We recently sat down with quantilope’s Madita Brandhorst, Associate Director - Tracking Solutions.
Madita has been with quantilope for almost 6 years, starting as a Research Consultant before moving to the Solutions Consulting team, and then becoming quantilope’s valuable subject matter expert for tracking studies — particularly, quantilope’s Better Brand Health Tracking solution. Better Brand Health Tracking is a modernized approach to brand tracking, stemming from Professor Jenni Romaniuk’s work at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. It focuses on detailed, actionable metrics and analyses like Mental Availability and Mental Advantages over traditional brand funnel metrics like awareness, consideration, and usage.
The value in Better Brand Health Tracking is understanding not just what consumers think about a brand and its competitors, but what brings them to shop in that brand’s category in the first place; those category 'triggers' are known as Category Entry Points, and Mental Availability measures which brands consumers think about (and consider) while shopping.
Below you’ll find Madita’s thoughtful responses to some of the most commonly-asked questions related to Better Brand Health Tracking, Mental Availability, and brand growth.
Interview Guide:
Q. How does Better Brand Health Tracking compare to other forms of brand health tracking?
Madita: Many traditional models are still based on advertising theories from the early 20th century. Luckily, we’ve learned tons about brand growth in the past several decades! I’m a big fan of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute because they bridge the gap between abstract psychology, like associative memory, and applied, practical marketing.
Better Brand Health Tracking is built on the "Market-Based Assets" theory, which proposes that brand growth is a function of two assets:
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- Physical (or Purchase) Availability: Is your brand easily available where people buy?
- Mental Availability: How easily does your brand come to mind when a person is ready to buy?
This approach to tracking bridges the gap between "awareness" and "purchase" using Mental Market Share (MMS). In quantilope's 2024 meta-analysis across 100+ brands, we found a correlation of r = .83 (R² = .69) between MMS and actual sales share. This means a single survey metric can explain roughly 70% of sales variance. It transforms brand tracking into a transparent, validated, and automated business tool that helps marketers justify brand investment to their CFO.
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Q. What are the common pitfalls of traditional brand health tracking that Better Brand Health Tracking is designed to overcome?
Madita: The biggest pitfall of traditional trackers is that they were designed with the brand in mind, not the consumer. They focus on "brand pyramids" that consumers simply don't care about. Better Brand Health Tracking flips the script by starting with the consumer’s world — specifically with Category Entry Points which tell brands why consumers are coming to their category to begin with (their wants, needs, motivations, etc.)
Traditional models also suffer from a heavy bias toward big brands. We counteract this with Better Brand Health Tracking using benchmarking through Expected Values and by focusing on Mental Penetration. This creates a level playing field, allowing us to understand — with specificity — why a brand is succeeding or underperforming, regardless of its size.
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Q. How do you ensure a Better Brand Health Tracking study is comprehensive and competitive?
Madita: We design for the category to ensure the data is true, but we analyze for the brand to ensure the results are actionable. This involves including the "Silent 50%" — the light category buyers who often make up half of your potential market. We know a healthy category is typically split into 20% Heavy, 30% Medium, and 50% Light Buyers. If you only talk to the vocal "Heavy" buyers, you are missing half of your growth potential.
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Q. What are the most crucial metrics for measuring true brand growth?
Madita: Within Better Brand Health Tracking, we look at the hierarchy of how these Mental Availability metrics work together:
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Mental Market Share (MMS): Your "North Star" metric for tracking overall Mental Availability.
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Mental Penetration (MPen): The % of consumers who associate you with at least one Category Entry Point (the "reach" lever).
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Network Size (NS): The average number of Category Entry Points connected to your brand (the "messaging" lever).
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Share of Mind (SOM): A competitive deep-dive into the minds of those who already have you in their consideration set.
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Q. How does Better Brand Health Tracking generate actionable insights rather than just descriptive data?
Better Brand Health Tracking moves from "What" to "How." By identifying whether your challenge is Mental Penetration (a media reach issue) or Network Size (a messaging diversity issue), Better Brand Health studies provide a clear playbook. This data informs everything from creative briefs and influencer strategies to New Product Development and Brand Architecture.
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Q. What's the current industry perception and adoption rate of Better Brand Health Tracking / Mental Availability tracking?
Madita: The How Brands Grow philosophy has been around for 15 years, but we are currently witnessing a massive second wave of adoption. When Byron Sharp first published the book in 2010, many of us tried to force this new way of thinking into old habits — but that's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
The real shift happened in 2023 with the release of Jenni Romaniuk’s book, Better Brand Health. Where Sharp's original philosophy was theoretical, Better Brand Health provided a prescriptive, specific, and tactical way to go about it. Because the methodologies are now transparent and standardized rather than hidden in agency "black boxes," we've seen a surge in global adoption.
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Q. Can Better Brand Health Tracking be applied across different industries, and does it work for both products and services?
Madita: Yes, the laws of brand growth are human-specific, not industry-specific. We have successfully applied Better Brand Health Tracking to Tech, Finance, B2B, Retail, and professional services, tracking over 130 different categories to date.
We don’t use generic "kitchen sink" drivers like high quality; we identify up to 20 highly relevant Category Entry Points specific to that unique industry. Whether you’re selling a software subscription or a chocolate bar, the goal remains the same: understanding how the brand surfaces in the consumer's mind during a buying situation.
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Q. What are the key tools and methodological components necessary to run an effective tracking study?
Madita: You can't measure Mental Availability with a simple awareness question. It requires a rigorous process:
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Human-first category definition: Defining the category landscape through the eyes of the consumer, via a Category Entry Point Workshop.
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Validation via pre-study: Using implicit reaction-time tests to ensure we are tracking the most valuable "hooks" in the category.
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Strategic Cadence: Establishing a baseline (typically once or twice a year) that avoids "data noise" and focuses on long-term shifts.
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Q. What specific parts of the tracking process are automated when using quantilope?
Madita: quantilope is an end-to-end platform. We use our proprietary Category Entry Point (CEP) Generator (powered by AI) to instantly identify 35 relevant "hooks" for your category. Once your tracker is live, the analysis is entirely automated. You can even use our AI assistant, quinn, to "talk to your data" and generate custom summaries on the fly. This frees up valuable time to focus on the "So what?" — turning data into a meaningful business strategy.
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Q. Can Better Brand Health Tracking be integrated with other research methods?
Absolutely. Category Entry Points (CEPs) are the "foundational language" of the consumer and all Better Brand Health Tracking studies start with CEPs. They should inform your Ad Testing (does this ad link to the right CEP?), your New Product Development (NPD) (is there a white-space occasion we can own?), and even your Segmentation (moving beyond demographics to needs-based personas). At quantilope, we're even developing an AI-based Ad Analyzer specifically to capture how well your ads communicate certain CEPs.
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Q. Are there situations where Better Brand Health Tracking would not be the most suitable approach?
Mental Availability is a strategic compass, but it isn't a silver bullet. If your problem is Physical Availability — like distribution gaps or pricing barriers — you should use a Choice-Based Conjoint or retail audit instead. Similarly, if you are in an exploratory phase entering a brand-new category, you should start with an Implicit Category Brand Audit to find your footing before you begin tracking.
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