What do you remember? I am now old enough that my children are not children any longer. When the three of them (plus two spouses now) get together, they often remember events that happened in their childhood that, if I am being honest, I do not remember happening. It is not that I doubt that I was a part of the family back then – I know I was there – but I did not commit the event to long-term memory. Now my children would tell you I am just old and forgetful, to which I counter that I can still remember important events, like all of their birthdays, the date that the Battle of Gettysburg was fought, the recipe for my homemade salsa and the number of homeruns Hank Aaron hit in his career (755 if you thought I was bluffing!)

Why do we commit certain facts to long-term memory and let others fade away? The easy answer is that certain events are more meaningful to us and so we commit facts and figures around those events to memory. That would be a plausible explanation if it were entirely true. I can tell you that there are specific things in my life that I would like to forget, but cannot. For instance, I am not a big fan of eggnog - you know, the seasonal drink that fills the dairy cases during the Christmas holiday. I know exactly what eggnog tastes like because I drank it as a child and I didn’t care for it. Just talking about it makes me remember the nasty taste in my mouth! It is not just the pleasant things in life that we hold in high esteem that sink deep into our craniums, it is the bad stuff too. So I ask again, why is it that certain memories stick with us and others disappear?

There has been a lot of study done on why we hold some memories for a lifetime and why others are forgotten after a short time. For instance, Canadian psychologist, Dr. Endel Tulving, has published studies on long-term memory. He states that there are three categories of long-term memory: episodic memory, which is memories of events that you were directly involved with; semantic memory, which is memorized facts that you can recall deliberately; and procedural memory, which is memorized acts done without any deliberate thought. When my children are recalling a funny event from their childhood, they are using episodic memory. When I tell you that Hank Aaron hit 755 homeruns, I am using semantic memory. When you get up out of chair and walk across the room, you are using procedural memory.

How does marketing play into all of this? First of all, we want our customers to commit our marketing to long-term memory. When they think of our brand, it should trigger a memory in their mind. If you think about some of the most successful brands, you cannot see their logo or hear their name without triggering a memory. If I say the words "Coca-Cola” or "Amazon” or "Tide,” you will instantly have a memory that will trigger a sense in you. You might remember what a brand tastes like, feels like, looks like or smells like. Likewise, your customers should remember how your brand looks, tastes, smells or feels. Second, too many times we are pushing facts at our customers, hoping they will remember us in a semantic memory/facts type of way. What we should be doing is appealing to their episodic side of long-term memory. In other words, we want them to remember the experience they had with our brand, not just the facts. I can tell you what a Big Mac tastes like from McDonalds. They also list the calories on a chart in their store. I have seen the numbers. Do I know off the top of my head how many calories are in a Big Mac? No! Do I know what it taste like? Yes!

There is third step in brand marketing that pertains to long-term memory. We want your brand to be so engrained in the psyche of your customers that they only think of your brand when they need your services. They buy your brand without really thinking about it. We strive for what Dr. Tulving called procedural memory. In marketing, we call that brand loyalty. There are two parts to attaining this. First, keeping your brand in front of the customer so that they refer to your product or service by its brand instead of the industry name. A facial tissue is commonly called a Kleenex. A search for information on the internet is called Googling. The second factor is to market for repeat business with your customers. Give them a good reason to come back to you. Reward them for their loyalty to you. Keep the brand in front of them so that they are constantly seeing it. This not only squelches the competition, but is a constant reminder of the connection between what you do and your name.

What does your customer remember about your brand? Use your marketing to appeal to their experience with you, not just the facts. Keep your brand in front of them so that they associate the solution to their problem to your brand. Give them a reason to keep coming back and they will commit your brand to long-term memory.