Branding Testimony (via soccer)


Soccer fans epitomize brand loyalty, being the first, and, being the best.

I really don’t know which criteria or which rituals do people perform before deciding on which team to support. But I for one was subtly persuaded by my father to support Kaizer Chiefs, for the duration of my soccer fanaticism.

In all probability a soccer fan decides on a team to support, and, they then stick with it through thick and thin. A team would go through consecutive “dry seasons,” but the fans remain. Well, most do.

Furthermore, every single fan truly believes that their team is the best, and, that those who support the other teams are not “seeing the light.”

The same happens in the world of brands and marketing.

Someone tries brand x for their first time, by chance or through a recommendation, and, they’re likely to stick with brand x for good.

There are probably Zune owners who afford an iPod but are convinced that they have the best portable digital music player.

It is better to be perceived as the best than to be the best, and, it’s better to be the first than to be the best. Seeing that branding is a game of perceptions, not reality.

Branding is more about experiences, which lead to emotional attachments, than actually being the best.

If the best is what soccer fans (and consumers) are really after, then people would change teams, in favour of the winner, at the end of every season.

(Er, … Once a pirate, always a pirate?)




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— August 5, 2010.