The brain works in some mysterious ways. But, one thing we do know for sure is that the brain remembers things. We have that magical thing in tact called memory, you know. What the brain chooses to remember is specifically important to the world of experiential marketing – and how brands can accentuate that experience.
Okay, let’s talk about the scientific evidence regarding remembering. Why do we retain certain memories and not others? Well, there are a lot of reasons – because, science. And not every brain is the same. However, there are a few things we can cover that help us understand what remembering things really mean to us. And you know what they all have in common?
Emotion.
Emotion acts like a highlighter when you’re studying for a test. It emphasizes certain aspects of experiences to make them more memorable. Not really on purpose, per say. We naturally respond to emotional things. We live in a high-sensory world and most of the attention we gather as human beings doesn’t really stick with us all the time. We’d go clinically insane if it did. The emotionally charged moments in our lives are the ones we remember – our first-born child, September 11, the first time we fall in love. It’s evolutionary. It only makes sense for our brains to remember these things specifically, with laser-focused clarity, so we may avoid them or reach out for them in the future.