Curating the Brand Message
In Quantilope’s “Better Brand Health Tracking Series,” it defines Category Entry Points (CEPs) as “cues” that guide a consumer to a certain buying scenario. For example, packing for a summer vacation might be a CEP cue to go out and buy sunscreen or travel-sized items. CEPs, then, help you understand the context in which consumers are likely to be thinking about your product category. Knowing this allows you to position your marketing messaging and other branding efforts to those specific scenarios.
In addition, mental availability analysis lets brands know when consumers are thinking about their specific brand in buying scenarios (aka, when they find themselves in category entry points). So, when a consumer is packing for a summer trip and thinking about buying sunscreen and travel items, they go to the store knowing they want to look for Banana Boat sunscreen or a travel-sized Dove body wash. That indicates strong mental availability for those brands.
Mental availability can be broken down further such as into mental market share, mental penetration, network size and share of mind. According to Quantilope’s “Better Brand Health Tracking Series: Benefits of Mental Availability,” the concept brings a fresh perspective to brand health tracking. “While traditional ways of brand health tracking are solid and justifiable, brands are missing out on a whole new layer of insights that could generate an even greater impact within their organization. That’s because mental availability analysis produces key metrics that traditional brand tracking does not,” notes Quantilope.
Gaining a Mental Availability Advantage
During TMRE 2025, Gianna Saladino, Senior Solutions Consultant at Quantilope, and Scott Jensen, Executive Director, Strategy and Insights at Manscaped, will hold the session, “Beyond the Bush: How Manscaped Uses Mental Availability & Advantage to Sharpen Growth.”
Innovative metrics from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute—including category entry points (buying situations that cause consumers to buy a product), mental availability (how often a brand is considered in buying situations), and mental advantage analysis (which buying situations a brand dominates)—are revolutionizing brand growth measurement and ongoing brand health monitoring. This revolution is driven by a new approach to tracking research called Better Brand Health Tracking (BBHT).
Join the session for a deep dive into Better Brand Health Tracking and how to leverage BBHT. Hear directly from Manscaped on how they’ve integrated BBHT metrics to launch brand new campaigns and gain insights that clarify market position and fuel brand growth.
Taking a Proactive Approach to Mental Availability
So how do you carve out mental real estate? Mental availability sounds rather simple yet can be no easy task for brand and product marketers when it comes to creating brand loyalty and awareness. In Forbes’ “Mental Availability: Making Space For Your Brand In Your Prospects’ Brains,” the article talks about crafting consistent messaging as key. Be present, be familiar, and be creative in your advertising to make your message stick.
Appinio, in its article, “Revolutionizing Brand Health with Mental Availability,” takes it a step further and examines how the mental availability approach can be more predictive, actionable, and reliable than traditional brand trackers. “By transitioning to a mental availability approach to brand health tracking, you move beyond traditional, stiff metrics to a strategy that adapts to the dynamic nature of consumer markets. It offers a proactive framework for not just tracking but also boosting your brand’s health by keeping it relevant, resonant, and reactive to the ever-changing consumer landscape.”
Video: “The Power of Mental Availability in B2B and B2C Marketing with LinkedIn’s Nicole Moreo,” courtesy of the Collage Group.
