Are you loyal to fewer brands now than you were ten years ago? Before you read any further take a few minutes to write down the list of the top 10 brands you are highly loyal to — i.e. you buy them every time you go to the store. How long did it take you to list ten?
For me it wasn’t easy to quickly come up with my list. I really had to think about it for a while, so maybe I’m not as brand loyal as I used to be. One reason could be that I now buy a lot of products on Amazon Prime (TP, tissue, laundry detergent, paper towels, dog bones, etc.) where I don’t care as much about the brand as long as the rating is good and the price is low (Amazon’s private label is good enough in most cases).
That’s a big change from just a few years ago when I went to the grocery store and bought the same name brands trip after trip. Then again, maybe I wasn’t truly loyal to Bounty towels or Puffs tissues but I just bought them because they dominated the shelf space — and because it wasn’t worth the effort required to evaluate the quality/value of the competitors. But today Amazon, and other online stores, make it super easy to find dozens of alternative brands with great quality/value and have them delivered to your door. Plus the big name brands have a tough time dominating your field of vision amongst the 20 other products on the page.
Not surprisingly (and like millions of other people) I’m no longer loyal to “commodity” brands — sorry P&G but store/private label products are damn good these days.
So what brands am I loyal to? It took me a couple hours to come up with the following list.
F45 – technology enabled gym featuring 45 minute high intensity workouts. I’m addicted and as a result am now in the best shape of my life (hence my loyalty).
Lucky Jeans – the most comfortable jeans I’ve found after trying dozens of different brands over the years. Lucky always fit great, look good and last a long time.
Academy Sports – carries a huge selection of sportswear, sneakers, BBQ supplies, branded team wear, outdoor gear, etc. Unlike any other store, I actually enjoy roaming around Academy checking out all the various things they offer and I usually leave with something I hadn’t planned on buying.
Southern Tide – both casual and business casual clothes that fit my style, are high quality and regularly come out with new items that I like. I particularly enjoy their shirts that look like “dress” shirts but are breathable, stretchable and wrinkle-proof — they’re great for the 100 degree days here in Dallas.
Westin Hotels – after 30 years of travel I’ve found that Westin consistently delivers a great experience from location to location all over the world. They’ve kept their properties up-to-date and stylish. And their resort properties are an excellent value relative to the 5-star brands.
Luchese Boots – the best fitting and most comfortable boots ever. I don’t buy boots often but when I do I only look for Luchese since they are crafted so well they feel great on your feet day 1.
Garden of Life – the highest quality vitamins I’ve found after evaluating dozens. I’m very careful about what I eat and a lot of supplements are full of junk so I appreciate the high quality manufacturing processes and pure ingredients Garden of Life uses.
Nolan Ryan beef – the best quality steaks for the price. That is the key when it comes to steaks. I’ve trusted the butchers recommendation from behind the counter and wound up paying 50% more than Nolan’s steaks which taste just as good, if not better. Importantly Nolan’s steaks have never let me down — in 10 years I can’t think of a time I’ve been unhappy with one. That’s hard to do in a highly variable product like cattle.
Vital Farms – great tasting, high quality, pasture-raised, organic eggs. I eat eggs nearly every day and found these to have the best nutrition/taste for my money — 20X better than grocery store white eggs.
La Hacienda Ranch – local Dallas restaurant with the best fajitas anywhere on the planet for over 20 years. There’s no need to try anyplace else, take my word for it.
You’d think that my list of brands would include high consideration things like cars, appliances and electronics that involve lots of time, research and money to acquire. Nope, for those products I like to research the latest innovations which means I frequently change brands when someone comes along with more/better features (the iPhone is an exception – see P.S. below for the reason). Interestingly my list is mainly comprised of lower price point products so it’s not a high risk proposition to make a switch. Even in the case of my gym, F45, I have a 2-week cancellation so there’s not much risk to trying other places.
So what’s the explanation for my loyalty? Honestly, I think it’s the old fashioned definition of brand — these products deliver on their brand promise of superior quality, taste, style, service, etc. every single time I buy them. And now that I’ve found the absolute best in each category why would I bother wasting any more of my time?
So despite my initial thoughts that brand loyalty has eroded, I think it’s alive and well, even for things like steak, eggs and fajitas. The key to brands earning consumers’ trust is the same as it’s always been — you’ve got to deliver a superior product (quality, style, value, etc.) consistently over very long time.
P.S. Even though I have been loyal to my Mac and iPhone for years I did not put Apple on my list. Now I find Apple products to be buggy and bloated with poor UX — does anyone enjoy carrying 5 different dongles to connect devices to their Mac….or a dongle to connect their “old” headphones to their iPhone??? But, even though I’m frustrated with Apple, I remain loyal because the switching costs are just too high.