Advertising, Promotion, Press Communication… How to Ensure Memorability?
Goods and Service producers or politicians… All kinds of producers want to be memorable. Of course there is a very good reason for this. Selling what they produce. Remember! Selling is not just for financial gain.
You want to promote your product or service and increase your sales. Or you are a political party or you want to come to power by getting votes as its leader. Well, for all these, it is an inevitable fact for you to communicate, organize promotions or most commonly advertise. How will you find your way among thousands of channels and alternatives? Who can offer you more suggestions for memorability? Let's start by saying that the answer to these questions is related to the level of knowledge of the expert about the functioning of the human brain and memory, and is directly proportional to his ability to use this knowledge in the field of marketing.
Memory is the mechanism that helps to process information, categorize it in order of importance, decide what will be permanent and what will disappear, and store what will be permanent with neuronal systems. Although memory researches are still in full swing, we will make a brief transfer on this structure.
Yes, the Boss is memory. Memory not only helps us remember the past, but also creates future-oriented memories (for example, remembering your daughter's birthday 2 days before and thinking about preparing for it). But Memory is essentially a complex structure that tells us who we are and contains yesterday, today and tomorrow. While the part of who we are is the main skeleton of our sense of identity, we will not go into it here.
So how does memory work? If we listen to Plato; He likens memory to wax. It is a structure where experiences leave traces and these traces are erased over time. Today's modern human thinks memory is a video camera. However, at the point we have reached today, studies on human memory have revealed an incredibly fragmented and complex structure. As there are multiple types of memory, they all have different codings and duration of stay in the brain. Even the information processed in the memory is collected in pieces and in very different parts of the brain and called when needed. Although this call does not always find the right or full response, the system is like this. For example, the vowels of a word are stored in different places, its consonants are stored in different places, its pronunciation, intonation, the order of the letters and their semantic meanings are stored in different places. Depending on the intention or time you use this word, memory recalls all this information and puts it together in a meaningful way. Of course, waiting for words, speech or different actions, callbacks that are directly related to our existence, for new or unrelated learning can lead us to wait a lot. Perhaps the end of this waiting is frustration.
Memory operates a series of processes and steps in order for the recall to be permanent. A Communication specialist who knows these processes for permanence in communication and advertisements and can develop designs and ideas in practice will be the right address for you. Believe it or not, getting a place in memory for your purposes is much more difficult than you might think.
For example: An expert who knows the difference between semantic memory and operational memory and can establish the depth of coding can do more permanent work than anyone else. How? In semantic memory there are generalized and recorded concepts such as a car. On the other hand, in operational memory there is a certain travel experience you have made with this car. If you know the recording processes and separations of memory, adding a creative experience will greatly ensure the recall rate of your product or service. But while doing this, you need to be familiar with the other systems as well.
One of the best examples of this situation is MICHELIN Guide and the 3-star restaurant application. With this experience, which has become a phenomenon today, consumers are permanently affirming the identity elements that make up the brand by reinforcing the wonderful experience and the feeling of trust they will have thanks to that tire, and not the car tire itself. In fact, a whole economy was established on it, called the Experience Economy. Countries that are far from these areas of expertise try to imitate such economic flows, but have difficulty understanding where and how these flows originate. In fact, although it is a very positive and profitable situation for the creators of these movements, it creates structures that we have to struggle with, in terms of sustainability and development for evolving economies like us.
This article, in which we could not even explain 3% of the memory topic, reminded us once again that Communication, Brand and Marketing issues can do more harm than good in ignorant, incompetent hands. I hope you pay attention to the size of the communication.
Mustafa SOLMAZ
Communication, Press and Brand Consultant