Brand Loyalty

As compared to other people, I always prided myself as one who was not being brand loyal. I do buy branded stuff but I buy any as long as they are good – based on reviews, recommendations and past experiences. I try not to fall into the Fad trap - buying something because it is “IN” right now.

However, I may be wrong. Last week I wanted to go to Jaya Jusco store at One Utama, Damansara to redeem my RM50 voucher. My wife was a bit pissed off with me and accused me of worrying about that "stupid voucher" over other more important things - like paying off credit card bills. I knew she was right and so off we went, settling our debts and in the end didn’t have enough time to visit the stores.

I suddenly realized that we have been shopping at Jaya Jusco stores a lot, either at Mega Mall or at One Utama. One reason was the J card. Using this loyalty card, they have successfully built up a pool of loyal customers. Last year it was estimated that they have around 375K principal members and more than 200K supplementary card holders. It is estimated that out of these, around 75% are active members (Annual report). That’s a lot of customers and any company would be envious of that.

I always thought that my father was not brand conscious. He’s a very down to earth and practical guy. It may be true about clothes (as long as they are comfortable), electronic goods (no extra frill needed), etc. For example, he has been using the same Siemens handphone for about 4 years now, while I have changed several in between. No need for colour screens, MMS, games or polyphonic tones or whatever for him. According to him, it is working fine and he only needs it to make and receive calls. I also noticed that he only buys Citizen watches. Not very fashionable but my mom has one and so do I. My younger sister who came back from Australia recently, also received one as her birthday present. According to my father, they are dependable and reasonably priced. Furthermore you don’t ever need to change batteries for the rest of your lifetime. I can’t argue with that but in a way, isn’t that being brand loyal.

FYI, Citizen Eco-Drive watches uses an amazing power generating and storage system whereby solar photovoltic panels on the dial use light from any source to generate electrical power. This energy is then stored in a special energy storage cell, which powers the watch.