Being at the “top of mind” for consumers may sound great, but it’s not enough for brand success.
The real key to driving sales is being remembered in the right moment. That’s brand salience. Whether it’s “what to drink with lunch” or “a quick snack before the gym,” the brands that come to mind in context are the ones that win.
This article shows you how to build that kind of mental availability, and why smaller brands, in particular, should ditch vague positioning and focus on one need, one occasion at a time.
Top-of-mind awareness vs. brand salience: What’s the difference?
Marketers often treat top-of-mind awareness and brand salience as interchangeable, but they’re not. And that distinction matters.
Let’s break down what each of these terms means.
What is top-of-mind-awareness?
Top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) tells you which brand comes to mind first when consumers are asked about a category, like “What’s the first brand you think of when it comes to soft drinks?”
It’s a useful signal of brand strength, but only a small piece of the mental availability puzzle.
What is brand salience?
Brand salience refers to how easily and often a brand comes to mind in buying situations. It’s not just being the first brand recalled (top of mind), but being one of the few brands remembered at all when a specific need or occasion arises.
This unaided recall, especially in context, is a more predictive indicator of market success than broad awareness alone.
Consider Coca-Cola’s strong association with refreshment during meals or celebrations. While Coca-Cola might not always be the very first brand someone names in a general survey, it consistently comes to mind in relevant moments, like choosing a drink with lunch. That’s brand salience in action.
In short:
- Top of mind = First brand recalled, in general
- Salience = Any brand recalled, in context
Your brand doesn’t need to be everyone’s first thought, it needs to be one of the few brands that comes to mind when a relevant need arises.
That’s why top marketers are shifting focus from chasing top-of-mind status to building occasion-based salience, especially for smaller brands that need to punch above their weight.
Why brand salience matters in marketing
Achieving brand salience delivers powerful competitive advantages. Most consumers, when faced with a buying situation, don’t weigh dozens of options.
Instead, they rely on a mental shortlist of familiar brands. Being part of that shortlist significantly boosts your chances of being chosen.
Salient brands are more likely to:
- Be recalled in relevant contexts (e.g., “What do I grab with a burger?”)
- Command greater mental availability with less ad spend, by consistently reinforcing key associations
- Build emotional and habitual loyalty through repeated exposure to the same needs and occasions
In contrast, top-of-mind awareness reflects general memory strength but doesn’t guarantee your brand will come to mind when it matters most: at the point of purchase.
4 ways to build brand salience
1. Shifting from positioning to occasion-based thinking
Traditional brand positioning often focuses on defining what makes a brand different, usually by highlighting unique selling propositions (USPs) or benefits. But a USP only matters if it fits the actual occasion the consumer is thinking about. If your “unique” promise doesn’t align with a real, felt need in a specific moment, it becomes irrelevant noise.
Brand salience doesn’t rely on novelty; it grows from consistent, meaningful presence at the right moment.
This is especially true for newer or smaller brands. Instead of trying to differentiate broadly, they should focus on occasion-based thinking: identifying a single, relevant moment in consumers’ lives and owning that space in their memory.
The question shifts from “What makes us different?” to “When should people think of us?”
For small brands, this means committing to one need and one occasion per campaign—and maintaining that focus over multiple campaigns. This targeted approach enables them to compete effectively against larger brands that can afford to cover multiple occasions.
Even bigger brands benefit from narrowing their focus per campaign, as it sharpens messaging and strengthens brand salience over time.
2. Consistency across platforms
Consistency is fundamental for staying salient in one’s mind. Every time customers encounter your brand, the experience should reinforce the same core message and visual identity.
This repetition across platforms (from traditional ads to digital channels) prevents confusion and cements your brand's key ideas in memory.
Use the same logos, colors, and tone of voice everywhere. If your social media posts, emails, and website all echo the same brand personality and values, customers get repeated exposure to a coherent image that builds familiarity over time.
The most effective brands practice playful consistency: repeating familiar elements in fresh, creative ways. This approach keeps your brand instantly recognizable while staying engaging and relevant across contexts.
