270) The Forced Relationship

(Image from The Style Buff - pretty blog!)

We are empowered as consumers by plentiful choice. Competition within industries yields a variety of brands just waiting to be chosen by us.

But imagine you had no choice in something essential on which you relied. You'd be in a dreaded "forced relationship." Personify for a moment, and imagine a forced relationship with someone. For whatever reason, you have to be with this one person. Knowing you can't leave, they'd no doubt take liberties, maybe be abusive in some way, shape or form. And even in the best case scenario where there is no abuse, you would inevitably begin to resent your forced partner, simply for the fact that you have no choice in the matter.

An unlikely scenario between humans, but between consumers and brands? Take, for example, the Verizon iPhone announcement made today. Part of the reason for the hooplah surrounding this highly anticipated reveal is that it effectively releases iPhone users from a forced relationship with AT&T. As the former exclusive carrier of the iPhone, anyone who wanted to be part of the Apple smartphone phenomenon had no choice but to use AT&T. And you have not heard ire and resentment until you've talked to AT&T iPhone users.

Another example: Internet service providers exclusive to your neighborhood. While some of you are lucky enough to reside in shared zoning, others are covered by only one company. Whether it's Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Road Runner, etc., we curse their name over spotty connection, shitty customer service, and most of all that despite all this, we are still stuck with them.

So while it might seem awesome for a brand to be the one and only choice, the position comes with the great risk of a forced relationship, and all the baggage that entails.