Social/ Peer pressure to choose or avoid brands

[russell_314]

Has anyone here picked or avoided a brand because of social or peer pressure. I'm talking as an adult because I think we all did it as kids or teenagers.

I've heard this happens with Apple products especially the iPhone and clothes. I kind of wonder if I've done it subconsciously not thinking about it.

I'm not talking about politics as in avoiding a brand because the company had some public political opinion but rather negative or positive image of the products. It could be something like I really wanted to buy a Ford truck but all my friends drive Hondas so I went with that.

 

[eyoungren]

I don't like being told what to do.

And the kinds of people who tell you what to do, or heavily imply it, are generally buttholes. They started that way and they grow up to be adult buttholes.

I appreciate suggestions, I appreciate others telling me their personal experience with 'X'. But if I want 'X', I will get 'X'. If I don't want it, I won't.

The fastest way to get me from zero to full on rage in nothing flat is to try and boss me around - and that includes pressuring/hassling me.

 

[russell_314]

I don't like being told what to do.

And the kinds of people who tell you what to do, or heavily imply it, are generally buttholes. They started that way and they grow up to be adult buttholes.

I appreciate suggestions, I appreciate others telling me their personal experience with 'X'. But if I want 'X', I will get 'X'. If I don't want want it, I won't.

The fastest way to get me from zero to full on rage in nothing flat is to try and boss me around - and that includes pressuring/hassling me.

I don't really mean people telling you what to do although that can be part of direct social pressure. It mean more positive as in hey you know android has this cool feature where I can take a picture of stars

Or it could be online stuff like maybe you're happy with your Chromebook because it does what you want but people on here might say Chromebooks are terrible and the way to go is a MacBook Pro.

 

[rm5]

I like to get a lot of different opinions on the product in question before buying (or not buying) it. I get whatever's best for my workflow, not what others think are good.

 

[Nermal]

Not that I can consciously remember, but I have a bit of "brain fog" at the moment so can't say that with complete confidence! As said above, I typically try to find the best (or acceptable) product for my needs.

 

[eyoungren]

I don't really mean people telling you what to do although that can be part of direct social pressure. It mean more positive as in hey you know android has this cool feature where I can take a picture of stars

Or it could be online stuff like maybe you're happy with your Chromebook because it does what you want but people on here might say Chromebooks are terrible and the way to go is a MacBook Pro.

Well…if I've already decided on something and most of the time I already know what I want, then:

You can always tell a Swede. But you can't tell him much.

 

[Analog Kid]

Has anyone here picked or avoided a brand because of social or peer pressure. I'm talking as an adult because I think we all did it as kids or teenagers.

I don't really mean people telling you what to do although that can be part of direct social pressure. It mean more positive as in hey you know android has this cool feature where I can take a picture of stars

I feel like these are two different things. "Peer pressure" to me is a pressure to be accepted. The second statement is more about advice from friends and (perhaps biased) exposure to features.

If friends or people I trust have had a good experience with a product, that influences my thinking-- I trust my friends more than I trust random reviews. What doesn't really happen is making a product decision because of how I think people will perceive me. Will people like me more or think I'm weird based on what I buy or don't buy? I've weeded those people out a long time ago...

 

[RokinAmerica]

I spend a lot of time researching, and then I make my decision.

 

[russell_314]

I feel like these are two different things. "Peer pressure" to me is a pressure to be accepted. The second statement is more about advice from friends and (perhaps biased) exposure to features.

True but people who are trying to influance you will want to show you something that they you might like. I'm more talking about the desire to avoid conflict or be like your friends rather than the want for the specific feature though.

If friends or people I trust have had a good experience with a product, that influences my thinking-- I trust my friends more than I trust random reviews. What doesn't really happen is making a product decision because of how I think people will perceive me. Will people like me more or think I'm weird based on what I buy or don't buy? I've weeded those people out a long time ago...

Do you mean you weeded people out that won't accept you have difference likes or weeded those out that don't have the same likes as you? I think it's good to have friends that like different things and have different opinions. I guess sometimes my friends make fun of my likes but I'm a grown person so I don't change what I do. For example I drive a very small car and most of my friends drive pickup trucks. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "You forgot the other half of your car"... Ha ha ha yeah you so funny LOL

 

[Analog Kid]

Do you mean you weeded people out that won't accept you have difference likes or weeded those out that don't have the same likes as you?

