Dr. Robert Deutsch, an anthropologist and founder of marketing firm Brain Sells, speaks up about brands. He says that people act rather than think; yet another nod to the irrationality of purchase decisions and behavior by the everyday Joe.
While the entire article was interesting, what really got me thinking was the part where he talks about power of a brand is in the way it helps a person become more of him or herself. He suggests that brand loyalty is actually just self-loyalty in diguise. He says, "There is no such thing as product loyalty; that's commodity-based. Attachment leads to self-loyalty. It looks like product loyalty, but it's not; it's 'through you I become more of me.'"
People buy brands to become more of themselves and to tap into self-loyalty huh? I believe it. It's all very wrapped up in identity. It's easy to see in the fashion category. I like how J. Crew does a relaxed, smart, private school prep. I went to UofR. Private and prep describe the school. Polo would be a front runner. But Polo doesn't capture relaxed and smart to me like J. Crew does. It's more money and I'm more comfortable. See the connections?
I started to think that maybe it's harder to see this relationship, "through you I become more me" in the parity product category like toilet paper (although I don't doubt that it's there). I started to think about the reason I buy certain parity products. Typically I buy whatever is cheapest across any category. If it's on sale, it's going in my basket by necessity. I have to trade down EVERYWHERE in EVERY category so that I can feed my passion for fashion. When it comes to fashions I still buy on sale BUT I try to make sure it's a sale that is brand name.
Still, as hard as it was to come up with an example, I did. Here it is- I have German heritage and so I buy NIVEA over every other lotion simply because I remember my Oma using it and it makes me feel true to me and my story. Every-time I use it, I think of all my relatives over seas. They probably don't use it, but it's meaningful for me. Truth be told, I think it's a little bit thick but I keep buying it anyways because of that emotional connection. I also will buy a particular kind of chocolate from Belgium that Oma used to stock up on it too.
Anyways, you get my point. The article is worth reading but if you can't get to it, this is the conclusion:
Marketers should throw out purchase funnel models "and consider brand attachment as the yellow brick road -- "a journey I make with you that fills out what's already latent in me," Deutsch says. Great marketers are therefore shamans."
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