The Importance of Being Unforgettable
To stand out from your competitors, make yourself and your organization memorable by practicing seven positive traits that will leave optimal impact.
It’s past 5:00 p.m., and you’re making a quick trip to the grocery store. You have about fifteen minutes to grab some essentials and then rush home. What’s on your mind as you dart from aisle to aisle?
Chances are it’s your favorite, most reliable brands. When you’re in a time crunch and can’t scan every product on the shelves, let alone flip them over to read the stories and stats about each one, you typically naturally revert back to your standbys for coffee, breakfast food, pasta, or bread.
This is how most consumers work, even when you factor in the luxury of time. The truth is that, despite the options, most people will buy a product that they recognize, have paid for in the past, and, most importantly, can remember.
This trend appears across most industries. Whether it’s grabbing a soda from the cooler, contacting a real estate agent, or getting a quote for an insurance policy, people will almost always buy from the first business they can think of.
The power of memory
To survive in a competitive industry, you have to be the first business consumers bring to mind. But it takes repetitive, intentional marketing messaging to have that kind of impact. As New York University researcher Nikolay V. Kukushkin states, “Repetition is a well-documented trigger for memory formation—the more times something is repeated, the better it is remembered.”
Giant conglomerates don’t have to fight to be memorable because they’re already ingrained in the public consciousness. They’re so ubiquitous across TV ads, highways, and even the American lifestyle that they’ll pretty much be memorable forever. If you’re running a smaller organization, though, you have an uphill battle. Even if you’re already successful, you have to do what these companies don’t: fight to stay memorable.
How to become unforgettable
So how can you hack the public’s memories so you’re right at the forefront when they start shopping? The secret lies in marketing yourself to build powerful memories that your target audience won’t soon forget. These seven traits can make you and your organization unforgettable.
Optimism
Being optimistic isn’t just healthy for you; it can also be a boon to your business and make you more memorable to others. As the quip attributed to Winston Churchill goes, “The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Optimism isn’t a delusion of positivity. Rather, it’s the will to take action, make a negative situation more positive, and give consumers 100 percent confidence that you will address their needs. Cultivate optimism to leave a positive impression on others—and make them feel more assured when they patronize your business. If you’re in a service-based industry, people will enjoy talking to you if you’re optimistic, making them more likely to reach out to you when they need help.
Reliability
As the adage goes, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” When you can reliably meet your clients’ demands, exceed their expectations, and provide a positive outcome, people will walk away satisfied and remember your business in the future.
If you’re traveling to a new city, what makes you choose one hotel over another, even when their prices are similar? You might remember which brands not only offered you a clean room but also went above and beyond to make you feel special. The more a business repeats these positive experiences, the more likely it is that you’ll become their faithful customer and intentionally seek them out every time you travel.
The impression of reliability is the true power of consumer reviews. People turn to Google reviews, social media, and other rating platforms to assess how reliable you are and if your products or services are worth the money. If you can earn overwhelmingly positive reviews, potential customers will flag you and remember to give your business a try.
Tenacity
As many industries continue to feel the effects of economic struggles, being tenacious is more important than ever. The ability to stand strong and recover in the face of adversity is crucial to your success, particularly in a field like sales. If you want successful follow-up calls, you have to take the word “no” on the chin and seamlessly transition it to a commitment to follow up in the future. You may need more than seven points of contact for a lead to become a sale, so don’t give up early.
This trait is also the key to landing referrals. Your impressive tenacity will make you memorable and can increase your chances of leads following through with your request.
Self-confidence
Confident people aren’t just memorable because they stand out—it’s also because confidence reflects competence. If you exude confidence to consumers, they will feel assured that you will achieve your goals for them, as if you can manifest success by word alone.
People respond well to businesses with confident slogans that offer a quality promise. Use phrasing like “We’re the best out there,” “The #1 name,” or “Satisfaction guaranteed.” Expressing confidence in your products or services will leave a memorable impression on the public.
Understand that self-confidence isn’t necessarily an innate personality trait. It’s a muscle that you can develop through practice, mindfulness, and a willingness to learn from your mistakes.
Respectfulness
Don’t just treat others the way you want to be treated. Treat them the way they want to be treated. Fail to do so, and you’ll reap the consequences.
Disrespecting others can lead to “forced forgetting,” which is when consumers put a service or product out of their minds because they never want to replicate a negative experience. When networking, interacting with a client, or even just participating in a social affair—because remember, your entire social sphere is a professional network you can mine—practice respect.
As a case of the alternative, look to large cable companies, who are losing consumers at record speed due to blatant consumer disrespect. Cable prices rose at a rate three times higher than inflation between 1995 and 2005. Add to that hidden fees, misleading introductory offers, famously slow customer service, and a host of competing streaming platforms, and it’s easy to see why this industry is suffering.
Don’t just practice respect with your communication; make sure your company’s strategies respect the consumer rather than cheating or manipulating them. The positive feeling clients get as a result will garner repeat business.
Interpersonal connectedness
Be there for others. Care for others. These recommendations seem like hollow words—and they are, until you put them into action. Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” If you have giant corporate competitors, you have one distinct advantage on your side, and it’s something that will make you memorable: the ability to connect with your community on a more personal level.
It’s hard to see business as emotional, but there’s an emotion at the root of every product or service. So if you want to be more memorable, connect to your audience’s emotions. For example, financial advisors shouldn’t just communicate with clients about money; instead, they should approach each client as an individual eager to foster a happier future for their families and build a portfolio they’ll be proud of.
Resilience
The ability to overcome challenges for your clients or adapt to a changing industry will leave a positive, lasting impression on others. Where have you struggled? Have you had to make tough cuts or changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Don’t use these challenges as excuses. Instead, take them as opportunities to prove your resilience. Consider advertising discounts rather than price hikes. Open loyalty programs to foster repeat patronage and encourage your clients that you aren’t going anywhere. If you run a small business, make your clients root for your success and rally for your growth as an impactful member of your community.
TAKE ACTION:
Practice these seven memorable traits as you reach out to clients or market your organization. Develop strategies to leave a lasting impact on your target audience.