Perception Experiment

Taste Test

The class did a range of experiments to test a variety of things. The primary theme was to see if factors other than taste really affect our purchase decisions or whether it was other perceived associations that influence our purchase decisions e.g. a higher price = better taste = purchase. The methodology behind one of these experiments involved giving people a range of 3 biscuits, one biscuit being a very cheap brand, another being a middle of the road brand and the third being a market leading brand and asking them to indicate their preference without knowing the brand they were tasting. In theory the most expensive market leading brand would be the most favoured as we assume the higher price, superior packaging and marketing would equal a better tasting, higher quality biscuit. However without these cues would the taste testers select the market leading brand as their most preffered?

Results

No! Surprisingly the participants chose the middle of the road brand. This would suggest that participants do not always actually prefer the taste of market leading brands but in fact it is the price and the way the brand is marketed that tells them it tastes better.

Evaluation

The reality is this test actually proves very little. What we should have done is show everyone the products, tell them the price and let them see the packaging and then, without tasting, ask them to say which they think they would prefer the taste of. Then we would get them to taste the products and indicate their preference without knowing which brand is which and see if the results correlate. If the majority say they think they would prefer the market leader but they then select the middle of the road brand after tasting we can suggest that factors other than taste can influence our choice of biscuit (given that we have an adeuquate sample size).

Here is a classic example of how marketing can outweigh taste when it comes to purchasing a product.



Here the individual says he prefers the leading brand, Coke. However when all variables are removed and only taste remains he selects Pepsi as the brand he actually prefers.