Dissonance and Brand Loyalty

Jun 29

Why is understanding dissonance and brand loyalty vital to us? Perhaps we feel the pressure and discomfort - the act of deciding things in midair.

Rich (my 30-year love interest) is going into semi-retirement tomorrow and is trying to cut back on expenses because he is selling his business. Our old website is on WordPress, and Rich’s business website and our site are on the same account. We need to give the new business his old website account.

We feel anxious and pressured to leave an established website and its steadiness. We also feel the pressure because of the cost of a new website and because we don’t want to complicate Rich’s and our home budget.

We are affected by the feelings of consumer cognitive dissonance. 

We understand the lure of new things. When we came onto the website, Squarespace used AI to jump us into our ideas, settling gently to the second space—and the effect was blazing! We can appreciate that looking around at several sites, we can see that websites are expensive, and sometimes, the better sites with the best features are the most affluent - soft!

When we did three websites’ “top ten searches,” we discovered Squarespace was top. It is terrific because of its ease of use and beauty. We have weighed in on the space being as smooth as butter. 

We are angry and frustrated because updating the old website has become too complicated. There is also a lot to do. It really should be started over.

The feeling of dissonance is the feeling between firm decisions. I cannot stay with the old site because Rich is selling his business. Besides the cost, I am thrilled with everything about the new Squarespace website. 

So, does the value diminish? 

The cost of what we want is $36 each month. The dissonance of beauty and ease seems to divide our thoughts with the reality of being on fixed incomes. Ahead, we need to find out the choices. How far should I build the new site without upsetting Rich?

We are independently making financial decisions without him. Could part of the dissonance feelings be of guilt? Or maybe the feelings are the discrepancy between what I think we should afford and a distinct reality.

Anger plays a part in dissonance as well. 

I dislike being poor and not getting what I want—even a beautiful website. I do not wish to blame Rich and our budget because I contribute less financially than he does. However, is the value of our decision less than that of him? I don’t want him to decide what I should or should not value. Am I at a point where I must “sneakily get past him”?

Not knowing which to purchase is true consumer dissonance. Part of that is loving the new website brand. Developing our new site is to help us build our world.

(See Part 2 soon)

==General Reference=

Ashley, L. R. (2023). “Cognitive Dissonance: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Inner Conflicts.” Independently published.