Fanboyism and Brand Loyalty
The Misconception: You prefer the things you own over the things you don’t because you made rational choices when we bought them.
The Truth: You prefer the things you own because you rationalize your past choices to protect your sense of self.
The Internet changed the way people argue.
Check any comment system, forum or message board and you will find fanboys going at it, debating why their chosen product is better than the other guy’s.
In modern consumer cultures like America, people compete for status through comparing their taste in products. (You can read more on how that works here: Selling Out).
Mac vs. PC, PS3 vs. XBox 360, iPhone vs. Android – it goes on and on.
Usually, these arguments are between men, because men will defend their ego no matter how slight the insult. These are also usually about geeky things that cost lots of money, because these battles take place on the Internet where tech-savvy people get rowdy, and the more expensive a purchase, the greater the loyalty to it.
Fanboyism isn’t anything new, it’s just a component of branding, which is something marketers and advertisers have known about since Quaker Oats created a friendly logo to go on their burlap sacks.
There was, of course, no friendly Quaker family making the oats back in 1877. The company wanted people to associate the trustworthiness and honesty of Quakers with their product. It worked.
This was one of, if not the first, such attempt to create brand loyalty – that nebulous emotional connection people have with certain companies which turns them into defenders and advocates for corporations who don’t give a shit.
In experiments at Baylor University where people were given Coke and Pepsi in unmarked cups and then hooked up to a brain scanner, the device clearly showed a certain number of them preferred Pepsi while tasting it.
When those people were told they were drinking Pepsi, a fraction of them, the ones who had enjoyed Coke all their lives, did something unexpected. The scanner showed their brains scrambling the pleasure signals, dampening them. They then told the experimenter afterward they had preferred Coke in the taste tests.
They lied, but in their subjective experiences of the situation, they didn’t. They really did feel like they preferred Coke after it was all over, and they altered their memories to match their emotions.
They had been branded somewhere in the past and were loyal to Coke. Even if they actually enjoyed Pepsi more, huge mental constructs prevented them from admitting it, even to themselves.
Add this sort of loyalty to something expensive, or a hobby which demands a large investment of time and money, and you get a fanboy. They defend their favorite stuff and ridicule the competition, ignoring facts if they contradict their emotional connection.
So, what creates this emotional connection to stuff and the companies who make doo-dads?
Marketers and advertising agencies call the opposite of fanboys hostages.
Hostages have no choice but to buy certain products, like toilet paper and gasoline. Since they can’t choose to own or not to own the product, they are far less likely to care if one version of toilet paper is better than another, or one gas station’s fuel is made by Shell or Chevron.
On the other hand, if the product is unnecessary, like an iPad, there is a great chance the customer will become a fanboy because they had to choose to spend a big chunk of money on it. It’s the choosing one thing over another which leads to narratives about why you did it.
If you have to rationalize why you bought a luxury item, you will probably find ways to see how it fits in with your self-image.
Branding builds on this by giving you the option to create the person you think you are through choosing to align yourself with the mystique of certain products.
Apple advertising, for instance, doesn’t mention how good their computers are. Instead, they give you examples of the sort of people who purchase those computers. The idea is to encourage you to say, “Yeah, I’m not some stuffy, conservative nerd. I have taste and talent and took art classes in college.”
Are Apple computers better than Microsoft-based computers? Is one better than the other when looked at empirically, based on data and analysis and testing and objective comparisons?
It doesn’t matter.
Those considerations come after a person has begun to see themselves as the sort of person who would own one. If you see yourself as the kind of person who owns Apple computers, or who drives hybrids, or who smokes Camels, you’ve been branded.
Once a person is branded, they will defend their brand by finding flaws in the alternative choice and pointing out benefits in their own.
There are a number of cognitive biases which converge to create this behavior.
The Endowment Effect pops up when you feel like the things you own are superior to the things you do not.
Psychologists demonstrate this by asking a group of people how much they think a water bottle is worth. The group will agree to an amount around $5, and then someone in the group will be given the bottle for free.
Then, after an hour, they ask the person how much they would be willing to sell the bottle back to the experimenter for. They usually ask for more money, like $8.
Ownership adds special emotional value to things, even if those things were free.
Another bias is the Sunk Cost Fallacy. This is when you’ve spent money on something you don’t want to own or don’t want to do and can’t get it back.
For instance, you might pay too much for some takeout food that really sucks, but you eat it anyway, or you sit through a movie even after you realize it’s terrible.
Sunk Cost can creep up on you too. Maybe you’ve been a subscriber to something for a long time and you realize it costs too much, but you don’t end your subscription because of all the money you’ve invested in the service so far.
Is Blockbuster better than Netflix, or Tivo better than a generic DVR? If you’ve spent a lot of money on subscription fees, you might be unwilling to switch to alternatives because you feel invested in the brand.
These biases feed into the big daddy of behaviors which is most responsible for branding, fanboyism and Internet arguments about why the thing you own is better than the thing the other guy owns – Choice Supportive Bias.
Choice Supportive Bias is a big part of being a person, it pops up all the time when you buy things.
It works like this: You have several options, like say for a new television. Before you make a choice you tend to compare and contrast all the different qualities of all the televisions on the market.
Which is better, Samsung or Sony, plasma or lcd, 1080p or 1080i – ugh, so many variables!
You eventually settle on one option, and after you make your decision you then look back and rationalize your actions by believing your television was the best of all the televisions you could have picked.
In retail, this is a well-understood phenomenon, and to prevent Buyer’s Remorse they try not to overwhelm you with choice. Studies show if you have only a handful of options at the point of purchase, you will be less likely to fret about your decision afterward.
It’s purely emotional, the moment you pick. People with brain damage to their emotional centers who have been rendered into Spock-like beings of pure logic find it impossible to decide between things as simple as which brand of cereal to buy. They stand transfixed in the aisle, contemplating every element of their potential decision – the calories, the shapes, the net weight – everything. They can’t pick because they have no emotional connection to anything, no emotional motivations.
To combat postdecisional dissonance, the feeling you have committed to one option when the other option may have been better, you make yourself feel justified in what you selected to lower the anxiety brought on by questioning yourself.
All of this forms a giant neurological cluster of associations, emotions, details of self-image and biases around the things you own.
This is why all over the Internet there are people in word fights over video games and sports teams, cell phones and TV shows.
The Internet provides a fertile breeding ground for this sort of behavior to flourish.
So, the next time you reach for the mouse and get ready to launch an angry litany of reasons why your favorite – thing – is better than the other person’s, hesitate.
Realize you have your irrational reasons, and so do they, and nothing will be gained by your proselytizing.
Links:
Barry Shwartz on choice at TED
Coke vs. Pepsi in the MRI machine
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It seems as if this same mentality could apply to political alignment to help explain why people will vote against their own self interest in favor of their chosen party.
Wow. You have certainly hit the nail on the head with that. I cannot believe how many times I see that happen. However, I tend to blame the media, especially the political pundits, for most of that. I swear, I think they are able to steal some people’s brains, leaving them unable to think for themselves. Of course, they are preying on already weakened or undeveloped minds to begin with. I HOPE.
