ABSTRACT
Sameness, sameness everywhere! people can’t see the forest for the trees. Too many product categories gravitate towards a single style of ‘look-alike’ advertising. Monet, Kandinsky and Picasso are all artists who painted. But their styles were totally different. A style implies some sort of constancy. A simple gesture used as a constant can be very effective, especially if it can be easily mimicked by the audience. Music can function wonderfully well as a retrieval cue. The table below shows some of the songs used by various brands in their advertising. These are all potential memory cues that could enhance the ability of an ad to automatically trigger recognition of the brand identity. The constant (character, gesture, sound or whatever) may become associated with the brand just through paired association. Ideally, however, it is better if people can find something that is, or can be made into, something that is integral to their brand identity.
