Brand Loyalty Is For Suckers

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Did you hear that? We are all a bunch of chumps. Wait. What? Surely this article isn't talking about any of us. ;)

Every year, when a new tech product is announced, the world divides into two kinds of people: people who line up to buy the New Shiny Thing, and people who rant about how New Shiny Thing sucks. Both of those groups of people are chumps. Loyalty to a brand—whether it’s love or hatred—is a poison that makes you stupid.
 
I have no brand loyalty, I buy things that fit what I need at the moment.

One year it's Corsair/Evga/Asus the next it's Fractal Design/Zotac/ASRock
 
I think I fall into a third group. I think we're called "meh". We're closely related to the Grumpy Old Men. New iPhone? meh, my current phone meets my needs. Shiny new Intel CPU? Meh, my 6-year-old Athlon X3 still all the games I have (wait. is it really that old!?). Gigantic-screened Galaxy S-whatever? meh, I'd rather have a phone that fits in my pocket ... :p

Now get off my lawn.
 
I agree and disagree. I'm loyal to principles. I value the ability to do what I want with a product I own. This means I'm not willing to participate in Apple's market place as my core value of being able to install an app I want to on a device I own should be dictated by me, not Apple. Due to this I will not consider Apple devices.

I do think the best way to evaluate each product is on it's own merits, though things like service after the sale (that isn't a technical specification) need to be considered as well.
 
Brand loyalty is kinda dumb, but without it, there'd be a lot less arguing about video card companies, CPU manufacturers, web browsers, video game consoles, political parties (yeah, that's brand loyalty too :p) and that'd make for a far less funny-cakes forum.
 
Didn't read the article so commenting blind...
Brand loyalty might be for suckers or it might be for people heavily invested in an ecosystem. If you have $500 in android or Apple or Windows software, you might want to stick with a device capable of running that software.

Now, if we're talking completely interchangeable products, like a WD vs HGST hard drive, then yeah, brand loyalty is for suckers, go with the best product (based on predicted usage criteria).
 
Waiting for the Android wagon to show up...
 
Kueller said:
Didn't read the article so commenting blind...
Brand loyalty might be for suckers or it might be for people heavily invested in an ecosystem.
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Or if you like graphics cards that don't compensate for overscan on a monitor.

Or if you like having updated drivers for a new game's release.
 
I have some brand loyalty. It wont let me ignore mistakes or lower quality, it will just make me look at said brand first before others. If a company's product has made me happy with my purchase each time I have purchased it, then they will be first pick sometimes despite a better product/price ratio item. For me it is a lot about the service and experience I have with a company, down to their technical and support staff interactions.
 
Car fanboys are the worst. Most manufactures now make some awesome cars, but some issue they or their 3rd cousin had with an '91 model after driving it for 80k on its original fluids must mean they make shitty cars today. I still have my old '94 Explorer (as a 3rd backup car, really a winter vehicle) with 250k on it on original engine and drive train. By bro has an old '99 S10 (has two other much newer nice trucks too) 5 speed with about 310k on it as well with original engine/drive train. Anything can last you if you take care of it.

There are certain products where being brand loyal is a necessity, but it's mostly smaller consumable stuff where there's not much variety to begin with.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
Or if you like graphics cards that don't compensate for overscan on a monitor.

Or if you like having updated drivers for a new game's release.
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thats not a brand loyalty thing, thats paying for a product that you know is heavily supported and frequently updated
 
Depends ... the advent of App stores and product specific software has created more of a lock in effect (you could switch brands but the pain level and price of remaining with the historical brand is a lot lower) ... also there are other brands where it isn't practical to constantly switch ... Rental cars, airlines, hotels, restaurants, etc all reward repeat customers ... although it might help send a message if you split your flights between all 4 major carriers, you also hurt yourself by failing to benefit from their loyalty programs
 
In electronics my brand loyalty was driven by some real factors. This is because I was the guy that had to fix these things.
In Televisions (pre HD and flat screens) it was Toshiba. They beat everyone on color fidelity. Very good flesh tones, etc. The picture tube always had a long life and the electronics and build quality was always excellent. Sony was very good also, but it was a lot more expensive to purchase and repair. In audio gear in general, I really liked Panasonic, Technics.
There are some brands I grew to HATE in this also. One is Samsung. Samsung consumer electronics was absolute JUNK in those days. I would never buy a Samsung anything because of this. Couple years ago we changed cell carriers and they offered a Samsung smart phone. Well, I thought my bias against them was over 20 years old; and they are very popular. So, we bought the Samsung phone. Samsung (Centura) phones were JUNK.
 
