Can consumers recognize the taste of their favorite brand?

Many brands, large and small, strongly believe that consumers choose their products based on taste, so they would notice the difference between their product and other brands. And most consumers believe they can confidently identify their favorite brand in a blind test.

But is that really the case? As much as brands may dislike it, empirical studies show that it's not the case.

A recent study conducted by "Which?", a U.K. media that promotes informed consumer choice, shows that major brands face a major threat from private labels. Consumers prefer the taste of private label products in blind tests, and if this trend continues and these brands focus on developing their presence, they will gain a lot of ground.

As part of the study , 12 different bean brands - from Heinz, Branston and KP to Aldi, Tesco, Lidl and others - were blind tasted and rated by a group of consumers.

Each baked bean brand was rated by the panel based on taste, texture, aroma, and appearance. Baked beans from Lidl and Morrisons took the top spot in the test, tying for first place and unseating the big brand competition. Both cost less than half the price of Heinz beans.

Although this may appear as a new findings, there are previous empirical studies that prove that taste is ultimately not a purchase driver. Had Coca Cola known about these findings, it could have saved itself a lot of headaches when it was revealed that Pepsi was preferred by consumers in blind tastings.

In 1964, Ralph I. Allison and Kenneth P. Uhl conducted an experiment to test whether beer drinkers could distinguish their favorite brand from nude bottles among several brands. To do this, they took 326 participants who were given a six-pack of unlabeled beers with only tags. Each six-pack contained 3 different brands that were randomly placed in the pack. An attempt was made to always include the participant's favorite brand. After one week, participants were asked to rate each beer, rating specific characteristics such as aftertaste, aroma, bitterness, body, carbonation, foam, lightness, strength, and sweetness. These were the cards that were used:

The results showed that the overall rating was quite similar among the different beers. Based on the data collected, the study found that most beer drinkers could not identify "their" brands of beer in a blind comparison test.

The same experiment was then conducted, but this time with the labeled beers. The results were quite different.

The label test also led to some changes in ratings of specific characteristics of beer brands. In the blind test, where a zero value was assigned to the "sufficient" category, participants tended to rate all beers as insufficient in terms of aroma, body, foam and strength. In the labeled ratings, "aroma" improved significantly, as did "body," "foam," and "strength.

It is important to be aware of this and not rely solely on the taste of the product. I have seen many cases of startups focusing almost exclusively on developing their products and leaving their branding to the second stage. The reality is that the two go hand in hand and one is just as important as the other.