Pradeep Salgaonkar explains the importance of mindshare in order for a brand to be successful; and ways of increasing mindshare
A discussion among two marketing intellectuals on ‘Mindshare or market share: what is more important’ ends up in mindshare having an upper edge over the market share. The discussion started in an informal chat over a cup of tea when these two friends, working as marketing professionals for two different companies, happened to meet one day. While one of them emphasized the point that first increasing market share is important, the other gentleman, managed to convince the first that indeed it is the mindshare that leads to creating action in the market and thus increase in the market share.
Businesses measure their progress and growth in terms of percentage of market share gained. However, many forget or overlook the fact that what leads to market share growth is ultimately the mindshare. As Linda Wolf, former chairman and CEO of Leo Burnett Worldwide, rightly states “Before you can have a share of market, you must have a share of mind.”
Understanding ‘mindshare’ or ‘share of mind’
Simply put, mindshare is the degree of consumers’ awareness and liking of a business or a brand compared to other competitors in the market. Going further, mindshare is that portion of the customer’s ‘buying mind’ or ‘decision making mind’ or ‘recall mind’ that a brand owns, or that a brand has managed to create over a period of time. In other words, mindshare is the customer’s involvement with a brand, that is, the involvement in terms of their heads, hearts, trust, and loyalty to a brand. It is the consumers’ perception of a particular brand or business compared to their competitors, as measured by the amount of talk or mentions generated by the public or the media.
For example, when someone says to “Google it” they are referring to searching for a certain term or statistic, or location on Google and this means that Google has a very high mindshare. Some of the most extreme examples of very high mindshare are the brands that are so universal that their names become synonymous with products – Band Aid, Colgate, Xerox etc.
Mindshare is important because it drives purchase intentions and thus increase in sales, leading to increased market share for businesses. Higher the mindshare among customers for a brand, higher is the market share. One of the research studies by AC Nielsen on car purchasing behaviour, found that high mindshare and top-of-mind awareness of a particular brand among consumers, drives about 90% of purchasing intent of that brand. Mindshare is thus important to drive market share.
Creating strong mindshare
Creating a strong mindshare is a part of the Positioning Strategy. The objective should be to ensure that when people think of a certain product or service, for a specific solution, in the category of a particular brand, then, that particular brand must come to their mind first. It is aimed at establishing a brand as the ‘first brand to think of’ when consumers need what solutions the brand offers. Everything that businesses do in terms of advertising, marketing efforts and branding exercises, is a means to gain the mindshare of consumers. Making consumers remember the brand through continuous communication, reinforcing the recall and reuse, makes inroads into achieving higher mindshare of consumers.
Here are some ways how mindshare can be increased;
i) Differentiator: Have a distinct differentiator in product, brand name and the value proposition that the brand promises to consumers. And, communicate this differentiator forcefully through marketing communications. Let consumers know clearly what the brand offers and what it is known for through a smart positioning strategy. Position the product to easily permeate in the minds of consumers by letting them know the unique job that the product will do to solve consumers’ problems.
ii) Touch the heart: Increase heart share to get mindshare by getting subtly close to the hearts of consumers. Try and connect emotionally with consumers foster a deeper emotional bonding with consumers. Consciously practice consumer engagement exercises, every moment, and generate deeper engagement with consumers.
iii) Continuous recall and reinforcement: ‘Jo Dikhta hai, vohi bikta hai, aur, Jo bikta hai, vohi tikta hai’ (what is seen, is sold, and what is sold, lasts). For brands to remain in consumers’ minds, one will have to continuously tell the consumers that ‘they are there’. They need to generate recall and reinforce positive feelings through repetitive engaging marketing communication that harps upon value proposition to consumers. Brands need to stay close to consumers’ hearts and get deeper in minds every day ensuring that they reach a status of being likeable, usable and shareable.
iv) Making the brand ‘habitual’: A brand should become a habit. Like ‘Google’ in search engines is a strong habit among people. In present day times, for any information the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Google the query’. It is a strong habit created through convenience, ease, and value added services that fulfil every user’s needs. Delivering higher value constantly, individual customisation, convenience, storytelling on digital platform etc. are some of the actions to be taken to build brand habits.
v) Focus on basics – Ensuring that the core deliverables are in place is of utmost importance for any brand. Maintain quality of product, deliver promised level of service, ensure availability of product always, and guarantee excellent customer service. To be successful, a brand should try and meet at least two of these basic characteristics – a brand should provide a faster, better and cheaper solution. If all these are achievable in a single brand, then that could create a market leader brand easily, with very high mindshare and market share.
vi) Brand purpose: It is imperative that a brand should meet the purpose for which it is being marketed. The brand should provide the promised solution and perform the job for which the consumers are buying it. That’s the lower level purpose which the brand should meet. However, in addition to this, consumers today are also concerned about the higher order purpose that a brand fulfils. This includes the broader purpose of environmental and societal sustainability. Consumers across the world are getting more and more conscious about these issues and expect every business and brand to behave sensibly towards these goals. Consumers value those brands which value the higher order purpose of environmental and societal well-being. Those brands which care for the local people and their needs are getting better mindshare among consumers.
Thus it is prudent for brands to have a higher brand purpose and sustain it for higher mindshare. For any business or brand to gain and hold a higher market share, it must first work towards gaining a higher mindshare through various marketing and customer management tactics and strategies.
If a brand fails to win the hearts and minds of people, then it will never be in a position to gain higher market share. A strong mindshare leads to a higher market share. Thus, to increase profitability and market share, focus on gaining mindshare of consumers