For me, I would say I have a certain amount of flexible brand loyalty. I tend to stick to brands that I've had the most positive experience with. Brands like Western Digital and Corsair are my first choice. My casing, RAM, PSU are all Corsair. I also tend to stick to nVidia GPU for their driver support.

But of course I'll have to ensure it's flexible. I will not do it when it doesn't make sense (depending on what metric matters to use), and if I start getting bad experience, I'll have no issues looking elsewhere. I've done that with motherboards.
 
T4rd said:
Car fanboys are the worst. Most manufactures now make some awesome cars, but some issue they or their 3rd cousin had with an '91 model after driving it for 80k on its original fluids must mean they make shitty cars today. I still have my old '94 Explorer (as a 3rd backup car, really a winter vehicle) with 250k on it on original engine and drive train. By bro has an old '99 S10 (has two other much newer nice trucks too) 5 speed with about 310k on it as well with original engine/drive train. Anything can last you if you take care of it.

There are certain products where being brand loyal is a necessity, but it's mostly smaller consumable stuff where there's not much variety to begin with.
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There's reasonable brand loyalty and just plain stupid. Take my 97 Jeep XJ for example. The straight 6 is amazingly reliable and still runs good with 180k miles, but friend of mine bought a 2006 Jeep Commander with a 4.7L V8 and that thing had cracked heads for no reason. Coolant was changed and he put synthetic $70 oil in it. Turns out it's a common problem probably due to a design flaw. Everyone knows that after they stopped making the 4.0L straight six engines the quality of Jeeps have gone to shit.

Yet there's the Geforce GTX 970 that is the best selling graphics card in the market. Despite the obvious flaws of 3.5GB memory and no Async Compute like AMD, people bought them like crazy. Even recent benchmarks show that even in DX11 games the GTX 970 just fights against AMD's 290/290X/390. Though admittedly it's because Nvidia does a very good job with their DX11 drivers, where AMD still struggles to this day. But in light of DX12 and the new refresh of the 390's the 970 is just not a sensible buy.
 
Ashbringer said:
There's reasonable brand loyalty and just plain stupid. Take my 97 Jeep XJ for example. The straight 6 is amazingly reliable and still runs good with 180k miles, but friend of mine bought a 2006 Jeep Commander with a 4.7L V8 and that thing had cracked heads for no reason. Coolant was changed and he put synthetic $70 oil in it. Turns out it's a common problem probably due to a design flaw. Everyone knows that after they stopped making the 4.0L straight six engines the quality of Jeeps have gone to shit.

Yet there's the Geforce GTX 970 that is the best selling graphics card in the market. Despite the obvious flaws of 3.5GB memory and no Async Compute like AMD, people bought them like crazy. Even recent benchmarks show that even in DX11 games the GTX 970 just fights against AMD's 290/290X/390. Though admittedly it's because Nvidia does a very good job with their DX11 drivers, where AMD still struggles to this day. But in light of DX12 and the new refresh of the 390's the 970 is just not a sensible buy.
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Sometimes I don't think it's brand loyalty, as much as stupidity and refusal to listen to logic (fact check, research, etc.). I'm a car guy as well, though I just lease nowadays, so I'll never get to experience Porsche maintenance woes. Most of the people I know have no issue purchasing a used BMW with over 100K miles, because they know they're solid cars through and through (especially older 3 and 5 series models), yet there's this stigma with how expensive parts are, and how "All german cars break". Sure, parts are pricier, but Hyundai parts are expensive as fuck too when it all boils down to what breaks on a car.

I'm completely against blindly saying something is great, when in reality, people don't know why it's great (due to not having the knowledge, which is related to not doing research, etc.) It's just that one thing that a majority of people claim to be wonderful, so there's now a group think effect in place.
 
I hate brand loyalty. Those companies that everyone is so loyal to couldn't care less about you and your loyalty and would ditch you in a heart beat if that meant replacing you with someone they think is easier to market to. Some brands do tend to dominate their markets so its not really loyalty when you keep buying their products. Brand loyalty makes it so companies don't have to innovate to stay in business because the fantards will buy the inferior products anyways. They end up not even competing with their competition because they do not have to. Now if youu have some kind of vested interest in the company, self/family/friends work for the company or have stock or something in the company, then it makes sense but if not then its just foolish.
 
