I know some friends of mine definitely prefer to only buy certain things within a specific bracket of brands, even if it means they have to pay a little more in the process. I think I'm a little more willing to branch out, you know? I think saving money AND getting the same exact product is a good deal for me.
I don't care about brands. I only care about where it's made and the quality. It takes some trial and error, but brand name stuff doesn't float my boat.. I heavily research everything I use and buy, names don't mean much of anything to me. I've yet to find a big name that impresses me actually.
I'm not loyal to any brands. Most of them come expensive and I'm certainly not the kind of guy who'd pay more for a product when you can find a cheaper alternative. Same with the OP, if a product made by some popular brand is expensive, I'll won't buy it.
Yes, I do care about the brand name. I really care about the quality of the product, and there known brands that offer high quality products, so I always go for those. There are brands that I love and always buy because I trust that I'm not going to be disappointed with their products.
I used to be loyal to the brands my mother and my grandmother were loyal to, until I found that the stuff they were selling was not the same in quality or taste. Reason behind this was globalization and the increasing number of companies becoming monopolies and oligopolies to dominate the market, and most of the times their fusion make the products lose quality, but advertising make people believe they are non-plus ultra still. At this point I shifted to buy based on the lowest price, not in the brand label, although I could still buy one of those brands if the price matched my budget. However I have developed such aversion for those monopolies/oligopolies that I systematically avoid to buy anything that comes from such companies to privilege: 1. The cheapest unbranded product with the best quality or taste 2. Old local brands that survive (usually small family-owned factories) regardless the price 3. An alternative to a branded product that doesn't fit into the above conditions I expect to start a blog to raise awareness about not buying from monopolies/oligopolies, perhaps would be running against the wind, but if I can get someone joining me in such campaign, my preach would be worth.
This is pretty much what I feel as well, I don't care about the name of the product, I just care if it has the quality I want. I will not pay more just because it's from Danone or Nestle, I will pay more though (if I can...) if it tastes better to me or if I know that will do better to my kids.
I generally buy brand names just due to their quality. I find that a lot of the cheaper stuff is made quite poorly therefore wont last as long so you're better off paying a bit more for a longer lasting product. In saying that, if I find something that I like that isn't a brand name, I'll still buy it and wear it. As long as it looks good and fits well, I'll wear it because I can pull it off. Brands don't always matter. It would be like seeing someone wear an XL branded shirt where he should clearly be wearing a small just because of the brand name or put him in a cheap shirt that actually fits and see the difference. He would look a lot better in the no name small tee than he would in a branded XL tee.