If people want to make a purchase, they first look for suitable brands in their memories. The brands that come up in the memory are the starting point of the purchasing process. Search engines and other sources are usually only consulted if the memory does not provide sufficient options. And even if buyers use search engines or other sources (for example inquiries with family) to orientate themselves, brands that they already know are preferred. Jon Lombardo & Peter Weinberg of LinkedInb2b Institute inspired me for this article and articulates it as follows: "Brain Engine Optimization (BEO) is The New Search Engine Optimization (SEO)".

Mental keywords

The most successful brands are usually the brands that have the most customers and communicate with most people in the market. These brands are the most 'mentally available' when a purchase situation occurs. They are at the top of the search results when people type in a 'mental keyword' in their heads. By ensuring that your target group associates the right mental keywords with your brand, you increase the mental market share and therefore immediately the chance that they will buy your brand!

What are your 'Category Entry Points'?

All mental keywords, triggers, reasons or occasions why someone is considering buying your product or service are called Category Entry Points (CEPS). CEPS have been developed by Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and are a very valuable instrument to make connections between purchasing decisions and the relevance of your brand.

When do you think of Coca-Cola?

In the article 'Growing your brand via CEPS' from SWOCC, a number of examples of CEPS are given. From this article I highlight two Coca-Cola examples:

• Potential buyer: "I am thirsty". To lesson, someone can think of different brands, such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola. So the CEP is here: to lessons.
• Potential buyer: "It's hot, and I take a Coca-Cola for cooling". So the CEP is here: when it is hot.

7 questions to determine your CEPS

You can find out all the CEPS that are relevant to your brand by conducting research into your target group and answering the following seven questions:

• When do people use your brand?
• Where do people use your brand?
• During what do people use your brand?
• With what do people use your brand?
• Why do people use your brand?
• How do people feel when they use your brand?
• With whom or for whom people use you?

Getting started with Brain Engine Optimization

With Search Engine Optimization (SEO) you try to choose the most valuable keywords. With Brain Engine Optimization (BEO) you try to select the most valuable CEPS. Your brand can have 50 different CEPS for a certain product or service, but they are not all equally valuable. Give priority to CEPS that often occur, are easy to associate with your brand and are not yet associated with competitors. Create a list of about 5 CEPS that are the most valuable and that you will build with your brand. The stronger your brand links with a CEP, the sooner your brand comes up in the idea of ​​buyers and is bought.

Let your brand grow

The more people link your brand to one or more CEPS, the better. To achieve high mental availability and many CEPS, is a task of several years. See expanding the number of CEPS such as Brain Engine Optimization (BEO) for the long term.

Do you want to grow with your long -term brand? Then go for Brain Engine Optimization (BEO) and make sure your brand is mentally available. At Vandeez we are daily busy with brand construction for the long term. Curious about examples? View our cases . More information about our services in the field of brand strategy ? We tell you on our brand strategy page .