Advertising- the seven sins of memory Essay

INTRODUCTIONAs if effective market communion were non hard enough to achieve, tear down if we succeed in getting our depicted object at passed to and processed, and a positive intention formed, the very nature of guessing whitethorn step in and upset everything. retention tense upion and nude old forgetting argon unfortunate facts of life. The important question, however, is cornerst iodine we do anything close it? As with close to things, if we ar to get run of any hope of traffic with reminiscence bothers and their impact upon ad and opposite marketing converses, we must prototypical understand what is passing game on. In this paper we impart be t integrity at what Daniel Schacter (2001) has c eached the s so far under servicemans of recollection transcience, absent- dispositionedness, block off, misattri plainlyion, suggestibility, bias and upkeep. Most of what Schacter is dealing with involves declaratory shop and non procedural retentivity, and as a egress is exceedingly dependent upon activity in the hippocampus. Although early(a) originator structures be involve in mediating declarative memory, the hippocampus is critical, oddly for tasks emphasi pitg the representational as impertinent to temporal properties of declarative memory.The hippocampus is almodal values active in encode new(a) randomness for declarative memory. Nondeclarative turned on(p) memory is besides complicated here, especially in the cases of bias and persistence, which room activity in the corpus amygdaloideum as well. There is compelling evidence that the amygdala is critical to steamy learning and memory (cf. Griffiths 1997). Imperfections in memory tolerate obvious conditional relations for the lucky processing of ad. Even if a positive intention is formed as a forget of exposure to an advert, if a memory malfunction interjects with that intention, the advert result be ineffective. The problems associated with these s even sins of memory, and what advertisers gage do slightly it, argon discussed below. THE breach OF TRANSIENCEForgetting that naturally breathes over time whitethorn be thought of as transcience. While the memory of what integrity did yesterday may be all only perfect, over time those memories fly the coop to become more than a generic description of what unrivalled expects to excrete under those circumstances preferably than what very did happen. announce signification The sin of transience implies that what mess recall from advertisement is much more possible to reflect a generic description of what is expected about a trademark rather than the specific hits that ar part of the message. This has clear importations for interpretation recall measures of advertising messages. But, more importantly, it also suggests that the specific content of marketing communication should be undifferentiated with, or carefully combine with, prior(prenominal) understandings o f the mark off. A recent advert for Reynolds Wrap illustrates this end be do with a headline Sticky Foods Wont Stic spelled out in cheese on a pan of lasagne, with a portion impose out of the corner cutting off the last letter of fetch, revealing the aluminium foil, clean, beneath. Transcience increases with age. While older adults those over 50 old age of age have the same ability to remember in the short circuit term as vernaler mint, over time, memory of specific function deteriorates more rapidly. As a result, older adults tend to rely upon a worldwide comprehend of knowing rather than specific recall.The problem of memory transience rout out be mediated by more elaborative encryption, fundamentally by stimulating the lower left frontal cerebral cortex. unmatchable world-wide way of trying to win more elaborate encoding is by using optic imagery mnemonics to facilitate memory. In fact, this idea goes suffer to the early Greeks. Unfortunately for marketing com munication, non only does using visual mnemonics overtop a great deal of concentration and effort (and thither is no easy way to encourage such effort), but for most(prenominal) plurality there is authorizedly very require evidence of general memory improvement using such techniques.Advertising subtraction However, ane way to encourage more elaborative encoding to help reduce transcience is to advert information the target audience is interested in memory board with almostthing they already know. In advertising, this could be encouraged with questions in the copy to stimulate polish for voice, in a recent advert for the Dodge Caravan with the headline What Idiot Coined the Phrase Stay at Home Mom? THE fault OF ABSENT-MINDEDNESSWhen one hold outs to pay proper attention to something and as a result does non encode it properly, or when the information is actually in memory, but over aired when needed to be retrieved, one ascertains the sin of absent-mindedness. Ab sent-mindedness manifests itself both in failing toremember past(a) experiences as well as in failing to remember to do something in the future. Both, of course, can prove difficult for marketing communication. Also, the fact that absentmindedness is more be same(p) for routine experiences that do not in and of themselves require elaborative encoding (e.g. exposure to advertising) adds to the problem. Unfortunately, routine behaviour (which sure includes such things as reading magazines and watching television) is associated with low levels of prefrontal cortex activity in the left inferior area, which makes it difficult to form graphical memories. Such automatic or superficial levels of encoding can also lead to something known as change blindness (Simons & Levin 1998), where people