Last week I was introduced to Category Entry Points and delved into the CEPs model created by Jenni Romaniuk and a report by LinkedIn B2B Institute and Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
I highly suggest you read the official report here. It is culture changing for marketeers who are in the thick of day-to-day marketing and need to step back into the wider strategy of business branding.
I wanted to create a practical overview for small businesses and how you could benefit from using the Category Entry Point model as a market analysis project. With small budgets and limited time, small businesses may not have the ability to dedicate to a full CEP analysis, however this bitesized interpretation could help you on your way to brand success.
What are CEPs?
'If you believe most buyer behaviour starts with memory, it then follows that the primary job of marketing is not to generate clicks, but instead to generate memories.' - as written in the report
Category Entry Points, or CEPs, are buying situations that are prompted by an activity or circumstance. This prompt is initiated by the correlation between the situation and a memory. CEPs are the consumers Triggers that prompt brand association.
The role of a marketeer is to create mental availability, which involves making sure that a product or service is top-of-mind when customers are considering their options. This means that the marketeer needs to ensure that the product or service is memorable, and that customers have a positive view of it.
Simplifying the process: Buying situation trigger + Memory SEO = Your Brand
So how do you create brand-relevant memories?
Marketeers accomplish this by utilising a variety of tactics such as advertising, content marketing, public relations, influencer marketing, and social media. Through these efforts, the marketeer will work to build brand recognition, establish a positive public image, and increase product or service awareness.
Ultimately, the goal of the marketeer is to make sure that when a customer is looking to purchase something, they immediately think of their product or service.
Create opportunities to be remembered when a buying situation happens.
First find out the buying situation
Finding out the buying situation can be a daunting task. The best way to do this is by creating an audience survey. Use the W's framework (How, Why, When, While, Where, With Whom, With What) to set structure to understand a buying situation.
Using this structure you can create a concise purposeful questionnaire that will offer you an abundance of information - straight from the audiences minds.
When the survey is completed, create a list of answers, combine those that are similar and remove duplications.
Prioritise the answers that relate to your brand, are relevant and have opportunity. Remove those that are poor choices. When selecting the ideal CEPs from your list, you are looking for the top 5 to focus on.
You will see in the report that you can go into depth by scoring your CEPs against competitors to find opportunities and gaps. If you have never done market analysis before I suggest you keep it simple with only the first step. You can explore the scoring functionality in your next round of orientation.
Then create a memorable activity based around the buying activity.
Now you have your top 5 CEPs, you can design marketing activities around those situations.