Emotionally Unavailable To Your Soap?

In the very first episode of 'Mad Men', a show that finally explained our advertising jobs to our spouses, and no, not the drinking and promiscuity, Don Draper scoffs at the concept of love.

- Yash Chandiramani

He says love was invented by ad-writers like us to sell things. Oh, what a far place we've come from that thought process today. We now have leaders; agency, brand, and the new-age branding gurus using the phrase 'brand love' so casually that I sometimes wonder if I'm the problem. Am I emotionally unavailable to my laundry detergent or even my soap? Why don't I “love” brands? Am I incapable of that feeling?

Let's see. I love my family, some of my friends, and dogs. Of course, dogs. But when I see someone else drinking my brand of coffee, I feel no jealousy. I dug deeper and uncovered an uncomfortable truth: brand love doesn't exist.

"But we've used this brand for three generations" or "I know someone who drinks only one brand of tea."

We hear such examples often and mistake them for evidence that brand love is real. They're just personal stories, not broad behaviour.

Flip the question: How many of your brand's customers actually feel this way?