fail to detect changes over time, beca drill of an inability to recall detail.This has obvious implications for the introduction of new benefits over time in advertising campaigns, or for repositi oning. Memories for past experiences may be classified as either recollections or familiarity. Recalling specific expound from memory (e.g. remembering specific benefit consumes from an advert) is defined as recollection. Familiarity is when one has a sense of scantily now being aware of something without recalling specific details (e.g. remembering fall uponing an advert, but not particular content). This difference is important, because when there is divide attention during exposure, there is a significant effect upon recollection, but little or no effect upon familiarity (cf. studies by Craik et al. 1996). Advertising implication Because one is more probably to pay partial attention rather than full attention to advertising, familiarity with advertising is more likely than recollection of specifics from the advertisement.This underscores the splendour of maintaining a consistent look and smell out over time (Percy et al. 2001), advance familiarity, and utilising imager y that pass on elicit a positive benefit (associated with the soil) even at low or even sub-cognitive levels of attention. Additionally, too much exposure, especially massed exposure, could lead to lower levels of specific recollection (as we understand from as unyieldingsighted ago as Ebbinghaus 1885). Spaced exposures generally result in cleanse memory, a finding demonstrated in Strongs simulations (1974) of respective(a) media schedules based upon Zielskes make water, and more recently in fMRI studies conducted by Wagner et al. (1998). imagineing to do something in the future (e.g. obtaining an advertised bulls eye the next time you are shopping) is described by psychologists as future memory. Einstein and McDaniel (1990, 1997 with Shaw) have offered a useful way of face at this idea of potential memory, distinguishing surrounded by what they call event-based prospective memory, where we involve to remember to do something at a specific event, and time-based prospec tive memory, when one wishes to remember to do something at a specific time in the future. An example of event-based prospective memory would be wanting to buy a new brand the next time you are at the store. An example of time-based prospective memory would be making sure you are blank space at 3p.m. to meet the delivery man. Why people experience prospective memory failure is that they are usually so preoccupied with other things in their lives that when the event occurs, or the time arrives when it is necessary to remember to do something, the crystalise ties in memory are not activated.Advertising implication Prospective memory failure may be minimized in advertising by using distinctive prompts that are unlikely to be associated with other long-term memories (especially for competitive brands). It is important to establish links in memory with the detach household need in such a way that when a buy or usage occasion occurs, it will actuate a memory of the intention to ac t. This is especially true for recognition-driven brand awareness, which means for most package goods products. In the store point-of-purchase material as well as packaging must be both sufficiently enlightening to trigger the stored memory of an intention to buy, and be distinctive enough to inform confusion with other brand memories. Shoppers are almost always in a hurry and preoccupied with other things when they are in a store, and this may get in the way of attending to the appropriate prospective memory cue. This is skillful the sort of thing that goes on when a salesman creates a distraction, hoping you will forget all about your initial good intentions not to be influenced by his pitch, as we know from the literature on tame behaviour (cf. Cialdini 2001). THE nefariousness OF BLOCKINGWe are all familiar with the sin of blocking, that all-too-familiar experience of recognising somebody but not being able to remember their concern. According to Schacter (2001), blocking is not the same thing as absent-mindedness or transience. In the case of blocking, the memory has been encoded and stored, unlike absent-mindedness. In fact, an appropriaterecovery cue could be in place, but the association is just not make. Unlike transience, with blocking, the information is still in memory, but remains just out of reach when required. Because blocking generally occurs when trying to remember label, it potentially can be a problem for brand hears. Blocking seems to formulate in the left temporal pole, where there is a breakdown in the link made between the characteristics associated with something and the name by which it is known.The reason people often have trouble remembering someones name is that a persons name tends to be isolated in memory from any conceptual knowledge about that person and, as a result, difficult to retrieve. Most models of name recovery hold that activating of phonological representations in memory occur only after activation of conc eptual and visual representations. This is wherefore it is easier to recall something about a person than to recall their name. It is also what can lead to remembering something about a product without being able to recall the brand name. Interestingly, names that are most likely to be blocked are familiar ones which have not recently been encountered (Burke et al. 1991. Advertising implication Brand names that are not well integrated or concernd to obvious associations with mob need will be highly susceptible to blocking. If there are no logical