1) Market share alone is no longer sufficient to establish a brand as the market leader. While market share was considered the key metric in the 1980s, the understanding of market leadership has advanced. 2) Since then, two additional metrics have emerged - "share of mind," referring to leadership in consumers' minds, and "share of heart," referring to an emotional connection, though this last metric remains controversial. 3) To have true market leadership now, brands need to consider both their market share and share of mind in consumers, as share of mind can predict future market share shifts based on changes in consumer awareness and preferences.

1. By: John Bertrand
How do we know if our brand really has market leadership?
Q: YOU ONCE told us that if our brand has the highest market share in our category, we are the
market leader. That was quite some time ago in early ‘80s when we were your MBM students at AIM.
About a month ago, we asked two of our band managers who attended your brand equity seminar to
share with the rest of their colleagues what they learned. One of the things they echoed was this:
When you talked about brand equity, it seemed that one of your side remarks said that “market share
is not enough to establish your brand’s market leadership.” While that was something said in passing,
it was important for the two of us as partner owners of this medium size consumer supplement
company with one brand that has attained the highest market share
Will you please just quickly explain what you mean by that side remark? Please tell us what then is
enough for us to know if our brand really has market leadership.
A: Thank you for the question. As speakers and marketing professors your question reminded us that
things said “in passing” have a way of touching certain sensitivities of our students. But at the same
time, it was good that the side remark provoked your question.
Your definition of a brand’s market leadership in term of the market share metric was popular in the
‘80s when you learned it. We’re not saying that this metric is no longer a true metric today. It still is
but as your two brand managers reported market share is no longer the only metric of market
leadership.
Over the years, marketing continues to change and advance as a “science.” In the mid ‘80s, it was
Michael Porter with the publication of his best-selling book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and
Sustaining Superior Performance, who popularized “market share” as the metric of market leadership.
That was a welcome contribution to the advancement of the marketing discipline and the brand
management in particular.
Then in the same decade, 1986 specifically, Al Ries and Jack Trout, came out with their own best
seller, Positioning: The Battle for your Mind. This book redefined market leadership but it was not the
source that provided the metric for this new dimension of market leadership. Among the marketing
academicians, it was Philip Kotler who two or three years after in his new edition of his popular
Marketing Management textbook, offered “share of mind” as the market leadership metric in the
competition in the mind of the consumer. So there came to be two market leadership metrics: “share
of market” as leadership in the competition in the physical market place, and “share of mind” as
leadership in the competition in the consumer’s mind.

2. For several years after, marketing practitioners seemed to be contented with this two market
leadership metrics. There were insightful elaborations of the new metric. One of the addressed the
issue of the relationship between share of market and share of mind. Again, it was the marketing
academicians who rose to the occasion. A new marketing concept came into being that said: “Share of
mind predicts a brand’s share of market.” The logical support for the “truth” of this concept came from
the consumer behavior literature. Its research said: “Every external change in the consumer behavior
is preceded by an internal change.” With specific reference to the two metrics, this translates to: “Less
buying to more buying is preceded by less top-of-mind awareness to more top-of-mind awareness.”
Aside from the simplicity and elegance of this logic, the concept had also a practical marketing utility.
For example, at one time here’s the share of market and share of mind metrics for Colgate toothpaste
and Close-up:
Share of market: Colgate-42 percent; Close-up-37 percent
Share of mind: Colgate-38 percent; Close-up-46 percent
According to the public “prediction” in the marketing concept relating share of mind to share of
market, here’s what’s likely to happen: “If Close-up continues doing what it has been doing and
Colgate continues not doing anything about it, Colgate’s 42 percent market share will go down to the
level of its 38 percent share of mind and lose its market leadership. On the other hand, with the same
set of ‘ids,’ Close-up’s 37 percent market share will go up to the level of its 46 percent market share
and grab the market leadership.” At that time, it was probably these predictions that alerted and
provoked Colgate to indeed do something to prevent what could have happened and to retain market
leadership.
Then five or six years later, an MIT professor, Michael Treacy together with Fred Wiersema (of the
Consumer Intimacy fame) published their own best-seller, The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose
Your Consumers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market. A third new metric of market leadership
came by the name of “share of heart.”
There were several specific metric of share of heart that have been proposed. It was a Vanderbilt
University professor, Richard Oliver whose three related share of heart metrics that have come to be
most cited. He Termed them as: (1) a “cognitive-centric” share of heart, (2) an “affective-based”
share of heart, and (3) a “conative-centric” share of heart. Overall though, the share of heart metric
has remained controversial and awaits the next step of establishing its relationship to share of mind
and share of market to finally constitute a trilogy or a trinity of market leadership metrics. In the
meantime, you might want to at least recognized the first two market leadership metrics of share of
mind and share of market.
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