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The following appeared in the 21 May issue of New Scientist:
Advertisers beware: whenever you showcase your brand, you also activate your competitors’ brands in the minds of your target audience.
Sue Sherman from Keele University, UK, showed 96 people a list of familiar banks. When the volunteers were then asked whether a familiar but non-listed bank, NatWest, was on the list, 71 per cent said yes. To make sure that people were not simply guessing which brands were on the list, volunteers also had to decide whether their memory of each item was vivid or whether they thought it was likely that it was there but could not recall any details. Across all brands tested, 31 per cent of people who experienced a false memory described it as vivid.
Associate Creative Director at bloomfield knoble