What is Top Of Mind in Marketing?

Top -of-mind is one of the key metrics for understanding consumers’ relationship with a brand, their behavior, and how to design marketing strategies based on it.

Properly presented, top-of-mind marketing allows brands to differentiate themselves from their competitors and have a significant influence on consumer purchasing preferences.

Achieving “top of mind” status is often a goal for brands. We’ll tell you why, how to measure top of mind, and how to leverage it through your digital presence .

Table of Contents

What does the expression “Top of Mind” mean?

The literal translation of “top of mind” into Spanish would be “parte superior de la mente” (top of the mind) . However, in the context of marketing, this expression is better translated as “the first thing that comes to mind.”

This best fits the definition of this concept in marketing: a brand that has top-of-mind quality is one that is the first brand that comes to mind for a consumer when thinking about a specific product category or industry.

Thus, top-of-mind is at work when a consumer, when thinking of sneakers, thinks directly of Nike; or when thinking of electronic devices, thinks of Apple.

This is an important quality, as it can powerfully influence the purchasing decision. Ultimately, by being in the consumer’s mind when they think of a specific type of product, a direct connection has been created between the brand and the consumer’s need.

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Types of brand awareness

To speak of top of mind is to directly refer to the four types of brand awareness. It’s a scale used in marketing that attempts to measure the level of brand recognition among consumers.

To do so, it uses specific tools to evaluate its presence in the minds of the target audience, in addition to the brand’s ability to be quickly associated with a specific product category or need.

In this sense, brand awareness is divided into the following levels:

Recognition: The basic level indicates that the consumer has heard of the brand and recognizes it.
Recall: The consumer remembers the brand when he or she sees it but could not name it himself or herself.
Top of mind: the consumer thinks of this brand first when thinking about the type of product or service it offers
Preference: A step further in brand awareness, as the consumer demonstrates a preference for one brand over other similar ones.

Advantages of top of mind

Competitive advantage over other companies
Better conversion rates, as top-of-mind brands are familiar to consumers and can shorten their decision-making time.
Facilities for consumer loyalty and fidelity.
It represents a source of organic growth, receiving spontaneous mentions on social media or positive word-of-mouth referrals.
It is a good foundation for building a solid market positioning as a leader within an industry.

How to become a Top of Mind company?

1. Lay the groundwork through market research

It’s important to first understand consumer expectations and needs. Only with this foundation can you create a marketing campaign that captures their attention.

2. Put brand identity at the center of your marketing strategies

The brand identity strategy must be highly coherent and a priority within marketing actions.

From this starting point, there are many fronts to address, depending on the target audience you want to reach.

Some ideas include working on SEO strategies , generating consistently targeted advertising campaigns, creating media campaigns , or ads that emphasize storytelling . Considering that 25% of consumers today have made purchases based on an influencer ‘s recommendation , these types of collaborations should also be considered.

3. Be consistent and aim for the highest quality customer experience

Although top-of-mind is largely based on advertising content and visual identity, it must go beyond the moment of sale: your products must be up to par, as well as your customer service and efforts to maintain an ongoing relationship with them, based on offering value.

How to measure top of mind

1. Surveys

Perhaps the most classic approach: take a representative group of your target audience and ask, “What is the first brand that comes to mind when you think of [your product category]?”

Useful for an initial assessment of your brand’s position in the market.

2. Interviews

In addition to the previous method, interviews allow us to delve deeper into how consumers perceive a brand, including the values they associate with it, and what aspects should be strengthened.

3. Digital brand awareness metrics

Google searches, social media mentions , and website traffic are some indicators that can also be analyzed to understand a brand’s ranking and whether it has achieved top-of-mind.

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