The psychology of brand preference can be debated for days. There are many factors that contribute to why consumers are devotees to particular brands. There are generational reasons, sensory factors, emotional ties, environmental concerns…but what about the brands that consumers won’t touch?
These consumers are so devoted to a brand that they wouldn’t be caught dead with the competition. My publisher, for example, only drinks Coke and would never dream of reaching for a Pepsi even if he was dying of thirst and it was the only thing to drink. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating...I think.
My brother-in-law is another brand devotee. He is such a die-hard University of Michigan football fan and as most Big Ten fans know, Michigan and Ohio State are old rivals. He hates the “Buckeye” fans so much that when he and my sister were in the market for a house last summer, he refused to look at one of the homes in their price range because there was a Buckeye tree in the back yard.
Target designer Isaac Mizrahi summed it up best when, in a Fortune article last fall, he sparred with critics of his mass market “luxury” brand, calling them “brand racists.”
Maybe that’s too harsh, but Mizrahi brings up a point that's often overlooked by marketers. How much impact do consumers have on the brands that they discriminate against? How much do they detract from the brands they shun?
Maybe you know a die-hard consumer like my publisher or brother-in-law, or maybe you excercise brand bias. If so, share your story. Which brands would you never go near?
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