I don't call myself a Sony brand royalist but I do own lots of Sony products at home. I guess I like their design and quality of their products. I know there is other brands better then Sony, but for cost, value and design I have not been disappointed. When I'm in the market, I DO compare shop and look at other brands as well. So this has me thinking...
a bit of each i suppose! i bought a sony head unit for my car because of the brand in comparison to others in the shop. This got stolen so i got a pioner head unit as it had same features as sony but was cheaper. I had a panasonic mini-system in my bedroom which i got because i really liked the sound of it. Later i replaced this with kenwood separates (reciever and cd player) because i wanted more power and the kenwood offered power, flexibility, function and all at a reasonable cost. I guess unless your earning loads of money then cost is always going to be a consideration!!
quality for the price. when i go to buy something, i have a budget in mind. not necessarily due to budget 'restraints' but more like a 'what's this project worth to me?' budget.
brand name comes into play when i have more than one brand that fits all other requirements.
for example, when i wanted to improve my TV's sound but didn't want space taken up by a component or even mini system, i looked at PC speaker systems to save on space. paid $79 for an altec lansing system. i'd never even looked at altec stuff before; it just happened to sound the best in my price range and was black ;)