Sure it is. I didn't give a shit about brands even as a kid.

BigJayDogg3 said:
Or if you like graphics cards that don't compensate for overscan on a monitor.

Or if you like having updated drivers for a new game's release.
Click to expand...

tumblr_mpzttwaVU91sp9fcho1_500.gif
 
I think it makes sense to be loyal to a brand that consistently gives you what you want for the price you are willing to pay, or good customer service etc.

Its simple really, identify what you want, who provides what you want for what you are willing to pay, and then if one of those companies is someone you always have a good experience with why not give them your business.

If you mean blind loyalty then yeah that is ignorant.
 
Some brands deserve loyalty, as long as I think they do, I'm IN.
.
I will check on competition and complaints. Brands change.

No magic in a logo, does it fulfill a need..
 
HardOCP is a site for hardware, when deviating from this focus, I believe the articles should meet an intellectual standard beyond this one.

This article misses out on points that are obvious, which leads me to believe it's author is not particularly informed, and is just pushing out more trash.
 
Kalabalana said:
HardOCP is a site for hardware, when deviating from this focus, I believe the articles should meet an intellectual standard beyond this one.

This article misses out on points that are obvious, which leads me to believe it's author is not particularly informed, and is just pushing out more trash.
Click to expand...

Come on, where your [H] loyalty?? :)
 
Yea, fuck that brand loyalty! Why go to a brand when you've had good experiences with?!
 
I can think of two subforums where thems fighting words.
 
Normally stick with brands that give the best results and are considerate when/if problems arise, have been branching out a bit more these days, had picked up a set of corsair desktop speakers and am truly impressed (was shocked a memory company came out with speakers). Totally bummed with sound cards though, ran over my soundblaster with my car………… As far as Apple, don’t like the constraints accompanied with their products, so I tend to avoid them.
 
I dislike the article because it uses some pillars which put people in a certain corner. Fanboy there is nothing wrong with it but it becomes somewhat of a burden when you pretend to put some weight behind it. When you end up in an argument and call someone fanboy did you win ?

Short sighted people need to place people in boxes where they can associate them with whatever they feel justified.

The whole brand loyalty is the same stigma as the fanboy part boom labelled someone and now you can justify whatever bullshit you make up.

You don't have to be what other people are you don't have to spend your money on brand X or Y if you don't like to.

purchasing and self-identity are linked. To some extent, that’s fine it’s good to be happy with the things you buy, and happy with the role they fill in your life. But when a brand goes past “I’m happy I bought this, it meets my needs,” to “This product/company makes me feel good about who I am,” or worse to “Anyone who chooses a different product doesn’t understand/is stupid,” you’ve fallen right into their trap. You’re being used as a weapon in a fight where you don’t actually have a stake: to drive sales for that company and diminish the users of their competitors.
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If the world was only this simple ;)
 
Pieter3dnow said:
I dislike the article because it uses some pillars which put people in a certain corner. Fanboy there is nothing wrong with it but it becomes somewhat of a burden when you pretend to put some weight behind it. When you end up in an argument and call someone fanboy did you win ?

Short sighted people need to place people in boxes where they can associate them with whatever they feel justified.

The whole brand loyalty is the same stigma as the fanboy part boom labelled someone and now you can justify whatever bullshit you make up.

You don't have to be what other people are you don't have to spend your money on brand X or Y if you don't like to.



If the world was only this simple ;)
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I like you.

It has always been a war of sides. Sports team, beverage, car, game console, country/city life and most arguments end with as you said "you are a fanboy" or are dumb because you don't but the same product they buy.Consumers fighting consumers over who is buying what. Was like coke and pepsi when I was in school and sega/nintendo. Who cares? I honestly don't value the opinion of someone who insults others based on their purchase, I might however ask what they like about the product if they aren't an asshole about it.
 
Brand loyalty is fine as long as said brand doesn't do you wrong. If there are people who have found zero fault worth caring about in their iPhones, who the fuck am I to tell them not to buy Apple? However I wouldn't say buy everything Apple just because one product is good. I mean hell how many different products does GE's mega corp cover?

