Latest / Marketing Psychology with Fexingo: Behavioral Triggers, Persuasion, and Consumer Behavior / How the Google Effect Changes What We Remember About Brands
Transcript
- Lucas: So I want to start with a number that kind of stopped me this week. A 2011 study at Columbia found that when people think information is saved on a computer, their recall of that info drops by about 40 percent. Luna: Forty percent — that's like, almost half the memory just evaporates because you know it's stored somewhere. Lucas: Exactly. The researchers called it the Google effect — or sometimes digital amnesia. The idea is that your brain basically outsources recall to the internet. And this was 2011. That was before the average person had a smartphone in their pocket for more than a couple of years. Luna: So what does that mean for marketing? Because a lot of traditional brand advertising is built on the assumption that people will remember your slogan, your jingle, your logo. Lucas: Right. And that assumption might be crumbling. If consumers' brains are literally encoding less brand information because they know they can just search for it later, then the whole model of 'brand awareness' — getting a message to stick in memory — might need a rethink. Luna: I want to dig into the study a bit. How did they actually measure this? Lucas: So it was a series of experiments. In one, participants read a set of trivia statements — things like 'an ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.' Half the group was told the statements would be saved on a computer file they could access later. The other half was told the statements would be erased. Luna: And the 'saved' group remembered significantly fewer statements. Lucas: Yes. But here's the twist — they still remembered where the file was stored. Which folder, which computer. So the brain didn't just dump the info; it prioritized the retrieval path over the content itself. Luna: That's wild. So our brains are basically becoming librarians instead of encyclopedias. We remember the shelf, not the book. Lucas: Exactly. And that has huge implications for brand strategy. Think about the classic marketing funnel. At the top, you're supposed to build awareness — get people to remember your brand when they're in a buying mood. But if people are increasingly relying on search to trigger recall, then top of funnel might actually shift to being 'top of search results.' Luna: So you're saying the new 'brand awareness' is just being the first thing that comes up on Google or Amazon when someone types a need. Lucas: That's increasingly the case. And we see this in how some brands have adapted. Take Lululemon — they don't run a lot of traditional TV ads. Instead, they invest heavily in being the answer when you search 'best yoga pants for hot yoga' or 'durable workout gear.' They're embedding themselves in the retrieval path. Luna: Interesting. REI does something similar — they have all those expert advice articles about 'how to choose a tent' or 'what to pack for a backpacking trip.' They're not just selling gear; they're becoming the default answer. Lucas: Exactly. And that content strategy is a direct response to the Google effect. If people aren't going to remember your brand slogan, at least they'll remember that REI is the place they go to learn about camping. Luna: But does this mean jingles and mascots are dead? I mean, I can still sing the Kit Kat jingle from the 90s. Lucas: I don't think they're dead, but their ROI is probably lower than it used to be. Because the mental effort required to retrieve a jingle from memory is higher than just pulling out your phone and searching 'chocolate wafer bar.' And when given the choice, the brain takes the path of least cognitive resistance. Luna: That aligns with the theory of cognitive load — when you make it easy to look something up, the brain stops doing the heavy lifting of memorization. Lucas: Right. And that creates a paradox for marketers. The more effective your search and content strategy, the less people need to remember your brand. Which sounds scary, but actually it's fine — as long as you own the search results. Luna: But what about brand loyalty? If someone doesn't remember your brand but just searches 'running shoes' and clicks the first result, that's not loyalty — that's convenience. Lucas: That's the key question. And I think the answer is that loyalty is shifting from emotional recall to habitual search behavior. If every time you need outdoor gear, your muscle memory opens a browser and types 'r e i,' that's a form of loyalty — it's just not based on a jingle. It's based on having become the default path. Luna: So it's almost like the brand becomes a bookmarked habit rather than a remembered feeling. Lucas: Exactly. And one of the most interesting places we see this play out is with voice search. When you ask Siri or Alexa a question, there's no visual list of results. There's just one answer. So if you're not that answer, you effectively don't exist in that moment. Luna: That raises the stakes enormously for SEO and structured data. But also for how brands think about their name. If someone says 'Hey Siri, find me a plumber,' and your business is called 'Aardvark Plumbing' just to be first alphabetically — that's a strategy. Lucas: And people do that. There's a whole subgenre of naming where you pick a name starting with 'A' or a number to game early alphabetization. But with voice search, the more important thing is being the entity that the knowledge graph associates with the query. Luna: So it's not just about keywords anymore. It's about being the canonical answer. Lucas: Right. And that brings us back to the Google effect. The less people remember, the more they rely on external storage — which means the brand that controls the storage, or the retrieval path, holds the power. Luna: And this is where the marketing industry might be behind. A lot of agencies still measure brand recall in surveys — 'do you remember seeing our ad?' But if recall is dropping because of the Google effect, maybe the metric should be 'are you the default answer when someone searches?' Lucas: That's a much harder metric to track, but it's more honest about how consumers actually behave. I was reading a piece from a marketing analyst who argued that share of search is becoming a better proxy for brand health than aided awareness. And I think there's something to that. Luna: You know, speaking of metrics and what actually matters, this whole conversation reminds me of why we keep these episodes ad-free. It's easier to talk honestly about what works and what doesn't when we're not trying to sell you something in the middle of it. Lucas: Yeah, that's exactly it. And it's only possible because of listeners who've chosen to support the show. A couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference — it's what keeps the research time and the ad-free model going. If you've gotten something out of these discussions, you can find that at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: And we really mean it — just a small recurring thing, if it's in your budget, it adds up. It's what lets us dive into a single study for 40 minutes if we need to. Lucas: Right. So back to the Google effect — because I want to get to a practical takeaway. One thing marketers can do is audit their 'zero-click' presence. When someone searches for a term related to your product, does your brand appear in the featured snippet or the knowledge panel? That's the new billboard. Luna: And it's not just Google. On Amazon, if you search 'wireless earbuds' and your brand isn't in the top three sponsored or organic results, you're essentially invisible. Because people don't scroll — they just click the first thing that looks right. Lucas: Exactly. And this is where the Google effect meets the default effect from episode 14. People not only forget what they don't need to remember, they also tend to stick with the default option. So if you're the default in search results, you get a double boost. Luna: So the playbook is: stop trying to be memorable, start trying to be findable. Invest in content that answers the exact questions your customers ask, and make sure your technical SEO is solid enough that you win the snippet. Lucas: And don't neglect the voice side. More and more searches are happening without a screen. So test your brand with a voice assistant. Say 'Hey Siri, where can I buy running shoes?' If you don't come up, you have a gap. Luna: That's a concrete test anyone can run today. And I think it's a good reminder that consumer behavior isn't static. The way people remember — or don't remember — is changing, and marketing strategy has to change with it. Lucas: Yeah. And the Google effect isn't going away. If anything, as AI assistants become more proactive, we'll outsource even more to machines. The brands that thrive will be the ones that understand memory is now a shared system, not a private one.