The former. I don't have time for people who are going to judge my character by silly things like the products I buy, or don't.

I think it's good to have friends that like different things and have different opinions.

Yep, and that doesn't happen when the people around you feel you need to conform, or make an effort to conform with you.

I guess sometimes my friends make fun of my likes but I'm a grown person so I don't change what I do.

Yeah, good natured ribbing is a sign that everyone's comfortable with each others differences. Nothing wrong with being told "you're weird, and we love you for it."

 

[KaliYoni]

I believe very few people are completely free of social influences when making purchase decisions.

For example, zip code segmentation has been an effective tool for marketers for decades and remains so today. Or a quick thought experiment: what does the word "Carhartt" mean to you? And what about "Patagonia"? What are your reactions to seeing the words "Safeway" and "Whole Foods" and "Trader Joe's"?

----------
For anybody interested in exploring a zip code segmentation scheme, this page from Penn State has a good guided tour of the Claritas PRIZM service:

2.3 Market Segmentation and Clustering in the U.S. | GEOG 850: Location Intelligence for Business

www.e-education.psu.edu

 

[Herdfan]

I'm not talking about politics as in avoiding a brand because the company had some public political opinion but rather negative or positive image of the products. It could be something like I really wanted to buy a Ford truck but all my friends drive Hondas so I went with that.

I initially voted no, but this sentence changed my mind.

I do drive a Ford truck, and I have had some GM trucks in the past. I will not own a Ram. And it is not related to quality or style or anything like that. It is just that a lot of drivers of Ram's have a persona I don't really want to be associated with.

Ram owners tend to chip their trucks so they can roll coal, put loud obnoxious mufflers on their diesels and just basically look and act like ******s.

Of course it is not all. My neighbor has a Ram 3500 dually and he is the nicest guy in the world. But I still won't own one.

 

[Herdfan]

I believe very few people are completely free of social influences when making purchase decisions.

For example, zip code segmentation has been an effective tool for marketers for decades and remains so today. Or a quick thought experiment: what does the word "Carhartt" mean to you? And what about "Patagonia"? What are your reactions to seeing the words "Safeway" and "Whole Foods" and "Trader Joe's"?

I proudly wear Carhartt. My daily wardrobe screams suburban contractor. LOL

Now my MIL is not a fan, but she is a snob. But she was even less a fan when my wife, her daughter, started wearing it.

As for the others:

Patagonia - I see this as a mainstream brand, although lots of granola types wear it.

Safeway - No thoughts at all

Trader Joe's - Wife loves it, I think their food tastes "heathly" and am not a fan.

Whole Foods - I think a lot people shop there because they think they are supposed to. But they have great meats. Do like pulling into the parking lot in my Superduty Diesel and go in wearing my Carhartt's . LOL

 

[Juicy Box]

I've heard this happens with Apple products

While I wasn't impacted by it, I think this was much more common 20+ years ago.

Apple products is everywhere now, not sure who this would be happening to today.

I used Macs since the 90's, but I didn't make my first new Mac purchase with my own money until 2001, an iBook G3. I could go for literal months in public without seeing another Apple product. It pretty much stayed this way until maybe the late 2000's.

This kind of reminds me of some old friends of mine. I was in the military at the time (2000ish), and my two best friends in the military used to say they would never get a Mac, and would give me a hard time about it.

When I would ask why they would never get a Mac, I never got a good answer.

I left the military a little after the iPhone launched, and I had a party at my house shortly before I would never see my two best friends again. They were all interested in my Apple products at my house, my Macs like the iMac G4 and G3, my Apple TV, etc.

My (then) wife's best friend's husband brought his PowerBook G4 that get got after using some of my Macs. He was a Sony Vio fan, but was willing to give Macs a try after using mine at my home. He got the cheapest PowerBook at the time (I think G3), just to mess around with it and see if he liked it, which he didn't at first. It wasn't until he got his parents a digital camera for Christmas, and he tried for hours to get the photos off of their camera using his parents' Dell desktop. He tried with his Sony Vio, he couldn't do it. He then tried his new Mac, and all he did was plug it in, and a prompt popped on the screen asking if he wanted to download his photos, all without messing with drivers or install CDs. He was impressed and has since used Macs and Apple Products.