Consistency also applies to timing and frequency. Regular exposure—especially tied to specific needs or customer entry points (CEPs)—keeps your brand top of mind when it matters.
3. Using storytelling to engage customers
Storytelling creates memorable brand encounters that stick in consumers' minds. Rather than broadcasting features or promotions, weaving narratives around your brand captivates attention and evokes emotion. Our brains are wired to remember stories more than isolated facts.
Brands use storytelling in content marketing, advertising, and social media to humanize themselves and forge deeper connections. Airbnb built its brand on storytelling with its "Belong Anywhere" campaign, sharing tales of hosts and guests to illustrate a sense of community and belonging.
You can find stories in any industry: an apparel company might share athlete testimonials of triumph, while a B2B software firm could publish case studies of client success. The key is putting the customer or a larger mission at the center, not just the product.
When customers emotionally invest in your story, they naturally recall your brand (the "storyteller") later on. Incorporating authentic, occasion-relevant stories into your marketing mix significantly boosts brand salience by giving people something meaningful to remember you by.
4. Utilizing retargeting campaigns
Even interested prospects can quickly forget about a brand. Retargeting campaigns prevent that by keeping your brand in front of people who have already shown interest.
Retargeting involves serving ads to users who have visited your website, used your app, or engaged with your content but haven't yet converted.
The power of retargeting lies in repetition to a hooked audience: by seeing your brand multiple times across the web, a potential customer is less likely to overlook you when deciding on a purchase.
Studies indicate that retargeting can boost brand recall by 45% in the awareness stage and make consumers 70% more likely to take action in the consideration stage.
Essentially, retargeting ensures your brand stays top of mind for those who already know you to some degree, nudging them steadily toward a decision. The ads can be tailored to remind users of items they viewed or simply to reinforce brand messaging.
Measurement of brand salience
Key performance indicators to track
- Unaided brand recall: A core salience metric. Ask people to name brands they associate with a category, without any prompts. Unlike top-of-mind awareness (which looks at the first brand named), salience is better captured by total unaided mentions—a measure of whether you come to mind at all.
- Occasion-based brand recall (category entry points): The most powerful indicator of salience. Instead of generic recall, ask about specific situations or needs (e.g. "Which brands come to mind for quick lunches?" or "When buying a gift for a friend?"). The breadth and frequency of these links determine how mentally available your brand is across different buying contexts.
- Aided brand recognition: While not a direct measure of salience, it complements unaided recall by showing whether people recognize your brand when prompted. Useful for understanding baseline familiarity.
- Share of Search: This metric can act as a proxy for mental availability, showing how often people search for your brand relative to the category. Unlike social metrics, it reflects active interest and intent.
- Behavioral indicators (with caution): Direct traffic, repeat purchases, or branded search can hint at strong brand memory—but may reflect current buyers more than potential ones. Use them as supporting data, not primary metrics.
Tools for measuring brand salience
- Representative panel surveys: Recall surveys on a representative sample of your category audience, not just existing customers or fans. This ensures insights reflect the full spectrum of light and heavy buyers.
- Specialized brand tracking platforms: Tools like Behavio can be tailored to capture occasion-based brand recall and other salience-related metrics, including emotional response and implicit associations.
- Search analytics tools: Platforms like Google Trends or SEMrush help monitor branded search interest over time and can act as a proxy for real-world relevance.
Final thoughts
In essence, staying salient is an ongoing commitment. Markets evolve and consumer attention is uncertain, so even leading brands must continue to nurture their presence.
The most successful brands concentrate on being remembered in the right context, at the right moment.
By identifying the specific customer entry points you want to own and consistently reinforcing your brand's association with them, you can ensure your marketing efforts translate into positive business impact.
Ready to measure how your brand performs in consumers' minds? Behavio's brand tracking tool gives you deep insight into your brand's mental availability, tracking not just if people remember you, but how they feel about you and what they associate with your brand.
With our approach rooted in behavioral science, you'll uncover the subconscious connections that traditional market research misses – the very connections that predict actual buying behavior.
Want to see how our approach can help your brand? Request a free one-on-one call with us!
.avif)
.avif)