You can vote against your own self-interest but in favor of the greater good of the country and society in general. We’d be much better off if everyone did.
but you’re right that people do tend to align themselves with a party and stay that way – they don’t want to voice their opinion on any issue until they see what their party’s official stance is. And once they find out the official stance, they’ll defend it & rationalize it to no end.
This reminds me of the time I was caught masturbating in the zoo. It’s funny how something as innocent as jerking off into a Rhino’s mouth can be seen as naughty. What I learned from this is to jack off faster as not to be caught by zoo keepers.
Funny shit
WHAT THE HELL. YOU GAY.
Dude. You’re a moron if you think only gay people Jack off. Quit being so homophobic and come out of the closet already.
Love it.
Pretty gross image there. I reckon you are one of the group of people I referred to in my first reply to cerebus.
apple is better and you can all suck it!
Really enjoyed this post. Thanks David!
Ditto. This should be required reading for…everyone who visits message boards. Everyone.
Amen!! I get so sick of going to a tech site to get information on something and find it has all devolved into an argument between fans of Linux, Macs and Microsoft! I don’t CARE. I just want an answer to my problem. (Of course, it is the same thing when one goes to a news site to read an article, and, regardless of subject, it devolves into a political argument about 99% of the time.)
I <3 iPhones, they are soooo much better than your crappy android!
(jk, great article)
i agree, iphone is definitely the best
That saves me. Thanks for being so snseible!
nice post!
Could you cite the coke-pepsi study? Curios as to which one you were looking at.
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston has done several studies. Here is one link: http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002414.html Here is another: http://www.gccrm.com/eng/content_details.jsp?contentid=2073&subjectid=101
I will add the second to the links.
this post is bunk as hell. what about people who choose more than 1 thing? having owned both an iPhone & Android phones (and WinMo phones), my choice is Android, not because of some past, emotional re-understanding of my decision, but because I’ve used the others and they are shitty. p.s. hate to break this to you, but *everyone is different.*
also, people who try too hard to sound smart usually don’t. please stop.
This blog is about averages and the outcomes of studies, not you specifically. If I come across as trying to sound smart, it’s unintentional. As I have asserted throughout the content, I am not so smart.
Someone sounds like this hit too close to home…
it’s a miracle, really. you have stable findings in psychological research, but every single person you ask insists on being the exception to the rule. hilarious. nobody is influenced by marketing, nobody experiences something as far fetched as cognitive dissonance, everybody is a 100% rational being.
hint: you are not that special.
hint 2: trying to convince your friends and family that they are not that special and crash in the same cars as anybody else is NOT a good idea. even if the proof is right there before their eyes, denial is always stronger.
disclaimer: I’m a psychologist, used to work in marketing
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_blind_spot
It seems people generally see themselves as immune to bias…
If there is not already an article on this site about this it might be worth one
But if you accept that you are average and subject to bias, then you’re not, but then to say you’re not means you are…
Reposted it (Thanks!) , Appropriate credits given
http://learnonethingaday.wordpress.com/
yogis know all about this .. it is what meditation does, removes the story
Excellent article.
“For instance, you might pay too much for some takeout food that really sucks, but you eat it anyway, or you sit through a movie even after you realize it’s terrible.”
The neither of these are great examples of the sunk cost fallacy. Because neither has an additional cost that is directly comparable to the additional costs.
In the case of the movie the sunk cost, is in part the monetary price you paid and in part the time you have spent so far. While you will suffer additional costs in the form of time spent, I find that people that generally continue to sit through it value that specific time they will be spending to not have any greater potential use. Most people with something better to do with their time actually appear to leave when the movie sucks. This is sadly the better of the two examples because it associates time with money, a comparison that while not always accurate at least is recognized by a majority of people.
The case of eating takeout food that really sucks that you paid too much for, your sunk cost is your money and your time. While continuing to eat it will, use additional time. That time plus additional time and money would be necessary in order to eat something else. In short although there are sunk costs, and they are unrecoverable that is not enough to claim the sunk cost fallacy applies. Because continuing to eat that food is still your cheapest cost both in terms of money and time, so the fallacy does not imply.
If you are so much of a gourmand that you value the experience of eating more than the nourishment you should be eating for. Then you will probably not hesitate to throw out and waste and amount of food, and invest more money and time in the acquisition of new food.
The blockbuster, netflix subscription example is a fine example. But if you want to say the that bad takeout food is an example you would need to be snobby enough to ignore the monetary and time costs of the food and only think about ‘the cost of the dining experience’, a cost I would hope anyone choosing to lecture people on topics such as these would not value so highly.
There is a third choice on the issue of the takeout food…(well, there are usually more than two choices on every subject, but…) Anyway, A third choice is to toss it and go to bed a bit hungry. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially in this day and age. Personally, I won’t eat anything I don’t like. I would much rather not eat at all then to force down something I find unpalatable. I have done this a lot more than once. So, I have wasted money, but not time. One out of two is better than two out of two. If you want to argue that I am more concerned with my palate than ‘nutrition’, well, I guess I AM. However, I am far from malnourished, so in the end it doesn’t matter. (The majority of ‘takeout food’ doesn’t usually supply much in the way of nutrients at any rate.)
I know this is six months on but… I think that the point of sunk cost has been missed. A sunk cost is any cost that has been incurred prior to a decision being made (e.g. the cost associated with a business plan prior to a decision to launch a business).
Both examples in the article are more than apt in describing the sunk cost fallacy. Both have a cost incurred prior to a decision point where there is a opportunity cost associated with further investment based on the decision made (in these cases, money, time, enjoyment can all be opportunity costs).
In the movie example the sunk cost is the ticket price, the opportunity cost of the decision to continue to watch is time that could be spent elsewhere, the decision therefore is whether this ‘cost’ is greater than sitting through a terrible movie. The fallacy is in assuming that because you’ve paid for the ticket the ticket price should affect your decision. It shouldn’t as it is sunk and therefore cannot be regained regardless of your choice.
Great study. The Internet definitely breeds sports fans and brings us all together. I am definitely a Red Wings fan girl. I am as Red Wings as most people are about Apple.
I think you touch upon behaviors more fundamental than most people would think – or admit.
We can see the same sort of behavior in more than just brand-name fanboying. As noted by cerebus, it’s apparent in politics as well. Nationalism as well as other fundamental self-identification mechanisms are probably also intimately tied in with the ‘fanboy’ mindset.
I wrote a blog post a while back about interacting with people who buy into pseudoscience, and a lot of the same themes come up – self-identification, cognitive dissonance, and so on.
http://indonsredoubt.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/interacting-with-creationists-and-other-pseudoscientists-part-1-identifying-the-problem/
While I agree you can convince others that your such n such is better, I don’t irrationally chose all my gadgets and things. I find Zune more convienent over itunes, I like coke more than pepsi (it’s to sweet). Why would I pick one soda over another? They cost the same and it’s about my taste, therefore it’s logical and rational that I pick what I like and that’s coke.
While this article holds truth to a lot of people and a lot of things, I would not say that everything we pick is irrational…
And I meant can’t…
The point of the article is to make you question these preferences. In retrospect, people are likely to rationalize their purchases (note: if you rationalized something, you are likely to say that it is “logical and rational”, even if it wasn’t). This is a self-deception to which many people are subject. Whether or not these choices are irrational is irrelevant; the question is whether or not the rationale for the choice has been magnified or invented to justify the purchase.
