How brands become mentally available? Understanding the value and limits of memory structures in advertising.

1. UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE
A N D L I M I TS O F M E M O RY
STRUCTURES IN ADVERTISING.
WHEN
FAMILIARITY
BREEDS
SUCCESS?

2. Marketing is in a state of Flux
Brands are no longer static. They are dynamic. Brands are
informed by multiple voices, and they exist in multiple
mediums and through multiple manifestations (i.e. products,
services and experiences). The media that a brand inhabits is
no longer fixed or linear, it is iterative, with no beginning, no
end, and little permanency. Adherence to a formulaic approach
and endless repetition of centralized, fixed rules can make a
brand seem unresponsive, mechanized, inhuman, and out of
step with its audience.
2

3. BUT WITHOUT
REPETITION, HOW
DOES A BRAND
CREATE MEMORY
STRUCTURES?

4. …AND WITHOUT
CONSISTENCY, HOW
DOES A BRAND
MAINTAIN VALUE?

5. To maintain a brand’s value in the future, one must begin
by understanding basics of cognitive neuroscience.
How people create memory structures and perceive
relationships. This reveals greater understanding of how
people put relevant bits of information into the right
context in order to make decisions.
5

6. The Mental
Workspace
6

7. Using stimuli to form
Mental Representations
Simultaneously the mind in order to decode
stimuli / information and form representations
uses 3 modules:
• Some knowledge about it physically (e.g. it’s
shape, it’s name etc.)
• The motor actions associated with it (e.g. do you
eat it, sit on it, smell it etc.)
• The evaluative feelings or emotional responses it
usually evokes (e.g. is it pleasant, uplifting,
irritating? Do I like it? Do I want it?).
7Source: ESOMAR 2006, Cognitive Neuroscience - Marketing & Research by G. Page & J. Raymond |
The Mental Workspace
KNOWLEDGE
WHAT IT IS
PHYSICALLY?
ACTION
W
HATYOU
DO
W
ITH
IT?
EMOTION
HOW
ITMAKES
YOU
FEEL?

8. BRANDS ARE
MENTAL SHORTCUTS
IN TODAY’S
PARADOX OF CHOICE

9. P A R I S
N° 5
(AN EXAMPLE)

10. 10

11. CHANEL NO5
ADVERTISING
EFFORTS IN THE
21ST CENTURY

12. 2004

13. 13

14. 2004
Nicole Kidman
“No 5 is the benchmark of the market,
and this new campaign will be the
strongest to date in terms of making all
women dream about No 5.”
!
Marianne Etchebarne,
Marketing Director of Chanel
14
"I have no real experience [of making an
ad] but what I can make you is a trailer
for a movie that has never actually been
made, that is not about No 5 but in which
No 5 is the touchstone.”
!
Baz Luhrmann,
Director

15. 2009

16. 16

17. 2009
Audrey Tatou
Uses too much conventional "romantic" imagery
along the way. (It screams for an overhead shot of
the train going through a tunnel.)
!
ADWEEK
17
“It’s not about lowering aspiration appeal over
the long term but making slight adjustments in
the short term to be less flamboyant in 2009”
!
Graham Hales,
INTERBRAND

18. Decoding the Stimuli
Stimuli / Input
Brand name, Logo, bottle, No5,
Insignia, Celebrity’s name etc.
Perfume, Impart a pleasant
smell to…
Nostalgia, Escapism, Romance,
Allure, Pleasure
Modular Representation
KNOWLEDGE
ACTION
EMOTION
18
Process
The Mental Workspace

19. = Fragile
Elegant
Romantic
A Clear Mental Representation
19

20. 2012

21. HOW YOU CAN
GAIN A GREATER
SHARE OF
THE FUTURE?

22. HOW YOU
KEEP YOUNG A
BRAND THAT IS
90 YEARS OLD?

23. HOW YOU CAN
INTRODUCE IT
TO A YOUNGER
GENERATION?

24. HOW YOU INVITE
PEOPLE TO RE-
APPRAISE IT?

25. 25

26. 2012
Brad Pitt
“Brad Pitt's Chanel No 5 ad: the smell of disaster”
!
The Guardian
26
“What actually happens? Not much. The Brad
Chanel No 5 television ad is the essence of nonsense.
The eau de drivel. The scent of the utterly absurd.”
!
The Daily Mail
“It has damaged Brad's own reputation
and that of the iconic perfume itself”
!
The Campaign

