Lovemarks

    What consumers are most interested in is to be able to have an emotional connection. A consumer wants to connect with what's behind the brand.  In other words, what's behind the promise.  We has a society don't buy simply or rational, but emotional. Kevin Roberts professional opinion is that emotional buying is the key and not necessarily the brand name.  He calls this "Lovemarks"  Lovemarks is a brand that has established loyalty beyond reason.  These kind of love marks supply mystery and emotional support of what a person recognizes, maybe something in your past.  

   Consumers look up to celebrities like for instance Michael Jordan who started advertising Nike products.  People thought "wow, it must be the shoes that helped him in his success as a basketball player."  People wonder what kind of material that shoe is made out of that makes Michael perform so well.  Mystery drives people into buying a certain product, and no matter what, becomes a loyal consumer.  Nike prices shot up 70 to 200 dollars with Michael Jordan behind it.  People simply don't care about the price, just emotional need.

   From my experience, I have bought more name brands than generic brands.  Some product material wise I do buy because of the name brand.  I really never thought about why I prefer the certain name brand over others.  I do think it is an emotional need as well.  

   On the other hand, in food products, I do believe it is all about taste.  Like for instance, the cereal cheerios or quaker oatmeal and a generic brand.  I can tell the difference in the two and prefer the name brand.  In my experience clothing and food products are different in deciding name brand over generics.  

   Also I think we associate material items to our childhood experiences. Growing up and sticking with what products our parents used is some of the reason why we pick that certain product.  I do prefer Nike brands over the other brands because that is what brand I grew up with.  So I don't believe I buy logical, but as a love mark.  So we ask ourselves, why do we not buy logical over emotional? I believe it's in our nature to prefer emotional over logical.  

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/themes/