Mindshare on your mind?

It’s all in the mind. How true is that? Let’s check with a ‘What’s the first name that comes to your mind?’. Online Shopping? Amazon? Travel and accommodation? Airbnb? Expedia? Wanna see castles? Scotland? Switzerland? I’m sure you get the point. Mindshare is vital for any business. For entrepreneurs it is more of an advance predisposition system. It aids recall, comprehension to some extent and the formation of a perception that could in-turn set the stage for an impending marketing narrative. Keep reading to discover our cheat sheet for creating mindshare for your brand.

Some recalls go beyond the immediacy of need. If you take the examples from the above – regardless of whether you are buying at that point or not, when you think shopping, Amazon is the first thought; when you day dream of holidays, Airbnb home images are what float through your reveries – that is the power of mindshares that transcend immediacy of need or the lack of it. Successful brands create sustained mindshares, achieve economies of scale in their marketing cycles. So how do you go about claiming mindshare among your audiences? Our cheat sheet for mindshare is built around three core aspects – form, words and experience.

Form

• A smart brand name – FCUK, Forest Essentials, Ford Mustang
• An identifiable color palette – red of Coke, yellow of McDonalds
• A unique lettering style – Coke, FedEx, IBM
• A cohesive brand identity kit which ensures a consistent look and feel across the many touch points for a brand – product or company
• Celebrity associations – Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma for Manyavar, Roger Federer for Rolex

Words

More in the areas of smart content. In this space are advertising, tag lines, slogans and that whole host of content that is created specifically for a medium or which is redistributed across the digital channels. It could even be that basic listicle (BuzzFeed’s Editorial Director, Jack Shepherd who refers to a listicle as: ‘the lowest version of the art form. By lowest I don’t mean bad… something that’s literally just an arbitrary grouping of things… [like] 11 Songs We’re Listening To Right Now…Things where there’s no narrative that’s driving it…’)

Content in my understanding aids in learning. About the brand – in parts or in its entirety. Good content creators can successfully map the progress of the receiver in the communication funnel leading from the ‘don’t know’ stage to the ‘strong recall’ mind set. From no share to mindshare so to say.

In today’s digital world, creators and brand managers plan the content mosaics out in such a way that they are aligned to the audience’s needs, the specifications and proven ways of the respective digital channel. In some cases, content even plays the role of a good mitigation agent. Especially in the context of service brands, the right conversation and narratives can help in heightening the mindshare of the brand.

Mindshare, therefore, is more than just a coating or even a peripheral perception. It could actually be a visceral experience of the brand. More true for a service brand where what is being said and how it is being said are dependent on the brand handler. It can actually build or erode mindshare. Negative recall is negative mindshare, remember that.

Experience

First let us understand what determines the experience about a product, service or a company.

Some basics:

• How well are the needs met?
• How much value does the product or service or company bring to the individual interacting with any of them?
• How good is the delivery of the service?
• How honest are the claims?
• How welcoming are the employees?
• How many of those individuals who interact or buy the product/service are ‘people like me’? A kind of peer resonance?

According to your specific product/service and line of business you could arrive at your unique experience determinants. Once that is done the task is to ensure consistency in the perception across time and individuals who interact with the various aspects of your business. Mind you, this is the difficult part of the mindshare creation process, but it is the actual core around which other elements get a ‘share- lift’.

Mindshare is a big to do for a business. If you’re a start-up. it is an intangible asset and it requires planned efforts to create a sustainable program.  So get cracking and find your way into the minds of your audiences.

Author : Raj Mohan Tella. August 24, 2021