For example, have you ever considered whether or not Coke is really much less sweet than Pepsi, or did you just make this up subconsciously to justify your (presumably many) Coke purchases? As it happens, Coke has 3.25g of sugars per fluid ounce, while Pepsi has 3.5g. I’m uncertain that is a particularly significant difference, but you could be sensitive to such minor differences.
In blind taste tests, Pepsi is usually considered sweeter. So it that case, it is not an illusion.
(but blind taste tests are sip-tests. One can be appealing with half a glass may be less so over several weeks. So they are not that useful for this kind of study).
I have brand loyalty only if the product I purchase offers the most technical abilitys for the best price (price secondary) and is the company that consistantly initiates the release of the latest new innovative tech. If the company I purchased fails to do this, I no longer have loyalty to their “brand”, I will jump over to that company that does move forward faster. I don’t care about the name of the product, I care about which company moves ahead so that I can experience through innovation, the most that I can in my lifetime before I die someday. So my loyalty is NOT to any brand, it is to myself and to innovation and what is offered by the product currently ONLY! So this article was wasted breath in my case anyways.
Actually, I usually prefer another item over others because of it’s stats are better then the others and have more options. From what I have seen about some of the “fan” stereotypes is that they have the same reason for support one thing. I think the problem here is that some companies out there that produced faulty products, and people who bought them with no coverage, ended up losing their money and proceeded to attack the company.
Great article – one thing for sure, I won’t be tattooing any brands on my body.
Apple Sucks Money Demon $teve J want our money . iPhone , iPad are for iDiots & iTarded .
Android Rules , its market share is already more then iPhoneOS . Google Rocks
Fantastic article, very well put!
Great Post…
Most of the people act’s like that..
I see me in that text…
Like for example:
I love coke instead pepsi (for the tast but for the brand too)
I only buy nokia.
I only buy Sony playstation
I love VW’s
Today everything is related to brand’s and most of the people stay “glued” in a brand and in most cases can’t admit that they are wrong and the other is better…
You are such a psychology fanboy.
This is true.
its simple the internet is the way it is because people arent willing to admit there are little things called facts in the world…its like everyone and there fu@#$ grandmother says anything they want to and then to back it up says its just an OPTION…and when you TRY and ask for a fact to back up the bull they just said then they get offended…like your trying to take away there f#@$ freedom of speeh just because you want them to be leavel headed and logical….and when you say something and prove it with facts and show that you are truly unbias then they just act like your just vented off non-sence like they are…”o…that just your option” no…if you can back it up with FACTS its NOT just your option…
now im just waiting for someone to not read anything but like the 1st line of what i just wrote and say “well thats your option but i dont agree with it…” and then not even bother to point out why im ether right or wrong…
I have found (or, maybe it’s just me?) that if one wants their ‘options’(?) (or opinions) to be taken at all seriously, then a basic knowledge of English, spelling and writing skills always help. When something is written in such a way that it takes me more time than it’s worth to ‘translate’ it into standard English, I usually won’t bother, regardless of whatever ‘proofs’ you might offer. Now, I’m certainly not a perfect example of someone with excellent communication skills, but I do make some attempt to make myself understood. I try to correct basic mistakes, such as spelling, before I post. (Although, being British, I spell some words differently than Americans.) Even then, despite my best efforts, a typo or such will get through, but at least I KNOW I made the effort. As to your own post, I did manage to get the ‘gist’ of it, after reading it several times, but again, if you want to present the facts, learn to spell AND use the spellchecker function built into most browsers. Learn what words actually MEAN. ‘Option’ and ‘opinion’ are two different words with two different meanings. Also, this is a comments section, not Twitter or text messaging. Capitalise words correctly. Use commas and apostrophes. These are NOT ‘options’, but ‘facts’. And yes, these things DO matter. I’m tempted to go on a tirade against today’s educational system, but I’ll save that for another day.
Peace and out…
i feel the need point out that capital letters have no meaning in today’s language. aside from that, you are correct; his post is nigh illegible.
personally, i don’t see why grammar in twitter or text messaging should be treated any differently than in blog posts or comments.
i gave up trying to make sense out of his comment about a third of the way through. the ellipsis abuse made my eyes bleed.
Capitalization is important in certain cases. See the classic example of the uncle and the horse:
Correct: I helped my uncle Jack off a horse.
Incorrect (and disgusting): i helped my uncle jack off a horse.
“I have found (or, maybe it’s just me?) that if one wants their ‘options’(?) (or opinions) to be taken at all seriously, then a basic knowledge of English, spelling and writing skills always help.” Isn’t it amusing how people always seem to make a grammatical or spelling mistake in a post correcting someone else’s grammar and spelling? “Help” should be “helps,” as in “A basic knowledge of blah, blah, and blabbity blah always helps.” Remember, the key part is “basic knowledge,” which is singular. They call it Muphry’s [sic] Law, by the way. My turn!
This article is based on incomplete, inaccurate, or just plain phony science. I personally enjoy my purchases and believed in them long before they were purchased. Lets see major purchases and brand loyalty for me? started with an Odessy 2 , to a Vic 20, to a Commodore 64 (uh oh brand loyalty) Nah went to the Nintendo NES, then to the Genesis, from there I went to the Playstation and the Dreamcast, (uh oh sega brand loyalty?) nah went to the Xbox but then back to PS3…..ok so some no longer make console products but shouldn’t I still be hooked on the Wii? Not really buying something at a price has never made me loyal to it when I owned a PS I went and bought a N64 for zelda then turn and sold it good game not guilty pleasure just a good game on a console I didnt have. Fanboy yeah I am a ford fanboy just for the fun of of it liked my Tbird but I am a Jimmy Spencer fan and drive a little foreign car but would love that Mustang. I use windows but I am a Linux fanboy and it is free. Personally I prefer coke but can enjoy Pepsi too…..I think they need more research and wil probably find our preference for what we enjoy is more peer influenced then innate…. am sure if I was raised eating fried tarantulas i would prefer those of King Crab but who gives a crap let the fanboy wars flame on keep it all good and fun.
“This article is based on incomplete, inaccurate, or just plain phony science. ”
And your reply, based solely on yourself, represents complete, accurate and true science? Thanks, oh enlightened one for gracing us all with your knowledge. You actually do fit the above phony science profile. Although you do not have consistent brand loyalty, it appears as though you will state your right to believe the way you believe, and that you will believe you are right regardless of real science or research. If we hooked you up to electrodes and put a Linux box in front of you and a Windows box, you would want to choose the Linux, but that would require you to actually know something about an operating system, so you would have to choose the Windows because you cannot really operate the Linux. After reading your comment and seeing all of the “major purchases” and the reference to Linux being free, I believe you are buying the crap off bid sites for next to nothing. Low investment = low value. Bet your “little foreign car” is a cheap pos, too. Keep dreaming about that Mustang fanboy and keep making comments that prove that you use your own decision making process as validation for your purchases and for your loyalty. Not innate. Not peers. Your own rationalizations. Who gives a crap about what we say about each other or do to each other and why? This was all in good fun wasn’t it? You are laughing your butt off, right?
