Monday Sales Call: A Recent Purchase

I have been in the market for a new cell phone for quite some time now. This past Saturday I purchased the new Google G1. I have been a loyal T Mobile customer for many years and struggled with the decision to switch to AT&T to get the iPhone. So what made me stay with T Mobile and buy the G1?
Brand
Yes, I am a sucker for branding. If Google made golf shoes I would run out and buy a pair (I golf MAYBE twice a year). However, without something behind it, a brand is merely a word, phrase, or image. The two key factors to my brand loyalty to Google and my resulting impulse purchase are trust and respect.
I have been a Google user for a long time. I use Gmail for my personal email, Google.com for web searching, iGoogle (homepage), and Google Analytics for traffic/conversion stats. Google has never failed me. I trust they will continue to provide a far superior product for the lowest price possible.
Google is somewhat of an adversary to Internet marketers. Their search engine results are puzzling at times and impossible to crack. They fool us over and over again and change their algorithms when we start to catch onto their ways. I respect Google. I respect their creativity and desire to stay ahead of the competition at everything they do. I also admire their ability to always be one step ahead of the latest and greatest SEO trends.
So there I am, handing over my credit card at the cell phone store. Buyer’s remorse is kicking in and my brain is racing with thoughts of the iPhone. I ask the salesman, Mark, to give me his best pitch as to why I should stay with T Mobile instead of switching to the iPhone/AT&T. He spoke of glorious applications, better technology, and how G1 sales have recently surpassed the iPhone. Nice move Mark. Reassuring the customer by letting him know he is one of many who have taken the same path.
In the end, I felt/feel great about my purchase. Google has yet to let me down. I feel the future for their cell phone venture is wide open and I know how they thrive on new challenges. To be completely honest, if the phone was made by anyone else besides Google, I would not have bought it. I would be walking around with an iPhone today. Call me a sucker or a slave to branding. That’s fine, but I bet you are too. Think about and let me know what you eventually find.

Tony