Blog 2 - Trevor Brooks

How has consumer behavior has shifted in the past, and will shift because of this recession?

I don’t think consumer behavior has shifted much in the past. What has shifted though has been the availability of products for purchases, the greed and desire of people has always been there the problem was the amount of purchasable products wasn’t. Because of this recession I think for the first time since the depression at the turn of the century the actual behavior of people will adjust. While fiscally speaking the availability and desire to spend money at the time and in the future will be over shadowed by the potential fear of losing money depression / recession style.

How does design develop brand truth?

I think design develops brand truth both in its success and failure on the whole. If you have product X that is a poor product with an amazing design (I’m looking at apple at the moment), then the effectiveness of the product becomes slightly irrelevant to the brand. The consumer remembers how memorable and pretty the design was and this positive association follows on to future products in the same design family good or bad products both apply.

Now if you have product Y that does a awesome and completely efficient job (the general PC market) but outside of consumer control the base model has a horrible design and aesthetic approach the performance is again outweighed about the poor appearance. And similar to the positive attention that the good design promotes, the negative carries over the same if not more so (how often do you remember a good experience at a restaurant over that of a poor experience?)

How does this relate to brand truth? If it is accepted that a brand and its identify is found in the consumers opinion / thought / reviews of a product then this phenomena of design approval is first and foremost all that really matters in the definition. These positive and negative associations based off a product design is what people will more often then not remember over a mediocre product compared to a strong product

Is there a difference between producing happiness and producing brand loyalty?

There is a major difference between happiness and brand loyalty. This can be proven with the last few years and the release of the Nintendo Wii. Since its release the product in game sales has dominated the sale of hardware consoles in comparison to the Sony Playstation 3, and Xobx360 despite being the weakest of the three consoles of the three. In compassion to game sales overall Wii games have for the most part been some of the lowest selling of this generation with the exception of a handful. This in turn illustrates my point, Nintendo by releasing the Wii which was / still is one of the most innovative consoles of game history, has been a product of short-term gain for Nintendo and temporary happiness for the consumer.

The problem is that while the console itself is a popular seller, the support for the system in the enjoyment category via games/firmware support, has been severely lacking; lacking so much that overall the only products that average high reviews via publications and fans are Nintendo products and the majority of third party support falls flat. While in the short term this earns Nintendo high profits, in the long term with future consoles and even games (See Wii music, and Wii fit) consumers trust Nintendo less and less and will be much more reluctant to purchase there products.