Our job as marketers is to influence buyer behaviour.
Inspired by the work of the Ehrenberg Bass Institute and Phil Barden, and shaped by our own experience and the insights from our ever growing Mental Availability Database, we’ll explore how these concepts help brands connect with buyers and drive choice.
Mental Availability – Making Your Brand Easy to Think Of
One of the first questions to ask is: How likely is my brand to be thought of in buying situations?
As Jenni Romaniuk explains in Better Brand Health (2023),
“In most buying situations people want to move quickly and easily from generating a category to satisfying this need.”
What Are Category Entry Points (CEPs)?
CEPs are the mental cues or triggers that help buyers recall your brand when making decisions. These triggers can be personal, such as feeling tired and wanting a pick-me-up, or situational, such as stopping at a petrol station for a quick snack. They link the buying situation to the brands buyers have stored in their memory.
While having a strong association with a single CEP is valuable, research shows that multiple CEPs are far more effective in driving brand recall. Buyers may encounter many different situations that prompt them to choose within a category, so ensuring your brand is linked to a wide range of Category Entry Points increases its chance of being recalled in a variety of contexts. For example, in the coffee category, a brand that is associated with “on-the-go convenience,” “luxurious indulgence,” and “the perfect start to the day” will have greater mental availability than a brand linked only to a single scenario.
Must Do Attributes and Tie Breaker Attributes
In addition to being associated with multiple CEPs, it’s important for brands to focus on the attributes buyers expect from the category. These are often divided into two types: Must-Do attributes and Tie-Breaker attributes.
- Must-Do Attributes: These are the fundamental features or benefits that every brand in the category is expected to deliver. Sometimes referred to as the “job to be done,” these attributes address the core need that brings buyers into the category. For example, in the laundry detergent category, a Must-Do attribute might be “removing stains effectively.” Failing to meet these basic expectations can eliminate your brand from consideration entirely.
- Tie-Breaker Attributes: While Must-Do attributes get your brand into the consideration set, Tie-Breaker attributes differentiate it from competitors. These are the unique features or benefits that provide buyers with a reason to choose your brand over another. For instance, a detergent brand might highlight its “eco-friendly ingredients” or “gentle formula for sensitive skin”, as Tie-Breaker attributes to appeal to specific buyer segments.

Focusing on both Must-Do and Tie-Breaker attributes ensures that your brand meets buyers’ expectations while also offering a compelling reason to choose it over others. These attributes can also align with CEPs, creating a stronger overall mental association.
Brands can use tools like Mental Availability Assessments to assess how well they are performing across different CEPs and identify opportunities to build new associations.
For example, a brand in the beer category might discover that while it is strongly associated with casual gatherings, it lacks relevance in formal or celebratory contexts. By aligning messaging and creative executions with these opportunities, brands can expand their CEP coverage and grow their Mental Market Share.
The Power of Perception
If Mental Availability ensures your brand comes to mind, Perception determines what people think of when they recall it. As Phil Barden explains, “Perception is the entry point for influencing purchase decisions.” It’s not enough for your brand to be remembered; it must also be evaluated positively in the moments when buyers are making choices.
At the heart of perception lies framing, the way a brand presents itself and aligns with buyers’ goals and expectations. Barden describes decision-making as a balance between two systems in the brain: the “Autopilot,” which is fast, automatic, and subconscious, and the “Pilot,” which is slower, deliberate, and controlled. While the pilot can make logical evaluations, the autopilot often frames the decision first, creating an emotional or intuitive impression of the brand.
For example, an SUV might be framed as a practical family vehicle (explicit value) while also representing adventure and status (implicit value). Brands are the “background” of the decision, as Barden notes—if the framing resonates with the buyer’s goals, it can significantly shape their perception.

How ‘Net Value’ Influences Buyer Behaviour
Perception directly impacts Net Value, the balance of reward and pain associated with a brand. Buyers weigh the rewards they expect to gain against the pains they associate with the purchase.
This is captured in the equation:
Net Value = Reward – Pain
- Reward includes explicit benefits (like functionality or price) and implicit benefits (like emotional resonance or status).
- Pain covers explicit costs (e.g., financial) and implicit barriers (e.g., effort or inconvenience).
For instance, a chocolate brand emphasising indulgence (reward) can frame its higher price (pain) as justified by the luxurious experience it provides. By framing the product in a way that increases its Net Value, the brand can elevate its appeal and likelihood of being chosen.
Motivational Drivers and Personal Context
Motivations are central to understanding perception, as they drive buyer behaviour and influence decision-making. These motivations are often embedded within a buyer’s personal context, which encompasses their goals, emotional states, and expectations. For example, in the snack category, motivations might include a desire for convenience, indulgence, or a health-conscious choice. Recognising these motivations as CEPs is crucial, as they represent key mental triggers that connect buyers to brands.
To ensure these motivations are effectively captured, it’s important to integrate them into the broader CEPs list for the category. This requires a deliberate approach to identifying and understanding the personal contexts that influence buyer decisions.
At SmilingCFO, we use a three-step methodology to identify and capture CEPs, ensuring that motivations and needs are fully considered:

- Qualitative Research: Start with the Buying Situation
The first step is to map out the key buying situations in the category. These are the moments when buyers make decisions—such as “choosing a drink after exercise” or “selecting a snack for a road trip.” Understanding these situations provides the foundation for identifying relevant Category Entry Points.
- Quantitative Research Part 1: Brand Agnostic Before Category Buyers are influenced by brand associations, measure the extent to which each CEP is used to access the category.
- Quantitative Research Part 2: Brands included
Measure the level of association between a representative set of brands and the 20 or so CEPs that were identified as most important in the previous round of quantitative research.
By following these steps, it is possible to create a Category Entry Point list that reflects not only the practical needs of buyers but also their deeper motivations and personal needs. Integrating these insights into your brand strategy allows you to frame your brand in a way that aligns with buyers’ goals, making it more relevant and compelling in decision-making moments.
Influencing Buyer Behaviour: Bringing It All Together
Mental Availability and Perception work together to influence buyer behaviour. Mental Availability ensures your brand is top of mind in buying situations, while Perception shapes how positively your brand is evaluated when it’s recalled.
At the heart of this approach is maximising Net Value: the rewards your brand offers versus the pains it avoids. By focusing on framing, CEPs, and motivational drivers, brands can create stronger associations, improve perceptions, and ultimately drive more purchases.

Conclusion
Buyer behaviour is shaped by two critical concepts: Mental Availability and Perception. These concepts work together to ensure that your brand is not only easy to recall but also positively evaluated when it comes to mind.
Mental Availability is underpinned by Category Entry Points (CEPs), the mental triggers that connect buying situations to your brand. By linking your brand to multiple CEPs—spanning both personal and situational contexts—you increase the likelihood that it will come to mind in a variety of purchase scenarios. Strengthening these associations, while ensuring your brand delivers on Must-Do attributes and stands out with compelling Tie Breaker attributes, is the foundation for building Mental Availability.
https://smilingcfo.co.uk/strong-brands-have-healthy-mental-availability/
Perception, meanwhile, determines how your brand is evaluated when it is recalled. Effective framing aligns your brand with the goals and motivations of buyers, shaping the way they perceive its value.
Together, Mental Availability and Perception provide a practical framework for understanding and influencing buyer behaviour.
We are conscious that this article has not touched on Physical Availability and its important relationship with Mental Availability. This was deliberate, but you can find articles dedicated to highlighting the critical role Physical Availability plays in brand growth elsewhere on our Blog page.
Recommended reading
https://marketingscience.info/better-brand-health
https://decoded-book.com/