MarketPlace

When brand attachment turns risky for companies

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Shop attendant displays Microsoft phone that run on Windows operating system. photo | diana ngila | nmg

Global technology company, Microsoft announced last week that its mobile operating system, Windows Phone, has come to an end.

It will no longer develop new features or hardware for Windows Mobile. Such news could lead to a negative effect in its other products due to the emotional attachment consumers had to the operating system.

In a series of posts on his Twitter account, Joe Belfiore, the Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone said that it would continue to support the platform with bug fixes and security updates only for its existing customers.

He further admitted that the low volume of users of its platform had discouraged application developers from working with them thus its consumers were unable to install the latest applications on its devices eventually abandoning it for its competitors that contained a variety of popular applications.

Indeed, in the first quarter of this year, Windows Phone market share was 0.1 per cent globally while its competitors Android and iOS had 86 per cent and 13.9 per cent respectively according to research firm Gartner.

In Kenya, the operating system’s market share was 1.65 per cent as of September, according to StatCounter, a web traffic analysis tool.

Despite this, it means that it had managed to attract a niche consumer base over the years that still preferred using a Windows Phone compared to its competitors despite its lack of popular applications.

One such user Zac Bowden, writes in the Windows Central Forum, a community platform for Windows Phone users, that even the platform’s setbacks, bugs and lack of hardware never bothered him to the point of switching to another brand phone.

“It is clear that at this point: the only people left using Windows phones are crazy people. I am a crazy person, and I am happy to admit that. I absolutely love my Lumia 950 and after using an iPhone 7 for a whole month, I could not wait to get back to my beloved Windows phone.”

Whereas loyalty is temporary in that, consumers are more likely than not to switch brands if a cheaper one enters the market or if influenced by friends or trends, brand attachment can be considered a life-long term commitment to a product one loves dearly, said Stella Kimani, a brand strategist.

“In terms of smartphones, it is inevitable that we will buy a new one every two years or so, with attached consumers, the familiarity with the brand is what influences their purchase decision of their next one, regardless of its price, position in the market or what it lacks.”

However, with most companies nowadays focused on growing their consumer base and market share, they have neglected this niche market.

Thus if their investments and strategies fail to boost its status leading to the demise of the company as it did Windows Phone, it could have a negative effect on its emotionally attached consumers.

In a study conducted by the South China University of Technology on the negative effects of brand attachment, it found that when these consumers feel betrayed by the brand they will even exert revenge on it by ceasing purchase of all products associated with it, spreading negative word-of-mouth and turning to other competitors.

“Once consumers with high relationship quality set up an attachment with the brand they will always have higher expectation for it, they think themselves to have already invested more resources and are then therefore easier to feel betrayed by it and have higher anti-brand retaliatory behaviours once the relationship ends,” reported researchers Yuan Yuan and Ming Lei.

In this, consumer brand attachment can have positive impact to a company, but a lack of commitment on its end; can lead to the loss of loyal customers.

African Laughter