Fanboyism and Brand Loyalty do not dictate that you will defend, advocate for, and support your preferred brand come Hell or high water. It simply states that you would have a strong preference for that brand, that, if two products were completely identical except for the brand, you would prefer to buy the product made by your brand. Of course, such preferences can be overcome. I would agree that, if you liked serious gaming, you would’ve dumped Nintendo around the N64 or Gamecube for the Xbox or PlayStation.
I disagree with the rationale that having electrodes strapped to your brain showing that your body likes the sweetness of pepsi more than the more subdued slightly less sugary flavor of coke means that you like pepsi more. liking something is not simply a case of instant gratification.
I think I remember reading about “People with brain damage to their emotional centers who have been rendered into Spock-like beings of pure logic” on the internet but I can’t find it again, would you be so kind to give me a link to a study or article about such people?
The link to the Radiolab story at the end of the article will get you there. That podcast spends a long time discussing that point with the researchers who know about it.
Thanks a lot!
I’ve also noticed that fanboys are especially crazed when the product they lust after is less popular than another brand. For example, let’s say that Apple is less popular than Microsoft. Apple fans will REALLY push their brand because they “have something to prove”; they have to really “sell it” because Apple users are a minority. Their perception is that people will flock to Microsoft because of it’s popularity, not because of it’s quality. They must inform the masses how much greater Apple is to overcome the additional obstacle of being the underdog.
I’ve seen this with fans of pretty much every minority brand, and have always found it fascinating. “Walmart is popular the world over, so therefore it must be the devil. You’re much better off shopping at Target (Kmart, Meijer, etc.) where you won’t be supporting an international corporate enslavement camp.” If something’s popular, it’s automatically worse than the competition.
That’s true, good observation. I touched on this in the post about selling out.
It is extraordinary to experience the ability to read a great quality clause with useful data on issues that plenty are active in. The fact that you’ve understandably been writing about the topic for a while is assuasive to myself, and other subscribers as well.
How can people not tell Coke and Pepsi apart? I’m a Coke person, but I prefer Mt Dew over Mellow Yellow though I’ll dink whatever is available… I also think that the sports team is a emotional investment(I’m a Cubs fan myself) over time that doesn’t have equal in most other brands since it’s usually geographical location that effects this most of the time. I think that a failblog pic said it best… Fanboys don’t love their consoles they hate yours… some people can only make one purchase because of financial reasons and this will often create some sort of brand loyalty though most people will elect to experience as much as possible if they have the money to do so(even if they wont admit it).
“You prefer the things you own because you rationalize your past choices to protect your sense of self.”
This is assuming all of our tastes, once made, are set in stone and never changed, which is slightly ridiculous. For example, in regards to Apple products, I didn’t get a Mac because they tend to be more expensive, while having less features than a non-Mac computer. Plus, I’m not a musician. If they were the same price and had a similar number of features, I might have gotten one (shrugs). I also don’t like iTunes because most of my music doesn’t have all of the information in it’s tags, which is how iTunes sorts your music. It’s much easier for me to keep things in folders, organized by album and artist and play them as I please. However, I would get an iPhone because they’re freaking awesome. If I got an iPhone, I would most likely download iTunes because the pros and features of having it would most likely outweigh the cons. Nothing about this decision is based on trends, or a conscious decision I made years ago, but rather, on continuously changing paradigm of taste based on function and ease of use. Sounds pretty rational eh?
“Are Apple computers better than Microsoft-based computers? Is one better than the other when looked at empirically, based on data and analysis and testing and objective comparisons? It doesn’t matter.”
Uhh, yes it does, and way to avoid the issue entirely. If one computer were better than the other in a certain category, this article would have no base to stand on because they could then not definitively prove that a choice was made irrationally.
“In experiments where people were given Coke and Pepsi in unmarked cups and then hooked up to a brain scanner, the device clearly showed a certain number of them preferred Pepsi while tasting it.”
Ok, I’m calling BS on this one. Brain scanners can only do so many things, and there would be far too many confounding factors to prove this conclusion. Enjoyment isn’t just about instant gratification. Plus, the fact that this article called it a “brain scanner,” and didn’t explain which type it was or what function it had makes me think that the author is speaking entirely out of his ass. I also don’t see a link to the study he’s speaking about.
“Hostages have no choice but to buy certain products, like toilet paper and gasoline. Since they can’t choose to own or not to own the product, they are far less likely to care if one version of toilet paper is better than another, or one gas station’s fuel is made by Shell or Chevron.”
What the hell? no choice but to buy toilet paper and gas? HURR DURR, practically everyone living in a city needs to buy toilet paper and gas for daily living. So they have no choice but to buy an object but they can’t choose whether not they own it? If you buy they object, which you would, as a hostage, then you would own it. I think this is a HUGE generalization from basic staple goods to hot electronic commodities, and well, the comparison just can’t be made. The paragraph quoted above is a Charlie Foxtrot of failure. I don’t see how hostages and fanboys are “opposites” if they both choose products not based on function/quality. And how is someone a hostage if they don’t care which product they buy? Are they not free to pick based on any arbitrary whim?
“The Endowment Effect pops up when you feel like the things you own are superior to the things you do not.”
HURR DURR, the person with the water bottle said they’d sell the water back for 8$ because they wanted to make a profit, not because they thought it was worth more just because they had it. If only one person in the experiment is given the bottle, it’s more a case study, so how can you generalize an entire psychological effect based on fautly reasoning?
Uggh I dont even want to go through the rest of this artcile. While I agree that what the article says is true for many sheeple out there, it’s certainly not the majority, and if they actually looked in detail and quoted forum posts concerning Mac vs. PC debates , they would realize that at least half of what was being said was based on objective facts. Instead, they looked selectively for what they wanted to find and wrote a poorly written, misinformed article.
You should look at the research and draw your own conclusions.
Specifically, you should listen to the Radiolab podcast I linked to, which goes into detail how choice is an emotional act, not a rational one.
Also, the link to the study about Coke and Pepsi is listed at the end of the article.
A lot of people like to point to studies about soft drinks as an example as if they can be compared to computers. I think that’s a mistake. Of course people make decisions based on emotion, but they can also make them based on rationality, and how much of each feeds their decision depends on many variables. To push the example to another other end, if we were talking about brands of pacemakers or which college to go to, people might suddenly become more rational in their decision making process because they perceive it as a more important decision that which brand of fizzy cola drink to buy. That’s the main problem I have with this; it doesn’t seem to address the context of the decision in the person’s life. That is understandable given how hard and subjective it could be to address that issue.
Sorry if you covered this in your podcast — I’m on dial-up speeds at the moment.
I agree with some of what you’re saying, but perhaps I don’t agree with they way you have put it. It seems as if you’re saying that it’s the whole truth, when to me it seems like it’s just one aspect of what could be true. It doesn’t seem as scientific as some of the other posts.
BTW. Another Mac user. Although it wasn’t until after being forced to use one for a year along side Windows that I made that decision.
