Brand Salience: recognizability and top-of-mind

Why TOMA and salience give different figures on the same data

TOMA is the answer to an abstract question 'which brand first comes to mind in the coffee category'. The respondent sits in the interviewer's chair and names what was loudest in advertising last month. The problem: purchases almost never happen 'in the category in general' — they happen in a specific situation: need to get energized in the morning, want to treat oneself, a meeting with a colleague is scheduled. TOMA does not distinguish these situations and averages them into one figure.

Salience by definition Sharp and Romaniuk (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute) is the quantity and quality of memory structures linking the brand with real purchase triggers. Hence the typical gap: TOMA stays in place for three years, and sales grow by 20%, because the brand is building connections with new situations, but still is not the first one mentioned 'in general about the category'.

CEP — the unit in which salience is measured and built

Category Entry Point is a specific situational trigger, a moment when a person experiences a need and begins to search for a brand that fits it. For the coffee category, this is 'tiredness in the morning', 'meeting friends', 'needing a quick snack in 5 minutes' — three different mental entry points. A brand that has only solidified itself for one of them automatically loses all other sales.

The mistake of most positioning strategies is an attempt to occupy an entire category with one 'big idea', instead of anchoring itself to each CEP separately. The working mechanism is co-presentation: the brand is systematically shown next to a specific CEP in creative work until the connection is embedded in memory. The difference from classic positioning is fundamental: the goal is not to 'occupy a unique idea', but to cover as many entry points in the category as possible — even mundane ones, like 'thirst in the heat'.

How to measure salience: a step-by-step procedure, not a single metric

Salience has no single formula like market share or NPS — this is its key methodological distinction. The procedure is structured as follows:

1. Through qualitative interviews, compile a realistic list of CEPs for the category — not 5 items 'just for the sake of it', but a complete set of real purchase situations.
2. For each CEP separately, ask respondents: 'which brand comes to mind specifically in this situation' — not in the category as a whole.
3. Calculate the brand mention share for each CEP and aggregate into an entry point coverage index (network size).
4. Compare the index dynamics with actual sales over the same period — not with attitude metrics like 'likes / dislikes'.

Surveys remain a working tool, but their value drops to zero if the question is formulated abstractly. It is precisely this step — linking the question to a specific CEP — that agencies usually skip, limiting themselves to the standard 'which brand first comes to mind'.

Distinctive assets: where real salience is added

Only 19% of logos belong to truly distinctive (gold category), and only about 15% of brands actually possess truly unique assets. The reason is not design — most assets are technically sound, and what kills them is inconsistent use. Distinctiveness is built over years of consistent deployment through all contact points, not through a single redesign.

• Sonic logo — according to SoundOut and Ipsos data (2020), sound asset is 8,53 times more effective than other distinctive assets in contributing to salience; brands with recognizable sonic identity increase purchase propensity and brand recognition.
• Product attribute as an asset — Doritos established crunch as a recognizable attribute and rose from 5% below average in the category to 11% above (+18% to salience), which resulted in a +21% sales increase.
• Storytelling as an asset — Accenture through anthemic storytelling and multi-channel sequence increased salience by 23%, which led to a 52% growth in sales opportunities and $231 billion in bookings.

The conclusion from these three cases is one: it's not about inventing a new element, but transforming an existing brand detail — sound, product attribute, or story — into a recognizable asset and its iron repetition across all media without exceptions and 'creative' deviations.

Strategy: cover situations, not dive deep into one

The classic strategic mistake — concentrating all efforts on one usage scenario, for example, 'special occasion'. Peroni changed this by tying the brand through branded content to everyday moments, not just holidays: result — dwell time 90% above average and overdelivery on article views by 258%. This is the essence of a salience strategy: expanding the number of situations where the brand comes to mind first, rather than deepening presence in one.

In practice, this means that the marketing calendar and creative plan are built not around the product, but around the CEP map — with priority on the most frequent and most missed competitor entry points. If a brand does not have a CEP map, any talk about 'salience growth' is just talk about TOMA under a different name.