From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans

CHAPTER 11

Stir Emotion

Fifty years after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, the Pew Research Center surveyed Americans who were at least eight years old on that fateful day: Do you remember where you were or what you were doing when you heard the news about JFK?

Even a half-century after the event, a resounding 95 percent of those surveyed knew exactly where they were or what they were doing on that day in November 1963.¹ An even higher percentage remembered those autobiographical details for the date of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a decade after that tragic event.

It wasn’t just negative, distressing historical events for which people had detailed memories. Pew also found strong recall for positive, celebrated events, such ...