I love Toyota cars, since I could drive I've had mostly Toyota (a Geo Prizm in the mix, but that was built at a Toyota plant :D), and they have worked awesome for me even when I abused the ever living shit out of them. Granted there's quite a few years between cars but who cares, that's a good thing, the upside is I can hear issues with my brand as the pop up and 10+ years after buying a car I can decide if I still want to be loyal to that brand, as it stands now, my next car very well might be a Toyota as well, and most of that can be accounted for the fact that I can drive a car for 10 years without any major problems at all.
 
canna said:
I agree and disagree. I'm loyal to principles. I value the ability to do what I want with a product I own. This means I'm not willing to participate in Apple's market place as my core value of being able to install an app I want to on a device I own should be dictated by me, not Apple. Due to this I will not consider Apple devices.

I do think the best way to evaluate each product is on it's own merits, though things like service after the sale (that isn't a technical specification) need to be considered as well.
Click to expand...

So then you obviously run a BSD derivative so you have access to the full source as well as be able to redistribute with or without source as you see fit, correct?
 
Brand loyalty is a marketing ploy which Apple is awesome at. I would never buy a $500+ phone of any make. My laptop which has a 100x great return on investment barely cost that. I am just rocking my $150 refurbished Nexus 5 on my $20 month (after all taxes and fees) Cricket (AT&T) unlimited everything (2.5gb high speed then throttled).

This loyalty just makes the sheep poorer. A $500+ phone every two years and $80/mo service does not provide a 4 times plus greater benefit.

I buy the right tool for the job at the lowest price possible. I start at the bottom and stop going up in price once the price does not go up with the benefit/ROI.
 
We also drive a Civic and a Prius and own a home that either of us could afford on our own if we were to get divorced. Don't have cable/sat. Max 401k. Live within your means people. You are literally giving away your livelihood.

*We are not "rich/wealthy" by any stretch of the imagination. Every raise I increase my 401k so I didn't feel the raise until it was maxed. Paid off all debts except house (4.875%) and cars (1.49%). In process of refinancing house for fewer years and lower interest. Saving money has become a game and it doesn't even hurt, we don't go crazy frugal.
 
No brand loyalty here. If it shoots well and hits what I aim at, that's good enough for me. (Oh wait, wrong forum)
 
Mohonri said:
I think I fall into a third group. I think we're called "meh". We're closely related to the Grumpy Old Men. New iPhone? meh, my current phone meets my needs. Shiny new Intel CPU? Meh, my 6-year-old Athlon X3 still all the games I have (wait. is it really that old!?). Gigantic-screened Galaxy S-whatever? meh, I'd rather have a phone that fits in my pocket ... :p

Now get off my lawn.
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+1

Also, it's not that I hate certain brands, it's more that I'm bothered that people would waste so much money on a inferior product :)
 
mikefxu said:
We also drive a Civic and a Prius and own a home that either of us could afford on our own if we were to get divorced. Don't have cable/sat. Max 401k. Live within your means people. You are literally giving away your livelihood.

*We are not "rich/wealthy" by any stretch of the imagination. Every raise I increase my 401k so I didn't feel the raise until it was maxed. Paid off all debts except house (4.875%) and cars (1.49%). In process of refinancing house for fewer years and lower interest. Saving money has become a game and it doesn't even hurt, we don't go crazy frugal.
Click to expand...

About the same for my, except I owe so little on the house that it's not worth spending the money to refinance, and while one car's been paid off for years, the other is financed at 0%, so it makes no sense to pay it off early.

Even if we where both working, and had 20% down, we couldn't afford to buy the house we live in as it's worth over 3x what I paid for it 20 years ago. I don't know how people afford to buy houses in my city any more.
 
T4rd said:
Car fanboys are the worst. Most manufactures now make some awesome cars, but some issue they or their 3rd cousin had with an '91 model after driving it for 80k on its original fluids must mean they make shitty cars today. I still have my old '94 Explorer (as a 3rd backup car, really a winter vehicle) with 250k on it on original engine and drive train. By bro has an old '99 S10 (has two other much newer nice trucks too) 5 speed with about 310k on it as well with original engine/drive train. Anything can last you if you take care of it.
Click to expand...

And I had a 95 Ford Explorer (purchased new), that had more problems than every other car I've own over the past 35 years, COMBINED. It was the 1st and last American branded/made car I've ever owned.

It wasn't abused, and the fluids where always changed on schedule. The motor was replaced at less than a year under warranty, and the transmission was rebuilt around 28,000, and again at 55,000. Never towed anything, and it was usually just me in the car. All this doesn't include the numerous other small problems. The extended warranty I bought for it was one of the best investments I ever made.

That compares to my last Toyota, that was never in the shop over the 11 years I owned it, other than for maintenance like oil changes and tires.
 
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