Companies you're loyal too?
Off Topic

Saw a similar thread on cheapassgamer forums, thought it was pretty interesting and could be a good discussion. So yeah what companies are you "loyal" too? It can be for pretty much everything.

As of me:

Computer - Mac. Switched from Windows some years back, find the whole experience much easier to navigate. Although i'm not a "windows hater".

Phone - iPhone. Been with Apple since the 3G and not looked back since. Although recently Windows mobile 7 has looked quite interesting to me.

Online Retailer - Amazon easily, never had any problems with them. Normally cheapest prices and their delivery is very good, considering I always get the free super saver and stuff normally arrives in 2-3 days.

Search Engine - Google. Just the easiest I guess. Its all i've ever really used for no reason in particular.

Gaming console - Xbox. Been full time Xboxer since Halo/original Xbox. It's mine only console. Not that I dislike Playstation or Wii but its just easier and I can't afford everything! Plus I prefer the exclusive titles.

( Edited 25.11.2011 11:11 by saunderscowie )

Kingston is a very reliable memory manufacturer, I've yet to recieve any problems with their products. Basically, as RAM increases in DDR (Double Data Rate) the faster the transfer speed and overall clock speed. DDR3 is the current type they're on, but each DDR has multiple different versions. From what I'm aware of, 1066 MHz is the current highest speed in terms of DDR3.

Two sticks of the Kingston memory is what I would go for. Can't say I've ever heard of Crucial, but it's not often I go out and buy new RAM.

Hope this helped. Loved the short film btw.

Dolp! That other post was one that I saved and it accidently filled in the post!

Ah right, I thought the content of this thread was a bit... strange. Haha.

Haha I sorted that out months ago! Thanks though, and glad you liked the video

Recently became a slave to Apple - iPhone, iPod and iMac. Can't see myself going back to competition for any of them any time soon.

There's not really many companies that I'm loyal to in the gaming world, I like to float about. Nintendo I suppose, but haven't really bought much from them in recent years.

Music wise, I'm loyal to Fender for their strats and amps, they always tend to be my kind of thing.

And Amazon and Play.com are my first stops for online purchases.

Coke > Pepsi

I'm pretty loyal to Bioware. I've loved KotOR, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect. I bought Mass Effect as soon as it was out. That's the only game I've spent $60 on in several years). If I have the money, I plan to get 3, also. It'll be the only new game I buy this year (probably the only one I'll spend more than $30 on).

I've been loyal to Nintendo for ages, but that's kind of slipping. They have to earn my money a little more than they used to.

Razer. It started when I bought their keyboard, I now own a mouse, mat, and xbox controller. Their stuff is just perfect for everyday use and gaming. Though their xbox controller dies quite quickly. I'm on my second replacement.

I've always been pretty loyal to Sony. Until about a year and a half ago, when they had a few months of having no decent midrange phones, I've always bought Sony Ericsson, and I plan on getting a high end Xperia late next year for access to Android. I also love my Walkman as it's the best quality music player I've used (my 4th generation Ipod Touch pails in comparison to my now ~3 year old Walkman X Series).

That said, while I am a huge fan of Sony consoles, I still cling to Nintendo the most for my gaming pleasures.

I do, however, have a major gripe with Apple. While MacBooks are a pleasure to use, and a must if doing work with video, I feel they're overpriced for what you're actually getting. It killed me to buy an Ipod last month, but it turned out to be the cheapest way of getting an electronic Japanese dictionary. Smallest too. An affordable, standalone, non-phone Android device needs to be developed.

Is there any reason why you wouldn't want a dictionary on your phone? I find it super convenient.

Whenever you get your smart phone, look for the JED app (Japanese-English dictionary). I'm taking a Japanese class in college, so I use it all the time. It's free and it's really great. From one search bar you can either type in an English word and search for the Japanese equivalent or type in romaji and search for English (I assume you can type in kana, too, but that's inconvenient on a phone).

Also, looking up kanji by radicals is the easiest I've ever seen it, which is great for when you're reading and you come across a kanji you've never seen. The dictionary will show you the on and kun readings of the kanji plus the English.

Thanks TAG, I'll make sure to look that up when I do get a smart phone. I would love to have a dictionary built into my phone, but I'm in Japan already and can't exactly afford one so I just went with the Ipod. My normal phone has a built in dictionary but it's not the best, and is catered towards Japanese people wanting to find English. I use the Kotoba app and find it quite handy. It uses the JMdict, so is similar to the online dictionaries I use. And kana is a pain in the ass to type, but when your phone no longer has English T9, it becomes a necessity.

Back on topic, I rarely eat fastfood any more, but I'm still much more inclined to chose Burger King over Mac Donald's.

As a qualified Marketer i pay a special notice to branding and loyalty. I think for many its hard to say that they are loyal to a brand, especially in "hard economic" times many would sacrifice the luxury brand for a cheaper alternative.

