Top-of-mind awareness
Top-of-mind awareness is a measure of how aware is a consumer of a brand. It is part of consumer behaviour, and is a key aspect of marketing research and marketing communications.
Definitions of top-of-mind awareness
In marketing, "top-of-mind awareness" refers to a brand or specific product being first in customers' minds when thinking of a particular industry or category.Top-of-mind awareness is defined in Marketing Metrics: "The first brand that comes to mind when a customer is asked an unprompted question about a category. The percentage of customers for whom a given brand is top of mind can be measured."
TOMA has also been defined as "the percent of respondents who, without prompting, name a specific brand or product first when asked to list all the advertisements they recall seeing in a general product category over the past 30 days."
At the market level, top-of-mind awareness is more often defined as the "most remembered" or "most recalled" brand names.
Top-of-mind awareness: uses and applications
Top-of-mind awareness is a special form of brand awareness. Top-of-mind awareness is generally measured by asking consumers open-ended questions about the brand that first comes to mind in a particular category, like a fast-food restaurant. Market researchers are then able to take this data and turn it into a percentage to figure out who is leading the way in top-of-mind awareness. Companies attempt to build and increase brand awareness using such digital marketing strategies as search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and more.In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 50% responded that they found the "top-of-mind" metric very useful.