Mind share

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Mind share

Mind share, or the development of consumer awareness or popularity, is one of the main objectives of advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
and promotion

Promotion

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Mind share, or the development of consumer awareness or popularity, is one of the main objectives of advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to Purchasing or to consume more of a particular brand of Product or Service ....
and promotion

Promotion

Promotion may mean:*Promotion *Promotion **Promotional campaign**Promotion **Radio promotion*Promotion *Promotion *Promotion *Promotion and relegation, in league sports...
. When people think of examples of a product type or category, they usually think of a limited number of brand names. For example, a prospective buyer of a college education will have several thousand colleges to choose from. However, the evoked set, or set of schools considered, will probably be limited to about ten. Of these ten, the colleges that the buyer is most familiar with will receive the greatest attention.

Marketers try to maximize the popularity of their product, so that the brand co-exists with deeper, more empirical categories of objects. Kleenex

Kleenex

Kleenex is a brand name for a variety of products such as facial tissue, bathroom tissue, paper towels, and diapers. Kleenex is a registered trademark of Kimberly-Clark....
, for example, can distinguish itself as a type of tissue. But, because it has gained popularity amongst consumers, it is frequently used as a term to identify any tissue, even if it is from a competing brand.

One of the most successful firms to have achieved pervasive mind share is Hoover

The Hoover Company

The Hoover Company started out as an American floor care manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio, Ohio. It also established a major base in the United Kingdom and for most of the early-and-mid-20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the "hoover" Genericized trademark for vacuum cleaners and vacuum...
, whose name has been synonymous with vacuum cleaner

Vacuum cleaner

A vacuum cleaner is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors.Most homes with carpeted floors in developed countries possess a vacuum cleaner for cleaning....
for many decades. Similarly, the term "googling", describing the act of online searching

Web search engine

A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits....
, was derived from the Internet search engine Google

Google

Google Inc. is an United States public company, earning revenue from AdWords related to its Google search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Apps, Orkut, and YouTube services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the Google Search Appliance....
.

Popularity can be established to a greater or lesser degree depending on product and market. For example, it is common to hear people refer to any soft drink

Soft drink

A soft drink is a beverage that does not contain alcohol. Carbonated soft drinks are commonly known as soda, soda pop, pop, coke or tonic in various parts of the United States, pop in Canada, fizzy drinks in the United Kingdom and Australia and sometimes minerals in Ireland....
as a "coke", regardless of whether it is actually produced by Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonation soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines worldwide . It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke or as Cola or Pop....
or not. The term "cola" would be a more accurate term.

A legal risk of such popularity is that the name may become so widely accepted that it becomes a generic

Genericized trademark

A genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquialism or generic description for a general class of Good or Service , rather than the specific meaning intended by the trademark's holder....
term and loses trademark

TradeMark

TradeMark is a tall, primarily residential, skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was completed in 2007 and has 28 floors. There are 200 hundred residential units....
protection. Examples include "escalator

Escalator

An escalator is a conveyor transport device for transport people, consisting of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, which keep the treads horizontal....
", "aspirin

Aspirin

Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate medication, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication....
" and "tupperware

Tupperware

Tupperware is the brand name of a home products line that includes preparation, storage, and serving products for the kitchen and home, which debuted in 1946....
".

Other objectives of mind share include short or long term increases in sales

Sales

A sale is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
, market share

Market share

Market share, in strategic management and marketing, is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company....
, product information, and reputation

Reputation

Reputation is the opinion of the public toward a person, a Group , or an organization. It is an important factor in many fields, such as education, business, online communities or social status....
.

Mind share

See also