CAPITALIZACIÓN CONTINUA

So, why do some brands loom larger in our repertoires (that is, we buy them more often) than other brands? The main answer is that some are more physically available to us (like the supermarket that is closest to our home) and more mentally available to us. Our buying relies heavily on our

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choice situation: the moment when and place where a consumer makes a purchase decision. examples include selecting a type and brand of milk in the supermarket aisle, deciding on a charity to donate money to, or ordering a drink at a bar. memory. Some brands have managed to embed themselves better in our memories; they have a richer

more relevant web of associations, so they are easier to recall, recognise and even notice. This makes their advertising and packaging more effective (it may also make their stores or branches, if they have them, more effective), which in turn enhances their mental and physical availability advantage over other brands. This is one of the key reasons why loyalty can be very long-lasting.

We don’t buy most brands in any category, but rather we keep going back to just a few. The reason that we don’t buy most of these other brands is not usually because we reject them, but mainly that we don’t notice and/or think of them. Memory is very important. It is a major determinant of what brands we buy, and which we do not buy. Advertising also works via memory (see Chapter 10). Some choice situations depend heavily on recall, in that we have to bring products or brands to mind along with information on their features and suitability for our needs at that moment. This recall determines which shops we go to, what we type into a search engine and so on. A brand that is not recalled has no chance of being purchased, no matter how good it is. So, in most cases this recall level becomes the dominant factor affecting a brand’s sales.

In other situations, brands are visually present on a shelf, on screen or on a price list or menu. Here, noticing and recognition matter, as well as recall. Recognition, of course, depends on memory, but noticing does too—buying is often ‘goal-directed behaviour’, which means that people are looking for something (for instance, a type of cat food, perhaps one with chicken in it): we use our memories to help see.

We tend to think of memory like a computer hard drive or a library that we occasionally have to delve into (‘hmm, let me think’), but memory is integral to all brain activity. When we listen to a song, our brain is interpreting it with memories—if the music stops suddenly we can sing or hum the next part, which shows that we are anticipating almost every note. Without instantaneous retrieval from memory you couldn’t be reading this text now—your memories tell you what words mean. So our memories affect what we do, and don’t, see.

Everyone knows that retrieval from memory is imperfect and inconsistent (we even temporarily forget the names of our best friends sometimes—and the PIN numbers of our credit cards!). Our modern understanding of memory tells us that an individual person’s awareness of a brand is best thought of as probabilistic, not absolute; in the right circumstances the brand is easy to notice, easy to recognise and easy to recall, but this varies a great deal depending on the circumstances, including the time and mood. It depends on tiny random things, such as what you happened to be thinking about the second before.

A simple model of memory is that it consists of ‘nodes’ that hold information—this is known as the associative network theory of memory (Anderson, 1973). If two pieces of information are associated (for example Coca-Cola and ‘red’) links are said to exist between these nodes. Buyers have a network of information (also referred to as attributes) linked to the brand name. So, for example, McDonald’s is associated with hamburgers, yellow arches, fast food and so on. These links are developed and refreshed through experiences such as buying and using the brand, or being exposed to marketing activities such as advertising or other people’s experiences via word of mouth or observation.

(brand) attributes (in memory): small pieces of information that a buyer links to a particular brand—these may be conscious or subconscious associations.

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The more extensive and fresher the network of memory associations, the greater the brand’s probability of being noticed or thought of in the variety of buying situations experienced by buyers. So building mental availability is about developing these different links to increase the scope of the network in memory—the brand’s share of mind. A cue like ‘a summer drink at the beach’ will bring Coke to mind for many Australians, whereas a cue like ‘sitting down for a drink at a coffee shop’ is far less likely to bring it to mind. Yet, for Coca-Cola, the opportunity to sell Coke at coffee shops probably now today far outstrips the amount of bottles they can hope to sell at the beach. You can see the obvious marketing challenge (and opportunity) for Coca-Cola.