All Brownies are Good, But are They All Equal? The Effect of Brand Name on Perception of Taste Shanna Vaughan Fort Lewis College, Durango Colorado.

Key theories and previous work This research is important because consumer’s perceptions of quality affect their decision processes in purchasing goods. Previous research has found that our perceptions of quality and taste can be altered by brand. 1) Jacoby, Jacob, Olson, Jerry C., Haddock, Rafael A., ) Bonham, Pamela; Greenlee, Dana; Herbert, Cheryl S., Hruidi, Lidi; Kirby, Cheryl; Perkins, Angela; Salkind, Neil J., Wiflong, Roberta, ) Yoo, Boonghee; Donthu, Naveen; Lee, Sungho, ) Morgenson, G,

Research Question and Hypothesis Will brands with greater brand equity be perceived as better tasting than a brand with lower equity? I think that subjects will prefer the taste of Ghirardelli brownies over Betty Crocker or Great Value brownies. I am also interested in the effects of gender on ranking.

Research Design Ghirardelli Betty CrockerGreat Value Male 28 d.v.=Mean rank 28 Mean rank 28 Mean rank Female 32 Mean rank 32 Mean rank 32 Mean rank

Independent Variables The variable being manipulated and having three levels was brownies. Ghirardelli brownies were operationally defined as the “best” name brand, Betty Crocker as the “middle” name brand, and Great Value was the “lowest” name brand. These distinctions were made based on price, reputation, and overall perceived quality. Also manipulated was subject gender.

Dependent Variable Measurement Instructions: Below are three ranking scales to rank the taste of each brownie you try. Please eat the brownies in the order corresponding to the color code shown below. Ghirardelli Brownies will be in blue cupcake holders, Betty Crocker in pink, and Great Value in yellow. Rate each brownie for how it tastes, on a scale of 1-5, one being “not very tasty”, 5 being very tasty. Remember to drink water or milk between each sample. Please do not change your rankings of the brownies once you have moved on to the next brownie. Bon Appetite! Not very tastyVery tasty Not very tastyVery tasty Not very tastyVery tasty Have you ever heard of Ghirardelli Chocolate products? If so, would you consider it a “better” brand than Betty Crocker? If you have one, what is your favorite brand of brownie?

Mean Ratings and Standard Deviations GhirardelliBetty Crocker Great Value Male N = 28 X = 3.9 SD=0.8 N= 28 X=3.2 SD=0.9 N = 28 X = 3.5 SD = 1.1 N=28 X=3.5 SD=1.0 Female N = 32 X=3.8 SD=1.0 N = 32 X=3.8 SD=1.0 N = 32 X=3.6 SD=0.8 N = 32 X=3.8 SD=0.9 N = 60 X=3.9 SD=0.9 N = 60 X=3.6 SD=1.0 N = 60 X=3.6 SD=0.9

Table of Mean Ratings

Will brands with greater brand equity be perceived as better tasting than a brand with lower equity? Although there was a trend indicating that Ghirardelli brownies were perceived as tasting better, the effect was not statistically significant. Further, women provided higher overall ratings, and men were influenced by brand names more than women.

Problems with Methodology In analyzing how many people had heard of Ghirardelli Brownies and questioning if they thought it was a “better” brand than Betty Crocker, I found that the results may have been confounded. Twelve people (20%) had never heard of Ghirardelli brownies Twenty-four (40%) did not consider Ghirardelli a better brand than Betty Crocker. It would have been helpful to state that ratings should be independent of price.

Interesting trends Not one man liked Betty Crocker the best, while eight women did. Two men liked Great Value brand the best, not one woman did. Four men and seven women liked Ghirardelli the best.

Conclusions Despite not finding a statistically significant effect, I feel that my findings did not disagree with previous studies, as a trend in the perceived direction was apparent. I do however, think that brand equity in decreasing, as many recognize that the generic brands are very comparable to the name brand, which could be a contributing effect to my results. This may be especially true for college students on a budget.

Further Directions It might be interesting to have an unbiased group actually taste the different brands and rate them without knowing which brand was which to see if Ghriardelli brownies really were perceived to taste better based on composition. It would be interesting to do a similar test, comparing adult’s responses to young children's responses, who may or may not be more familiar with brand expectations, depending on the stimulus used.

What they really said… Quotes on “would you consider it (Ghirardelli) a “better” brand than Betty Crocker?” “by far”, “much better”, “better consistency and flavor”, “not better but more expensive”, “about the same”, quite bland actually”, and “I would have before this test” Quotes on “If you have one, what is you r favorite brand of brownie?” “all of em”, “cheapest”, “ma’s”, “hard to say”, and “home-made with love”