Brand Loyalty

Today at lunch the WWB gals and I were discussing the Super Bowl ads from last night.  While I usually watch the Super Bowl strictly for the ads--even if the local team is in the game--I feel like I missed a lot of them last night. I did catch a few and they were decent. But would they make me buy? The answer is a resounding NO!

Super Bowl ads are not made to switch a loyal customer from Company A into a loyal customer of Company B. It is production value. It is memorability. Will it be talked about at work on Monday?

It got us to thinking, what brands are you loyal to? It's as old as the Coke vs. Pepsi debate!

There are plenty of products that I am very loyal to! I have used the same face soap for the last 20 years! I don't use it everyday, but I still love it! I have grown in my product spectrum, but this one is always a staple.

My oldest son will only eat Reduced Fat Cheez It crackers. I've even tried saving the box and putting regular ones in it. Nope, he knows.  It has to be a certain brand of bread, peanut butter, etc. I swear he would starve before ingesting something that isn't one of his "brands."

My youngest son tells me things are wrong if a company changes their packaging. Giant Eagle recently changed their shredded cheese packaging and while making pizzas one night, he told me it was the wrong cheese. First lesson for my six year old in marketing--the product didn't change, just the packaging.

I can remember in college it was my turn to buy ketchup for the house--at this time I didn't eat ketchup much, if at all. Not originally being from western PA, I bought the store brand. When I brought said ketchup home, my roommates were appalled at my choice. How dare I buy something other than Heinz. "Really," I thought. "It matters?" Yes, yes it does! Fast foward 15 years and I can only buy Heinz. Everthing else just isn't, well Heinz.

We are like this with clothes, shoes, household items. While I may pick something up here or there, there are a few stores that I go to religiously when I'm in need or want of something new. Honestly, if I can't find it there, I usually just stop looking!

We all have products and services that we bow to in loyalty. I'm totally screwed if Sunshine stops making Cheez Its or Giant Eagle changes their packaging again!

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The View From My Window

When my husband and I bought our house, we knew there was a lot that needed to be done to make it our own. The house was built in the 1950's and we were only the second owners. It was just a little old woman (and no my house is not a shoe) that lived in my home before us, so of course, our tastes are very different.

We moved into our house in September and that winter we had a HUGE snowstorm. So the view from my kitchen window was just amazing (and yes, that is the real picture from my kitchen window). Needless to say, I love the view I have, but I don't love my 60+ year old windows.

There really was nothing wrong with our house or the windows, but the whole house really just needed update. It needed a new kitchen, new bathroom, some TLC for the floors and new windows that did not leak any air. Which leads me to my past two months.

Getting bids for new windows is not fun. There are so many companies out there who tell you their windows are the best and they can do it better than the next guy. What bothers me the most is when they slam their competitors and try to trash talk them to my face. I get it, you want the sale, but don't be the sleezy sales person who is rude about other companies. You all have your positives and negatives, just some more than others.

I met with four different window companies: one high-end company to see exactly why they were the more expensive window and to figure out why they charged so much, two middle-priced companies, and then the lowballer. I called another number given to me by a fellow WWB blogger, but never got a return call from them. Odd, you would think they would jump on it when I want windows!

The first thing I learned is that windows are much more expensive than I thought. I needed nine new windows for my house, and they are not the normal size window either. However, the return on investment for new windows will hopefully pay off in the end, so I had to pay the price.

After meeting with the four companies, by myself (my husband really had no part in what I liked to call the window interview process), I finally chose a company - TWO MONTHS LATER!

I asked myself, why did it take me so long to make this decision? I know that I want, and need, to buy new windows, but why did I go back and forth with which company I wanted to go with?
The answer is because I kept thinking there would be a better deal out there. Some company would magically have the same low-e, double paned, yata yata yata windows that I want, but at a price that was AMAZING! Wrong. So I really just had to make a choice.

I am not loyal to any of these companies or brands, so they all came in with a fair "interview". In the end, it came down to the company that had the most honest sales guy (and yes, all males...I would've like to maybe find a female, but whatever). The company was not the lowest priced (because I felt like the lowballer was going to screw me over ten times). This company ended up being a family run, local business, which was a bonus to my husband, a local business owner himself. So in a sense, I have found myself being true to the local business, yet again, and always think I will be that way.

I have not had my windows installed yet, but when they are put in, I will let you know if I am still happy with my choice. Until then, I will still be looking out my 60 year old windows, but hopefully not with snow like the first year.

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