Do you remember the smell of your first crayons?

Neurobox answer. Positive Memory Traits

When we talk about Neurobranding we look at brands as memories, or rather networks of memories. The customer uses the memories to create associations and that process enforces your brand further.

If you agree to that definition you may also agree on that the brand director’s job is to establish and manage those memory networks to build a brand. He / she needs to trigger customers in creating associations, evaluations, and actions.

The more multifaceted and comprehensive the network of memories is, the greater the impact your brand will have on the customer’s decisions and actions.

Keep in mind that we have several types of memories that interact with each other. Memories of situations, smell, touch, and sound will affect the recalled or recognised image of a brand.

All brands have a uniq set of potential memory enforcers. What sensory or situations makes people recognise you?

Step 1 in Neurobranding is to clarify your brand from a memory perspective.

You memory is full of powerful memories that are not real, they are a result of your imagination. Travel companies are good at using this.

Do not forget the important memories that comes from imagining and forward thinking. Many of your memories have been created in the world of imagination.

How can a brand get its customers to create memories without anything happening?

Travel companies are good at this —when they make us imagine a magical beach together with our loved ones, we can afterwards recall imagined memories of that having actually once occurred. The result is a memory that has not happened in reality, but will still affect our decisions and attitudes in the future.

Ask yourself what in your business may be used as input for dreaming about the future? What is the positive outcome of your category or brand. That outcome should be used a trigger as it will have a powerful effect on the memories and associations connected to your brand.

You will remember the feeling of your first kiss. Probably not that much more.

Have you ever felt that it’s easy to remember having a conflict with a person, but harder to remember why? The Portuguese scientist Antonio Damasio, shows that memories have an emotional somatic marker that is often clearer than the memory itself.

Thats why you need to connect positive experiences to your brand and to the memories building your brand. A memory without a charge will be forgotten. The memory itself will probably also be forgotten. The positive or negative charge will remain in the mind.

If you don’t believe this just think of one of the best books you ever read. The risk is big that you cant tell that much of the story. Which where the main charters, what was the plot, where they, what happened? All those things form the best book you ever read are probably rather fuzzy.

A negative charge may stick on your brand forever and nobody would know why. A positive charge may connect your brand to a customer for ever and your customer would have a hard time saying why.

How do I create a strong brand? Have a Neurobranding perspective and focus on several types of memories. Make sure that they are charged positively.

The insights needed in brand works are rarely found in the traditional brand tracking. Look for new fresh input from both traditional focus groups, questionnaires and from modern technologies like Implicit testing and Eye tracking. I would recommend a combination.

Magnus Ernestam

Founder Straylight AB

Straylight is a Nordic Insight Agency with main office in central Stockholm serving the Nordic countries and the Baltics. Straylight offers innovative insight oriented brand analysis, process oriented advertising research and strategic decision support for brands and communications.