Brand Loyalty for the Suckers
Every year a new tech product is announced, the world is divided into two types of people: people who line up to buy New Shiny Thing, and people who rant about New Shiny Thing sucking. Both of these groups of people are morons. Brand loyalty – be it love or hate – is the poison that makes you stupid.
Brand loyalty drives you into willful lazy monopolies
As I watched (and hilariously taunt) Apple’s last performance, I came across a touch of Shannon Morse, host and producer of Hak5 and TekThing . I commented that brand loyalty is bad and she answered why:
She’s absolutely right. Placing your banner on the side of the “brand” or even a specific product as a whole is a set of shackles imposed on oneself. It is a “monopoly of choice” where you trust the company to provide everything you need, when you need it, and never violate your privacy, never overcharge you for services, or treat you like a customer.
You’ve probably experienced this too. We all have a friend who “only buys Apple products because they are simply better designed” or “more reliable.” But this material is actually a mask for “that everything works together and I don’t need to think about it.” If you have this mindset, it will be difficult to leave. And as soon as they block you, Apple will introduce a new laptop without USB ports and say, “You don’t need USB, try this port! If you really need it, we can sell you an adapter. For $ 79. “
When you trust a company to meet your every need, you are deprived of the ability to make intelligent decisions about what you use, when and why. Instead, that loyalty forces you to distort your needs in the way the company gives you. They tell you what to buy, not the other way around.
Brand loyalty encourages fan worship
From a marketing perspective, the whole point of a “brand” is to encourage people to develop an emotional attachment to a product. Companies don’t just want you to protect them, they depend on it . They do their best to make you feel that your personality is somehow connected to the foods you buy, the drinks you consume, the computer you use, and even the toilet paper you wipe your butt with. They need you to feel this attachment, because first of all it makes you come back.
Remember in 2012 when Wii U was released? At the time, it tended to be criticized by reviewers who complained about the lack of games and other problems after its launch . You would think people would sit and wait. Nope. This hasn’t stopped people from lining up in the winter cold to get a limited number of stores, or building trackers for Wii U , scouring the Internet for potential customers, sleeping in parking lots and driving for hours.
This is a great example of how a brand dictates a purchase. People were waiting in the cold because this is Nintendo. They trusted the company and the brand promise. They felt like they were part of something big, despite the facts. And of course, the Wii U ended up earning its bands , but it took two years, a lot of games, and some price cuts to get to it. Buying now will be considered a smart purchase. Then buying made you an “early adopter” or the polite expression “free beta tester”.
There is a reason why we are drawn into this. The psychology of brand loyalty is rooted in social identity theory : the notion that our self-image is related to our social group. We “identify” with people who buy what we do. On top of that, you have the Diderot effect , which occurs when our purchases directly affect our sense of self . We try a new product, are happy with it, and suddenly we feel a kinship with people who have the same thing because they “understand” us. If you’ve ever gotten into a fire war between PlayStation and Xbox, you know what I mean. Their choice of console, smartphone, or PC graphics card simply “says something” about who you are that these “other guys” don’t understand.
Of course, this encourages us to do one thing: buy more products from this company and support them because “you know they do good things.” Well, of course there is, but many companies do the same, and we forget about it almost instantly. We fall prey to choice bias and rationalize our decisions as correct in any context, for all people and all identities. Since it was right for us , we assume it should be right, period.
There is no shortage of research that supports the idea of the relationship between shopping and self-identification . It’s okay to some extent – it’s nice to be happy with the things you buy and the role they play in your life. But when the brand goes from “I’m happy I bought this, it meets my needs” to “This product / company makes me feel good for who I am” or worse, “Anyone who chooses a different product, it does not. ” “I don’t understand / stupid,” you fell right into their trap. You are being used as a weapon in a struggle that you are not actually interested in: to increase the sales of this company and reduce the number of users of its competitors.
Brand loyalty degrades product quality
This psychology is not only about making you love the company you patronize. You also need to make sure that you hate the competition or any alternatives in the same area. But it’s bad for everyone, including you: when you hold a company accountable for your mistakes (and praise what other companies do well), everyone makes better products.
But these companies don’t like competition. Why do you think Comcast and Verizon happily advertise each other by name but stay away from each other when it comes to asking for zip codes? They want to make sure you only have one option for where you live so they can take whatever they want from you and not worry about running away with another guy.
Blind loyalty (and blind hatred) prevents us from demanding better products from the companies we patronize. If all they hear is how perfect they are and how terrible their competitors are, they have no reason to innovate or improve. If their clients are incapable of being skeptical, why would they? Competition matters, and it drives everyone forward. Where would the iPhone be if Android hadn’t pushed them towards multitasking or a notification center? And where would Android be if iOS hadn’t appeared and changed the game for smartphones ?
This “us versus them” mindset has another sinister effect: it makes it clear that other companies (and, by proxy, their backers) “don’t get it.” It encourages you to listen to talking points and explanations of why their products are inferior and why the people who choose them are not informed (or worse, ignorant and stupid). It forces you to dig in your heels in defense of a company or product that, let’s be real, doesn’t need protection and be able to stand its ground.
Brand loyalty uses you as a weapon and encourages blind consumption
Do you know Lay’s Make Us A Taste campaign ? Where they release four new flavors of potato chips and then tell you that somehow, for some reason, they need your help to narrow the circle down to one (as if they haven’t shown that they can start all four and will everything be ok?) to vote, you essentially need to provide information about their products on Twitter or Instagram, or agree to have them send you text messages about their products. This will allow you to join their “ambassadors of taste”, which is the codename for “unpaid food soldier in our marketing department.” Don’t believe us? See comments on their Facebook page . People are ready to fight and fight for the taste of chips for hours of their lives .
Don’t get us wrong: enthusiasm can be good, and finding the best product for you is good too. But when the enthusiasm turns to standing in line for 8 hours or showing off to people with different preferences, you are just a foot soldier in the marketing war. And you don’t even get paid for your services.
PR and marketing strategy of each company relies on this to one degree or another. Whether they call you “brand ambassadors,” “street crew,” or “angry fans,” they expect you to go and do your marketing for them. This is the most outwardly destructive element of brand loyalty: it is one thing to lose your identity to the consumer choices you make, but embracing the Netflix gospel and vowing to crush the Unfaithful Hulu makes you a villain and divides you. is spreading like a consumer cancer. Nobody wins here except the company you defend for no good reason.
And it really is – when you join the army of some company’s brands, take part in comments in sections and forums, fight for them, turn informing about your product choice into a permanent job and make sure that everyone who thinks differently, than you, felt humiliated. after they interact with you, it makes you a sucker. You can do better. We can do everything.