Brand loyalty through repetition

Ah, forum life and the allure of "What should I buy..." threads. Like jackals spotting a gimped fowl in distress, the pounce is made to suggest only our favored product labels.

The legitimacy of these suggestions seldom come into debate, as it's far too often a knee jerk reaction to just get the info out there. This flag planting with low retort numbers can leave the Original Poster with such a long list of random suggestions that they may be even more confused. The common result is that the reply that sold it best on the first try "wins".

I've long wondered about my own loyalties, and am VERY critical about actually putting my own stamp of approval on items; let alone a brand. It'd be almost an unfair game of "Help me build" monopoly (on crack) to take part based on the above formula out of sheer brute force and word count! What's wrong with that then? Listing what we like vs. what the person requests is not a suggestion at all.

For that then, what makes us loyal really? On the skin, I feel it's widely little more than what we have currently as our brand of choice. Freudian? Very. It's just hard to fathom that what we have may really not be the best buy. Obviously we bought it and thought it was good, so it has to be...right? There's levels of this as well, and can really get into these parts being able to be plugged into a slot, it works, so it is then validated as a great choice. The thought process is that "We're infallible".

Let's face it, we're all new to computers. All of us, including myself. Ya, we may have had some Amiga's and been computing since, but the PC industry does not let us rest on our laurels. The definition of that phrase sums it up nicely and on pointLines change far too quickly to be loyal to a product. Or does it?

Repetition: It makes or breaks loyalty for me, and highly suggest it for any person that has an internet connection and the desire to post in any forum. I hold 2 brands as go-to's time and time again, but even they can be knocked off if they decide to somehow start sliding. This folks, takes time to accumulate a real loyal go-to product, let alone a brand.

My number one favorite was once a junker. Something you'd smell coming a mile a way and start running. Those with not much time under their belt may not have been around when OCZ was just...pure crap. With a very slow crawl and repeatedly placing Boot A in Sun-Don't-Shine B, never falling back or faltering, and giving the heathens something to always fear; has me thinking Patton re-incarnated as their CEO. I bring this up though only to show that they were once known for producing owl pellets and not to sell them. At some point the data was pondered and found to be worth taking a shot. One hit did not sway me from Micron/Crucial...many did. Even while using OCZ early on, I still tossed out Crucial and Mushkin in superior RAM choices. It should take quite a long time to begin suggesting parts based on brands...trending, not first look love. Using data, usage, and our human logical mind.

This isn't to say it's the only thing even attempted. That'd be biased and bigoted then wouldn't it? I still try others, and for the most part...it's OK at best. It may work, it may not, but that's part of the search for approval isn't it? Jumping off the known on whims, gut feelings, and probably some decent data, is really hard to do; but must be done. The largest move I can relate to is after the fall of 3Dfx and actually going back to nVidia. What a great ride! Recently had to make the same jump again when the gut feeling and data shown the light on the lowly ATI 2900 underdog. Rough start (pun intended), and still an uphill battle...but I'm still seeing and feeling the upward curve. It wasn't such a gamble afterall! It's these jumps that are worth taking to be better geeks...IMO. My long time flame for Abit has died, Crucial is waining, Coolermaster has gone mainstream, Plextor is dead as a doorknob, Klipsch makes iPod junk, creative can't make a driver to save their life, Panaflo hasn't made a new fan in ages, and I haven't seen real changes that effect me much in Logitech wireless lately...Brands aren't loyal to me! My second favorite in XFX even has to be shot by since they're an nVidia partner and don't offer my GPU of choice. Adapt, overcome...constantly.

HW logic makes this kind of a fun game once we are aware. Look at what's suggested based on our signatures. I'll take the Vegas odds that suggestions are aligned with what's in a sig at any given time. Hell, I'll take the Laughlin odds on that! You can also take a suggestion and see thought put into it if it does NOT match a sig. As progressing to be even better forum members, I feel this infallible mentality must be negated by pure...hardware...logic.

Next up is a parallel: Marketing!

(Cherry broke...and made into pie)