and immediate links in memory between a brand name and the category need, there is the risk of perfunctory blocking. Arbitrary or more abstract brand names will be blocked more often than descriptive brand names, even when those names are every bit familiar to people (cf. Brdant & Valentine 1998).Brand names such as Vitalegs (a herbal gel that relieves tired legs) and Soft sponge (a cleanser that enables you to clean without harsh scra tching) illustrate good descriptive brand names that are less likely to be susceptible to blocking. To play down blocking, it is necessary to suppress the retrieval of recently encountered information that is related to a recall cue so that the mind is not cluttered with irrelevancies that could interfere with the desired memory. Advertising implication When a brand possesses identical or similar benefits as the leading brand in its category, it will be that much harder to build an association for those benefits with the brand because of learned interference from advertising for the leading brand. This again suggests the need to have copy (and packaging as well as other marketing communication) unique to a brand in order to avoid multiple connections inmemory that could minimise or override the desired brand-related memory.Certain retrieval inhibitions that lead to blocking can be released if we encounter a sufficiently powerful cue (e.g. nondeclarative emotional memories) that hel ps us re-experience something in the same way in which it was initially experienced. Appropriate triggers in advertising or other marketing communication that elicit the correct emotional memories may help overcome retrieval inhibitions, and release positive memories for a brand. A wonderful advert for Nestls Toll House chocolate chips showing a mother with a pan of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven with a little girl looking on in anticipation perfectly illustrates this point. THE SIN OF MISATTRIBUTIONIf one correctly remembers something learned, but attributes it to the wrong extraction, this is misattribution. Often referred to as unconscioustransference, it causes real problems with eyewitness identification. The problem stems from a strong sense of general familiarity, united with an absence of specific recollection. While the consequences of misattribution in advertising are ostensibly not as serious as they are with eyewitness identification, it can nevertheless cause marketers real problems.Advertising implication Avoiding misattribution requires more than simply retrieving appropriate benefits from memory. The benefit must be linked together in memory in such a way that you make the correct association of the brand with its benefit claim. This linking process is known as memory binding. All of the important brandbenefit associations in advertising must be bound together by the receiver into a unifying solid at the time of encoding. When advertising for different brands is visually or verbally similar, this memory binding is unlikely to occur, leading to memory conjunction error.Memory conjunction errors occur because people misattribute strong familiarity with similar (even if not identical) things from more than one source as coming from a single source brand advertising in our case. Interestingly, a strong visualverbal congruence can help minimise misattribution (cf. Schacter et al. 1999). A recent series of adverts for Good Humor-Brey ers uses the exact format and headline (Less fat, fewer calories, no guilt) for troika brands Popsicle, Breyers and Klondike. This would seem to almost encourage misattribution.THE SIN OF SUGGESTIBILITYSuggestibility in memory occurs because one tends to include information that has been learned from an outside source as something in person experienced. This information may come from any external source, including advertising or other marketing communication. While suggestibility is similar to the sin of misattribution, misattribution does not require suggestions from outside sources. But when the two combine, it is quite possible for us to formulate memories of something which in fact never occurred. Advertising implication Interestingly, while suggestibility may be a sin of memory, in the world of marketing communication this sin may often become a blessing. For example, suggestive questions may produce memory distortions by creating source memory problems.As a result, advertisi ng that utilises questions that remind people of a favourable brand association could occasion a memory for that positive experience, even if it never occurred, e.g. Remember how easy it is to remove those nasty stains when you use our brand? Schacter has suggested that if you embellish a fake memory with vivid mental images it should make it look and feel like a true memory. This is based upon work done by Hyman and Pentland (1996) in successfully creating simulated childhood memories via suggestion, simply by inquire subjects about things that never occurred. One of the important conclusions they drew from their work is that these untrue memories produce vivid visual images. Advertising implication The application to advertising is obvious. If a suggested favourable experience with a brand is reinforced with a strong visual image of such an experience, it should help seed a memory of a positive experience. In an extension of these ideas, we know that one of the best ways to eli cit early childhood memories is to ask someone to visualise themselves as children.While there is no evidence that anyone can remember anything much earlier than about two years of age, because the areas of the instinct needed for episodic memory are not fully fester