Brand Loyalty

Grocery shopping brings me my Heinz ketchup, my Skippy peanut butter and my Diet Coke. If my husband goes with me it must be Hellmann's Mayonnaise, though I prefer Kraft. Brand loyalty means big bucks to the companies, and can be ingrained in us from childhood.

Look at fast food restaurants. They invest countless dollars crafting ways to get your children as young as two years old to want to choose their products over others. The bait they use is toys from popular shows or movies, dolls, cars and more. When a child sees this toy and wants it, the parent is apt to lean towards this particular fast food restaurant for the child. Restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King vie for their attention. The sooner a child gets used to going to their restaurant; they know they may have a customer for life.

Coca-cola and Pepsi products sit side by side on the shelf at the store. People coming in to buy the products will more likely always choose one brand over the other, thought they are a similar product with a similar taste. Take just last night at the market; I was looking for the small eight ounce cans of Diet Coke. They only had the full size cans, but Diet Pepsi sat right by its side with the eight ounce size. I was looking for this size, because I'm about to travel, and they are a nice size to toss in the little mini fridge at a hotel. Did I pick up the Diet Pepsi? No, I settled for a different sized bottle of the Diet Coke. Size went out the door when it came to brand loyalty.

Cars are another item people can have brand loyalty attached to. If they had a good experience with a vehicle they previously owned, they may from that point on only choose a Chevrolet, a Ford, or a Honda.

People like to feel in a comfort zone and stick with products they know. They may be buying that Tide laundry detergent because dear old Mom did, and they don't even realize why. We are flooded with commercials all day long and they are all looking for your money. Next time you go to that McDonalds, notice there are cartoon characters created for children or a play area to be child friendly. Good experiences as children become profitable relationships with adults.