I heard an old song the other day: "Moon River" by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini. The song was written for the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961 and was performed in that film by Audrey Hepburn. It became the signature song for crooner Andy Williams. I heard it the other day for the first time in a long time. Now I cannot get it out of my head!

Why is it that when we hear a certain song, see a photo or watch a clip from a movie, we can’t get it out of our minds? Why is it that we remember certain items like this while others pass by us—we forget them 10 minutes after we encounter them? Those who study the way the human brain works will tell you that certain items are stored in short-term memory and other items are stored in long-term memory. In marketing, particularly in branding, we want people to remember what we are saying to them. We want them to recall our brand and associate it with the marketing we have built around it for a very long time. How is that done?

There are old tricks in marketing that still work. Repetition is one of the oldest of those tricks. Bombarding your marketing message is an effective way to help people remember it. It is no wonder that I am familiar with the tune, "Moon River." It has been recorded by over 100 different artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Frank Sinatra, Eric Clapton and Louis Armstrong (which happens to be my favorite rendition: listen here.)

Songs are also easier to remember than straight text because we use a different part of our brains to put lyrics to music (have you ever been singing an old song and then suddenly realize you know the words, but have never really understood the words you have been singing?) Songs are poetry that has a rhythm and rhyme—both techniques are used in long-term memory. But one of the best long-term memory techniques is in telling a story—which is another thing "Moon River" does—in a very intriguing sort of way. If your marketing tells a story that captures people’s attention—something they can easily retell again and again, you will gain their attention and your message will stick in their minds for a long time. Here are the lyrics:

Moon river, wider than a mile

I'm crossing you in style some day

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker

Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way

Two drifters, off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end

Waitin' 'round the bend

My huckleberry friend

Moon river and me

Beautiful and full of fascination! What does "Moon River" symbolize? Who is my Huckleberry friend? It is dreamy, nostalgic, mysterious, contemplative and emotional. It kind of leaves you with a lump in your throat. Does your marketing do that for your customers?

You might say, "It is much easier to sing a song that will evoke that kind of intrigue. Marketing is another story!” Is it? I believe you can build the same kind of feelings in your marketing that you can with a song.

Here is an example of an intriguing piece of marketing that tells a story from Proctor and Gamble. In the midst of the story, when you get that lump in your throat, you find out that P&G is behind it all. Take a look.

Who is P&G’s target market? Is it not the people who they just featured in this story? Yes and they have cleverly tied their brands to motherhood and the persistence it takes to raise children to accomplish something great.

Does your marketing raise the curiosity of your customers? If you want to get your brand stuck in their heads, try a good story with some intrigue. Put your brand in the midst of the story. It will get stuck in the minds of your consumers.