StudioNorth launches TOM Index for B2B brand visibility

StudioNorth introduced a new monthly ranking that measures how B2B brands show up in buyer memory and in AI-generated answers. The free, editorially independent TOM Index is aimed at marketing, sales and growth leaders trying to understand whether their brands make the shortlist before prospects even start talking to sales.

Why it matters: - B2B shortlists are increasingly shaped before direct sales conversations begin, inside AI summaries, answer panels and category comparisons. - Brands that are unclear to buyers or misread by AI can be filtered out before an opportunity is visible. - StudioNorth says the TOM Index gives leaders a way to measure that combined human-and-AI visibility problem.

What happened: - StudioNorth launched the TOM Index on July 14, 2026. - The index is described as the first editorially independent ranking of B2B brand visibility across both human memory and AI understanding. - TOM stands for Top of Mind and Top of Model. - The index is public, free to read and aimed at marketing, sales and growth leaders in B2B categories.

The details: - The TOM Index ranks the TOM 100, or the 100 most visible brands in each category, by TOM Score. - The index publishes monthly. - It launches in technology categories first, including Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Networking and Solutions Providers. - Healthcare and manufacturing categories are expected to follow. - No brand can pay to be included, ranked higher or removed. - Client and non-client brands are scored by the same method. - The scoring uses public market signals and AI model analysis, not a commercial relationship. - Each TOM Score combines Top of Mind and Top of Model. - Top of Mind measures how clearly buyers recognize, understand, trust and choose a brand. - Top of Model measures how accurately AI systems place, surface, summarize and compare a brand in buying-context prompts. - Each month, the index runs hundreds of buying-context prompts across Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini. - The index measures how each brand appears in those results. - The TOM Index is available now at TheTOMIndex.com.

Between the lines: - StudioNorth is positioning the index as a category-level signal, not a marketing vanity metric. - The launch reflects a broader shift in how B2B discovery works, with AI systems now influencing which brands buyers see and compare first. - The editorial independence claim is central to the product’s credibility because it is meant to show how the market and the models already interpret a brand. - StudioNorth is pairing the category index with a brand-specific Brand Visibility Audit that applies the same Top of Mind and Top of Model lens to one brand, its competitive set and a 12-month improvement path. - Mark Mohr, StudioNorth CEO, said brand visibility has become a two-front challenge: earning a place in buyer memory and being represented accurately by the systems buyers use to make sense of a market. - Caroline DeVore, StudioNorth executive director of growth and innovation, said the most valuable moment is seeing how models describe a brand, because the gap is now measurable and therefore movable.

What's next: - StudioNorth plans to expand TOM Index coverage beyond the initial technology categories. - Healthcare and manufacturing are next in line. - StudioNorth will continue publishing the index monthly as the TOM 100 shifts over time. - The Brand Visibility Audit is positioned as the next step for brands that want a more detailed, competitive read on where they stand and how to improve.

The bottom line: - StudioNorth is betting that B2B visibility now depends on both what buyers remember and what AI systems surface. Brands that cannot measure both may not know they have been left off the shortlist until the shortlist is already set.