As I mentioned earlier, when we remember a brand or we retain information about that brand in memory, we don't usually do it in isolation, we think about how that brand relates to things that we already have in our memory, perhaps from similar prior experiences. So according to so called activation models of memory, an incoming piece of information gets stored in an associative network that contains many bits of related information. We each have organized systems have concepts that relate to brands, manufacturers, and stores that are stored in our memories. So think of these storage units or knowledge structures as complex spider webs, filled with pieces of data. incoming information gets put into nodes that connect to one another And it's no coincidence that we have a term like the World Wide Web, because this is exactly the way knowledge gets organized online. So categorization is extremely important.

In other words, just how do we associate an incoming piece of information about a brand with other things that we already have in memory. When we view separate pieces of information as similar for some reason, we chunk them together under some more abstract category. Then we interpret raw incoming information to be consistent with the structure we have created. And if you remember all the way back to Module One, when we talked about perception, I mentioned the idea of a schema. And a schema actually is exactly what I'm talking about here. That is it's a mental category that we use to organize incoming information.

Categories like minivan and SUV and sedan are widely used both by manufacturers and by consumers. So once you decide that a certain automobile is an SUV, you are naturally going to compare that particular model with other SUVs that you know about, you're not going to compare it with sedans, you're not going to compare it with minivans. Now some of the best marketing opportunities come when enterprising companies make up a new category often by fusing together to existing categories. A great example is the relatively new category in apparel that manufacturers have come to call f leisure. So AF leisure is a combination of two Prior categories athletic wear and leisure wear. By putting them together, suddenly consumers have an entirely new category to play with.

And we can see just how successful that has been for clothing manufacturers. So the takeaway here is that the challenge for a new entrant that wants to position itself as a category member has to provide the cues that will help consumers place it in the appropriate category. Whether that category is athleisure, or high end jewelry, or snack food. This is really if you think about it, a major component of a positioning strategy where a manufacturer has to help consumers figure out just where in the universe of brands its brand belongs, and who its direct competitors are. So it's a very important Strategic consideration