Brand Loyalty...

It was in January this year that I started noticing Samsung mobile phones. May be because my colleagues used them or maybe I was tired of my Nokia E5. I really don’t know.

And on 13^th April, 2013 I became a proud owner of a Samsung mobile – Galaxy Grand Duos. And I am very happy with it.

But this not a product review post. This is also not about my grand life with the Grand! Instead, this is about how Samsung conquered Nokia.

Once upon a time, but not many years before, Nokia came with a bang. It made mobile phones available to the common man. It was cost effective and carried the features of calling and texting. Then there was Nokia 6600. Very costly and it was like a status symbol. Then there was XpressMusic series. I own(ed) one myself. Then E series and N series...

Dude, Nokia phones were on everyone’s hands... Or pockets or purses!

Samsung was still a struggler. It was staggering to find a place for itself. They came up with touch screen. It was more promising. Yet people were devoted to Nokia. Now Nokia took customers for granted and didn’t come up with anything innovative.

It was that time when people had gathered the habit of changing handsets often. But Nokia didn’t have anything to offer.

BANG!

Samsung came in!

Today, I go out and find a Samsung touch screen smart phone in everyone’s hand. But where is Nokia, I don’t know. Sooner or later a Micromax might do the same to Samsung. But if Samsung plays as smart as its phone, it might survive.

Such a phenomenon makes me wonder if something called Brand loyalty exists at all. Go back to your home and observe the elders. They will be loyal – to Bata shoes... To Titan watch... Raymond suiting... Garden sari... Colgate/Close-up toothpaste... Lux/Pears soap... Why do we, the so called Gen-next carry such a loyalty? Is it because of the sheer number of options we have? Do we tend to get bored easily? Thereby, restless and confused eventually?

Times are changing and so are trends.  Customer is becoming God.  But where is brand loyalty, I ask myself.

Such is the story of Nokia mobile phones and its slow extinguishment from the market. Such is the impact it had on me. It made me think and wonder. And as always, I thought through my blog...