until that age, with suggestive visualisation techniques one can create imitative memories for events going back almost to birth (cf. Spanos et al. 1999). The key here, as in all suggestibility, is expectancy. If one is instructed to expect something, and it seems plausible, it is possible to create rather strong ill-judged memories. Advertising implication It is very difficult tosuggest a off-key memory for something that runs counter to a recent or strong subsisting memory. If you dont like a brand, advertising is not likely to create a false memory that you do nor should you try. But if a brand is one of a set of brands utilize by the receiver, it is for certain possible to suggest more positive experiences wi th that brand. And if it is a brand they have not used, if the advertising can relate it to a positive experience from childhood, it is quite possible to suggest positive memories for the benefit, and then link it to the brand. THE SIN OF BIASThe sin of bias reflects how current understandings, beliefs and sensations have the ability to distort how one interprets new experiences and the memory of them. Biases that are associated with memory of past experiences will greatly influence how one perceives and understands new information or situations. Schacter negotiation about five major types of bias physical structure, change, hindsight, swellhead and stereotypical biases. Gazzaniga (1998) has set something in the left brain that he calls an interpreter that continuously draws upon peoples experiences and understanding of things in order to provide some stableness to their psychological world. This would seem to be the neurological source of biases, and utilises such things as inf erences, rationalisations and generalisations in relating the past with the present, enabling people to justify their present attitudes with past experiences and feelings. The left brain interpreter, however, is mediated by systems in the right brain that are more attuned to actual representations of what is going on in the world around us. Consistency and change biasConsistency bias reflects a tendency to behave (or believe) today in a fashion consistent with how one remembers similar previous experiences. When this happens, current experiences and feelings are filtered through and made to match memories of those past experiences and feelings. Because memories are not exact, people tend to infer their past beliefs, attitudes and feelings from what they are experiencing today. Advertising implication This suggests that for people who hold current positive attitudes toward a brand, advertising could imply they are of long standing. For brand switchers who include a particular brand i n their purchase set, advertisingcould imply a long standing preference for that brand You know you have always liked this brand, why not buy more? Something similar occurs with change bias, where one remembers something being worse than it actually was, making what they feel now an improvement by comparison. Both consistency and change bias can occur because they help reduce cognitive dissonance, even when someone is not really aware of the source of the inconsistency they are trying to manage (Lieberman et al. 2000). Hindsight biasHindsight bias is that familiar feeling that one has always known something would happen after becoming aware of the outcome. One is reconstructing the past to make it consistent with the present. The key here seems to be an activation of general knowledge. The new information is integrated with other general knowledge in semantic memory, and is not distinguished as such in making judgements. There is evidence that this selective recall is a function of the general knowledge that influences perception and comprehension, and a vulnerability to misattribution. Advertising implication Hindsight bias would seem to indicate that when exposed to advertising or other marketing communication one will recall benefit claims that are not actually made, but which would have been expected to be there because of the claims that actually were made. Work by Carli (1999) tends to support this idea. Recent adverts for Infusium 23 set up a aheadafter case, but leave out the onward picture, with the headline You really think I would let them publish the before picture? This clever execution encourages hindsight bias as you imagine the before hair problem. Egocentric biasThe self plays an important design in ones ongoing mental life, and is at the root of egocentric bias. When encoding new information by relating it to the self, memory for that information will be pause than other types of encoding. This is because people are more likely to valu e their own understanding of things, among other reasons because the self-concept plays a key role in regulating mental activity. As Taylor (1989) and her colleagues have pointed out, individuals do not see themselves objectively. Advertising implication The implication is obvious include in-person references in advertising and other marketing communication. Moreover, givenour tendency to see ourselves in a positive light, it follows that memories related to ourselves will be seen in a self-enhancing light. This suggests that copy asking people to remember a situation in a positive light should encourage an egocentric memory bias, e.g. remember when you . In the same way, egocentric bias can result from exaggerating the difficulty of past experiences remember how hard it was to . This idea is well illustrated in a campaign for National Rails Senior Railcard, where a dated-looking picture of a young child is featured, with headlines like Remember what it was like to go somewhere for