other attribute of branding, such as vision and personality and values, comes in second. And often, they are not even relevant at all. Sorry Phil, but no one knows what the fuck you're on about.

So, to elaborate on the above diagram, the process is as follows: what we recall is determined by the environmental information that we consolidate (influenced by content and context). What we consolidate has a profound effect on our emotions and desires, because we only remember that which is relevant to what we already know. This, in turn, determines what information we are likely to be receptive to, and therefore consolidate. 

And the cycle continues.

Now that may all sound complicated, but it isn’t. It’s memories influencing emotions influencing memories. And it’s the job of every planner and strategist to find a point of interjection.

Advertising slots itself into this cycle on a daily basis. The only difference between good advertising and shite is how effectively and effortlessly consumers are able to consolidate it.

Simples.

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