August 25, 2010 » What Determines Loyalty to a Brand? For Apple Loyalists its Emotion

Brand loyalty is not a new or novel concept in the land of marketing.  But, why are people loyal to a brand?  Is it out of your sheer need for that product or service?  Is it value? Quality? Heritage? Or does your brand loyalty only extend as far as buying said product because it’s the “must have” and you purchase it only to be part of the crowd?

This argument can be made for the release of the new iPhone 4 from Apple and the infamous “Antennagate.”  There are people, myself included, which bought Apple products aware that the company knowingly produced phones with a performance flaw- the antenna issue.  I do commend Steve Jobs for addressing the issue, after all, the first step toward forgiveness is admitting and acknowledging there is a problem.  They even do so at Apple.com.  Offering customers a free bumper/case did an effective job of mitigating the deeper backlash that could have ensued, while also saving the company close to $300 million dollars if they were to do a full recall on the phone itself. 

I’m not so sure I agree with their saying the antenna death grip  affects all other smart phones such as the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid X, etc. It doesn’t necessarily reflect well on Apple for throwing others manufacturers ‘under the bus.’

So why are we so loyal to Apple? I am because I’m a slave for fashion, err design. I think most of us Apple loyalists are so because of the continual flow of cool “stuff” that comes out of Cupertino. This is a true case of form over function. And since Apple continually delivers on the form side of the equation, we tend to give them a pass on the function side. Heck, why else would any of us iPhone users endure the spotty AT&T network?  A July 29 article in the Wall Street Journal expands upon the slave to design theme.

Apple brand loyalty was evident again in the release of the iPhone 4 last month in Hong Kong  in a blog post featured in Wall Street Journal, with Apple loyalists willing to suffer through the summer heat in large lines everywhere that offered the phone for sale. 

“I don’t care if the Wi-Fi has as a good connection or not,” said Max Li, one of the customers in line to collect his new phone. “I just like to play games, and the iPhone is a trendy thing,” which further supports the claim that some brand loyalists don’t care if the product they buy is the best offering or may have potential issues.

 “The antenna problem has unsettled some consumers and the negative publicity has taken a little shine off the iPhone brand,” said Neil Mawston, an analyst at market research firm Strategy Analytics. “Competitors have seen the iPhone 4 is not flawless and this will give smartphone rivals a window of opportunity to step up their competitive attacks against Apple over the coming months.”

So bad antenna or not, Apple loyalists will continue to possess deep emotional ties to the innovative design that puts the iPhone and other Apple products ahead of the curve and into our hands.  We will continue to be loyal to the iPhone, regardless if it remains exclusively with an overloaded AT&T network or has design flaws, as long as they deliver on their end of the innovative design bargain.