Can Memories Be Bought?

"I am not buying your meal. I am buying our memories", said a music producer to his co-workers.

I had an encounter with the emotional power of memories a few months back, when I returned to my secondary school for a homecoming event. Stepping through the school gates, I strangely shed 20 years of what life dealt me, and the 'innocence of youth' returned. I suddenly remembered how I felt that nothing was impossible, and my belief that with grit, one could achieve excellence in any endeavour, the same way that I got into the national youth orchestra after just 2 years of picking up the flute.

As my friends and I walked into the performance theatre, we simultaneously burst into a song we performed in a skit years back; Standing there, I relived the excitement and emotional high that I felt when performing a flute concerto for our finale concert.

That emotional day, my memories triggered conversations, reflections and conclusions about my overall school experience, as well as my likelihood to advocate it.

I definitely accumulated thousands of moments over the 4 years of my school journey; I probably recalled less than 50 that day, 20 years later. 

This can in some way be explained by the peak-end theory by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, where "people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience".

Where is the peak in your customer journey today, and is it a positive or negative one? Considerations when redesigning the customer journey:

1. Where and how your customer experience should peak
2. What you want your customers to feel at the peak
3. The memory you want imprinted in their hearts and minds

Peak-end moments create memories. Memories evoke emotions. Emotions drive reflections, associations, conclusions, and behaviours. 

What memories are your customers buying from you today?