Making something memorable means to make a positive experience easy to recall or remember at will.

An operator should aim to make his/her business memorable. When a business remains in the mind of the customer, it is likely to lead to both repeat business and positive communication by the customer to friends and relatives. This positive message shared by customers is termed Word-of-Mouth (WOM) advertising—a cost effective promotional strategy or what is commonly called “free advertising” for the business.

This message is not only free, but when it comes from a trusted source, such as a family member, friend, or colleague, it increases the persuasiveness of the message (Derbaix & Vanhamme, 2003). WOM provides a description of the experience for potential customers, which helps reduce perceived risk associated with patronizing a new business (Wilkie,1990). Therefore, WOM advertising can be an effective way of increasing the customer base for experience-oriented firms.

There are a number of techniques to make something easier to recall or remember (Gordon, 2003; Meyers & Jones, 1993; Revelle & Loftus, 1990; White, 2002; Wolfe, 2003; 3 Memory Systems, 2005) and they relate to the qualities presented in the previous page. These techniques include:

• Repetition of information
• Personally relevant experiences
• Making sense of unexpected information
• Physical performance of an action rather than simply observing
• Multi-sensory [e.g., sight, smell, sound] experiences
• Emotionally arousing experiences

These recall-enhancing techniques are embodied in Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) Experience Economy strategies. By using such competitive strategies, a business and its offerings are made memorable.