racoma.netI love to write. I write to live. I live to love.

I’ve never smoked in my life. I’ve never tried drugs. I don’t drink alcohol except on certain occasions, such as when I’m eating steak that just has to be washed down with red wine, or when pizza calls for a cold beer. If you talk about addictions, I can say I’m addicted to 7 Up, though. Don’t give me Sprite. Don’t give me any other soda. For me, if it’s soda, it has to be 7 Up.

I’m not actually addicted, but I have this really strong preference for this particular brand. It’s not that I’m brand conscious just for the sake of branding itself, but I tend to like for this particular product because of its inherent qualities and because of my personal preferences.

I also like Gmail, Giordano Natru-Dry shirts (my daily “uniform”), Hewlett-Packard laptops, Nokia E-series phones and Toyota. And am I the only person who uses Google Chrome almost exclusively (except on the Mac)?

If I use products other than these, it’s not necessarily the end of the world. But the happiness factor might not be that great, for instance, if I were using, say, Yahoo! Mail instead of Gmail. I wouldn’t be too hot with using Plurk, but I’m a very avid Twitter user. I’ve tried Drupal, but I’m a WordPress guy. Through time, one develops a sense of affinity to one name, product or service. And subconsciously, you keep on choosing the same brand or product over and over not really because of its name, but because of that affinity.

I like 7 Up because of the strong spirit, compared with other popular lemon-lime drinks marketed in my place. I find Sprite too sweet and too weak in terms of kick. I’ve kind of stuck with 7 Up since I discovered this marked difference. I even go to the extent of sometimes bringing my own soda when a restaurant serves only Coca Cola products.

Perhaps it’s because of this affinity that I’m not too keen on adopting new products or technologies unless I see the benefit they can offer. Even if I consider myself an early adopter, I don’t jump into the bandwagon unless a hot, new product or service has something to offer that I would truly like.

For instance, when Asus came out with the first generation Eee PC, I headed straight to the computer store and bought an Eee PC 701. I really liked the combination of low price and functionality (at that time, ultraportables usually cost about ten times more) My next netbook purchase was also an Eee PC. The benefit here for me is firstly with the product’s inherent qualities (portability, long battery life, and utility). Secondly, since both were from the same manufacturers, I can share accessories like chargers and batteries.

See, brand consciousness does make sense.

How brand conscious are you? What particular brands stand out for you? What are your reasons for sticking to a particular brand?

Think about this the next time you buy a soda, the next time you wear your favorite shirt, the next time you login to your favorite webmail application. How happy are you with that particular product? Will you make a similar purchase the next time around? Will you go as far as recommending that product passionately to other people? And more importantly, try to ask yourself: why?

image credit: flickr/pag2525