We are human beings first, marketers second. It's why we gravitate towards self-preservation. The "brand vs performance" debate is the most relevant example of that. Turning the two into a zero-sum game may benefit an individual marketer's interests, but it will rarely benefit the company they work for. No matter what their job title says, all marketers are hired for the same reason: to create shareholder value. If they succeed in this, how they did it is less important because both brand and performance marketing are just different means to an end. This is what makes brand vs performance marketing a false dichotomy.

Category Entry Points (CEPs) are the reasons, triggers, or occasions when someone considers buying a product in your category. Brands have an interest in being mentally attached to CEPs to get bought more often by more people. As such, CEPs are a form of mental availability. As a concept, they originate from the Ehrenberg-Bass Insitute. A very similar model that is popular amongst marketers in tech and B2B is called Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) model.

While they can be a powerful competitive moat for any brand, the problem with CEPs is that they are often presented in an abstract way. Not much is said about CEPs, other than what they are and how leading brands establish them by big, expensive offline advertising campaigns (TV being the most effective channel). Many brands don't have a budget to make those TV advertising success stories relatable or useful.

This blog post fills the gap between brand experts and execution-level digital marketers by explaining the practicalities of CEPs: how they relate to major digital marketing concepts, how your brand can use them, and how BrandOps can measure them.

The profession of marketing has historically had a reputation of resembling art more than science. In extreme cases, the science of it was absent - replaced by myths, intuition, and anecdotal evidence. This paradigm shifted with the emergence and the growing influence of marketing science, and one of its grand proponents: The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.

What do most branding experts have in common? The information they share on branding nearly always assumes the context of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands. While the advice they share is indeed valuable, not making this highly specific context of their advice known upfront often misleads marketers into accepting their information as end-all-be-all branding truths. Some FMCG branding advice applies across various categories, however, knowing which elements to embrace and which ones to dismiss will be the difference between success and failure.

What is brand attention?

"Marketing is a contest for people's attention." - Seth Godin

Brand attention refers to the level of interest and intrigue a brand is generating. Brands with high attention scores stimulate purchase intent and ultimately make more sales.

What is Brand Presence?

"80% of success is just showing up." - Woody Allen

Brand presence refers to how easy it is for online buyers to find and buy your brand in the digital world. In many industries, it's the single most important factor to sales success. 

What gets measured gets managed. - Peter Drucker

Mark Ritson presented his, "Marketing Heroes" video where announces his top 10 list of people, past and present, that have individually contributed to the field of marketing. Fending off rightful criticism, Mark preemptively announced that his list completely lacked diversity. He fell on the sword, noting that the list of white men was a historical list,  and we've entered a new era where brilliant women are now more commonly influencing his thinking. He goes on to challenge his followers to shine a light on women in marketing, and their sage advice. Although a simple quote doesn't do their work justice, I'll gladly highlight some of my favorite. 

What is the BrandTech Stack?

The BrandTech stack is one of three major components in the broader MarTech stack (BrandTech, AdTech and DemandTech). BrandTech is the set of software solutions that enable brand marketers and channel support organizations (web, social, etc.) to efficiently plan, create, communicate and measure brand activity. 

How do you build a brand? 

Everyone has advice on brand building: there are the ziggers and zaggers, the differentiators, don't differentiate - just be distinct, or - find your voice, use an archetype, worry about loyalty - no, just find new customers, and the list goes on! 

We've scoured through 60+ books on branding to find the best. Some are great beginner books while others are for the seasoned professional. 

What's the best branding book? Well, it depends where you are in your learning journey and what you hope to achieve. Check out "The BrandOps Take" to get our view on each book.