Addicted to brands ?

A relationship too far

Addicted to brands

Whether it be fast food, clothing, vehicles, gadgets or subscriptions, we all have our regular used brands. The ones eyes are trained to recognise with constant advertising, no matter how enormous a supermarket, car park, selection of people, we instantly zoom in on the ‘safe’ stuff. The clothing that gets us noticed the car that portrays a status or personality we always wanted. Or the fast food that stays the same, no matter what foreign lands we explore. 

Throughout our life we experience thousands of brands, we recognise and trust certain brands, whilst actively disengaging with others. We form relationships, and bonds.
This is not necessarily positive or negative, it is after all human instinct to protect ourselves. We avoid danger, and often stay with what is familiar. For some of us the brand we come to buy and love becomes a part of us. Sticking with the same car manufacturers or a brand of clothing that fits our personality. We use our previous consumer contracts with brands as our experience, our instinct. Companies know that we will stick with their brand if we feel safe, we will become loyal, almost like a citizen is loyal to their country.

But on the flipside that brand/company now know that I will go out of my way to find and use their service. They know I feel safe, I know what to expect from them, the brand is becoming part of the body. Loosing that brand is almost like losing a limb. They know that I don’t mind paying a bit more, I’m now loyal, trusting higher costs are for the greater good. It’s no longer a consumer relationship, it’s a friendship. Ok……. Maybe not a true friendship, I don’t get to sit down and tell these brands about myself. I don’t go out for a drink with the CEO’s and managers.

But now I pose a question……….. In the customer – brand relationship, Do I have to sit down and tell the top CEO’s and managers my dislikes/ likes and shopping habits ?

Brands decide to take their friendships to whole new levels, they offer me a loyalty card, they’ll access mobile WIFI, or track phone ID’s. Creating profiles. Knowing my habits, when I’m browsing  items on their stores WIFI, plotting where high foot traffic areas in store, how long I shop, my journey through the store, what I buy and when I buy. This may not necessarily be negative, were told that soon companies may be able to offer comparable prices for products, if we begin to compare prices on the in store WIFI.

Throughout our relationship with these brands we have become loyal, trusting and now giving our buying habits over to the companies freely. But have we become blind? A brand is not a friend or family member, a person in fact. Our relationship is only in existence because companies need to make profit, and we need to get necessary services. The trust in the relationship makes us cancel out any negatives, the whispers of poorly paid, abused workers in far away countries. The whispers that the food we buy contains anything but the food we thought we were buying. The animals being abused, in despicable conditions. All because we trust a brand, were loyal to a brand or want the status a brand can suddenly put on us.

I say, we should throw away these shackles, grab the reigns, and begin to forge our own paths. Making sensible judgments on brands. Realising just what a brand is, and what role we play in the relationship between retailer and customer.  What do you think ?