Does brand name imprinting in memory increase brand information retention

This article introduces and explores the concept of brand name imprinting. Brand name imprinting is the process of creating and strengthening the brand name node in the brand memory network through brand name exposure. Brand name imprinting at a time prior to the presentation of specific brand information is posited to improve the retention of that information by strengthening the association between the brand name and brand information. The effect is proposed to be automatic and independent of other known means to strengthen memory associations (e.g., level of attention, cognitive elaboration, stimuli vividness, and stimuli distinctiveness). This research also proposes that brand names with neutral meaning better facilitate the imprinting effect, because they do not carry perceptual baggage that can interfere with the creation of new brand name–information associations. An experiment involving brand name imprinting and the learning of brand information supports these assertions. Implications for communication strategy and brand name selection are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[1]  J. Bargh.  Automatic and conscious processing of social information. , 1984 .

[2]  E. Hirschman,et al.  The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun , 1982 .

[3]  John R. Anderson.  A spreading activation theory of memory. , 1983 .

[4]  Peng Hwa Ang,et al.  The Role of Self-Regulation of Privacy and the Internet , 2001 .

[5]  Kevin Lane Keller,et al.  The Effects of Brand Name Suggestiveness on Advertising Recall , 1998 .

[6]  Kevin Lane Keller.  Memory and Evaluation Effects in Competitive Advertising Environments , 1991 .

[7]  Joan Meyers-Levy.  The Influence of a Brand Name's Association Set Size and Word Frequency on Brand Memory , 1989 .

[8]  H L Roediger,et al.  Implicit memory. Retention without remembering. , 1990, The American psychologist.

[9]  R. E. Burnkrant,et al.  Effects of Repeating Varied Ad Executions on Brand Name Memory , 1991 .

[10]  G. Bower.  Mood and memory. , 1981, The American psychologist.

[11]  Amitava Chattopadhyay,et al.  Effects of Context and Part-Category Cues on Recall of Competing Brands , 1985 .

[12]  W. E. Baker,et al.  Brand Familiarity and Advertising: Effects on the Evoked Set and Brand Preference , 1986 .

[13]  R. Lutz,et al.  An Empirical Test of an Updated Relevance-Accessibility Model of Advertising Effectiveness , 2000 .

[14]  R. Batra,et al.  Encoding and Retrieval of Ad Affect in Memory , 1991 .

[15]  R. J. Kent,et al.  Competitive Interference Effects in Consumer Memory for Advertising: The Role of Brand Familiarity , 1994 .

[16]  Allan D. Shocker,et al.  Managing Brand Equity , 1991 .

[17]  J. W. Hutchinson.  Expertise and the Structure of Free Recall , 1983 .

[18]  Raymond R. Burke,et al.  Competitive Interference and Consumer Memory for Advertising , 1988 .

[19]  Andrew Ehrenberg,et al.  Differentiation or salience , 1997 .

[20]  D. Stewart,et al.  Measuring the Effects and Effectiveness of Interactive Advertising , 2000 .

[21]  W. E. Baker,et al.  When Can Affective Conditioning and Mere Exposure Directly Influence Brand Choice , 1999 .

[22]  R. Fazio.  How do attitudes guide behavior , 1986 .

[23]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. , 1977 .

[24]  R. Zajonc,et al.  Exposure and affect: A field experiment , 1969 .

[25]  S. Miller,et al.  Brand Salience versus Brand Image: Two Theories of Advertising Effectiveness , 1998 .

[26]  Russell I. Haley,et al.  Testing Thirteen Attitude Scales for Agreement and Brand Discrimination , 1979 .

[27]  Marc Vanhuele,et al.  Know the name, forget the exposure: Brand familiarity versus memory of exposure context , 1999 .

[28]  R. Bornstein.  Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987. , 1989 .

[29]  J. Baird,et al.  The Effect of Frequency of Presentation on the Choice of Nonsense Syllables , 1963 .

[30]  Peter Wright.  Message-Evoked Thoughts: Persuasion Research Using Thought Verbalizations , 1980 .

[31]  Chris Janiszewski.  Preattentive Mere Exposure Effects , 1993 .