Qoute: “HURR DURR, the person with the water bottle said they’d sell the water back for 8$ because they wanted to make a profit, not because they thought it was worth more just because they had it. If only one person in the experiment is given the bottle, it’s more a case study, so how can you generalize an entire psychological effect based on fautly reasoning?”
If they sold it for $5, they would still have made a profit on it, as it was given to them free of cost to begin with. Try again. In no way did this article imply that EVERYONE made choices based on these criteria. He was just pointing out that IN GENERAL this is what happens. There are those of us more logic driven. For instance, I usually check out any major purchases with Consumer Reports’ before splashing out my money. It’s all in who you trust for your information. (As well as available funds, of course.) You simply cannot argue with the fact that, by and large, we ARE a nation of ‘sheeples’.
Well, the conditions of the experiment are setting up the water bottle as a scarce and valuable good, which multiple people want.
Shogren et al. (1994) did an experiment on the same sort of thing. They found that the effect was eliminated with tighter controls.
Dan Ariely performed another experiment, with baseball tickets. They found that people who’d gotten tickets valued their tickets much, much more highly than people who hadn’t gotten their tickets would pay for tickets. They also asked why. The people who had tickets said they’d get great memories, to pass down to their grandchildren. The people who hadn’t said they could buy food, beer, clothes, etc.
If the company you ordered some major purposes was out of that product, are you sure you’d have the same value of that product before and after the purchase?
I’ll be looking out for this effect in my life. From what I’ve seen from research, it’s not a big effect for small products, but is for large ones.
Thanks for the link to radiolab. I see a lot more there I’d love to listen to. Am (obviously loving your site. I wish I had found it sooner.
Glock vs. XD
Great post. I’m an Apple fanboy, so having someone give me a possible explanation as to why I am is interesting. As an I.T. consultant, I see a lot of irrational, and often illogical loyalty to certain hardware, and software platforms — even when I demonstrate that another product is better suited to the customer’s needs. Oh well. I can be the same way sometimes.
The best thing about this article is the cognitive dissonance in the comments. “This effect may be true for the sheeple, but *I*, for one, always choose my brands rationally, based on price and quality. ” Yeah, sure you do.
Yeah and next we’ll be debating oil spills! :)
Great article. Knew a guy who had paid for 5 xbox 360s because they all RROD’d. He finally made the switch ps3 and realized the transition wasn’t as cataclysmic as he convinced himself it would be. Of course, that is an expensive lesson he learned. MS’s marketers deserve a bonus considering the number they did on their xbox fanboys.
I love how everyone insisted on proving your point. Like the guy who said that Android already topped the iOS(as it is now called) in market share. Look, Android is a pretty good OS, and it will only get better. iOS 4 will be better though. Besides the point. Android has 6% of the market share, and iOS has 28. Mac OS X vs. Windows 7 is a bad example. It is better to pick an example with no objective difference. Coke vs. Pepsi is also a bad example, as there is a single clear difference in taste between the two. Its better to use pure bullshit ones like preferring Blockbuster to Netflix or Charman toilet paper or whatever its called or Band Aids to store bandages.
The Media love to fan the flames of these kinds of arguments as they are often the ones who dictate to the general public regarding what they view as a must have…. 10 reasons to buy/not buy this gadget, widget, thingamabob….
Great Article by the way.
I myself get drawn into the Apple vs the Rest of the World arguments as I despise everything about Apple as a company (Smug is the word)…. but after reading this article I feel I must put a stop to my rants….. mainly as I have grown tired of going over the same things with the same people and realising that I will never convince them to not be so brand loyal even when the product is inferior from time to time.
David, you are a genius.
Disclosure: Confirmation bias
Great article. Probably the best one I’ll read all week.
No, I’m just a journalist and an enthusiast of psychology. Thanks for reading!
Full disclosure: I use a Mac.
Really great site, here. And of course these ideas and factors dont apply completely and exclusively to everyone all the time. But it does give possible and likely explanation to a lot of the behaviors I’ve observed in myself and others. A lot of the building of a brand is about hitting on what your desired demographic identifies with…or how they want to be identified (disclaimer: I love most everything about Apple, Lexus, TAG Heuer, you get the picture).
While you mentioned sports fanatics, you didn’t quite go into much depth there. I happen to think sports fanatacism is a different animal, that although similar, has unique and nuances. The term “schadenfreude” comes to mind. Also, how about when we love a player on our team but when he leaves for another team or is traded, etc…we loathe him, or vice-versa? Would love to read your thoughts on this, cause I’m really not smart at all, as you’ve proven.
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You touched a nerve here, I was that guy in the cereal aisle when I first moved to the States ten years ago. I was overwhelmed by all the choices and spent way too long deciding what to buy. In the end I chose something I was familiar with in the UK. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
So what do you eat now?
Thanks for post from Australia
Jozefin
Heard about this posting from a Nerdist podcast. Love ALL your articles, will be reading regularly.
Having gotten my MBA in marketing, I have direct knowledge of what it is you wrote about (and could not stomach working in marketing as a career as a direct result)
What is so funny about a good portion of some of the more argumentative posts in this thread, is they are missing (what I saw) as the whole point of the article. Its not that “you” (person reading) are not “smart” (although David would argue they are in fact not so smart…) But that the basic wiring of the human brain via emotional connections has allowed corporations to knowingly use specific “marketing tools” to help move consumers away from making rational decisions to making more emotional decisions in the favor of the corporation, regardless of how that decision might negatively impact that consumer’s life (ie, financial overextention, indebtedness, unhealthy life-choices, etc).
Anyway, I found the article great! But some of my biggest laughs came from the posts! Keep up the great work sir!
This is reeeeealy good stuff man!.
Wow, I can’t believe this.
Great article. I sure wouldn’t have found out about this blog if it weren’t for Rocketboom :)
But the thing is,
Android IS better than iPhone…. it’s a completely rational conclusion.
Flame on.
Interesting site, here. I’ve known about many of these tendencies we share such as the Perils of Introspection. I have known for years that I am unable to explain why I like or dislike a piece of music, or artwork….etc. I follow the latest research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, the use of fMRIs, MEGs and like technologies to learn how the affective and cognitive functions in the brain manifest themselves in our responses to external stimuli and social interactions, and find this field fascinating and ultimately of potential personal benefit It helps me to know about these and take ownership; that is, to accept the reality of their existence and maintain conscious awareness of them in order to attempt to filter their effect to whatever extent I am capable.. However, it seems that it will prove difficult for many people to accept the findings because of the very self image defense systems we construct that you mention. Perusal of the comments being made seems to supply possible evidence of this.
What I find interesting is that this psychological phenomena applies to anti-fan sentiments as well. People will latch onto to anything negative about a brand (could be a group, a product, a company, a political party, an individual, i.e. any “identity” or entity) and ignore anything positive about it. I can think of a few I hold onto myself.
nice article, thank you.
This is an interesting article.
I was thinking about how beer is advertised and marketed in this country. Often, the beer is usually just marketed to represent a lifestyle or status
CORONA try’s to make you feel like drinking their beer will replicate the feeling of being on a tropical island with a group of beautiful people without any worries or cares in the world. They mostly market to married women w/children who are constantly second-guessing life choices they made.
