It’s been said many times in many places: brand loyalty is dead. Especially on the web. With incredibly low costs and short consumer attention span, it’s easy to see why people jump to this conclusion. Yet brand loyalty is alive and kicking – you just have to know where to look.

When companies provide a superior service, customers care. You can find evidence of brand loyalty in hundreds of companies operating in dozens of industries that affect millions of customers. In fact, even in technology and on the web, where prices can be most cutthroat and products can be hardest to differentiate, there are plenty of examples of brand loyalty. Techies just might not use the term “brand loyalist”, as much as they use the term “fanboy”.

Fanboyism in Gaming

Everyone is a gaming fanboy in one way or another. If you love Mario, Sonic or Master Chief, you’re a fanboy. If you hate Solid Snake, Donkey Kong or Max Payne, you’re also a fanboy. People become brand loyalists very easily in gaming. They fall in love with a character, whether it’s because of their little catch phrases (“It’s-a-me! Mario!”), the way they look (Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher is just cool), or the way the game is played. It’s these little things that endear an audience to a character or brand franchise, and it’s these things that create fanboys.

Go on any gaming blog or forum, and you’ll see militant brand loyalists who argue why the Xbox 360 is a better gaming platform than the Playstation 3 (“We’ve got Master Chief and Left 4 Dead!”), or why the Wii is a great games system (“Super Smash Bros! Mario Kart!”), or why it isn’t. This is brand loyalty at its core, and at its most antagonistic. On the surface, the games platforms are ultimately similar in cost (PS3 Slim = $299, Xbox 360 Elite = $299), and have ultimately the same games (at least 75% of all titles are multiplatform), yet that doesn’t stop the brand loyalists from arguing. The fights are about how you “have to buy a 360 because of Halo”, or how the “Playstation 3′s graphics blow the 360 out of the water”, or how “the Wii is the best because of its motion tracking”. These arguments aren’t going to stop any time soon, what with Microsoft’s Project Natal set to release during holiday season, and with the Playstation 3′s own motion controller coming out as well.

Tech Fanboys

I’m sure you’re already well aware of the biggest fanboys in tech: Apple. The empire that Steve Jobs built has created a veritable nation of dedicated brand loyalists. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here are some easy ways to spot them). But Apple isn’t the only company. Google has begun to build their own following, with its search engine, Gmail, Chrome and the Android smartphone OS. Intel and AMD long had battles between brand loyalists, and both Nikon and Canon have passionate fan bases.

Each of these tech companies have amassed large followings not because they offer the lowest price. Or not even because they offer the best service or product. They build up brand loyalists because their marketers tell a story about their product. And about what they do. Apple talks about building beautiful, clean products that are easy to use and easy to appreciate. AMD caters to computer buffs interested in getting the most out of their processors (see: overclocking). Google is about simplicity and open source. Brand loyalty may be more difficult to obtain in the digital age, but it is absolutely possible.

I was an economics major in college. They told me that the consumer will eventually always find the lowest price, and that’s what drives competition. Frankly, that’s one of the greatest inventions of the internet – the access to pricing of a multitude of products right at your fingertips. However, in a world of extreme complexity, a low price is never the whole story. Sure, if you produce thumbtacks and your five biggest competitors are also thumbtack producers, you might not be able to differentiate and build brand loyalists. But companies who develop different products have always been able to build brand loyalty – from John Deere to Johnny Walker. Apple owners often pay 25% more for a computer with similar specifications because it looks better and their computer tells a story. People buy Harley Davidson motorcycles because it does the same thing.

If you know who Seth Godin is, none of this is news. Seth Godin is a marketer who I have always admired, and one who has built his life around creating and studying interesting marketing stories. A blogging master, New York Times Bestselling Author and the brains behind Squidoo, Seth’s one of the most best reads out there. Any non-believers in brand loyalty should read Seth. He’s been writing about remarkability and loyalty for years.

Today during my lunch, I went down to the Verizon Wireless store. I had been having issues with my Treo Centro, and was interested in getting my phone replaced as it is under warranty. Upon arrival, I was greeted warmly and was given information relevant to getting my phone replaced (phone number, driver information, advice on how to transfer contacts etc). Everything I would normally expect from this type of conversation, but still a step above the interactions I’ve previously had at cellphone and wireless provider stores.

What continued impressed me even more. I was told that due to my employment with Microsoft, I was entitled to a discount, plus there were some deals currently going on at the store. My initial thought was “oh great, now they’re going to rope me into getting a ‘discount’ that costs me $20 more a month for features and services I’ll never need.” No, instead, by keeping the exact same plan, the representative (John) saved me $40/month or over 30% off my current bill. He didn’t pitch me to buy something more either. All I did was speak with him for five minutes and I’d already saved $500 over the course of the next year. Now that’s service.

Let it be known that I was 90% certain that I was going to change providers at the end of the year (iPhone, Android, etc, I’d already been mentally salivating). I left the store feeling satisfied and certain that I will stay with Verizon. Now I just have to find a new phone that suits me better than my Treo Centro. Not only will I continue to be a Verizon customer (making them $1,000 a year), but I went and told a half dozen coworkers about it, who were all shocked and seemed very excited to make their way down to either a) look into their own plans or b) look into switching over to Verizon. This is an example of a great, genuine way to conduct customer service, and though I am already a brand ambassador of Verizon’s stellar coverage, they have made me an even happier and (more) loyal customer.