The Google Brand : courting loyalty like Apple?

G fans show loyalty and exhibit deial like Mac and iPod owners

[paybacksa]

Pleae, please, please don't turn this into a flame war about Mac vs PC, or anti-Apple or pro-Apple etc. If you disagree with the basic assumption (that apple customers are extremely brand-loyal for reasons other than because of superior product) then this thread is not for you.

But if you have noticed (as I have) that Apple customers (Mac users, iPod users, Powerbook users) seem to have an almost religious affinity to anything Apple, does it appear Google is following the same path recruiting and fostering a customer culture of almost irrational brand loyalty?

I don't mean the afficionados... I mean the extreme loyalists. I know iPod and Powerbook users whose batteries have failed several times in short order, never covered by the warranty, and always at great inconvenience and cost - yet they swear by their iPod and Apple. One gets 45 minutes of use per charge, but still praises his notebook as the best available.

I see Mac users straddled with many hundreds of dollars in added software costs over their initial purchase price, in order to get basic functionality that they used to have for free on their PC, yet they find a way to rationalize and talk about how it is still worth it and even a good deal. C'mon... feel free to spend all you like and buy what you want, but do you need to try and stretch the case for it being a good deal as well?

Now I see people jump to defend Google, even on issues where Google hasn't clarified it's own position yet (!) I see people clamoring for GMail accounts when they don't even know the first thing about GMail. I saw people offering to trade stuff for an Orkutz invite, and when I asked what Orkutz was I was told it was everything from "an expensive email service that was well worth the cost" to "an exclusive buyer's club for online music downloads".

If the IPO is anything like an Appple store opening (with lines forming the night before and running around city blocks) then I guess we will know for sure.

Again, I agree Appleproducts are often inovative and highly styled/fashionable, and thus desireable. I am talking here about the extremism that seems to overcome even obvious realities, almost to the point of psychological denial.

It appears that someone has finally found a way to follow the Apple marketing lead.. and it's Google (?)

[Fiver]

form over function fades. function is not always absolute, it tailors to the person as quickly as opinion. loyalty lasts to be superseded by loyalty to another cause. It is only the cause that defines it. moral and ethical pseudo-imposed relationships between perceived corporate culture and internalized consumer values exist for apple and google, as they do in inverse for microsoft

/confusionsus

'don't believe the hype'
-Public Enemy [publicenemy.com]

[troels nybo nielsen]

Exercising your constitutional right to carefully avoid convincing any others than those that already agree with you, paybacksa?

Walk in beauty.

[grelmar]

I'm not sure if its intentional on Google's part, but I believe its happening. I posted on another forum that I'd gotten a GMail account (just to give a shot in the ribs to one specific person who was whining about wanting one), and got SWAMPED with requests to trade for it.

I checked EBay, and GMail accounts are going for anywhere up to 100$ US.

As far as the search engine goes, its become so proiminent its changing the language. How many times have you read lines like "After doing some basic googling..." or "Just google it to find out..."

Sites devoted to google, like googlefight.com, an ego booster where you can punch two terms in to see which generates more responses from google. I've gotten into "google fights" with other people to see how widespread our aliases are.

The question isn't whether there will be an "Apple-like" Google culture. Its already here. The question is how big it will become, and how long it will last.

[paybacksa]

Exercising your constitutional right to carefully avoid convincing any others than those that already agree with you, paybacksa?

Nah... I tried to be clear that I didn't want to argue with the diehard loyalists... that's not people who don't agree with me, that's people who have no sense of reason.

I'd be happy to discuss with people who don't agree with me - how boring would the world be if no one was allowed to disagree with.... oh, wait a sec. That's how my last boss did things. That didn't work...