When someone is ready to buy what you sell, does your name come to mind? Byron Sharp would say that question matters more for growth than whether people love your brand.

The book and the idea

Sharp's book How Brands Grow was published by Oxford University Press on 2 March 2010 (OUP). Its chapters include "Mental and Physical Availability" and, a little provocatively, "Why Loyalty Programs Don't Work".

Mental availability is the idea that stuck. Sharp, of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, defines it like this: "A brand's mental availability refers to the probability that a buyer will notice, recognize and/or think of a brand in buying situations" (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute).

Two parts of that definition are worth slowing down for. "Probability" means it's about the odds, not a guarantee. And "in buying situations" means it's about a particular moment, when someone actually needs the thing.

Sharp is clear that mental availability isn't awareness. Someone can know your brand exists and still not think of you when it counts. It isn't attitude or preference either (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute). A buyer might like you, even rate you highly, and still pick whoever came to mind first.

That's an uncomfortable idea if you run a small brand. It's tempting to pour all your energy into being adored by a few people and hope they spread the word. Being liked does help. Liking you and thinking of you at the right moment just aren't the same thing.

Picture this: a pipe bursts in your kitchen at 7am. You don't sit down and compare every plumber in town. You call the name you remember, maybe the one whose van you've seen parked on your street.

Your customers have their own version of that moment. A gift needed by Friday. A website that's suddenly broken. A birthday with no cake ordered. In that moment, the brand that comes to mind has a huge advantage over the one they'd rate higher if they had time to think.

What this means for a small brand

The book also has a chapter on differentiation versus distinctiveness. Our reading of it, in plain terms: people need to be able to spot you quickly, and they need to see you looking the same way, in the same places, again and again.

For a small brand, that could mean:

• a name that's easy to say and spell

• one set of colours and fonts, used everywhere from your packaging to your email footer

• the same profile picture and handle on every platform

• showing up regularly where your buyers already look

These are our suggestions, not quotes from Sharp. None of them is glamorous. They're about repetition. Changing your look every season because you're bored of it works against you, because each change gives people something new to learn.

The counterpoint

Sharp has critics. Critics, Les Binet among them, argue that emotional connection and differentiation still matter. And Sharp's own work says differentiation matters less than distinctiveness, not that it doesn't matter at all.

So we're not saying love is useless. If people feel warmly about you, that's a good thing to have. Our point is narrower: being easy to think of when someone is buying matters more than being adored by people who don't think of you when it counts.

One thing to do this week

Write down the moment someone needs what you sell. Be specific. What's just happened, where are they, and what are they typing or asking?

Then ask where your name would come from in that moment. A search result? A post they saw last week? A friend's recommendation? Check each of those places. Do you look and sound the same in all of them? If your Instagram, website and packaging look like three different businesses, pick one look and use it everywhere for the next few months.

When someone needs what you do, does your name come up first? Be honest.