Consumers don't think about your brands all the time

Let’s get honest, consumers don’t spend time thinking about brands. We have far too much happening in our lives and we screen things out all the time.

This may sound like common-sense, but the fact is that most contemporary marketing theory focuses on the belief that consumers actually spend time and energy evaluating their brand choices.

Most marketers still believe that we are highly rational beings – that we have relationships with brands, that our attitudes drive our behaviour, etc. We now know that this isn’t true, and this belief has the potential to derail our marketing strategies.

We have been members of the EBI for the last 15 years, which has given us access to their wealth of research on consumer behaviour. The EBI is the world’s largest centre for research into marketing.

Their team of marketing academics are building a culture of evidence-based marketing, giving us powerful insights into how marketing really works, and how brands grow.

Cohen is one of the Institute’s senior researchers, who specialises in route-to-market decision making, emerging markets, retailing, online marketing, and wine and food marketing. He has international experience as both a practitioner and researcher, which helps him to provide transformational, evidence-based strategies for his clients.

"Mental Availability in marketing is the propensity for a brand to be thought of in a buying situation. In other words, is your brand even being considered by consumers?” says Cohen. “But it’s not just about being in the game and having great branding – memory structures need to be built in the consumer’s mind in an on-going way."

Identify key brand elements that will cue your brands in consumers’ minds, both physically and mentally, and this will go a long way in helping buyers think of you, which is the real battle for marketers.

Cohen went on to say that many marketers may think that they have loyal consumers that are heavy category users, but the truth is that even the biggest brands have a mostly light user consumer base – that is they have many different consumers using their brands less often.

"People shop around and buy products that are in the same category as yours – so build relevant associative memory structures to help easy mental retrieval of your brand at the time of purchase," he says.

He adds, “Ultimately, the message, media, creative, and branding quality are what will set your brand apart. Continuous advertising means refreshing memory structures. Prioritise big reach media, avoid excessive frequency, build reach over time, be seen recently, and space out your ads."

Leverage your owned distinctive assets in a creative way. Nando’s does this really well. Its advertising is easily identifiable every single time by its specific fonts and look. Game’s pink colour is undeniably its own, and instantly recognisable.

I will finish off with a quote from Cohen. "Branding has to be the most crucial step in advertising. If it’s not branded, it’s just entertainment – the goal is to be remembered and to be bought," he says.

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