What is mental availability, and how do you build it?
Mental availability is how easily your brand comes to mind when someone is ready to buy. What it means, why it drives growth, and how to build it.
Mental availability is how easily your brand comes to mind when someone is in a buying situation. The more buying situations your brand is linked to, and the more people it comes to mind for, the more mental availability it has. It is one of the main things brand building sets out to create, and a key driver of market share.
IN BRIEF
• Mental availability is the propensity of a brand to be thought of in buying situations.
• It is built by reaching category buyers broadly and consistently, and linking your brand to the moments that trigger buying.
• Distinctive brand assets, such as logos, colours and characters, make your brand easy to recognise and recall.
• It is the partner of physical availability: being easy to find and buy.
What is mental availability?
Mental availability is the propensity of a brand to be noticed or come to mind in a buying situation. It was developed by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and popularised by Byron Sharp in How Brands Grow. The idea is simple: if your brand does not come to mind when a buyer is choosing, it is not in the running, however good your product is. Brands grow mainly by increasing how many people buy them, and that depends heavily on being easy to recall.
Why does mental availability matter?
It matters because of the 95:5 rule. Most category buyers are not in the market on any given day. When they finally are, the brands already sitting in their memory are the ones that get considered. Mental availability is what you are building among that out-of-market majority, so that you are recalled at the moment of choice. More mental availability means more buyers consider you, which means more penetration and more market share.
Marketing builds the memories that get your brand considered before the buyer is even looking.
How do you build mental availability?
You build it over time, in three main ways:
• Reach broadly and consistently. This is what the brand-building share of a 60/40 budget is for: getting in front of as many category buyers as possible.
• Link your brand to category entry points: the cues, situations and needs that trigger buying, as set out by Jenni Romaniuk. Be the brand that comes to mind for those moments.
• Use distinctive brand assets consistently, so you are recognised instantly and each exposure reinforces the same memory.
Mental availability versus physical availability
Mental availability has a partner: physical availability, which is being easy to find and buy. The two are the pillars of brand growth. A brand can lose sales by being hard to think of, or by being hard to purchase once thought of. Strong marketing builds both: it makes you easy to recall, and it makes sure you are easy to buy when recalled.
How do you measure mental availability?
You can track it through measures such as brand awareness in real buying contexts, the share of category entry points your brand is associated with, and mental market share. Share of search is a useful, low-cost proxy. The key is to watch the trend over time, because mental availability is built gradually and erodes if you go quiet.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is mental availability?
Mental availability is how easily a brand comes to mind in a buying situation. The more buying situations a brand is linked to, and the more buyers it comes to mind for, the greater its mental availability. It is a key driver of which brands get considered, and of market share.
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Who developed the idea of mental availability?
Mental availability was developed by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science and popularised by Byron Sharp in How Brands Grow. The related idea of category entry points, the cues that bring brands to mind, was developed by Jenni Romaniuk. Together they explain how brands are recalled and grow.
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What is the difference between mental and physical availability?
Mental availability is being easy to think of in a buying situation. Physical availability is being easy to find and buy. They are the two pillars of brand growth: a brand can lose sales by being hard to recall or hard to purchase, so both need building together.
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How do you build mental availability?
You build mental availability by reaching category buyers broadly and consistently, linking your brand to the situations and needs that trigger buying, and using distinctive brand assets so you are instantly recognised. Because it fades when you go quiet, consistency over time matters as much as any single campaign.
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Getting the balance right between long-term brand building and short-term performance is one of the hardest judgements in marketing, and one of the most consequential. If you would like help making that case in your business, or building a strategy around it, that is what Marketing Means More does. Get in touch for a free thirty-minute conversation.
Written by Mike Biscoe, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and founder of Marketing Means More, a brand and strategic marketing consultancy based in London.
