here were you and what were you doing when you first heard about the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center towers?

 

More than nine years later, you still remember that moment vividly.

 

That's a stark example of procedural memory, the deepest of three levels of memory in the brain. Procedural memory holds the key to the treasure chest of branding. Unlock that chest and your business will be swimming in booty.

 

• Harley-Davidson: Rugged individualism, freedom, confidence, toughness.
• Apple: Innovation, imagination, energy, art.
  
• Coca-Cola: Joy, good times with friends and family, refreshment.
  

So how can you consciously implant mental images and deep emotional associations into the minds and hearts of your customers?

 

 

 

Working memory is the most shallow level of memory. Working memory is short-term and electrical. It is imagination, conscious awareness, the thought you are thinking now. It can roughly be compared to computer RAM.

 

Working memory has three components, or functions: 1) visuospatial sketchpad, 2) articulatory loop, and 3) the central executive.

 

Imagine a pink elephant with white stripes running in a field of wheat. That image was projected onto your visuospatial sketchpad, which is responsible for the manipulation and temporary storage of visual and spatial information, thus allowing you to "see" things in your mind.

 

Ever had a song stuck in your head? That's the articulatory loop at work, a phonological memory store which holds acoustic or speech-based material and rehearses sounds in the mind.

 

The central executive is a messenger that determines which sensory information is important enough to be relayed to the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for planning, decision-making, and judgment. In other words, it is the brain's screen for relevance.

 

 

 

The intermediate level of memory, declarative memory, stores memories which can be consciously recalled, such as facts and events. It's what you remember from the day before when you wake in the morning.

 

 

 

 

Procedural memory is the third and deepest level of memory. Long-term, chemical, involuntary, and automatic, procedural memory consists of three categories:

1. Conditioned reflexes (swerving when a car encroaches onto your lane on the highway)
   
2. Skills and habits (playing the piano, tying your shoes)
   
3. Emotional associations
   

Procedural memory is the product of salience, or relevance, multiplied by repetition. Information of extremely high salience can be implanted into procedural memory with a repetition factor of only one (think 9/11/01).

 

 

 

Here's where the rubber hits the road. Roy H. Williams explains:

"Branding is the implantation of an associative memory with a recall cue. It occurs in procedural memory, and causes the public to immediately think of your name at precisely their moment of need.

"Having successfully created an associative memory through your ads, the recall cue of 'need' triggers a chemical, involuntary reaction and your name will pop into their minds unbidden."

Remember that information enters procedural memory through salience and repetition -- increase one and the other is less important.

 

 

Roy Williams calls this the "Impact Quotient."

"The average message needs to be heard about three times a week, every week, to have a shot at being transferred from short-term, electrical memory to long-term, chemical memory. But that's the average message. The higher the impact quotient (saliency), the less repetition is required to store it."

 

Want to turbo-charge your salience? Add a spark of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the bio-chemical adhesive that switches electrical, short-term memory to chemical, long-term memory.

• Surprise
  
• Laughter
• Sexual stimulation (Can you say "Hello ladies"?)
• Anger
  
• Disgust
• Awe