27. Decoding the Stimuli
Only a Pack-shot & the
Celebrity’s name
No clear motor action
Romance????
Modular Representation
KNOWLEDGE
ACTION
EMOTION
27
Process
The Mental Workspace
Stimuli / Input

28. =
No Clear Mental Representation
28
?

29. PUTTING LIPSTICK
ON A PITT…

31. 2014

33. 2014
Gisele Bundchen
The film is an update on the classic Chanel woman:
"A modern woman who knows what she wants and
is free to make her own decisions." The film features
Gisele as the 21st Century female, who is struggling
to find space for everything in her life, but essentially
chooses love to conquer all.
!
Baz Lurhman,
Director
33
“The ad tells the story of a woman who struggles to
find space for everything – herself, family, career, and
love. The message is clear: the modern woman has it
all. Chanel N5: Epitome of the modern woman”
!
Marie Claire

34. Decoding the Stimuli
Brand name, Logo, bottle, No5,
Insignia, Celebrity’s name etc.
Perfume, Impart a
pleasant smell to…
Contemporariness, Inspiring,
Romance, Allure, Pleasure
Modular Representation
KNOWLEDGE
ACTION
EMOTION
34
Process
The Mental Workspace
Stimuli / Input

35. = Stylish
Dynamic
Confident
A Renewed Mental Representation
35

36. WHEN FAMILIARITY
BREEDS SUCCESS?

37. An Important Difference…
37
con·ven·tion
a way in which something
is usually done, especially
within a particular area
or activity.
con·text
the circumstances that form
the setting for an idea, and in
terms of which it can be fully
understood and assessed./=

38. The repetition of conventions hinders the registration
of evaluative emotions and therefore it reduces the
impact of stimuli. Most conventions are based on a
misunderstanding of the importance of the 3 processing
modules (i.e. knowledge, action, emotion).
!
On the contrary a context allows people to understand,
evaluate and act upon stimuli.
38

39. • Consumers need to know what the brand is, what it does, and how they feel about it. Strength in all 3 areas is important in
building strong brands.
• A recent study of data from over 8500 interviews covering 42 brands showed that the brands with the most, and crucially
the most balanced associations across the 3 areas were stronger on both measures of brand equity, Bonding (i.e. brand
strength) and Voltage (i.e. brands’ like hood of growth)
Context Builders:
No 1 — Balanced Brand Representations
39
Knowledge Action Emotion

40. Context Builders:
No 2 — Clarity of Brand Associations
• The most successful brands do not attempt to be all things to all people - they have distinct strengths and so their
representations are clear and easily assembled by the mental workspace.
• The key characteristic of the most successful brands (i.e. Olympic) score very high in “Clarity - distinctiveness of brand image.
• Chanel No5’s distinctive image was always one of the “Feminine Eternal”.
40

41. Context Builders:
No 3 — Integral Branding
• It is certainly true that ads that try to cram too many messages in seem to be less effective at communicating any of them.
• The Link pre-test database proves that when more than two messages are attempted, playback of all the messages begins
to drop.
• Again clarity of message seems to be an important trait in effective marketing.
41

42. Context Builders:
No 4 — Integrated Branding
• The brand needs to be integrated fully into, and relevant to the creative idea for the advertising to be effective.
• Strong branding occurs when the brand is well integrated into the “involving” elements of an ad. In contrast how early
the brand is shown in an ad or how continuously the brand is shown do not show any relationship with branding.
42

43. 43
Context Builders:
A great idea,
flawlessly executed
will always be the
most important
context builder!
No

44. THANK YOU