COORS LITE like’s to make you feel like you’re at a party with a lot of beautiful cool young people having the time of your life. Coors Lite also like to market their beer towards women in that it’s a “lite” beer so you won’t gain weight. They also like to market to middle aged women so they can fool themselves into thinking they’re still young and hip.
BUDWEISER is usually marketed as some sort of reward for a hard day’s work for a smart no nonsense man that knows a lot more than his boss. Also they like to stress their purity and natural ingredients and that you’re a no-nonsense type of person who goes right to the bottom line and doesn’t like to deal with a lot of B.S. There’s also a kind of macho feeling to drinking their beer, something like, “Only real men drink Bud”.
Coors is for the man you enjoys the outdoors and the purity of Colorado or ex-college guys who don’t want to be like those A-holes at work drinking Bud. A man who doesn’t want Coors lite, because that’s for women or dumb college kids.
Bud Light is marketed towards the “party guy” or men usually in their 20′s-30′s-40′s who went to college and don’t want to drink a girl’s drink (Coors Lite) or a working class or old man beer like (Bud). Bud Lite is for that “party guy” everyone seems to know, who thinks it’s funny to piss on your couch and vomit in your fish tank.
Miller Lite is for the Ex-Jock who still likes to play sports but still have a good time, and sees nothing stupid or counter-productive about playing a sport for two hours and then drinking 10 beers with nachos.
Rolling Rock was marketed for the non-conformist guy because it was brewed in P.A. comes in a cool green bottle with a bunch of “weird shit” on it. The RR drinker is not going to drink Bud or Coors lite because he’ll tell you that’s for a-holes who watch shows like Friends or Sex in The City. In reality the guy doesn’t realize that Budweiser bought RR a few years ago and it’s brewed in St. Louis.
Miller High Life is for poor people or old men.
Pabst Blue Ribbon is for former union men who still give a shit or yuppie 20 somethings who think drinking Pabst is ironic.
Schlitz/Schaeffer and other cheap beers aren’t really marketed anymore because they’re usually for people with serious drinking problems who can’t afford anything else. They’re basic motto is “We won’t judge You”.
Heineken/Becks most European beer is for guys that make some money and like to show that they know a thing or two. In reality they’re usually dumb a-holes that couldn’t even find The Netherlands on a map or just found out Heineken’s not a German beer.
Guinness likes to make people think they’re really trying to embrace their Irish heritage or want a strong manly beer when in reality most people drink Guinness to get drunk really fast.
Sam Adams and most of the other micro-brews like to market their beer to people who have serious drinking problems and need to mask their borderline alcoholism with something like being a “Taste Connoisseur”.
Great Post!
This was a very interesting article to read. Great job especially with all the examples (loves the coke Pepsi part would love to get your source to read further)
I’ve linked the Coke and Pepsi study at the end of the article. Thanks for reading!
Fair enough…
But then what happens when you own one of every brand in a given market? (Or perhaps more realistically, a representative product from many brands in a given market?)
For example, I have a Zune HD, an iPhone, an iPod, a Windows Mobile phone and a Windows Mobile PDA.
There are things I like about each of them – there are things I dislike about each of them. Yet while I will point out both for anyone who asks – I don’t really have a fave and move between them on a case by case basis (for example, I prefer the Zune’s UI, but I prefer the iPhone’s app capabilities).
On the other hand, when someone comes up to me and starts trying to convince me that their preference is ‘the one’… I’ll almost naturally push back and show why their view is too simplistic or might be inappropriate for me… which they’ll then immediately claim is my having a bias. Technically they’re right – but the bias is against people having simplistic and inappropriate preferences and pushing them on other people. :)
I think it comes down to how you present your preferences: the positive way is ‘I like this product because of these features – if you thing they’re beneficial, you might want to consider the product’ and the negative way is ‘Your product choice sucks because it doesn’ t have these features that the product I like has.’
Even when it has to be negative, it’s all in the presentation: ‘Your product choice is good, but you should know that it won’t be able to do X’… vs ‘What a piece of crap your product choice is, you should have gotten the one I like because it can do X.’
I buy things because they amuse me, or because they solve a problem I have, not because of who makes them or how they make me look. One of my friends said that they don’t like me buying things because I get buyer’s remorse a lot. I had to point out that that’s not actually true – I buy a lot of things that in the end, I use for a bit then find doesn’t do what I want the way I want it to. But there’s no remorse – I love playing with toys. :)
When I’m done, I give them away to friends, family or the needy. Everyone wins. :)
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My neighbor was laughing at me when reading this line on your blog “… money, like $8.Ownership adds special emotional value to things, even if those things were free….” this is it, you just crushed it down buddy.
Thanks for the article ..
I completely am in awe of this blog .totally gonna have to put this on my bookmarks.
Great site. Well-written articles. If everybody in the world read these (a few times until they understood them fully) we would have a good start to rationalism and priorities. Thanks!
Thinking about it, I actually argue “on the Internet” more based on company policy, the product they offer and the features it has in connection with the price it has and I can for example fully argue towards the point of “ATI” just having better graphics cards in about any way even though I like NVIDIA more and own one, or for instance think that Android is the choice to go because of its Open-Sourcy-ness and because it doesn’t have Apple profiteering off of it and selling it at +70% increase price cause of brand even though I still own an old crappy SONY Walkman mobile that has no touch or any of the features these things do… so I think the premise of this articles seems wrong as there is a rational process even before you choose to buy a certain product…
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“Another bias is the Sunk Cost Fallacy. This is when you’ve spent money on something you don’t want to own or don’t want to do and can’t get it back.”
This is an inaccurate definition of what the sunk cost fallacy is. Actually the above excerpt incorrectly describes sunk cost, not the sunk cost fallacy. Sunk cost is the Economist’s way of saying “Don’t cry over spilled milk.”
Sunk cost has no influence on an individuals’ decisions because it is not considered rational behavior. As a rational human being you would never buy something you don’t want or spend money on something you don’t want to do.
The idea of sunk cost comes into play when the concert you bought tickets to was canceled, or the new DVD you bought won’t work, or even buying a ticket to a movie only to realize while watching it you hate it. At this point there is no reason to regret your decision, as you could not have known you would get no return on your investment, nor was it a waste of your money.
I’ll use the movie example to explain the sunk cost fallacy. An Economist would say that if a person who decided that they hated the movie halfway through, and thought that if they got up and left the theater without watching the whole movie would be a waste of money, then that person was wrong. They would be wrong because it wouldn’t matter if they stayed or if they left, that money is gone forever regardless. The Economist might even argue that the person should leave, because watching a movie you think is terrible all the way through, just because, isn’t very logical. You would most likely get much more enjoyment out of doing something else instead.
My Econ Prof summed it up “Don’t cry over sunk cost.”
Just thought I would clear that up. This is probably the most interesting blog I have read. Just realized I should have used that guys tattoo in my example too.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I stand by my use of sunk-cost here, but the wording could be a little better. The sunk-cost fallacy is about sticking with a bad purchase even though you can’t get your money back, which I’ve done many times.
