Consuming the product

Product & Experience

The foolhardy researcher who dared question the cola dogma was Read Montague of Baylor College of Medicine. In 2005 Montague conducted a scientifically controlled, double-blind version of the Pepsi challenge. Participants received two unlabeled cups containing Coke and Pepsi. They were asked to drink them and indicate which tasted better. The result—an even split between the two drinks, with no correlation between the brand of cola participants claimed to prefer beforehand and the one they chose in the study. Tasters could not distinguish between the two. These results horrify Coke and Pepsi lovers. They insist—science and double-blind tests be damned—that they would have been able to tell the difference.

“But I could definitely tell.” Of course. Everyone is a gifted cola sommelier until somebody removes the can.

The worship of blind tests contains a peculiar mistake: it assumes the packaging, name, price and expectation are contaminants rather than ingredients. People do not normally drink cola from anonymous laboratory cups. They open a familiar bottle, see a colour, remember an advert and expect a taste. The brain rudely refuses to separate these departments for our analytical convenience.

Wine from an expensive-looking label can taste better. Familiar medicine packaging can feel more reassuring. A laptop’s opening sound and polished setup can make the machine feel premium before anyone stresses the processor. Sneer at that as irrational if you like, but perceived experience is still experience—and it still affects repeat purchase.

There are two equally stupid conclusions available. Brand people can declare that product quality no longer matters because the logo performs magic. Product purists can insist that only blind performance is real and everything around it is manipulation. Both are protecting their budget.

Test the contents without the signals to learn what the product earns. Then test the complete experience to learn what customers actually consume. If the brand rescues rubbish, the trick will eventually become expensive. If a superb product presents itself like a scam, virtue will not save it.

Reality is in the cup. It is also printed on the can.