Imagine you are in a bar and the bartender asks you: What would you like to drink?
How do you decide? Do you Google it?
Chances are, you’re not looking for the answer on the phone. Instead, you’ll search your brain, as it sifts through its list of options, stored deep in its memory bank, and then chooses your favorite option.
The human mind is more powerful than any other search engine in the world. The original supercomputer; it comes with an amazing built-in cognitive algorithm that can perform a scan before you’ve even had time to think about looking for your phone.
Now shift that focus to marketing. It’s an underlying truth of our profession that the more you know about your customer, the better equipped you are to capture their attention. Customer service is like gold dust in a digitally distracted world. In the age of technological advancements, it’s easy to lose sight of what really drives marketing: people.
Marketing uses memory to influence potential buyers before they even begin the search process. That’s the power of “mind availability,” a metric championed by Professor Byron Sharp, author of How Brands Grow. This is a crucial insight, as humans are pressed for time and prefer a mentally available brand they are familiar with, even if that familiarity is subconscious.
Attached to the bottom
No one can argue that search isn’t a great lower funnel tactic. From a historical perspective, much of the “must convert now” thinking in performance marketing was a direct result of the global economic recession of 2007-2008. Digital marketing and the wealth of data that could generate made even the smartest marketing extremely short-sighted. focused on bottom-line KPIs. As a result, lower funnel bids increased. After all, ROI is why we invest in Search in the first place.
If you ask marketers today what they want, the answer will be “more organic traffic.”
But what makes customers type a name into this browser? Brand marketing, not performance marketing.
A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that Airbnb’s strategy of investing in brand marketing (think: MRT billboards advertising the new “OMG” property category) and decreasing its reliance on search engine marketing is paying off, it is not surprising.
The lesson? If you want to grow brands, it’s not through grinding conversions at the bottom. The only way to grow business impact is by creating brands in people’s minds.
That’s why there’s no better time for marketers to invest in the world’s oldest and most powerful search engine: the human brain.
Brain engine optimization is the new search engine optimization
Marketers obsess over search keywords. They want their brands to come to the fore when potential customers search online. The intention is right, the engine is not. Marketers must obsess over memory generation.
“The most important search engine is still the one on our minds.” Jon Bradshaw, co-founder of consultancy Brand Traction in a 2022 article.
By making brands memorable at the time of purchase, you find a way to remain consumers’ brains, not just their phones. In other words, effective communication works by gaining mental real estate, not just taking up space.
If your brand isn’t remembered in a buying situation, they’re not likely to buy it, period. Most people buy what they can easily remember, and brain engine optimization increases the odds of being remembered.
Category entry points (CEPs) are the actual keywords
According to research by Professor Jenni Romaniuk of the Linkedin B2B Institute, consumers will tap into memories in purchasing situations. Or what the teacher calls ‘Category Entry Points’ (CEP). Think of them as “mental keywords”, as opposed to the “search keywords” we know.
A good way to identify relevant “category entry points” for brands is to start with five basic questions:
Because: The motivation, the objective, the purpose of consumption.
When: Occasion or time of the activities.
Where: Location.
With which: What else is co-purchased or consumed.
With who: Other people involved.
Let’s take a related example: for example, Domino’s.
Because: Make football nights more memorable with the perfect football and pizza party.
When: Sunday night: ‘Game Day’.
Where: At home, in front of the screen.
With which: In addition to football, pizzas go well with carbonated drinks, beer and fries.
With who: With friends and colleagues.
If you notice, there is a media and messaging opportunity at each of the above times and occasions, we just have to take advantage of them.
Strong brands are built on memories, not clicks
Based on the premise that “memories make sales,” here are three easy things to remember about how you can create memory associations and differentiation.
Take the time to research your customer – focus on creating a natural association to make smart use of CEPs in communication, making it relevant and increasing the likelihood that potential customers will think of you , rather than the competitor.
Think of relevant moments and situations where your brand is considered: you would think of Starbucks, smelling of coffee first thing in the morning. You would think Volvo for a safe car for the family after the birth of a child. Would you consider 100Plus posting a cardio or long run. What would you think before going on a long vacation trip? Embrace the possibilities and don’t limit your approach: Apple recently introduced CarPlay, which allows users to access the app to drive to a gas station and buy fuel directly from a screen in the car, skipping the usual tap of a credit card. credit There is an incredible power of technology, which can turn a vehicle into a convenience store by accelerating sales of not only fuel, but groceries, snacks, food and beverages. Imagine the possibilities!
Albert Einstein once said: “Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Mental availability fits that bill. It may not be the only metric that matters, but it’s too important not to be a key part of your marketing dashboard.
Aditya Kilpady is Regional Strategy Director for UM APAC based in Singapore. The opinions expressed are the personal opinions of the author.
