Brand salience is a measure used to describe how much a customer thinks about a brand at a particularly important moment: the purchase decision. Another way to consider brand salience is how much a brand is “top of mind” during the sales process. If a customer is in a store deciding which product to buy from a range of several brands, then those brands that have the highest salience are the ones that stand out in the customer’s mind at that moment, making it more likely that they will end up choosing and purchasing that brand.
The meaning of the word “salient” is when something is strikingly conspicuous, protruding over a line, or jumping out at you. Imagine a particular brand ‘popping’ out at the customer as they browse, not just visually on the shelf, but in their mind’s eye. In order to reach high KPIs in brand salience, companies must build on wider branding metrics, such as brand awareness, brand recognition, and brand recall. These certainly help boost brand salience at the point of sale.