Winning brands aren’t just known—they come to mind at the right moment. Whether it’s craving a snack, picking a drink, or choosing a gift, consumers instinctively reach for brands that feel familiar and relevant to that moment. This is why Category Entry Points (CEPs) are so powerful. They help brands embed themselves into the moments that drive purchasing decisions.
Introducing the occasion
For brands in well-established categories, competitors will have long ago carved out well-trodden CEPs. Whether it’s beer and refreshment, fast food restaurants and moments of hunger, or flowers and Mother’s Day; there will be plenty of tried and tested CEPs for you to use in your advertising.
Where it becomes more challenging is for brands in newer categories. For example, non-alcoholic beers have needed to establish how they fit into consumers’ lives before they could take off, i.e. utilise Category Entry Points.
It makes sense for brands in nascent categories to use CEPs in their advertising; however, these brands will most often also be chasing awareness. They want consumers to know their brand of non-alcoholic beer, not just that they could enjoy it during Dry January.
Many brands in nascent categories offer strong examples of successfully balancing these messages through their advertising.
Juice shot business Moju is one brand in a nascent category that has used its advertising to lean into a CEP. Its ‘Wake, Shake, Boom!’ platform is one it has been activating under for several years now, and firmly establishes Moju (and juice shots more generally) as a morning ritual. This means that, when consumers are looking for something to get them going in the morning, they may think of Moju.
The brand has consistently invested behind the Wake, Shake, Boom platform and the CEP of the morning “kickstart” related occasion. There are many CEPs that it could have chosen to pursue, but it has stuck with the morning occasion repeatedly. For a newer brand like Moju, an attempt to utilise too many CEPs in its advertising could dilute its mission to build awareness alongside the juice shot category. For now, the brand is almost single-mindedly focusing its advertising on this CEP.
Takeaway: If you want to drive awareness and utilise CEPs in the same creative, pick one entry point to focus on repeatedly or risk overcomplicating the message.
Doubling down on your Category Entry Points
For brands in established categories looking to take advantage of CEPs, choosing where to play is essential. What CEPs are most relevant to consumers, but also where are you most likely to compete and win? CEPs are about coming to mind in relevant occasions for consumers, so brands must consider what moments occur most frequently for consumers, but also think about how many other brands may come to mind before they do.
Go big or go home?
For some brands, CEPs have become ingrained in their brand DNA. Snickers is one such example. Its potentially most famous Distinctive Brand Asset is “You’re not you when you’re hungry”. This associates the brand with the entry point of hunger. It has been used by the brand repeatedly in its advertising for decades.
It’s hard to think of much of a broader entry point than hunger. Hunger is a broad need state, making it a competitive but high-impact CEP.
Snickers is one brand that can afford to take that risk. It boasts huge levels of mental availability, given its decades-long presence, as well as enormous physical availability. Almost every corner shop will stock Snickers, meaning that it actually can be there on the many, many occasions when a consumer feels hungry.
When choosing to use CEPs in their advertising, brands must honestly ask themselves whether they feel they are best-placed to compete for that particular entry point. A brand like Snickers may be able to bring itself to mind under the general trigger of hunger, but it is one of only a few brands that can do so.
Find your niche
Hunger may be too broad as a Category Entry Point for most brands, but the CEP can be narrowed down. For example, a cereal bar brand could tap into when consumers are hungry on-the-go in the morning in its advertising.
One brand that uses hunger as a CEP in its advertising is the ready meal brand Charlie Bigham’s. The brand uses its out-of-home advertising to position itself as a still tasty alternative to a home-cooked meal, with lines such as “This isn’t the evening for weeping over onions”, and “Here’s to 32 cooking steps you won’t be taking”.
Its advertising is still tapping into the CEP of hunger, but a very specific type of hunger, combined with evening fatigue and a reluctance to cook.
It’s also a great example of how brands can use location and channel to further tap into CEPs. The feeling of being on the commute home and being very reluctant to cook is a common one, and Charlie Bigham’s taps perfectly into this by having these OOH ads on tubes and train stations.
Takeaway: Choosing where to play is essential. Additionally, the ad’s specific channel or location can be a powerful factor in helping brands tap into a CEP.
Expanding your relevance
Some brands do an excellent job of becoming associated with specific CEPs. Guinness is one example. The stout brand has long been a sponsor of rugby, such as through its Six Nations partnership. For many rugby-watchers, it is the beer of choice when watching a game.
But while the brand isn’t eschewing its rugby connection, it has broadened its reach, and last year began sponsoring the Premier League, a move clearly designed to allow the beer to be top-of-mind for viewers of the world’s most popular sport. Having nailed rugby viewership as a CEP, Guinness is now moving on to football. It released ads tying in with the partnership, all designed to tap into football fandom as a CEP.
Few brands enjoy the level of fame and revenue that Guinness has, which allows it to tap into the CEP of football viewership through a partnership with one of the most famous sporting competitions in the world. However, there is still a lesson for all brands here.
While zoning in on one CEP can be an excellent strategy for newer brands looking to establish their categories, more established brands can utilise advertising to expand their relevance. Examples include Aperol, which has gone from a tipple enjoyed on Italian holidays to a staple of many rainy pub gardens, and Magnum, going from a summer treat to an indulgent dessert at any time of year.
Takeaway: Brands do not have to be pigeon-holed into one CEP. Advertising, alongside innovation, can be a powerful tool to expand the moments in which your brand comes to mind.
Focus on the consumer
CEPs are about the consumer, rather than about the brand. Any brand looking to activate using CEPs must first ensure they thoroughly understand the consumer and their category, or risk being simply irrelevant in their communications.
When it comes to using CEPs in advertising, brands also must be clear in what they aim to achieve through the activation. If the goal is pure-play awareness or a message around purpose, then CEPs may not be the right messaging construct. However, if the goal is driving consideration, and importantly, linkage with key moments, then CEPs can be extremely powerful for brands.
