We all have brands that we love, whether it’s clothing, cars, electronics or any other area of life. There are reasons that we love those brands, but it can be dangerous to stick with one particular brand simply due to loyalty.
“I’ll never leave”
This post comes from two recent experiences. The first was at a meeting not long ago when someone I respect very much said they’d “never buy anything other than an iPhone again”. While they clearly love their iPhone, and it indeed is the best available phone for many people, pledging to stay loyal no matter what is just silly.
I was a huge iPhone fan in the early days, because they were the best phones for me. Right now I’m loving Android because the Droid Turbo 2 is the best phone for me (similar to how the Droid Turbo was last year). In the future, who knows? If it makes sense to go back to an iPhone, I will. Or if a Windows-powered phone fits me best, I’ll do that. I really love Android right now, but I’m not going to stick with them out of some weird loyalty; I’ll stick with them if they’re the best solution for me.
“Brand Loyalty is for Suckers”
The other recent event that inspired this post was an article in Lifehacker titled “Brand Loyalty is for Suckers“, which is a deeper dive into this very topic. Check out their article when you have a chance.
WordPress
Another example that hits close to us is WordPress. It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of WordPress and we use it for every site that we build. This post talks about why, but will that always be the case? Probably not. We’re always keeping our eyes open for new platforms and systems that might be of greater benefit to our clients than WordPress is. We have no plans to use anything other than WordPress in the near future, but we’re not going to cling to it out of loyalty if it’s not the right answer one day.
Other examples
Ford: I’m a Ford guy. Love their cars and have been mostly exclusive to them for the past 20 years. If another car fits me better, though, I’ll switch.
Motorola: A year ago, I thought that Motorola made the best phones around. They still might, but they’re slipping quickly (see “Motorola, What the Hell is Going on With You?” from Droid Life). I’ve used their phones for the last few years, and I’m even wearing a Moto 360 watch, but who knows what the future holds. I still love Motorola, but I’m not going to get one of their new phones next year if I don’t think it’ll get the proper support.
Teamwork PM: I’ve spent some time over the past six months singing the praises of the Teamwork task management software. It’s indeed solid software, but we decided to make the switch back to Asana. At this point I don’t see us moving again the future, but we’ll certainly keep our eyes open to anything that might make us more efficient.
Slack: We’re big fans of using Slack for internal communication. They’re growing crazy fast, and have been a great addition to our toolset. Other companies have been adding chat features to their software (including Evernote and Asana), and thus far we’re sticking with Slack but we’re keeping an eye on the other solutions out there.
What about you?
What brands are you fiercely loyal to? Would you ever be willing to switch in the future?
