We want to create an environment where Marketers are revered across organisations, not only for their creative brilliance but also for their in-depth knowledge of the science of marketing, the categories in which their brands operate, and the likelihood of their brands being thought of in buying situations.
So, in the spirit of every day being a school day, here are the fundamentals for understanding Mental Availability:
If at the end of the article, you have questions or are curious as to your brand’s Mental Availability score, drop us a WhatsApp. Additional information can found via the red links throughout the FAQs.
Q1. Is Mental Availability just another word for Awareness?
No. Mental Availability is concerned with your brand’s propensity to be thought of in Buying Situations now and in the future.
Q2. Is Mental Availability one score?
No. There are, in fact, four key measures: Mental Market Share, Mental Penetration, Network Size and Share of Mind.
Q3. Can you explain the 4 key measures in more detail?
Mental Market Share: Indicates how likely the brand is to be retrieved in a Category Buyers memory now and the future by measuring the number of links made between Category Entry Points and your Brand.
What is Mental Market Share? 90 x second explainer
Mental Penetration: Maps memory to check for brand retrieval, measuring all those who can make at least one link between a Category Entry Point and your Brand.
The Importance of Mental Penetration
Network Size: Indicates whether the brand is building wider fresher networks by counting the average number of links made to your brand. For this measure we only count the responses of those Category Buyers who were able to make at least one link, (i.e. those with Mental Penetration).
Brands grow by building wider, fresher networks
Share of Mind: This is a bit like Mental Market Share in that we are interested in all the links made between CEPs and your brand, but we only count the links made by the Category Buyers with Mental Penetration. This makes it a good early warning sign for competitor incursion.
Q4. Is one Mental Availability measure more important than the others?
If you are a smaller or medium size brand then we recommend you pay particular attention to your Mental Penetration and Network Size scores. If you are a larger brand then Share of Mind becomes a more useful measure than Mental Penetration. The universally applicable measure is Mental Market Share.
Q5. Category Entry Points have been referenced a lot, but what are they?
Professor Jenni Romaniuk describes them as the retrieval cues used in buying situations. Think of them as the “Mental Pathways linking the buying situation and the brand.”
Q6. How do I identify the CEPs for my category?
Through Qual and Quant we can identify these for you and flag the ones that are most important as part of a Mental Availability assessment.
Knowing the Category Entry Points
Q7. So what does good look like?
We are currently building our database for the UK. This table shows an 8 category extract from FMCG, including bread, carbonated soft drinks and laundry detergent.
| Mental Availability Scores | Highest | Leader ave. |
| Mental Market Share | 21% | 14% |
| Mental Penetration | 92% | 81% |
| Share of Mind | 23% | 17% |
| Network Size | 10.2 | 7.0 |
Q8. Once I have my Mental Availability scores, what do I do with the information?
This is where it gets really exciting because you can spot deviations to the norm quickly and develop hypotheses. For example, Mental Market Share (MMS) should be in line with your Sales Market Share (SMS). If MMS is lower than SMS, then you might be too reliant on your Physical Availability. Conversely, if your MMS is higher than your SMS, then you may need to improve your brand’s availability and make it easier to find and purchase.
Q9. What is Mental Advantage?
A mental advantage is when the number of links between a particular brand and a category entry point is higher than statistically expected. A brand increases its chances of growing by building a mental advantage with multiple CEPs.
Q10. How do I know which CEPs present the best opportunity for my brand?
First, it is important to understand which category entry points are used by most category buyers in buying situations.
Second, review which CEPs have the most brands linked to them. This is an indicator of the level of competitiveness.
Third, consider how appropriately the brand’s positioning and product offering aligns to each CEP.
Q11. Any tips on how I stretch my budget to be able to build associations with multiple CEPs?
There are diminishing returns if a brand’s mental advantage is above 10pp (Romaniuk 2023) and in these instances it is prudent to reallocate some of the investment allocated to this messaging toward other target CEPs.
(Re)Allocating Investment to Gain Mental Advantage
Q12. What is CEP Penetration and in what way is it different to Mental Penetration?
CEP Penetration is the % of Category Buyers who ‘use’ a particular CEP in a buying situation. This measure helps you assess which category entry points are the most important.
Mental Penetration measures how many Category Buyers link a brand to at least one CEP. Achieving a critical mass of category buyers who can link your brand to at least one CEP is more beneficial than a few category buyers being able to link your brand to multiple CEPs.
Intrigued to know more? Head to our video where Martin takes you through more of the benefits:
Further Reading:
We also have some quick reads for you to get the juices flowing:
A First Step Towards Stronger Mental Availability
How to Improve Your Brand’s Mental Availability
Knowing When to Widen Your Messaging: Network Size
Jenni Romaniuk’s Book: Better Brand Health or the brilliant and probably most important marketing book: Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow.
Connect with us here on our LinkedIn page or you can connect with Martin or Mark directly.
