“I don’t always like visitors, but I guess it’s pretty nice to have them now that it’s just me and Dug.” This is the opening line from Carl Frederickson’s viral listing on Airbnb for “his” Up house, allowing fans to experience life in the air surrounded by a perfect recreation of the animated home, and it’s been extremely successful. By building a brand focused on peoples’ love for connection and experiences, Airbnb has delivered a unique offering and it’s being remembered.

It might sound simple, but often the key to success is how well you are remembered. Being the first choice – top of mind for people when they need something – and the one they recall when speaking to friends wins every time. But many brands are falling short of establishing long-lasting connections with their customers. Each new year brings an inevitable influx of new brands for customers to fall for. To stand out, brands just need one New Year resolution: be memorable.

It’s easy to blame a cluttered market – a sea of other brands with the same offering, trying to reach the same audience with the same message - as the primary reason for becoming a forgettable brand. However, in reality, the issue often lies in the gap between a brand’s promise and the experience it delivers - and the bigger this gap, the less likely that memorable and positive associations will be formed.

Brands need to approach their memorability holistically across six key areas:

1. Emotion: Making customers feel something

Emotion isn’t just deep, it’s universal. No matter a customer’s demographic or lived experience, connecting personally with users and uniting audiences around a common feeling is invaluable for brands. But emotions need to be handled with care. Brands must first develop a strong understanding of what drives their target audience and their emotional responses, then ensure they can actually deliver. By truly understanding their customers, brands can create stories that evoke emotions, including joy, nostalgia, or inspiration, all of which build strong emotional bonds.

2. Attention: Make shoppers notice and keep them interested

Attention is the gateway to memorability. The target isn’t just to turn heads to create short-term wins, but to break through the noise and remain relevant long enough to create meaningful associations. The potential to capture people’s attention lies in key moments along the user journey. Brands need to know their customer to understand how they can stand out and engage in ways that resonate most with people.

For example, chocolate brand, Lindt, has made sure its top priority in 2025 is to be noticed with the announcement of its new flagship store, set to open in London. Its very own Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory – at least that’s what I’m imagining – creates a ‘shopping experience like no other’, a megastore completely dedicated to bringing customers closer to the master chocolatier experience that people are sure to be drawn to.

3. Story: Piquing curiosity

Telling a good story is all about transforming the personal into the relatable, the momentary into the memorable, and the everyday into the emotive. Good stories stay in people’s minds, and the best ones live on in our collective consciousness.

Stories are the single most enduring way that we share ideas and communicate our experiences. This year’s Christmas ads are the perfect representation of this. John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose have all embraced an episodic format that draws viewers in and – in Waitrose’s case – keeps them guessing. But beyond this, they also provide moments we can discuss and in turn, become part of our own stories.

4. Involvement: Include me

When someone involves themselves with a brand, they are trying it out as a part of their identity. This can come in many forms, from customers proudly wearing a brand's logo, to a simple recommendation to a friend, to integrating it into their social media identity through unboxing content. To approach this in a way that aids long-term recognition, brands need to identify what their audiences find rewarding, and why they would want to be associated with the brand.

A psychologically rewarding experience has a series of ‘just right’ challenges that keep people absorbed, yet not overwhelmed. But if too much effort is needed, the reward will feel dissatisfying; but if there is no effort required at all, then any reward they receive will be met with distrust. That’s why interactive experiences work so well. People can experiment, make it personal and have fun! Cosmetics brand MAC recently put this into practice in China, where they opened a new store completely built on the insights of a research programme on Gen Z. They designed the store experience to put their wishes at the centre, which included an interactive mirror where they can test out every MAC lipstick shade and an entry and check-out process that connects to WeChat.

5. Repetition: Show up regularly

Our brains are naturally wired to remember experiences that spark pleasure or pain so we know to repeat or avoid them in the future. But these memories aren’t static, they need to be regularly reinforced by tapping into the power of repetition. For brands, this means consistently showing up in their customers’ lives by reinforcing their promise and delivering this through their experiences.

Brands that get repetition right are consistently putting their audiences first to consider the customer journey and know when and where repeating a message or experience builds value. Even powerhouse brands such as Nike and Apple never coast on reputation alone.

6. Consistency: Be familiar every time

Consistency is what audiences crave. Think familiar greetings at your favourite store or friendly in-package notes from brands you love. We are creatures of habit who find reassurance in the predictable just as much as we enjoy discovery and surprises. Even a change in packaging shape, as Tropicana recently discovered, can create a negative view. But consistency doesn’t mean complacency. Audiences don’t expect rigidity and brands must strike a balance between stability and evolution. Take the update of an app or digital experience; often this can be uncomfortable for customers - but if the change is reinforced with familiarity and obvious developments that speak to their needs whilst remaining true to the brand DNA - customers will see it as value-creating progress, and not as losing something they enjoyed.

By following these key areas, brands can ensure their promise and experience will always be remembered. Building memorability isn’t just a matter of ensuring people can recall your brand. The focus also needs to be on creating a positive attachment, which takes a significant amount of work and needs to be developed over time. To achieve this in 2025, brands need a mindset for experience-driven memorability. They need a long-term vision and plan to put their audiences at the centre of consistent, tangible experiences that are true to their brand, that build positive emotional connections so that people can feel they are a valuable part of their lives.