Top-of-mind awareness


Top-of-mind awareness is an important concept in consumer behaviour, marketing research and marketing communications. Top-of-mind awareness is one measure of how well brands rank in the minds of consumers.

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. Companies attempt to build brand awareness through media exposure on channels such as internet, radio, newspapers, television, magazines, and social media.
In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 50% responded that they found the "top-of-mind" metric very useful.