I am mortified that the word “fanboy” seems to increasingly viewed as a legitimate and meaningful term. It is, of course, neither. By god man, at least put it in quotes in the first use so your readers know you’re merely co-opting a term from popular pseduo-linguistics and not pretending it really means anything beyond “you’re an idiot because you don’t agree with me.”
Oh, and sorry to be “that guy” that responds to a blog long after it’s been posted.
The post that got me addicted to this blog. Excellent.
Alternate title for this article: “People who make choices I disagree with must be ignorant.”
It seems a form of confirmation bias, specifically belief perseverance, is also at work here. When someone has decided that they believe something, it is very difficult for them to give up that belief – even when presented with facts to the contrary. And especially if they have made those beliefs public.
When people make decisions that are different than yours, it naturally causes you to question pieces of your own decision. But your mind is sometimes unwilling to concede that an an alternative choice is acceptable, perhaps even better than the one you made. And a fanboy is born.
So, in other words I have brain damage and am a being of pure logic, like Data, yes? I constantly find myself in that exact position. “This tastes better, but this one has more nutrients. Hmm…” This process can take hours — barring any hyperbole.
I profess no brand loyalty — I do, however, have a brand “hatred” toward Apple because their commercials compare hardware to software on a consistent basis. I also associate Apple with hipsters who drink tall lattes in Starbucks while writing the next “Great American Novel.”
Oh joy, though: of all the things to confirm I’m an emotionally stilted sociopath, it’s the fact I can’t decide between brands of cereal.
I hate Apple but I have a reason. In the early 80′s I presented a piece of software to Apple and they said they would market it if I would make some changes. After working two months on the changes they decided not to market it. Now I push the PC every chance I get.
Do we really need sexist comments like “hurr hurr male ego durr” women have egos too, no need to target one gender when everyone suffers from the same issues.
Whilst I agree with this article, we can all agree that people who buy Apple products are fags right?
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Ну как говорится на баше – плюсани, если тебе прохладно)
“You prefer the things you own because you rationalize your past choices to protect your sense of self.”
Would be interesting to apply this to religious choices – especially when comparing religions adopted in later life involving conscious choice versus a religion you’re brought up in and indoctrinated into (and thus more likely to rebel against).
Interesting read. Life is all about choices. i make mine and you make yours. Who need the internet?
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Honestly, any reasonably perceptive and intelligent person understands that they are being manipulated. Ever since I was old enough to think properly I started to understand that I was being influenced by the people and products around me. I also knew that this knowledge did not make me immune to it either. Immune, no, but resistant? Definitely.
What this article fails to mention, possibly because it get’s a little caught up in painting the picture that it wants to, is that although you’re rarely in a position to make a perfect choice, any person is capable of making a smart choice that will hold up to any objective and reasonable scrutiny. We are not powerless, and there are legitimate reasons to be happy with a purchasing decision that do not stem purely from a need to protect ourselves from buyers remorse. I will provide an example below.
Pretend for a moment that you’re a low income earner and you really don’t have a lot of spare cash to spend on new tyres for the family car. But being the fastidious person that you are you did your research and found that every single independent tyre test that you were able to find recommended that rather than buying the cheapest tyres you can find, you should instead buy the best tyres that you can afford. Why? Because it’s your family we’re talking about here. Good tyres are often the difference between a close call and a tragic death. Tyre tests are done quite frequently by many different independent groups and new products are popping onto the market all the time. Due to this ever-changing landscape the prevailing wisdom and indeed the most commonly given advice is simply to stick with the known brands who year after year demonstrate superior performance to the many “attractively cheap” alternatives. Empirical research by people all over the world who are, collectively, as objective as people get. You might not end up making the absolute best choice, and as we know it’s exceedingly hard to do that, but you’ve clearly made a better choice and it had nothing to do with brand loyalty. It was about safety, and no reasonable person can fault you for it. You end up feeling good about your choice not because you chose a particular brand, but because you avoided choosing a terrible one. And there are many other examples like this.
Additionally, I do not agree that it’s always pointless to argue with people about things like this. Fanboy vs fanboy is indeed a waste of time. But intelligent, insightful, patient and objective vs fanboy is often very effective. Not so much on forums, but certainly in real life. Personally I would try never to make someone feel bad about a purchasing decision if we are talking about something they simply “wanted”. But I would certainly enthusiastically engage in debate “before” they made their choice if it was over something important.
Myself, and all of my friends for example, are best bang for buck people who research everything meticulously before we spend money. Take the nVidia vs ATI debate for example. Anyone who follows technological developments in this area knows that every now and then one of them clearly has the high performance crown and/or the best bang for buck mid-range card. On these occasions there is clearly a “smart” choice to be made if you want either the most you can possibly get at any price or the most you can get for the money you have to spend. And then there’s overclocking, for those of us who like to experiment with it. Every now and then either AMD or Intel release what is clearly the generations most easily overclockable CPU. We’ve all seen it happen.
What I am saying here is that we are not as powerless as articles like this make it seem like we are. And it is certainly not true to say that every choice is essentially as legitimate as every other choice. There are smart choices and there are stupid choices when looked at in the context of a stated objective. All the fuss occurs when two products are on very equal footing and in those situations it matters a whole lot less which one you chose anyway.
nice article. I too see the this market getting much worse before it gets better for anyone…whether it be the banks or the homeowners.
- Ellen MALLEY
Great post, I wish my iPhone4 worked with my car!!!
sell my car or change my phone!
This blog appears to get a large ammount of visitors. How do you promote it? It offers a nice individual spin on things. I guess having something authentic or substantial to post about is the most important factor.
Anyone know any good Car buying companies
You guys are so stupid. Yall no that Android is the best, so you have to make up “studies” to disprove it!!!! DROIIIIIIIIIID FTW.. You are all prolly gay! Lol!!!!!!
I admit to all of this! I am very opinionated about my gadgets.
Hello! Is it Okay if I ask anything kind of off topic? I am trying to view this page on my iphone nonetheless it will not show up properly, do you may have any options? Thanks in advance!
Anyone know where I can sell my car?
Anybody know where I can sell my car
Surely this cognitive bias is about more than just “fanboyism and brand loyalty”. I think the behaviour you’ve described applies more generally to anything that people “invest themselves” in, especially spending their time and/or effort – not just spending money on products, which you’ve focused on here (time/effort/money are of course intimately linked).
For example, if somebody does some home DIY instead of hiring a carpenter, and despite the work they’ve done being sub-standard they insist that it’s totally fine, or “good enough”. Because they’ve invested their time/effort into it in just the same way as investing their money (which they got after all by expending time/effort) when buying an iphone, they feel the need to post-justify their actions to convince themselves that they made the right choice.
Or if somebody finds a bargain – for example something they genuinely want to buy, but which is half price on ebay because it’s slightly faulty. They can’t resist getting the great bargain so they buy it and then convince themselves that the fault doesn’t matter to them so “really” they’ve got the item at half price with no drawbacks. (This and the DIY example courtesy of my irrational father!)
Religion of course provides an easy example of something that people can invest significant portions of their lives in, similar to the way you mentioned in the part regarding sunk costs and subscriptions.