Albeit i am quite loyal to many brands;

Nintendo - Despite owning Sony products, SEGA products and Microsoft products i can't say that i'm not loyal to Nintendo, sitting here with iterations of consoles and handhelds and hoards of 1st party games of the last 25 years! By far one of the best games developers in the world for production value.

Orange - Godbeknown but i have been with Orange for over 10 years now...but customer service can be varied...ive barely ever used Orange Wednesday's and when my contract is up i would say that Vodafone or 02 could grasp my attention.

Durex - Ive been using Durex condoms for the last 10 years. Trojan, Mates and other brands just don't cut it!

Braun - Ive used a Braun shaver for over 10 years too! Good long lasting quality, ive had a few Gilette razors as well but they have ended up being too costly.

Is it really possible to loyal to brands anymore though? Do people buy 3 tins of HP Beans for a £1...or do they pay 67p for a tin of Heinz?

Do you only stick to one beer, or does Heineken, Carling, Carlsberg, Fosters ,Peroni, Stella all inter-change with you depending on price?

Supermarkets themselves are a given, usually thats a proximity situation...i would prefer to shop at Morrisons but all i have is a Co-Op, Sainsburys and Tesco to chose from in close quarters.

Consumer electronics is also a minefield, i sit here on a HP laptop with an Apple iphone, Samsung TV, Sony Digital Camera.

Conclusively i truly believe that price is too high a factor these days to play to loyalty, sure we have our preferences on things, just because prefer BK over McD's would you not go there anymore?

Similarly would you still buy something off Amazon if another reputable online retailer was cheaper? I could go on forever with brand oligopolies that dictate our choices but i would probably bore you all!

I would agree with you on a lot of things there Flynnie.
However, when you bring the economic cycle into concern, you have to remember that there are always people that aren't going to be as effected as others, and for them brand loyalty will always be there.

Then there is the other fact that half the time we don't even register brands, the constant bombarding of advertisement from such a young age is completely ingrained into us. From food we have started eating, from logo's appearing on TV. My 5 year old brother picked up a box the other day which he thought was a book (was booked sized) then put it down again and just said, 'oh its a DVD'. I was shocked, I quickly figured out that he had seen the DVD logo on the corner of the box and made the direct correlation as he can't read. Its these influences that make us completely desensitised to even noticing brands, but instead we have these 'notions' that one brand is better than another.

Elements such as the above come from a plethora of areas, the majority of them external. From clothes that your friends wear, to what people are wearing on TV. Its very clever product placement. For instance, There's one brand that I feel particularly awkward about wearing now (without trying to sound like a hipster) but I've been wearing SuperDry clothes for years; before it was cool. And its gotten to a point now that I won't purchase any more of their clothes, particularly where I live in Oxford. The branding on them is so brash and bold that its so obvious, and everyone looks like they are wearing the same thing. Don't get me wrong, I like their clothes, the fit everything, but because their branding is so forthcoming it will put people off who would want something a bit more conspicuous. They'd need to go down the route of Ted Baker or FCUK of focusing on fashion, but being more conspicuous so it doesn't say "Hey, Look! I'm wearing X". I like to be an individual.

I think this topic gets more interesting when you start talking about which brands people aren't loyal too as it brings up a whole wealth of answers as to why people prefer certain brands. Taking your Durex example, off the top of my head, reliability would be a major factor - which is fucking important, they have factors that say, crappy pub vending machine 'doms can't match up to (or fit for that matter)that of Durex. But then others would prefer Mates, which are pretty big among those that are allergic to latex.

One of the largest major concerns that I can think of when it comes to why people wouldn't be loyal to a company is a combination of their wages and ethics. Companies such as Primark hold a lot less appeal to me because a. It feels wrong, and b. I know its morally wrong - even before I'd written academic papers on the matter. Even as a poor student, I've stepped in twice in the three years I've been at uni. Once was for socks, the other was two days ago to purchase a suit for presentations as I couldn't afford to fork out £160+ on a decent one (£55 for a full suit shouldn't even be possible). Here's the kicker though, I prefer to spend more money on branded items as they tend to last a considerably longer time - that of Lambretta, Fenchurch etc, tend to last me longer than say my Primark suit, which is starting to unstich at the crotch after wearing it for one day. But these things again all depend on how much money you earn and they all cater for different demographics.

Trying to figure out why some people are loyal to one brand compared to another is far too hard to nail down without unpicking every single external and internal influence within that demographic. Within the middle classes for example its often down to personal preference, with salary playing a less important role with more luxury items being purchased.

That's my two cents anyway. I should probably get back to writing my Strategic Decision Making paper now....

Those that are not hit by the financial crisis may still be buying their Rolex’s and Armani suits but at the same time they are more vain than anyone else as they have to stick with the trends and fashion.

I think with newer restrictions on advertisements we will see a strong shift on what kids will be subjected to with advertising, but it won’t stop the Happy Meals and toy adverts being played during cartoons breaks.

