Lovemarks

If I had been asked whether or not I had a devotion to a specific brand name or family of product, I probably would not have thought I did.  However, after watching the Emotional Branding video it has become clear that I do express commitment and loyalty to one company, and one piece of equipment they make in particular: the Sony Playstation.

In my mind the Sony Playstation is the pinnacle of gaming, the proverbial Mecca of video game entertainment.  It is a highly advanced piece of technology that is well put together and has very few competitors.  For me, if there is a game released on a platform other than the Playstation, it is not worthy of my time (with a few exceptions).  The Sony Playstation is my Lovemark, but not just because of the hours of entertainment and fun it can offer.  To me, the console is much more than a game console.

This devotion stems from my childhood.  One area in which my father and I bonded was video games.  My father and I played on our Atari when I was too small to accurately work the joystick by myself, which then moved into playing the Nintendo and Super Nintendo systems when we had them.  However, it wasn't until I was a little older and we owned a Playstation that my infatuation with video games and the Sony brand in particular began.

Because I was a little bit older when my family got the Playstation, I was able to play the games much better.  This led to my father and I spending more time together.  One of us would play a game while the other watched, which would lead us to build our relationship in a very casual, fun environment centered around video games.  From that point on it was only the Playstation brand for me.  When our Playstation got old, we bought a Playstation 2, and when I moved out and was on my own, I took that Playstation 2 with me.  When that got old and outdated, I bought a Playstation 3 which will most likely be replaced with the next generation of Sony console when the time comes.  Sony inspires such devotion by marketing the Playstation in a way that makes it seem that they are devoted to you as well.  A recent commercial for their Long Live Play message does exactly that.

For me, the Sony Playstation is more than a product, or even a Lovemark.  It is the very thing that helped me build a great relationship with my dad and my allegiance to my favorite console will continue to grow, no matter what.