I appreciate that this article is primarily about the phenomena of fanboyism and brand loyalty viewed in terms of the cognitive biases which contribute to these behaviours, but I think that the focus was a bit narrow. It makes it sound a bit like these behaviours are a relatively new occurrence and a result of modern consumerism and marketing; rather I think brand loyalty is just one manifestation of deeper behavioural patterns, which you only seemed to touch upon briefly near the end when mentioning the ‘big daddy’ – choice supportive bias.
I think it’s more about post-justifying the way you’ve spent your ultimate resource: your time. Money is ‘virtual time’ or ‘stored time’, because you probably bought your money by spending your time. I think it’s less about buying into the “self-image” you want, which is just part of the marketing which affects you BEFORE you make the purchase. What makes people fanboys is when they defend their purchases AFTER they’ve made them, whether they made them because they were manipulated by advertising, or swayed by an irresistible bargain, or any other reason.
Sorry that went on a bit long, hopefully some of it makes sense/is relevant
What a bunch of psychobabble pseudo-science justification bullshit, the kind of article where you start with your desired answer and then selectively choose your so called ‘proof’ in order to back your own argument.
As someone who has done actual research into this field it never ceases to amaze me how many articles like this one there are on the internet where the ‘proof’ is based on common misnomers, borrowed evidence from other such articles (which also have no evidence to back up their claims) and the scientific equivalent of urban myths.
Most of what you claim here is in fact marketing agency spin, not science, the kind of crap that they spew out to gullible clients, internet bloggers, and journalists too lazy to do actual research, in order to make them seem far smarter and more savvy than they actually are. Because if they are using science then surely their marketing much be the best and most cutting edge out there, right? Ignore the fact that it is, in truth, about as close to real scientific study as the Pond’s Institute.
So please, stop regurgitating everything someone’s press agents spewed your way, or that you foundin some deep, stain covered vorner of the internet, just because you think it makes you look smarter, as anyone with any degree of intelligence or knowledge can see right through such foolhardy endeavours.
Throughout this grand pattern of things you’ll secure an A+ for effort and hard work. Where exactly you misplaced us was first in your details. You know, it is said, the devil is in the details… And it couldn’t be much more accurate in this article. Having said that, let me reveal to you what exactly did give good results. Your authoring is quite engaging and this is probably why I am making the effort in order to opine. I do not really make it a regular habit of doing that. 2nd, while I can notice the leaps in logic you make, I am not necessarily convinced of just how you appear to unite the ideas which in turn help to make your conclusion. For the moment I will yield to your issue however hope in the near future you link your facts much better.
fantastic piece. thanks for taking the time to write it. yes, i completely agree with you on this, Apple is much better than Windows.
lovely.
have a nice day.
Blackberry all the way….. iPhone is just a cash cow via apps
Great post, I wish my iPhone4 worked with my car!!!
sell my car or change my phone!
Interestingly, not understanding brand loyalty is EXACTLY what caused Coke’s biggest mistake in all of their company history: New Coke.
Coke has always been the undisputed market leader in the soft drink category. It wasn’t even close. However, Pepsi began to significantly improve its marketing in the 70′s and early 80′s and was trying to support their superiority with their infamous taste tests – the Pepsi Challenge.
The problem with the Pepsi Challenge is that it was a “sip test.” It relied solely on the initial impression of Pepsi and Coke, and not the long-term drinkability of the glass/can.
Although very similar in composition, the fact is that Pepsi is sweeter than Coke. This sweetness is more pleasing on the initial sip than Coke’s harshness. Even hard-core Coke fanboys often prefer Pepsi on the first sip. When it comes to drinking an entire glass, however, that sweetness will overwhelm a lot of people, especially those who normally prefer Coke. So by the end of the glass their preference will genuinely shift back to Coke.
Also, even for those who might find they prefer the sweeter taste, as the MRI study cited in this article shows, there was still an extremely strong brand loyalty going on.
So although people might have been shocked by choosing Pepsi in the challenge, most of them ultimately didn’t abandon Coke (Coke’s sales numbers weren’t significantly decreasing, but rather Pepsi’s sales numbers were merely catching up).
Coke’s mistake is that they conducted their own blind taste tests, and set them up exactly the same as the Pepsi Challenge. In other words, just a sip test. Unsurprisingly, they discovered that Pepsi wasn’t making things up. People *did* prefer Pepsi — under those very specific and controlled conditions. Coke also failed to properly follow up with those who chose Pepsi (the majority). Something like the MRI test would have told them all they needed to know, but even a detailed examination of the participants’ drinking habits would have helped.
The result was that Coke did the unthinkable (in hindsight): They abandoned their traditional formula for New Coke, which was significantly sweeter.
As we all know, it was a complete disaster.
And this shows exactly why that the people who may have preferred Pepsi in the sip-test mentioned in the article were not really behaving irrationally. They may have been genuinely surprised to find that they preferred a sip of Pepsi, but the automatic brain response based on brand loyalty actually served them well, by taking them back to a preference that suits them better when enjoying a full can of the beverage.
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Great article very informative and I agree with the findings oh, how I hate to express it.
From an early age we are bombarded with images and adverts. Good on you for creating this and helping people take stock of their lives. Hopefully seeing what is necessary and what is in fact not required. Great more articles like this please.
i am not sure that we might explain each political choice through psychology, however you are bringing interesting points there!
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Brillian. Very funny. Keep me informed.
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It seems like anything I say here will prove your points.
Although, I’m a FanMan now…. ;)
It never ceases to amaze me that people will choose to wear t-shirts (and other apparel) that advertise some product. Unpaid. Are they nuts? (Ans: clearly, I must be the one who’s crazy.)
So, it is true? I’ve heard that one of Apple tactic is to make a tribe out of its users. That’s why there are arguments regarding which is better – Mac or PC. Somehow, it is not about whether the two is better or not. But, it is about the tribe of users. Essentially, Macbook is still a laptop as the functions are primarily the same. Then, why did we differentiate between a Macbook and a laptop. That’s when the tribe idea came in. People are so attached to the brand that they can’t bear that their product be generalized into the term ‘laptop’. It must have its own name, its own identity thus the Macbook becomes a general term itself.
“Then, after an hour, they ask the person how much they would be willing to sell the bottle back to the experimenter for. They usually ask for more money, like $8.”
Isn’t it something else something more profound then just emotional value? Like greed?
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I like the book, so I am definitely going to look into it, so for that I thank you. Do you ever think that sometimes the more expensive brand names are better than the rest of the companies. I mean WalMart compared to some celebrity store on Rodeo Drive, the difference is indescribable. The fact is that you are correct, people are generally brainwashed lets call it, and they support brand names even if it costs more. Everyone does it. There is not one person that would be in their right mind would turn down a 2012 Audi S8 over a 2012 Chevy Malibu. Because even though they are both brand new cars, the Audi is higher in quality. And I used that example with self knowledge of that because I love Chevy. I am a brand lover of Chevrolet. And I hate Ford. And I always will. That is mainly because they literally killed me family. And they meaning Ford Motor Company. But even as a Chevy lover, I would pick the Audi S8 because it is simply a better car. I look forward to your response. O and I did enjoy the whole article. You pieced it together well, but I think you could use some more strength!
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