the first time and Remember how it felt just to let yourself go. THE SIN OF PERSISTENCEResearch has shown that emotionally supercharged experiences are better remembered than less emotional occasions. The sin of persistence involves remembering things you wish you would forget, and it is strongly associated with ones emotional experiences. Advertising implication Emotionally-charged information automatically attracts attention and even in the briefest exposure, the emotional logical implication of it will be retrieved from nondeclarative emotional memory, and evaluated as to how that information will be encoded. Understanding the emotional associations generated by specific advertising is critical. Because people are more likely to remember the central focus of emotionally arousing information rather than peripheral details, it is essential to tie the brand in marketing communication to the appropriate emotion. Otherwise, it will become peripheral to the information conveyed (a p roblem with a lot of highly entertaining advertising). There is evidence that persistence thrives in minus emotional situations such as disappointment, sadness and regret. Ones memory of traumatic experiences is persistent, and while these unwanted memories may occur in any of the senses, visual memories are by far the most common. Research reported by Ochsner (2000) supports this idea.He found that when people notice a positive visual image they tend to just declare it is familiar to them. But when they recognise negative visual images, people relate detailed, specific memories of what they thought and felt when they were originally exposed to the picture. Advertising implication All of this underscores the importance of the visual images in advertising and other forms of marketing communication. Because persistence thrives in a negative emotional climate,if advertising illustrates disappointment or problems dealing with a situation, which is resolved by using the brand, this s hould knock into any persistent memories of product dissatisfaction (always assuming such dissatisfaction). It also suggests that for appropriate product categories (especially those reflecting high-involvement informational decisions such as medical or other insurance, financial planning, and so forth) visual reminders of past problems which could be avoided with a brand should be an effective strategy. Such a strategy should also be equally effective in situations where there is strong psychological risk involved, e.g. reminding young people of a social disaster which would never occur if they used our brand.The root of much of this kind of activity is centred within the amygdala, the source of nondeclarative emotional memory. It is the amygdala that regulates memory storage, and can release hormones that can force us to remember an experience vividly (LeDoux 1996). And as we have already noted, this solvent by the amygdala is much more likely to occur for negative than positiv e experience. Advertising implication For appropriate product categories, it could make sense to create situations in advertising that suggest possible threats to the receivers wellbeing. This threat may then well intrude upon active memory when thinking about the category, with our brand linked to avoiding the trouble. This is well illustrated in a recent advert for Imitrex, an ethical drug for migraine, that uses the headline I cant let a migraine call the shots thats why I use Imitrex. SUMMARYSchacter has provided us with an extremely useful manakin for looking at memory problems his seven sins of memory. Each of these imperfections (in his words) has the potential for busybodied with the successful processing of advertising and other marketing communication. Recent work in neurobiology, utilising the recent technology of fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and PET scans (positron firing tomography), has shown us that our earlier understanding of memories as snapshot s stored away in the mind ready to be recalled is not how the brain works. Memories for objects and experiences are decomposed into a progeny of different parts and those parts are stored in various areas of the brain, wait to be reassembled and remembered. This underscores why memories are rarelyperfect, and why they can be potentially unreliable. As this discussion makes clear, effective communication faces a anatomy of formidable hurdles in memory. However, forewarned with this knowledge, we are in a better position to avoid or at least minimise some of these potential problems.To help advertising communication overcome the seven sins of memory, advertisers should find the message is carefully integrated with how a brand is understood (transcience) encourage elaboration of points the target is interested in remembering (transcience)use ad hominem references, especially to positive memories (bias)imply current positive brand attitudes are of long standing (bias)tie brands to a ppropriate emotions (blocking, persistence)use distinctive cues not likely to be associated with other longterm memories (absent-mindedness) create a unique brandbenefit claim link (misattribution)establish links in memory to appropriate category need (absentmindedness) make sure those links are well integrated with obvious associations to the category need (blocking) ensure a consistent look and feel over time to encourage familiarity (absent-mindedness)use strong visual images to create or reinforce positive memories associated with the brand (suggestibility)utilise reminders of past problems that could be avoided or solved by the brand (persistence). 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