Anyways, this guy was talking to my old best friends from the military at this party about his experience with Macs and how he used to be a Windows and Sony fan. It was interesting, because both of them confessed at the party, almost like they were ashamed to admit it, but they were both considering getting a Mac. A short time later both of them did. One of them even got a .Mac account as well.

We all left the military at the same time, one ended up joining the FBI the other ended up flying planes for US Customs, so we all lost touch. The last emails I got from at least one of them, maybe 10 years ago, was on a @mac.com email address, so I assume at least one is still using Macs.

 

[maflynn]

Has anyone here picked or avoided a brand because of social or peer pressure.

Oh I think peer pressure is alive and well for adults. We comment and talk about how it effected teens, which it does, but its alive and well for us adults, we just don't want to admit it (or don't realize we're doing it).

Consider the whole green bubble/blue bubble topic. That at its very core is peer pressure and android being left out of the cool people phones.

No matter how you slice it, many of us want our choices to be affirmed by others, and if there's a biased against a product within our social circles many people will choose what others are using. The white air plugs back in the day (prior to the air pods) where everyone had to have the white air buds - don't tell me that's not peer pressure.

Many of us are unwilling to admit it, because we want to be known as our own people, doing our own choices, but if we all were honest with ourselves, many of us would admit that we can and have succumbed. I include myself btw

 

[compwiz1202]

I don't like being told what to do.

And the kinds of people who tell you what to do, or heavily imply it, are generally buttholes. They started that way and they grow up to be adult buttholes.

I appreciate suggestions, I appreciate others telling me their personal experience with 'X'. But if I want 'X', I will get 'X'. If I don't want want it, I won't.

The fastest way to get me from zero to full on rage in nothing flat is to try and boss me around - and that includes pressuring/hassling me.

Yes I wouldn't get it because they said so, but if I saw someone with something or a commerical/article about something I never knew about that looked like I could afford or use, I might research more.

 

[compwiz1202]

I proudly wear Carhartt. My daily wardrobe screams suburban contractor. LOL

Now my MIL is not a fan, but she is a snob. But she was even less a fan when my wife, her daughter, started wearing it.

As for the others:

Patagonia - I see this as a mainstream brand, although lots of granola types wear it.

Safeway - No thoughts at all

Trader Joe's - Wife loves it, I think their food tastes "heathly" and am not a fan.

Whole Foods - I think a lot people shop there because they think they are supposed to. But they have great meats. Do like pulling into the parking lot in my Superduty Diesel and go in wearing my Carhartt's . LOL

The first three I am neutral. I like some things at TJ, but they have been saying they've been saying they will bring one here for more than a decade and don't, so we never go unless we are going for some other reason where one is. WH is ridiculously expense. I don't even want to see the prices now that even regular store prices are insane. And yea I think most of these people who would exert PP are snobs, but I highly dislike snobs, so I don't interact with them.

 

[compwiz1202]

True but people who are trying to influance you will want to show you something that they you might like. I'm more talking about the desire to avoid conflict or be like your friends rather than the want for the specific feature though.


Do you mean you weeded people out that won't accept you have difference likes or weeded those out that don't have the same likes as you? I think it's good to have friends that like different things and have different opinions. I guess sometimes my friends make fun of my likes but I'm a grown person so I don't change what I do. For example I drive a very small car and most of my friends drive pickup trucks. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "You forgot the other half of your car"... Ha ha ha yeah you so funny LOL

LOL those pickup people would be the ones I rib with "enjoy the mortgage for your vehicle" or laugh as their money going out of their account as quickly as the gas goes into their vehicle.

 

[compwiz1202]

I don't really mean people telling you what to do although that can be part of direct social pressure. It mean more positive as in hey you know android has this cool feature where I can take a picture of stars

Or it could be online stuff like maybe you're happy with your Chromebook because it does what you want but people on here might say Chromebooks are terrible and the way to go is a MacBook Pro.

I'm in the middle. I can't afford MB but would never get a Chromebook or other cheap laptop. Like the biggest screen in the just under $1k range.

 

[compwiz1202]

I initially voted no, but this sentence changed my mind.

