Expectations change how the same experience feels.
More quotesThe wine experts tasted mahogany because somebody put red dye in white wine.
That sentence should be pinned above every meeting where a product person announces that packaging is “just the wrapper”.
There is no naked product. It arrives clothed in price, colour, weight, reputation, occasion and the suspiciously expensive kitchen in which it was poured. These things do not merely persuade us afterwards. They tell the senses what to look for. A skilled taster has more language available, which means expectation can return wearing a tweed jacket and calling itself analysis.
“The product speaks for itself” is usually said by people who have spent months deciding how loudly the bottle should clunk onto a table.
Blind tests remain useful. They can isolate the liquid, the sound or the formulation. But they answer a peculiar question: what happens when we remove many of the signals customers will actually receive? Branded tests answer another. Teams switch between the two depending on which one has just blessed the decision they already like.
Formula wins blind? Packaging is superficial fluff. Packaging wins branded? Behold the holistic experience.
Very scientific.
I once heard someone dismiss the heavier prototype as “fake quality” while approving a luxury showroom, embossed box and launch film full of slow-motion dust. Apparently suggestion becomes immoral only when it fits inside the product.
Of course cues can deceive. A magnificent label cannot rescue foul wine beyond the first hopeful sip. Test what survives the third glass, the third use and the bill.
But do not pretend the eye stayed outside while the tongue formed an independent government. It was already in the room, whispering “mahogany”.