Win the Shortlist, Not the Popularity Contest

Underdog brands can’t outspend category leaders on “awareness.” So how do you compete? By building mental availability at real decision moments.

You’re a marketing leader of a smaller brand, which means you’ve got less budget, smaller footprint, zero incumbent status, and you’re told time and again by the board to “drive brand awareness.” After all, that’s what the biggest brands in the category are doing (as if they don’t have enough already).

The problem is the biggest brands have the upper hand. They play the game on their terms, where they enjoy outsized exposure. They dictate the terms, and get waaaay better returns on every dollar they spend.

Why “brand awareness” is a mirage in a desert

For the Underdog, brand awareness is little more than a vanity metric. All it does is reinforce the category leader. You might attract a brief glimpse from a buyer who’s actually in the market. But more often than not, they’ll end up double-clicking on the category leader (yep, even if you’ve bought all the sponsored links at the top).

And if the buyer isn’t in the market, you’ve got virtually no chance. In the B2B world, just 5% of buyers are in-market at any given time. The reality is, most of your target buyers won’t be ready to buy for months or years, so there’s plenty of time for any “awareness” they might have had to vanish. Why’s that? Because B2B buying cycles are nothing if not long and complex.

Trigger, then poke. Always in that order

If you’re in B2B, you’re not always trying to close a sale this quarter. Or at least you shouldn’t be. For now, your job is to build and refresh memory links that pay off later. Your secret is mental availability – being easy to think of in specific buying situations. Then you make the shortlist when money is about to change hands.

You can’t expect to copy big-brand playbooks and succeed. That’s why the big question needs to shift from “have you heard of us?” to “do you think of us when X happens?” The only awareness that matters is awareness in certain contexts – being remembered in the situations where a buyer is actually ready to buy.

This happens on two fronts:

• Physical availability: How easy is it for buyers to actually get your product? Think distribution channels, presence in search results, and your ability to meet various customer needs.
• Mental availability: How easily does a brand come to mind when a customer is in the market to buy? Think ease of recall, branding consistency, and advertising that really stands out.

As an Underdog marketer, your job is to build on the latter. The goal is to connect mental availability to decision-stage behavior – so that when a particular problem arises, your brand is among the first one or two that comes to mind unprompted. Or when timelines are tight, you’re the solution they consider because it can be implemented by the end of the quarter, not in two years.

Don’t just be known – be known for specific situations (when they’re triggered)

Forget abstract attributes like being “premium” or “AI-powered” or “good value,” because, honestly, no one cares. What really matters are those real-world moments where people make actual decisions. Those are your category entry points (CEPs) – cues, needs, or situations that trigger customers to think about a product category and consider buying something. They’re the contexts that lead buyers to your brand, because mental availability isn’t just about people knowing your name – it’s how they connect your name to that trigger.

So, what does this look like in the real world?

Enter the “7 Ws” framework developed by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, where each “W” is a category entry point. (Yep. Another framework. But bear with me.)

Here’s what it means in a B2B context:

1. Why – motivations and benefits

This is perhaps the most important W in B2B. It addresses the reason the buyer is entering the category in the first place.

Let’s say you’re a small cybersecurity provider. You’ve got no chance of competing head-on with huge brands, so you can forget about owning the generic Whys of “to save money” or “to be more secure.” The leader already owns those, and they’ll cling to them like a labrador with a tennis ball.

So, what’s your Why? For software vendors, it might be about giving customers the functionality they need – and only what they need – without the bloat. Or, in logistics and supply chain management, an Underdog might position itself as a regional specialist, because the global provider treats smaller customers like an afterthought.

2. When – timing and occasions

If you’re not the category leader, you can’t afford to be everywhere all the time. But you can afford to be ruthless about showing up in the moments that matter: service renewals, leadership changes, incidents, audits.

Many B2B renewals happen on a 12-month cycle, so those windows are critical. That’s when buyers are already paying attention, already comparing options, and more open to change than usual.

