Why your brand needs to be in the right memory — Not just the right ad

Picture two scenarios.

It's Friday afternoon and someone's thinking about grabbing coffee before a long commute home. They don't Google "best coffee near me." They just think and a brand appears. Maybe it's Starbucks. Maybe it's a local spot they love. Whichever one comes to mind first has a significant advantage in winning that purchase.

Now picture a VP of Finance who's been tasked with finding a new treasury solution. She doesn't start by searching LinkedIn. She starts by thinking which providers do I already know? Which one did my CFO mention? The brands that live in her memory before she ever opens a browser are the ones with a real shot at the deal.

Same brain. Very different categories. Same underlying truth.

Purchases don't start with ads or search results. They start with memory. And memory is built long before someone is ready to buy.

This is the insight behind what researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute call Category Entry Points — or CEPs. In their landmark study published with the LinkedIn B2B Institute, Professor Jenni Romaniuk defines CEPs as the cues that buyers use to access their memories when faced with a buying situation. These cues can be internal (an emotion, a goal, a deadline) or external (a location, a time of day, a conversation with a colleague).

The brands that win aren't just the ones with the biggest ad budgets or the sharpest positioning statements. They're the ones that have built the most connections between their brand and the moments —the entry points — when buying begins.

What this means in practice

Think about the last time you recommended a restaurant, hired a contractor, or chose a software tool. You probably didn't run a structured evaluation. You thought of a few options that felt right for the situation and you went from there. That shortlist came from memory. And the brands on it got there through consistent, repeated presence over time.

CEPs help marketers understand which of those moments their brand should own. They're built around a simple framework: the who, what, when, where, why, and how of a buying situation. Who else is involved in the decision? When does the need arise? What feeling is the buyer trying to resolve? What are they doing right before they enter the category?

For a B2C brand like a retailer, a CEP might be when someone wants a gift that feels personal and special, or when they're planning an outfit for a big occasion. For a B2B like finance, it might be when the CFO is feeling pressure to modernize payments infrastructure.

The specifics change. The principle doesn't.

Why most brands get this wrong

Most marketing is built for the moment of purchase: the 5% of buyers who are actively in market right now. Retargeting, lead gen, demos, conversion campaigns. These things are not bad, but in isolation they do very little to grow your audience and increase your customer base. The research tells us that 95% of your potential buyers aren't ready to buy today. They're out there living their lives, forming impressions, and building memory structures that will determine who they think of when the moment finally comes.

If your brand only shows up when someone is already searching, you are already behind. The brands that win built their place in memory long before the search began.

The brand that gets remembered is the brand that gets bought.

Harvard Business Review published a study that further validates this — 90% of buyers will select a brand that came to mind before they started researching (the day-one consideration set). Building CEPs isn't about being everywhere. It's about being consistently present in the right moments. The ones that actually trigger buying in your category, so that when your buyer is ready, your brand is already there.

That's the work. And it starts with knowing which moments are yours to own.

Research reference: Romaniuk, J. (2022). Category Entry Points in a B2B World. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute / LinkedIn B2B Institute. The 95-5 Rule: Dawes, J. (2021). Advertising Effectiveness and the 95-5 Rule. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute / LinkedIn B2B Institute.