Category dominance is defined as the strength of the directional association from a product category to a brand. Crest and Close- Up are instances of the toothpaste category. Category dominance is a measure of the degree to which hearing or thinking of the category (e.g., toothpaste) evokes the brand (e.g., Crest or Close-Up).
In research, according to the methodology employed to measure category dominance, a strong category-to-brand association results in a brand being named earlier, recalled more frequently, classified faster and recognized sooner (Farquhar and Herr 1992).