I do drive a Ford truck, and I have had some GM trucks in the past. I will not own a Ram. And it is not related to quality or style or anything like that. It is just that a lot of drivers of Ram's have a persona I don't really want to be associated with.

Ram owners tend to chip their trucks so they can roll coal, put loud obnoxious mufflers on their diesels and just basically look and act like ******s.

Of course it is not all. My neighbor has a Ram 3500 dually and he is the nicest guy in the world. But I still won't own one.

I just don't like the big vehicle owners who are like the Apple snobs. They just get it to look cool and never need the room or towing power etc...

 

[StellarVixen]

No, but I've been under some pressure from coworkers and friends who are not fans of Apple and Apple's products. No matter how much some of them tried to convince me that I am an idiot in their opinion, I didn't care, and I usually didn't try to explain to them "why did I spend $1000 on a phone when they think their phone does all of that for $300".

 

[Apple fanboy]

Has anyone here picked or avoided a brand because of social or peer pressure. I'm talking as an adult because I think we all did it as kids or teenagers.

I've heard this happens with Apple products especially the iPhone and clothes. I kind of wonder if I've done it subconsciously not thinking about it.

I'm not talking about politics as in avoiding a brand because the company had some public political opinion but rather negative or positive image of the products. It could be something like I really wanted to buy a Ford truck but all my friends drive Hondas so I went with that.

No. I don’t really care what others think. It’s my opinion that matters. I don’t have the sort of people in my life.
Haven’t got the time for it.

 

[icanhazmac]

No, I buy what I want based on my own research or that of trusted sources. I am willing to listen to anyone with information to offer but shaming or peer pressure won't work and will result in a nice batch of scorn.

A company can talk themselves out of my dollars though, just stick to talking about your products.

Addressing the "green bubble" comments. I too make fun of green bubble folks but that is really just a joke and is normally directed at people who will get the reference.

 

[Herdfan]

LOL those pickup people would be the ones I rib with "enjoy the mortgage for your vehicle" or laugh as their money going out of their account as quickly as the gas goes into their vehicle.

My current truck actually did cost more than my first townhouse.

I never made that connection until just now. LOL.

And over the summer when diesel was close to $6, filling did cost more than my first car payment was.

Maybe I'm just old.

 

[eyoungren]

"Carhartt" : Never heard of it until reading this thread. Looked it up and I get it. At some point my own internal sense of what I prefer to wear landed on 'industrial'. A large part of that started with the purchase of a pair of Dickies pants at my local Walmart. That led to a particular Dickies jacket and so on. I've been hooked on Dickies ever since. So, Carhartt would not be out of the norm for me I guess.

"Patagonia" : Again, had to look it up. Not my style.

"Safeway" : Supermarket. Merged with Albertsons some years back. When I lived in Southern California they were largely a Central/Northern California chain. Our first home in Phoenix had Safeway as the closest grocery store. Expensive, we don't shop there much. Now it's much farther away, but there is also an Albertsons in the opposite direction. Back when Safeway was operating their own bank they took a chance on us and allowed us to open an account with them. That got moved to another bank years later and that is now my primary reason for visiting Safeway or Albertsons.

"Whole Foods" : Not much of an opinion as I've never been in one. I'm aware that some exist where I live, but I've never made the effort to go to one.

"Trader Joe's" : There are multiple Trader Joes out here, but the closest one is a 30 minute drive. I think the last time we were there, the kids were little and the car we had then is long gone now.

My loyalty to any one product or brand is entirely wrapped up in my liking it. How much I like something will determine the lengths I am willing to go to to get it. Whether that's okay with other people or not is irrelevant to me. Most of the time what I like is not popular or trendy. But both my wife and I often have the bad luck of latching on to things well before they actually DO become trendy and popular and then the price goes up. That is a particular irritating reason why I get angry when people try to peer pressure me into something. It's like, "Oh, so now it's cool?! Well, forget you!"

My wife has her own thing as well. Unless she REALLY likes something she will flat out refuse to buy any product that comes with branding. As she's told me before, she is not being paid to serve as a walking billboard advertisement for X company.

As @Analog Kid stated:

I don't have time for people who are going to judge my character by silly things like the products I buy, or don't.