Why People First Choose The Brand and then The Product

Choice of a brand is a reflection of the values that people place in a label more than the product. As seen in the current market situation, consumers go for the brand overlooking the product irrespective of the price, specifications, qualities and quantity. Even if the consumer is looking for a specific product in the market, he will go for the brand he has a trust on rather than going onto a new brand, mostly. Some percent of the consumers have a perception that trying a new brand can make them unhappy or unsatisfied and also disloyal towards their brand. For some consumers, purchasing a particular brand showcases them as a different individual to the society. In building brand value ‘perception is more important than reality’, that is why people go with brands for whatever they purchase, even if it is a car, electronic items, clothes or even a toothbrush. They choose it irrespective of the high prices as they have their trust associated with the brand; even if they are getting the same product at cheaper prices but with different labels on it.

For consumers, buying a brand is also related to their emotions, functional attributes and symbolic values. Every individual has a distinct set of character traits, which essentially builds their choices of brands suiting to their lifestyle and taste. Some of the consumers think that ‘buy what my parents buy or the simplest habbit buy the brand i bought the last time”. They think that the brands their parents have used are always the best and trustworthy because they have known that brand for quite a long time. These days, consumers also choose brands through advertisements; they choose brands which connect to them emotionally and uplift their spirit. These feelings drive them towards the brand, for example, Coca-Cola started a campaign in 2018 in India “Share a Coke”, which had tags written on their bottles and cans, like mom, dad, brother, sister, best-friend etc. This campaign had a huge impact on the Indian market because every person was fascinated to buy the bottles and cans with the tags, and people used to search for different tags every time they bought a Coca-Cola because it was connected to them directly. They used to buy a coke with #bestfriend on the bottle and share it with their friends and with family tags when with their family in parties and functions.

It became a trend slowly and because of the tags people started buying Coca-Cola rather than other brands like thumbs-up or Pepsi and they also found it as a new way to connect to people and have a good time with them while sharing a Coca-Cola.

Example of a local brand like Avonmore, the leading dairy brand of Ireland- It has grown to be the best dairy brand choice of consumers of Ireland since last few years. People in Ireland prefer Avonmore’s milk and cream more than any other brand as they provide the key nutrients to the people of all ages and also their products are rich in vitamin D. People of Ireland prefer Avonmore more than the other brand milks like Tesco milk, Spar milk, Kerry-gold and a2. As the consumers are satisfied with Avonmore, they are not ready to switch to any other Brand.

Consumers also go with word of mouth, either from friends or family as they give them the correct and true opinions about the product and also provide them with the experiences they have personally had with it and are not based on any advertisement. The biggest example is BIRA91 from India. It’s a beer brand which started in 2015, and it sales began to grow in quite a less time due to word of mouth, as people liked it very much because it tasted quite less bitter from other Indian and International brands. People these days drink BIRA91 more than any other beer in India because the brand has become so famous that every new person wants to drink BIRA91, leaving any other brand they used to drink. Even if a person doesn’t get a light beer in the brand, they go for the strong one in the same brand, as it has become a pattern and label for people drinking beer. If we consider the world famous shoe brand Nike, it is one of the most dynamic and old shoe brands on the planet with one of the best looking logo “Swoosh”. Whenever a person goes for buying a shoe, the major thing he takes into consideration is the brand name and how comfortable the shoes are. A person compares between a lot of brands and their products when buying one but then also he goes for Nike leaving Adidas, Puma, Reebok, Sketchers etc., as it is one of the most trusted and established shoe brand in terms of durability, design and comfort. People these days also go for a brand more than all the other elements when buying shoes and clothes as they want a label on these things. Consumers buy Nike’s Jordans even if they are a lot high priced but they buy them because firstly a brand is associated with them and secondly it has an emblem of Michael Jordan who is like a God to a lot of people.

So, at the time of buying, they ignore the high price of that particular shoe and just purchase it even if they are basketball shoes and they don’t even play the sport. It is just for their satisfaction and for showing to the outer world that they are wearing some high-priced shoes.We can see from the description and the examples that consumers are more focused on the brand and not the product on the first hand. The product is subsidiary to them; they first choose the brand and then the product, as they have their trust built on the brands which they don’t want to lose and also they have a fear of disappointment from changing the product of some other brand so they prefer sticking to their own brand.