Mind share
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One of the main objectives of advertising and promotion is to establish what is called mind share (or share of mind). When people think of examples of a type or category of product, they think of a limited list (referred to as an evoked set). Any product included in an evoked set has mind share. For example, if one is considering purchasing a college education, one has several thousand colleges to choose from. However one's evoked set, those that are actually considered, will probably be limited to about ten. Of these ten, the colleges that one is most familiar with will have the greatest proportion of one's mind share. Marketers try to maximize their product's share. Mind share can be established to a greater or lesser degree depending on market segment.
A similar concept is top of mind. The more easily one remembers a brand, the closer it is to the top of one's mind. This implies that one has not forgotten or buried the information.
[edit] Dominant mind share
A brand may achieve dominant mind share when it is associated with a whole category of products, but has not necessarily become a generic term for these products. For example, Kleenex may sometimes be used to describe any facial tissue product, but retains it status as a proprietary trademark. In Asia, Tupperware is often used to describe any sort of food container.
Other examples include Hoover, which has long been synonymous with vacuum cleaners; Dyson, which subsequently achieved similar status with a more sophisticated model of vacuum cleaner; and the internet search engine provided by Google, from which the term "googling" was derived to describe the act of "on line searching".
A trademark with dominant mind share may also be known as a genericized trademark. However, where the mark becomes the generic term for a product, it no longer has mind share because consumers do not associate it with a specific business. Classic examples include aspirin, escalator and mimeograph (see genericised trademark for more).
[edit] See also
[edit] Alternative usage
In popular lexicon, a group of people who operate with a great deal of synergy can be thought of as having a mind share. This is the ideal state of a group.
