The Baader-Meinhof effect in branding.

Saturday, somewhere near Tienen. As per usual, we are riding our bikes, we stop at a crossroads. A car pulls up. An Infiniti. I point it out to my girlfriend. I do it all the time. Renault 5’s, Cute old cars. A 911. I point at the Infinity. Rare sight, right? She shrugs. She doesn’t care for cars.

This morning, I am riding my Stromer to a client. A street I’ve cycled about 20-30 times in the last two months. What’s parked there? Another Infiniti. That, right there, is the Baader-Meinhof effect. You notice something once. A brand. A flavour. A colour. A word. And suddenly, it’s everywhere.

What is the Baader-Meinhof effect?

My brain didn’t change. The world didn’t either. Infinity hasn’t become a best selling car in Belgium overnight. What changed is I am paying attention.

It’s a cognitive bias. Also known as the frequency illusion. Once a thing enters your perceptual field, your brain starts filtering the world in its favour. Not consciously. You’re not looking for Infiniti cars now. But somewhere in the back of your brain, a little spotlight is on. And everything that fits drives right into it.

Why is it called the Baader-Meinhof effect?

The name has nothing to do with cars or frequency or even branding. It comes from a comment someone made in the ‘90s. They had just heard of the German militant group Baader-Meinhof and then suddenly heard the name again the next day. They coined it a “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.” The rest, as they say, is history. Psychologists later clarified it under the term “frequency illusion,” but let’s be honest: Baader-Meinhof sounds better.

How the Baader-Meinhof effect fuels brand salience

So, what does this have to do with branding? It’s one of the core mechanisms behind brand salience. Once a consumer sees your brand on a billboard, in a supermarket aisle, in someone’s Instagram story, their chances of noticing it again go up dramatically.

It’s mere exposure, but on steroids. Not just familiarity, but pattern amplification. Your brand becomes the thing they keep seeing, keep hearing about, keep encountering “by coincidence.”

Turning attention into recognition: the marketer’s dream

Which, of course, is no coincidence at all. It’s good campaign design. It’s what every media planner dreams of. To be the Infiniti of almond milk. The Baader-Meinhof of budget hotels. To become the thing people can’t unsee once it’s seen.

So yes, you might see an Infiniti car today. Or you might hear someone mention the Baader-Meinhof group on a podcast this week. That’s how it works. And if you’re a brand, that’s the dream: to trigger the spotlight.

To ride along in the minds of people who weren’t even looking for you.