I'm a pretty loyal guy when it comes to friends, family, schools, and sports teams, but also when it comes to my favorite brands. Perhaps it's a little ridiculous at times, but there are some brands I feel like I'm constantly defending. Here is a list of brands to which I owe allegiance. The main criterion for making the list is: Would I pay 10% for a product of this brand than a comparable product made by a competitor? The question is not relevant in some cases, where the product is free, but you get the point. There are some cases where the brands overlap (e.g. Sony and Bose) and in those cases I have to sub-bucket my brand loyalty for my ethos to remain consistent.
Here's the list (in no particular order):
- Tumi (luggage, but only their ballistic nylon bags, not the freaky Jetson's-style new stuff)
- Coffee Bean (their Chai is incredible, as I've mentioned before)
- Apple (I know I'm a biased former employee)
- Bose (their noise canceling headphones are a life saver on a crowded plane)
- Tide (I know it's probably the same detergent as the generic, but I just feel better about using Tide)
- Nike (watch, running shoe, underwear, dress shoe - Cole Haan)
- The Omni Group (Mac-only software)
- Bonobos Pants (great pants for men)
- Hertz (rental car, so fast to pick-up and return, which is key for business travel)
- Calyx and Corolla (flower delivery)
- Adam Carolla (talk radio)
- Zazzle (custom t-shirts)
- Staples
- Mobil (gasoline)
- Canon (digital camera)
- Sony (TV and home theatre products)
- Dunkin Donuts (all non-chai coffe products)
- Patagonia (jackets, especially fleeces)
- Dr Grip (pens)
- SanDisk (flash memory)
- PayPal (online payments & money market investment
- Schweps (club soda)
- United (air travel)
- Niman Ranch (meat)
- Amazon (online commerce, especially books)
- Google Maps (directions)
- CitySearch (restaurant advice / reviews)
- DayQuil/NyQuil (cold/flu symptom relief)
- Advil (pain relief)
- Old Spice (sport scent soap)
- David McCullough (biography)
- Tommy Bahama (Hawaiian Shirts)
- NetNewsWire (RSS feeds)
- e*trade (online brokerage)
Now that I look at the list, it makes me look really materialistic. Shoot. The truth is, even though many of these products are premium brands, I don't have incredibly expensive tastes, especially when it comes to restaurants and clothes, where most people blow a lot of money on brands. for most of these items, there's a great story behind how I became loyal to their brand.
it's cruel to leave us out of the alex bain loop for so long. thank god it's back.
Posted by: Ben | June 22, 2007 at 08:02 PM