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loyalty Loyalty and honesty mean a great deal to me. In personal relationships, I simply cannot do without them if I want to maintain something healthy and mutually beneficial, but it is almost equally important in business affairs. I believe wholeheartedly that loyalty to a person, brand or product should be cherished and rewarded. This is especially true in retail, for instance, where there are so many brand options to choose from. A company like Apple or Nike can rely on brand loyalty to bring them profits year after year, even if the products they put out do not warrant that kind of consumption. Every year a new iPhone comes out and people line up to purchase it for an exorbitant amount, but when looked at closely one realizes the gadget isn’t as “new” or “advanced” or “updated” as it seems. Certainly not enough to warrant such a large cash expenditure. The bottom line, of course, is that people are consumers that just want the new _______ and they want to be the first to have it. That kind of thinking is extremely foreign to me, but were I a company I would familiarize myself with it enough to capitalize on it. Is the hoodie Nike puts out next week going to be superior in any way to the thousands that came before it? Not enough to pay the hefty price. Will a ridiculously large number of people still buy them anyways? You bet they will, and with a huge profit going to the company simply because the people doing the purchasing are being loyal to the brand. I bring up loyalty because I recently went through a change in auto insurance carriers. For years I’ve been using company G and felt good about it. When I cancelled my coverage for a few months I fully expected to use them again when I restarted, so when I got the van recently that is exactly what I started to do. Getting online, I began a quote, only to find that switching from the equivalent of a convertible sports car to a family van was going to cost me more. This surprised me greatly, so I did something I wouldn’t normally do and checked out the rates of company P, only to find they wanted half what company G wanted. I’m all about loyalty though, so I didn’t immediately jump ship. Instead, I made an attempt to contact a local agent to see if there was an explanation for the higher rate (with a safer vehicle) and maybe see if I could get a price match. Instead, I was rerouted to a call center, where someone made a poor attempt to explain to me, in vague terms, why my rate might have gone up. No definitive answers to anything, just a lot of maybes. So I made the switch. What some might find interesting, is how I can feel loyalty towards an insurance company but not towards a clothing brand. My shoes do not bear the same symbols, and I try my best to choose clothing that does not give free advertising to the company that made it. That means logos are often scarce, however I will happily don band t-shirts because in that instance I am elated to share with the world my musical tastes, and at the same time support the band in question by making others aware of them. That means I’ll put on a shirt that says “Skinny Puppy” because they are a band I have always loved, but I won’t even purchase 1 / one that has a Nike swoosh. In fact, I have never owned a pair of their shoes, but I think I might have had some pieces of clothing here and there. Rest assured they were all purchased as second hand, and cost me nearly nothing, because I have more loyalty to my wallet than I do any company. Throughout my life I have been a fan of Pepsi, but on many occasions tried various Coca Cola products. The reason I stuck with Pepsi was not because of loyalty, I just thought it tasted better than Coke. In general I believe in Apple products, because they seem to be made of quality materials and built to last, but I’ve never owned an iPhone. I’ve had Mac computers and of course love my iPod, but my phone almost always ends up being a Samsung. In these instances I am only loyal when it has been earned, or is clearly deserved. I would no sooner mindlessly continue to buy Apple products if they stopped being reliable than I would switch to only wearing Nike products if I began working for the company. It is well known that employees of Nike are not allowed to wear competitor brands to work, but I’d be the guy wearing the only alternative (rumor is you can wear Doc Martens) just to show you can’t force loyalty on people. I guess the point I’m making is that loyalty is very tricky, and all about the individual and their beliefs, attitudes, etc. When I liked football the Washington Redskins were the team I rooted for but I didn’t get angry if people bet against them, and took no rivalries seriously. I was not on the team, didn’t know anyone associated with them, so why would I possibly get emotionally involved or invested? To me, it’s just a game to watch, but to others their team loyalty runs deep. I can’t muster that kind of intensity for much of anything that I am not directly connected to. Insult my favorite band and I won’t want to go to war with you, I’ll just shrug my shoulders and move on, but insult a close friend of mind and you’ll get a very different reaction. I could go on with more examples but the point has been made; as with anything, what is important to some might be meaningless to others, but in general I respect and expect loyalty. |
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