Of all the corporate roles, marketing is the one that’s most misunderstood.

Think about our clarity for other roles: Engineering makes stuff. Sales sells stuff. Fulfillment ships stuff. Accounting collects payment on the stuff engineering makes, sales sells and fulfillment ships. Even the more — ahem — esoteric roles such as Chief Happiness Officer are more clearly understood than marketing.

Since the collective business lens is predicated upon tangible things, marketing is often viewed as the tradeshow department. Or the PowerPoint and brochure department. Or the social media department. You get the picture.

So the mention of “mindshare” — which is the ultimate marketing goal but is decidedly intangible — frequently elicits a look of confusion compared to the more comprehendible “marketshare.”

Mindshare ≠ Awareness

Mindshare is commonly misinterpreted to mean brand awareness. Indeed, the two are closely intertwined. However, there are subtle — but important — differences.

Awareness is whatever comes to your mind first when somebody asks you a question.

Mindshare is what you perceive and believe about a brand.

Both are clearly advantageous. But mindshare is where the magic of marketing really takes off and empowers brands to grab marketshare.

To better understand these two dimensions, consider the Brand Asset Valuator framework or BAV pioneered by Young & Rubicon 30 years ago.

The first dimension — Brand Stature — measures the esteem and knowledge of a brand. Esteem is a measure of how highly regarded a brand is and how well it delivers on its promises. Knowledge is the depth of understanding people have of a brand – both its positive and negative information. Brand Stature is about awareness.

The second dimension — Brand Strength — measures a brand’s differentiation and relevance. Differentiation is a brand’s ability to capture attention in the cultural landscape. Relevance is how appropriate and meaningful a brand is to consumers. Brand Strength is about mindshare.

Mindshare > Awareness

Comparing the presidential election to brand marketing, Geoff Colvin observes in Fortune, “Brand marketing amateurs might reasonably assume that brand stature is most important. But it isn’t. It counts for little without brand strength, which must be achieved first and is far more elusive.”

If you re-read the above statement, you wouldn’t be alone if it conjured the chicken-and-the-egg debate. Or at least some incongruity. So allow me to parse it out.

Mindshare (Brand Strength) is the endgame for Colvin — and marketers — because it’s about convincing buyers and influencers to believe your brand solves their problems.

But a brand must also achieve awareness (Brand Stature). Put simply, if your audience hasn’t heard of your brand, you won’t get the opportunity to impact their perception.

As a result, mindshare (Brand Strength) is indeed elusive.

The BAV uses a Power Grid akin to the familiar Gartner Magic Quadrant to plot Stature and Strength dimensions. In both, the upper right quadrant is the ideal leadership position.

In the Gartner paradigm whose dimensions include Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow:

In the BAV paradigm whose dimensions once again are Brand Stature (Awareness) and Brand Strength (Mindshare), leaders achieve high earnings and high potential:

Mindshare in Action

As we’ve seen, awareness and mindshare are closely intertwined.

Here’s an example of the power of mindshare from the aforementioned Fortune article which plots Brand Stature and Brand Strength on the BAV Power Grid:

If you’re like me and are not a fan of politics, here’s another example: A channel partner once contacted me to request a recommendation for products to fill out the company’s offerings for a certain sector. What was noteworthy was the features and technical capabilities of the brand they held in the highest esteem were inferior to those of other brands. Nevertheless, their perception was that brand was in fact superior.

That’s the power of mindshare.