Apple Loyalty

[david-monroe]

I'm doing some research about great companies with great customer loyalty and Apple is at the top of my list. For those that have time, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. What created the bond?
2. What price premium will you pay for the bond?
3. How does the bond make you feel?

[Yuiichi]

Welcome to the TAB forums, david-monroe! Hope you enjoy your stay!

Onto your questions.

1. What created the bond?
After having a bad experience with a Sony Network Walkman (iPod Killer, anyone?), specifically with the software, having an iPod Shuffle work absolutely flawlessly and fast the first time I used it was a breath of fresh air. After that, it seems like most Apple products follow this same mantra of "it just works".

2. What price premium will you pay for the bond?
Here's a misconception of Apple - that you have to pay Apple tax. Apple's computers are actually priced fairly competitive with the rest of the market that uses the same parts in their machines.

However, I'll be willing to spend however much of a markup Apple puts on a product if I deem it either a. necessary for me to own or b. life enhancing in some way.

3. How does the bond make you feel?
I feel confident in my knowledge that I use some of the best computers on the market due to this bond.

[notabadname]

1. The better product created the bond. My job and employer had provided both a PC and a Mac at my work station. I was free to create documents as well as graphic presentations and perform analysis on either system. I had naturally migrated my work flow to the Mac by 1991 through simple preference, and no preformed bias. In-fact, my original, if any, bias was toward the PC I had originally learned to work with. As personal computing became more practical and useful for the home, my first personal purchase was with Mac. I have been fortunate enough to be able to afford what I feel is the best product ever since, and to this date, Apple has won that purchasing vote simply by its continued lead in functionality and interface with the user as well as leading reliability.

2. I think this question is "flawed". I don't think anyone pays for a "bond". They pay because the "have" a bond. Semantics, yes, but significant in my opinion. Humans naturally bond with experiences, people or things that bring satisfaction or betterment to their life. It is an emotional attachment. I pay a premium for a product that provides that emotional attachment due to greater satisfaction or enjoyment over another product. The bond either occurs or it doesn't when you explore the product and normally before purchase of the product. If the bond forms, due to so many tangibles in a product, then the you are more likely to pay a premium to maintain that attachment. The successful product is one in which after the "newness" wears off, it is still providing a regularly rewarding experience that maintains the same bond that formed when you first purchased it. If Apple can produce a product that I bond with again when I see it at the store, over a Dell or Sony for example, I will again buy it. Apple simply knows how to create a product that people bond with, and will therefore desire enough to pay a premium over the competition and take it home with them. As for a sum, to the same degree of greater satisfaction I perceive in the product, I will pay that as a premium. If I thought a product, Apple, or a BMW, were twice as rewarding to own, than I would pay twice as much over the competition. Try this as a corny observation and marketing study: Just watch people enter an Apple store and experience the products, and do the same thing with people on a Dell at Best Buy. It is fascinating (yes, I have no life). People in the Apple store give similar looks, and make similar oohhs and aahhs as if they were in a pet store. People actually get "excited" when they play with their first iPod Touch, iPhone, or Mac Book Air. Apple creates a product that people "fall in love" with and want to take home. But if that love isn't there 3 years later for the next purchase there is no loyalty.

3. Intelligent. I like my "high-end" purchase decisions to be rewarded with a prolonged great experience. Everyone likes to have the "validation" that they made a wise choice. My validation is that my Apple "just works". I also enjoy the looks of envy I see in the airport security lines - If you can't be seen IN a Ferrari, be seen WITH a Mac

[baseballboy828]

1. The products' superior ease-of-use and reliability created it. I hated using Windows, and spending more time troubleshooting the computer than using it. My Apple products (iMac and iPod Touch) just work.
2. None. I hate buying cheap products that don't work. I'd rather spend more money on something that will last longer and work better. If Apple sold products that worked the same as a competitors but charged more money, I would buy from the competitor. For example, the white Apple earbuds just don't cut it for me. They are overpriced and don't work well. So I bought from another manufacturer. I don't feel the need to have my earbuds show what brand of portable media player I am using.
3. That sounds like a cliche question from a psychologist. The reality distortion field makes me feel like buying things. After it wears off, I am still happy with the Apple products I own, even if they aren't the newest or greatest. Apple products have longer lives than almost any other electronics brand I have purchased.

[smehta]

Who are the other companies that you share a similar bond with? (How does this make you feel?)

[baseballboy828]

None. The other company I buy lots of products from is Nikon. I may be loyal, but I don't see Nikon the same way I see Apple.

[lonnie]

1. In my opinion there is only one way to create a "bond" with any company or product. That is through a series of products that work and service that does the right thing (for the customer.) Any company that doesn't understand this is either over promising their products or not caring about their customers after the sale. Apple takes the time to produce a higher quality product than their competitors, and they are famous for doing whatever they can to right any wrongs after the sale.

2. I don't pay any premium for a bond. It relates back to question #1 - I pay for products that work and service that cares. In any case, those items are worth more than the competitors to me.

3. The only real feeling involved is trust. Apple and their products have earned my trust over time. It's all about trust, once a company has earned it - it can be easy to lose it. Earning it is the hard part. I trust Apple so much I recommend their products to friends and family.

4. Other companies with this bond?

I'd really say none. But it's not as simple as that.

With most products I buy, I don't need to worry about the best product or the customer service - and when those are not a factor, you just go with best price.

On more important items there is always an opportunity for the companies to "win" my loyalty, but so far I can honestly say no other company has produced the same quality of product (in whatever field) and provided great customer service at the same time.

Apple is really in a category of their own.

[notabadname]

Other companies:

Honda Automobiles. I have owned Ford, Dodge, Chevy, Isuzu, and Volkswagon. It was Honda that has given me my only "Apple like" experience in Automobiles. Great value, great reliability and great service. The car has had zero flaws in 2 years. My only car ever to reach that milestone in about 26 years of car ownership. My next vehicle will likely be another Honda as a result (unless my transmissions falls out this week).

Craftsman tools. Excellent quality, with the best warranty in the industry (now actually matched I guess by some imitators) I could intentionally back over one of their wrenches (with my Honda) and take it into Sears and exchange it. No receipt. No questions. That is worth the higher price.

Like BBB, I am loyal to and only buy Nikon for my camera equipment. Originally because I believed it to be the best. It and Canon are both of the highest quality, but I am now "vested" in Nikon. I have a great deal of equipment, and that investment will forever have me loyal to Nikon now due to the proprietary nature of the bodies, lenses and accessories. The cost to change and have the equivalent equipment would be extraordinary.