Brand Aversion

I walked into Target yesterday to buy a flip top water bottle for my trips to the gym. I was READY to buy this product. I NEEDED one.

I walk down the isle to the selection of water bottles in the sports area. To my amazement the only water bottle on sale was branded by Eddie Bauer. Now I dunno what Eddie Bauer’s marketing staff tries to portray in their marketing, but my brand sence about Eddie Bauer strongly categorizes it with blonde bimbettes who drive the BMWs their rich husbands buy for them. I personally do not want to be associated in any way shape or form to that type of person. Thus, I have an aversion to the Eddie Bauer brand.

I frantically search the isle for ANY water bottle that doesn’t have the branding… the few that don’t are the wrong style of bottle. So instead of breaking down and just buying an Eddie Bauer water bottle… I left the store without one.

I found it very interesting that I could have brand aversion to such an extent that I would choose NOT to buy a product that I had FULL intentions of buying when I entered the store. Then I started to think about all the other brands out there that if they were the only product available, people would actually choose NOT to buy the product even if they NEEDED it because of brand aversion.

Take for instance, Ford. If you ask many Americans, Ford is probally not one of their top brands when it comes to cars. In fact, I bet there are quite a few people that would choose not to buy from them, even if they were the only car company.

So what creates brand aversion? I’m sure many factors come into play, such as quality, branding, marketing, selected market, etc. In addition, even though a brand might be strong in one area, such as marketing, if their quality isn’t up to par word of mouth is going to overcome all attempts to positively market the brand.

Brand aversion also plays a huge part in fair market and the consumers right to choose, if you feel so strongly about not buying a particular brand, you’ll try any other brand over them. This leads the way for new upcoming brands to take hold in markets even when large competitors exist.

Next time you’re in the market for a particular product, make note, because your choices on brand selection might have everything to do with what you don’t like about the other guy rather than what the selected brand can do for you.