Referring to the OP, I think people become loyal to a specific brand because it gives them group identification.
I buy “brand X” because I am like other people who buy “brand X”, if you don’t like “brand X” then you don’t like me, and what I stand for, blah, blah, blah…
Of course, I only know this because I drink Diet Mt. Dew, which as we all know is vastly more superior to any two bit cola, and gives me incredible insight into just about any topic. (or does it cause short-term memory… something. I can’t remember.)
Because peoples’ older, more deeply ingrained loyalties have been destroyed by modernism, commercialism, other isms, but they still have the same human need to believe in something.
Major hijack…
Why, in this case the debate cries out to be made.
The Simpsons are in and of themselves and intricate and complex system. Yet, they have become old and stale… Futurama is good, but Simpsons fans who love it feel traitourous by watching it…
Bender is funny but is he as funny as Homer?
Homer is bad ass, but is he as bad ass as Bender?
You see why I have such a dilemma every Sunday night now?
You may now return to your regularly scheduled debate.
This is more like comparing Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Two products by the same manufacturer. You might like both, you might like one, but as these shows aren’t even on at the same time, there really is no competition.
There was an episode of Daria a week ago about this very concept. It is creepy to think of a college using its student base for marketing, but with all the marketing ploys on the Oregon State University campus, it seems to be the way they generate even more money to waste on athletics.
It would be nice if a bigger chunk of that money actually went to the classes. It might defray costs students have to pick up, like scantron sheets for the Psych department, or all the money that we have to pay for photocopies of articles from the English department.
Well, I’ll stick my neck out and say that a lot of “brand loyalty” is completely rational.
For example… I love the taste of Diet Coke and rarely drink any other beverage, finding the alternatives so disagreeable that I would rather go thirsty. Unfortunately, I live in a Pepsi area, and my choices are often quite limited. Quite often I have to BYOB to restaurants, which makes me feel quite uncomfortable.
Of course, if all the Pepsi drinkers around here would convert to my tastes (especially those who don’t even taste the difference), more restaurants would serve my favorite beverage.
In cases like this, where two or more brands pursue exclusive markets, it is quite reasonable for those with a strong preference to advocate their choice and try to increase its availability.
Non-cola allegiance is acceptable, as long as you’re aware that you call it Coke regardless of its actual provenance. This is true in most of the South. Eg:
“Want a Coke?”
“Sure.”
“What kind?”
“Orange.”
And you better not drink light beer. That is the unforgivable sin.
Heinz ketchup is, indeed, the only choice. I can tell when they sneak that other red crap into the Heinz bottles at restaurants, too.
I recently was foolish enough to go to this (laughable) temple of excess. I’m amazed that people have to pay-to see Coca-Cola advertising/brainwashing! You get to see a 1930’s soda fountain-with an explanation of why egg salad sandwiches cost more that ham sanwiches-how deliciously boring!
And, the kicker is the final tasting room-I had no idea that Coke marketed such bizarre concoctions around the world-who cares that Kenyans like goat-flovored coke!
I want my money back!
It’s basically a tribal thing. In ancient Rome, the chariot racing teams were identified by colors-reds, greens, blues, etc. The teams all had their fans, of course, and the fans identified themselves as reds, greens, blues, and so on. Sometimes rioting broke out between the fans. Centuries after the Roman circuses had ended and chariot races had vanished, Romans still thought of themselves as reds, greens or blues and had no idea why. The mods and rockers in early 60s Britain fought each other like cats and dogs, and couldn’t give a reason for it to save their lives. I’ve heard that at science fiction conventions in the late seventies, fights sometimes broke out between “Star Trek” fans and “Space: 1999” fans. Almost anything–music, styles of clothes, TV shows, computers, cars–can become a tribal totem, and the folks in the advertising and marketing fields are well aware of this.
Planned obsolescence? Nothing like throwing around catchy, yet empty and meaningless catchphrases. Planned obsolescence is a myth perpetuated by paranoid anti-corporate rabble-rousers. Like the cars that run on water, light bulbs that never burn out and pantyhose that never run…all being kept from us by the underhanded backroom, smoke-filled shenanigans of corportate America.