Job changes are another strong When. A company announces a new HR director on LinkedIn? Target them with content like “Your first 90 days as HR Director: quick wins with payroll.” Nothing says “open to change” like the first week in a new role.

3. While – related activities

Big brands love to sell “strategic transformation” and the like. You want no part of that. Instead, look for the messy in-between moments – the problems that surface while big initiatives drag on for months (and often stall). It’s during those times that businesses – regardless of size – look for pragmatic solutions they can apply now.

Mergers and acquisitions are a good example. During M&A activity, teams are restructuring fast, trying to stabilize operations, and often revisiting vendor relationships. That’s often when an Underdog can earn a place on the shortlist.

4. With what – related products or services

Industry leaders like to push their full stacks. You win by being the best plug-in to whatever a customer already has in place. That’s when the category leader stops being public enemy number one and becomes a valued partner – official or not.

In this case, your marketing message should focus on how your product complements another. Where the incumbent might be all about “rip and replace,” your value proposition becomes “we fit into your existing environment.” No drama, no migration saga – just plain usefulness, working alongside the tools teams already trust.

5. With whom – stakeholders and social context

Big vendors usually sell to the board. They're much less interested in the people on the ground. You know – the ones actually doing the work and living with the headache. As an Underdog, your role is to make those people feel seen.

Say one of your ideal customer personas is the leader of a small, understaffed, and underfunded team that has to do everything themselves. They might not have final sign-off on spend, but they can certainly influence the decision. Your job as a marketer is to publish content that helps them make the case upward and earn buy-in from the people holding the purse strings.

6. Where – physical or virtual location

Forget about being the global provider across all industries. The incumbent might be a jack of all trades, but the Underdog can own specific contexts – at least when it comes to mental availability.

That might mean regions, sub-industries, or operating environments where the big brands feel clumsy and generic.

This is especially true in B2B tech, where compliance and security often shape the buying decision. For instance, a cloud provider offering local hosting in the EU has a meaningful advantage over US-headquartered hyperscalers, simply because it can meet European regulatory requirements more directly. And yes, buyers care about that far more than your “AI-powered dashboard.”

7. How feeling – emotional states

Yep, I know it doesn’t start with W, but cut me some slack. Incumbents sell “vision” and “innovation” at massive scale. Lots of theater, not much “we actually understand your problem.” The Underdog wins by being more human.

A smaller company might be deeply worried about the next security breach headline, but lack the budget – or appetite – for a mega vendor. If you’re a cybersecurity provider, that’s your opening: demonstrate the empathy, clarity, and practicality the incumbent often can’t.

So, what’s the answer? Stop chasing fame, and get on that shortlist

Whether you’re briefing your marketing partners or going it alone, category entry points are what translate into actual revenue. Sure, you can track a million things, but what matters is how buyers link a buying situation to your brand. Under-resourced brands don’t win by trying to match big-brand awareness. They win by being easy to think of in specific situations.

Here’s a quick rundown of what to do starting right now:

1. List around 20 CEPs using the 7 W’s framework. But don’t filter too early, or you’ll just end up with a sad little list that looks like everyone else’s.
2. Circle the Underdog-friendly CEPs. Consider where the big guys are too expensive, slow, generic, or simply overkill for your target customer. From there, pick two or three high-priority CEPs and commit to them – long enough for memory to actually form.
3. Write one sentence per CEP in plain English. “When X happens, we want buyers to think of us for Y” – this is your foundation for building a repeatable memory hook.
4. Show up where your CEPs show up. Think renewal seasons, job-change targeting, incident checklists, and newsworthy events. Then, if they do think of you, make sure they can quickly find everything they need to be nudged into making a purchase decision.

Sure, it might sound like hard work. But you’ll be waaaay more popular with the CEO the next time they say, “We need more brand awareness.” Because unless they’re willing to treble your marketing budget, you’re not going to outspend your biggest competitors.

Instead, focus on what actually triggers your audience – and earn a place on the shortlist. That’s how Underdogs win, and that’s what gets you noticed in the boardroom.