Beneath and Beyond the Pepsi Paradox: priceless insights into brand perception

Two revered Australian researchers decided to probe deep into ‘The Pepsi Paradox’ which makes the observation that Pepsi scores over Coke in blind taste tests, although Coke is reckoned as the more popular brand (and hence the paradox). The dated study traced the genesis of the paradox, reviewed the neural hypothesis for its occurrence, and pored over all published literature on it. They came to the conclusion that the paradox is not supported by adequate evidence, and that there is no consistent taste preference for either beverage, notwithstanding its furious citation in #neuroscience, #neuromarketing, and taste perception writings.

Nevertheless, it is pertinent to take a closer look at the famed and fabled experiment. 70 volunteers connected to an MRI were asked to blindly taste 可口可乐公司 and 百事 . Pepsi was the crowning glory as it was believed to have set off greater activity in the brain’s ‘reward system’, which implied that the cerebral preference was Pepsi.

• When the same set of people tasted the two colas with the brand labels visible, the fondness dramatically shifted toward Coca-Cola
• In scientific terms, the medial prefrontal cortex swung into action to tilt the scales in Coca-Cola’s favour
• One thing is almost crystal clear. Even devoid of sufficient evidence, branding surely has some role to play in how people like or dislike things, more than they actually do at times!

Did you find this newsletter helpful or insightful? Please “Subscribe” to receive future installments highlighting some of the most exciting and interesting newsletters from across LinkedIn. Let us know your comments or suggestions below and thank you for reading!        

?