The Old West cattlemen realized they needed to keep track of stock to prevent inventory loss and to receive their proper returns when it was taken to market, so they applied a hot iron to the backside of each dogie with their unique (and registered) logo. This way, they were assured of a revenue stream as they were moving their product to consumers via multiple modalities: Chisholm trail, Union Pacific, stockyards, Chicago Stock Exchange.
Branding still is done, but by a strange alchemy, the ownership no longer is fastened on the bull that is shipped, but onto the one who is counted on to consume it. The consumer of their product is "claimed" by the outfit that is most skilled at corraling him into a habit of dependence on their brand in preference to all other bulls.
Those people who fix on one brand become part of a "tribe" whose behavior can be counted on to support and reward the company that provides them the product. Tribal membership has its benefits for those who accept being branded into a particular outfit's offerings. There are Tee shirts to wear, rewards for loyal repeat purchase of goods and services, special events to take part in. These are tangible incentives. But the intangible incentives go deeper.
Tribal members gain a sense of meaningful connection with a community of like-minded people, whose shared values are seen and embodied in the products offered under that brand. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper..." unless you're part of the "Pepsi generation" today; or do you hang with the homies and drink Sprite?
Even after the product no longer is offered, brand loyalty lives on in a totemic sense among the members of a tribe. Volkswagen Beetle clubs were so powerful as a popular movement that the company had to re-envision the Beetle and open new factories to meet the demand. Harley-Davidson is still alive mainly because of the enthusiasm on a gut level with the American-made, rugged image despite strong competition from Japanese brands which get better reviews.
Perception of value ascribed to the product is transmuted by osmosis to its acolytes and adherents. They are self-described as "owned" by the brand. Volvo owners are perceived as a definable market segment. Other products then can be shaped to attract their custom--products that tap on their shared value system and exploit them as a source of corporate livelihood.
Those who cater to these people have an allegiance to their interests only so far as there's something useful to the provider's maintaining profit, influence, power. Hopefully, this will not be their highest allegiance.
Hopefully, we remember not to let the brand own us.
It's interesting to think of a market segment as being defined by product ownership. I remember, while I was growing up, seeing the huge Airstream trailer retreats where thousands of trailer owners would gather together to camp and party. I don't actually know what all they did at the retreats, but we would see them regularly during our summer travels. Surely they were a lucrative market segment, though they undoubtedly didn't think of themselves that way. I suppose they simply thought of themselves as kindred souls--a community of like-minded adventurers.
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