Brand Loyalty: Mind Over Matter

What’s in a name? Everything, if you ask a brand manager. Next to all those established brand name products lining the supermarket shelves are copycats vying for your attention from the cheap seats. Woolite or Wool Wash? Kleenex or facial tissue? Cheerios or Tasty O’s? The examples are endless.

While I pour a glass of milk, let’s consider two brands of chocolate chip cookies – The classic Chips Ahoy and the lesser-known Chiparrific. Both are crisp cookies full of chocolate chips. Both are sold in blue packaging. But you give me a taste test, and I will tell you the Chips Ahoy cookie tastes better, hands down.

I wonder, would a blind taste test yield the same results? Could it be that my subconscious cajoles my taste buds into choosing the Chips Ahoy brand, due to its evocative scrumptiousness? Marketing has a magical quality to it – an ability to make two remarkably similar products seem worlds apart. One cookie conjures up images of a lovable grandma in an embroidered apron, rising long before the sun to bake sweets from scratch. The other suggests factory presses and cheap chocolate.

There are certain items I pledge my brand allegiance to. For other products, the generic version is suitable, especially if the price is right. Next to cost and product composition, marketing plays a large but obscured role in consumer decisions. Why else would so many people choose the costlier brand name over a generic substitute when the two are nearly identical?

I think it is often a case of mind over matter. That is not to say consumers sit back hypnotically as advertisers charm them with snappy slogans, pulling persuasive rabbits out of hats. But I’ve got to give them credit. Through stories, testimonials, and unique messaging, they help transform brands – essentially, everyday products – into anything but everyday. The Pillsbury Dough Boy represents homestyle comfort, not crescent rolls. Subway has turned deli sandwiches into diet pills. Nike doesn’t sell shoes. It sells oomph.

A couple of summers ago, every ice cream truck I saw roaming the streets of New York was labeled Mister Softee. This year, there is a new truck in town, and he goes by the name of Captain Softee. I’ve yet to determine if the Captain is a four-wheeled imitator or if he’s the real deal, sprinkles and all. A taste test is in the works...