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I want to do a small experiment with you. Think about Mars. What comes to mind? A chocolate bar? Or perhaps the red planet? And what if I told you that when NASA's rover missions to Mars were in the news, sales of Mars chocolate bars skyrocketed? Coincidence or psychology?
Or how about this: during the corona pandemic, there were people who thought Corona beer would have a hard time. Because really, who wants to drink a beer that shares its name with a global pandemic? But what happened? The shelves with Corona beer eventually ended up empty 😉.
These examples show that our brains work in fascinating ways when it comes to brands. And they tell us something crucial about brand growth that many marketers overlook.
The Limitation Of Traditional Awareness Metrics
If you do brand tracking, you undoubtedly know the term "top of mind awareness." That classic metric that measures what percentage of consumers mention your brand first within a category. But there is a problem: this metric does not mimic how consumers actually choose.
Just think about Google. If I ask you if you know Google, you (just like 100% of everyone I know) will of course say "yes." But does that automatically mean you buy a Google Pixel phone? Of course not. Because awareness alone is not enough – it is contextual.
Traditional awareness metrics miss this crucial context. They assume that we have a kind of constant shortlist of brands in our heads that is always active.
But that is not how our brains work. And that explains why awareness is such a poor predictor of market share.
Category Entry Points: What They Are And Why They Work
What is the key then? Category Entry Points (CEPs).
This concept, made famous by Byron Sharp in his book "Better Brand Health," diametrically changes how we think about brands and brand awareness.
A CEP is simply a situation where there is a need for a category. Not so much a need for your specific brand, but for the category as a whole. For example: when do you drink soda? With whom? Why? In combination with what?
The (if you ask me) brilliant insight is this: it is not so much about what people think about your brand, but when they think of it. And how often. And where. The more of these "hooks" you have that your brand is hung upon, the larger your market share becomes.
This explains why Mars bars sold better during Mars missions. Or why orange products during Halloween sell better in America. Or why Corona beer actually flew off the shelves during the pandemic. The brand was mentioned more often, was in the news more often, and therefore popped up in our brains more often during relevant choice situations.
The Science Behind Contextual Brand Associations: Empirical Evidence
I get mega excited when I think of the data that proves this. Because this is not a theoretical story – it is empirically substantiated.
Research shows that a beautiful correlation exists between what we call "mental market share" (how many CEPs a brand owns) and actual market share. In fact, when you compare different metrics as predictors of brand growth, the number of CEPs wins by a mile.
Classic metrics such as general awareness, brand attitude, and purchase intent do predict something, but they are many times weaker. If you have to choose one metric to measure your brand health, then CEPs are truly "the one metric to rule them all."
In a recent study we conducted at Unravel for sneaker brands in America, we saw that same graph again: the more CEPs a brand owns, the larger the market share. For Nike, we could see exactly in which situations consumers think of the brand: going to the gym, going to work, relaxing, impressing others.
This always makes me super enthusiastic, because with this you really have the tools in hand to grow your brand. If you grow in mental market share, physical market share follows naturally 🚀.
Measuring And Building Your CEP Network
But how do you measure this? And which CEPs should you even measure for your category?
To measure CEPs properly, you start by identifying a shortlist of relevant category entry points for your category. You can start with common sense, but that is not enough. Much more effective is conducting a small "5W pilot" among 50-60 respondents.
You ask open questions about when, where, with whom, why, and with what they use your category. Such a study often results in 10-15 CEPs that together cover 80% of all usage situations. That is your shortlist.
Next, you test in your brand tracker how your brand scores on these CEPs. Simply by presenting a CEP to category buyers.
From this data, you calculate your mental market share: of all the links that exist between CEPs and brands, how many go to your brand? That is the metric you want to grow.
From Insight To Action: Implementing Your CEP Strategy
The beauty of CEP research is that it is not just looking back, but also gives direct direction to your marketing strategy.
You see per CEP how your brand scores relative to competitors and the category as a whole. Some CEPs you already have firmly in hand – you want to cherish and maintain these in your evergreen content.
But your next campaign? That should focus on one CEP that you do not have yet. That is your growth opportunity. Do not just follow the data blindly – it must be a CEP that is credible for your brand. Nike, for example, is never going to win on the CEP "cheap sneaker that can wear out quickly."
In this way, you get a clear overview of your current strengths (where you are strong and want to stay) and your growth opportunities (the CEPs that are the focal points for your campaigns for the coming years).
And that is fantastic, because with this you really use context-specific awareness to create better marketing. No more vague questions like "awareness has dropped 2%, what are we doing wrong?" but concrete handles for growth.
From Theory To Practice: Learn Everything About CEPs In Our Full Webinar
This was just a preview of how neuropsychology can help your brand grow. In our full NeuroBranding webinar, we dive even deeper into the science behind CEPs and show how you can practically apply these insights.
You will learn not only about CEPs, but also about other crucial brain lessons for branding. We make it directly concrete, so you know exactly which activities and metrics contribute most to brand growth.
