Why fall in love with a company?

Ever hear of a new local restraunt that became the hot spot in town simply because someone said to someone else hey they have the best taco's ever - you have to go there. Which would you rather support ? The local mom and pop place or the Taco Bell?

Can you imagine how loyalty feels to a family owned business? How it feels to be loved and adored? Does Taco Bell know it's you that loves it when you eat there ?

I personally prefer to support a person or a family or someone I trust, someone trying to feed their family by doing great work, vs a large corporation. 

Do you have a favorite brand? What fosters that? Is it because it's a name that is well known, trendy or popular, or is it because it's a company that's tried and true - consistant and reliable? What if a company targets woman, or helps woman, or kids, or better yets support a cause with real dollars and shares an accountabilty about that. - does that appeal to you? It appeals to me.  

I remember meeting a fellow teenager from Toronto, I don't know if it was because she was a city girl or what, but she spoke brand forked tongue.  She only wore adidas, levi's, and jockey's. Me ? I wore gym shoes, jeans and whatever underware was on sale...I never thought about brand names before. She didn't say see that semi truck she said wow check out that Mac - it was as if she was speaking a different language. I remember feeling rather uncool when I was with her, my clothing wasn't some hot label - gosh at that time it was probably from Zayre's ( there's a name and blast from the past ) or Sears. To the dismay of my mother I wanted to buy name brands just so I could be cool.

What kindof consumer are you?  Do you shop for cheap no matter what or do you shop for quality at the best price? Perhaps you shop to further cause, fueling the organic market for example - the more who buy organic the more organics will become available, the more who buy organics the lower the prices will get.  I tend to shop for quality and cause. I also shop with little patience. I hate the whole shop forever to find the lowest price on something that's manufactured by one company, but distributed by 6 stores who all have it for a different price. That just drives me crazy. I'd prefer to buy direct from the company. Save on time and on gasoline. Thank goodness for the internet!

Nowadays, buying green or from companies that foster greenness is also becoming part of the marketing message. For me I don't have a full and proper perspective on this.  I am fascinated by the go green message and horrified. Many of us right now are riding this green learning curve together. I am horrified by mixed messages, and by companies taking advantage or making money off the green movement.  I feel I have to learn more to understand. When it gets global, which duh, it's way more global than I ever knew. This is when I get overwhelmed and where I think many people get confused. I do feel your purchasing sends a message.  I personally have very limited purchasing power.  I can't switch over to everything green. If I could upgrade to a hybrid vehicle and invest in solar wind power, I would. Those are industries I'd like to support. Will I make changes in the way I purchase or do things and have it have a positive vs a negative impact on the environment? I'm there. I want to.

How about you?

Does a company ever let you down? Enough to have you say forget it I am not buying from them anymore? This happened to me very recently with Natural Ovens ( More about that in a post to follow ) Being in love with a company is one thing, can that love with stand a loss of trust.  If I feel cheated, no - you will lose my business. Period. I will dump you. This is where branding and imaging is vital. If a brand shifts to a green message all of a sudden,  it makes me wonder - are they doing this going green thing to posture themselves to make money or do they really care? I want to support companies that really care. If it appears shifty to me - I will pause and re-evalauate.

Mary Hunt of In Woman We Trust says, "we fall in and out of love, but we don't fall in an out of trust, when trust is gone, it's gone for a very long time."

I fell in love with the # 1 Nutritional Company in the US in 1993. So much so I decided to champion their products as my way to earn my living.  I fell in love with them because 3 nutritional products gave me my life back, they gave me my health.  I was altered forever, simply by adding nutritional supplements to my diet. Who knew I was so nutritionally deficient. Best yet, who knew that so many felt the same way as I. Sick, tired, crabby, unable to cope. The more I learned about the differences these products offered, not only from a philosophy perpective, but also from a product line up perspective, the more enchanted I became.  I fell in love with every single product this company had to offer. They were green way before their time, way way before anyone else was, another layer to it's 50 plus year history and integrity - both of which - speak loudly to where I want to spend my dollars. 

I guess you could say we've been married now, this company and I, for 15 years!! Ha! I even remember our anniversary date. April 13th. I trust them, I believe in their message and they have yet to let me down.  I treasure our relationship and am very proud to advocate others to use their products.

As a distributor for them, we have guidelines we adhere to re: our business practices. I am not allowed to say their company name or their trademarked product names in a blog post. Yet, I can redirect to my personal business website, and you will find that any chance I get, I do! 

I say this as some commenters here have felt that I could be more upfront about the fact that I sell products  through my blog.  If I could,  I would.

Respectively, I am following the guidelines set up by my parent company.

I blog informatively and offer a wealth of quality, resourced perspectives as a way to have you befriend the person behind the company. Me. I sell the brand, not a marketing slick or a commercial on TV. 

Why fall in love with a company?  Why not ? 

Legacy, Making a Difference, Purity, Safety, Nature, Science, Climate Neutral, A Million Trees, Healthy; You, Home, Planet


titled purple haze flickr image credit - love it

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition Weight Loss, and Green Clean