Brands & Me: A Story of Friendship

I refer to brands as my "friends" because in a certain way I feel that they've been always there for me when I needed, and as a consequence I started to be always there for them as a loyal consumer. 

I believe relevancy of brands apply not only to the product they offer, but especially, to the emotional connection they've built with their consumers over the years. And by emotional connection I mean the feelings and sensations a particular brand or product brings into its consumer, such as trust, nostalgia, safety, satisfaction, and so on. 

As a tennis player who has traveled to 15 different countries, I've felt lost and out of place several times throughout my life. However, big brands, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Mc Donald's, Johnson&Johnson's, and many others, were there for me 100% of the times, to help me out and give me a sense of belonging and safety. 

Mc Donald's store in Lima, Peru

For example, when I went to Peru for the first time, I was only 12 years old, I could barely speak any Spanish and I literally couldn't understand any restaurant's menu at all, thus I felt lost and vulnerable. However, when I saw a Mc Donald's store, I knew that I'd do fine in that place. Although I'm not a big Mc Donald's fan, in this particular situation, the brand Mc Donald's became totally relevant to me, since it brought me the feelings of safety and trust. I knew what to expect and how to order there, regardless of my communication skills in Spanish. 

Brands also become relevant in the way they help us to identify one's self identity. In other words, we can tell a lot about someone's lifestyle and even personality based on this person's brand choices. For example, we discussed in class last wednesday (02/06) how someone who chooses a Macbook over a PC has a more creative, modern, open-minded, and even rebellious side than someone who'd choose the PC, because of what the brand Apple implies  through its mission, identity, products, and style. 

Some of the products I own from my top 3 brands.

For this blog, I tried to make a list of brands that are relevant to my self-identity. However, since I'm a big "brand-driven" person, my list got a little bit bigger than what I expected so I tried to come up with those I consider the top-three: Apple, Babolat, and Disney. Apple comes in first place because I currently can't see myself using any other brand when it comes to electronic devices. At the moment, I have four Apple devices: a Macbook Pro, an iPad, an iPhone, and an iPod nano. Second, I chose Babolat, which is a brand for tennis rackets, accessories, and so on, because I can't see myself using any other tennis racket but Babolat's one. I've been using it since I started playing the sport, 15 years ago and am extremely loyal to the brand. Third comes Disney. Disney has influenced my self-identity since I remember myself. I love the stories, characters, movies, the brand, and everything. My connection with Disney has been the same since I was first introduced to the brand until today, and I that is the reason I chose it to be into my top-three relevant brands.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed to read this post as much as I did enjoy writing it. Thank you for reading and accessing my blog. I also would like to say that I'm going to try posting my next entries earlier in the week.

Finally, I'd like to end this post by leaving a question here:

• What brands are relevant to you in terms of emotional connection and self identity?

Isa