I agree with you that the SuperDry T-shirt’s need to be a bit more blasé, conversely though i have got the windcheater and some plimsolls from them recently and the branding isn’t so brash and in your face.

Your later point about PRIMARK clothing makes me wonder that maybe you wouldn’t have been such a poor student if you had shopped at Primark I think Primark is great for those who can’t really afford much, and the ethics side of things could be forever played. Would you go down the route of buying fair-trade fruit, free range eggs, buying goods only made from recycled materials, avoiding Nestle products and so on and so forth.

As I have stepped into a little wealth due to my job I have moved up from Primarni and up to Holister, Abercombie , River Island and SuperDry. I am sure they get little Vietnamese and Indonesians to do the work and pay them a pittance to do it as well...I think it is quite hard to avoid that these days unless you want to pay out of your nose for it.

The Durex argument can be mis-construed though, i’ve had a few break on me before. In fact it wasn’t until i saw something on Channel 4’s Sex Education Show that i learned that they put nominal width on the boxes. Upon seeing that i saw that the extra protection one they do only has a nominal width of 52! Realibility is a major factor in this field for sure, but i think educating the consumer must also be a part of that. Think about how many guys don’t really know about looking for the width on the boxes, i mean i used to assume they were all the same size.

Educating consumers is important for both people that are buying for themselves and buying for others. The latter is unilaterally focussed to games in my argument, look at games companies such as Nintendo having to mention in their adverts that this “is not a DS, it’s a Nintendo 3DS” , in my mind a poor decision from Nintendo as it just confuses the mothers that have to buy the things for their kids (providing they are over 6 of course) The adverts themselves won’t do enough to tell the parents that the 3DS is different, it will be the kids nagging and greasy salesmen that have to put that nail in the coffin for the parents.

As for one brand could be better than another why not take the following examples;
For those who swing in the wrestling circle you can perhaps relate that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE/WWF) fans constantly complain about the product not being what it used to be and that the "PG-era" sucks compared to that of the Attitude era. However you don't see these fans going over to TNA where a lot of the has-beens are now, in fact people think TNA sucks, but if you ask me its pretty much what WWF was back in the day and includes the same big names of the WCW and WWF yesteryear. So why don't fans watch TNA? That is simple, Vince McMahon used to say all the time, "the people don't know what they want, I know what they want"

Look at the way that the television manufacturers keep pushing fledgling 3DTV's when people are not really showing a strong demand for it! Is that because people don't have the disposable income for it at the moment, or is because people just don't want it?

If I told you that I had a 50inch full 1080p LED 3D TV but its made by say...Samsung would someone say that well I would rather have a 42inch full 1080p LED 3D TV but its Panasonic because Panasonic make better TV's?
Is that branding or is that fact?

We could effectively kill this topic with theories and examples so we can get back to basics but I could say that I am not really ‘loyal’ to any company as such, I like to shop around too much and no company gives me a reason to stay loyal!

Nintendo, that is all.

Obviously Nintendo. I've also become a bit of an Apple fan too. I've become a slave to Jelly Belly jelly beans too. Feed me them and I will do your bidding.

Hmmmmm now that I think about it I was really impressed with Vicarious Visions handheld games like Spider-Man & I give FULL CREDIT to Renegade Kid & Game Cock for having the balls to make great games like Dimentium on the DS...which MANY have said would never happen.

Also I am absolutely ASHAMED with myself for forgetting to mention my loyalties to one of the most extreme developers in the industry....Treasure I fully praise & worship your work!!!!

I wouldn't say I'm loyal to any company, I just buy stuff that I like and if they happen to make the stuff I like I will continue to buy it.

I do have a soft spot for Nintendo handhelds though, I guess thats because other handhelds untill the PSP were all kind of shitty or offered poor software support.

Amazon are very good, I would buy from them regualarly just because there service is so good, but if I find a better price somewere else I won't hesitate to buy from some other reputable online retailer.

I have used 02 for years (anyone remember the old btcellnet name?) but thats mainly because most people I know use it too.

Facebook I guess but like the 02 deal if everyone decided to move to G+ or whatever tommorow I would follow. Except twitter, twitter sucks.



Hmmm I don't think so, maybe only rare cases (burned by customer support by a brand maybe and still angry?)
But there are a load of lower range TV manufacturers, like if I had the choice between a Technika 50inch TV display vs a Panasonic 42inch I would go with the Panasonic simply because I would assosicate Panasonic more with quality goods.

That said I always do research on this stuff before I buy, look at tech specs, get impressions from other people on forums, demo it in the shops or whatever, I would never just blindly buy stuff.

I mean I even waited until xmas for a 3DS simply because there was no games on it I wanted untill Mario Kart.
You gotta work and prove yourself for my loyalty dammit!



( Edited 21.01.2012 17:34 by Mr James2t3 )