In short: mental availability is the chance that buyers think of your brand when a buying situation arises; physical availability is how easy it is to find and buy. Byron Sharp ("How Brands Grow", 2010) puts both at the centre of brand growth, and Jenni Romaniuk turned mental availability into measurable metrics ("Better Brand Health"). Measure both, find which one holds you back, and put the extra budget there.
What is the difference between mental and physical availability?
Mental availability is the propensity of a buyer to notice, remember and think of a brand in a category buying situation. It is not simply awareness (knowing the brand) nor preference (liking it), but the chance the brand comes to mind at a specific moment of need, what Ehrenberg-Bass calls a Category Entry Point.
Physical availability is how easy the brand is to find and buy where the buyer looks for it: weighted distribution in retail, shelf prominence, ranking in e-commerce searches, presence in the relevant marketplaces, geographic coverage.
Sharp formalises both concepts in "How Brands Grow" (2010). Romaniuk develops the memory side in "Building Distinctive Brand Assets" (2018) and in "Better Brand Health", both from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia.
Why you need both levers
The two levers work together: a brand that comes to mind but cannot be found loses the sale at the shelf, and a brand that is everywhere but nobody thinks of stays on the shelf. Working on just one is a weak lever; brands that grow work on both.
The most common strategic mistake in Italian SMEs: investing in brand advertising (mental) without sorting out distribution (physical), or the other way round. The investment gets noticed, sales stay flat.
How to measure mental availability
(1) Category Entry Point survey (Romaniuk). Ask a sample of category buyers, for each CEP, "Which brands come to mind?". From the answers Romaniuk derives four metrics in "Better Brand Health": mental market share, mental penetration, network size and share of mind. A brand linked to many CEPs has more chances to be chosen than one linked to one or none.
(2) Branded search volume (Google Search Console, Google Trends). The trend of searches containing the brand name is a cheap proxy of how often people think of you. Track it monthly, together with variants such as "brand name reviews".
(3) Aided and unaided recall (classic survey). Aided: "Do you know this brand?". Unaided: "Which brands of [category] do you know?". For mental availability the unaided answer counts more.
How to measure physical availability
(1) Weighted distribution (retail). The share of points of sale, weighted by their category turnover, that stock the product. Retail panels such as NielsenIQ and Circana measure it.
(2) Share of shelf. The share of category space the brand occupies in key retailers.
(3) E-commerce findability. The brand's average position in category searches on Amazon, Google Shopping and marketplaces. If you are on the second page, for many buyers you are not there.
(4) Geographic coverage. For services: provinces or areas actually served out of the target. For e-commerce: countries served and delivery times.
SME diagnosis: am I losing on mental or on physical?
Step 1, measure mental availability. A survey of category buyers (online panel or your own customer and prospect list) with CEP questions: "When you need [need], which brands do you think of?". Compare your share of mind with competitors'.
Step 2, measure physical availability. A distribution check (store visits or retail panel data where they exist), a search check on Amazon and Google Shopping for category keywords, a coverage map.
Step 3, find the main gap. If people think of you less than your market share would suggest, the gap is mental. If they think of you but your share is low, people do not find you: the gap is physical.
Step 4, put the incremental budget on the gap, keeping a maintenance budget on the other lever.
Examples
Amazon, both levers at work. Mental: brand campaigns, including on TV, keep it front of mind for buying online. Physical: fast nationwide delivery and an integrated marketplace.
Typical local brand (negative case). Known in its area, good product, weak distribution beyond its territory. High local mental availability, low national physical availability: revenue stalls despite quality. Here the extra budget goes mostly to physical (new retailers, marketplaces, direct e-commerce), with enough advertising to keep the home territory.
Activities per lever
| Mental availability | Physical availability |
|---|---|
| Brand campaigns (TV, video, radio) | Wider weighted distribution in retail |
| Event sponsorship | Amazon and marketplace presence |
| Distinctive Brand Assets | Shelf placement negotiation |
| Content linked to Category Entry Points | Category-level SEO (being found) |
| PR and media coverage | Direct e-commerce |
| Influencer collaborations | Logistics and delivery coverage |
| Consistent advertising over time | In-store activation |
KPI dashboard for an SME CMO
Monthly: branded search volume (Google Search Console), share of voice in advertising where data exist, Amazon Best Sellers Rank in the category.
Quarterly: aided and unaided recall, coverage of the top CEPs, a distribution check on key points of sale.
Yearly: a full brand health tracker on Romaniuk's method, market share trend.
FAQ
Is mental availability the same as brand awareness?
No. Awareness means knowing the brand; mental availability is the chance of thinking of it in a specific buying situation. A brand can be widely known and still rarely come to mind when people buy.
How much budget should go to mental vs physical?
It depends on the gap: diagnose first, then put the incremental budget on the lever that holds you back, keeping a maintenance budget on the other.
How do you build mental availability on a low budget?
Three cheap levers: consistent Distinctive Brand Assets (logo, colour, tagline, sound), earned media (trade press, sector podcasts, published case studies), and content that answers the situations in which people think of your category.
Does mental availability work in B2B too?
Yes. B2B Category Entry Points are buying triggers such as a product launch, falling revenue, a new CMO, an annual review: brands linked to those moments get called first.
Pure e-commerce: does physical availability make sense?
Yes, in digital form: position in marketplace searches, delivery speed, geographic coverage, common payment methods, visibility on Google Shopping. It measures how easily the buyer can complete the purchase.
Romaniuk vs Sharp: what's the difference?
Sharp's "How Brands Grow" (2010) sets out the theory; Romaniuk's books turn it into metrics: Distinctive Brand Assets audits (2018) and mental availability measures based on CEPs.
Sources
- Sharp, B., "How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know" (2010, Oxford University Press)
- Romaniuk, J. & Sharp, B., "How Brands Grow Part 2" (2015, Oxford University Press)
- Romaniuk, J., "Building Distinctive Brand Assets" (2018, Oxford University Press)
- Romaniuk, J., "Better Brand Health: Measures and Metrics for a How Brands Grow World" (Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand, ISBN 978-0-19-034090-2)
- Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia
- Binet, L. & Field, P., "The Long and the Short of It" (IPA, 2013)
