Questions: Can you get the equivalent taste for less money? What is the impact of advertising on people’s beliefs about a product? Specific Example : Cola

Hypothesis We predict that people will have predetermined beliefs that the name brand product will taste better. We further predict, that when they are blindly testing the different colas, the generic will be the same or better than the name brand.

Relevance In a world where media is dominant and forms our views, it’s important to understand how advertising effects our thinking about products in order to make better purchasing decisions. Pepsi’s newest “spokesperson.”

Materials Coke Pepsi RC Chek Cups Ice Cooler Digital Video Camera Napkins Paper Pencil

Procedures 100 subjects found at Alexander Dining Hall over two days. Record gender. Ask five survey questions, including ranking colas in question based on previous experience. Taste colas. Rank anonymous colas

Survey Questions Which do you typically buy?,, Generic, On sale, Other Have you ever heard of Chek? Does advertising have an effect on you? How often do you drink soda? Never, one or two times a week, one a day, more than one a day Which cola do you last remember seeing an advertisement for?,, RC, Other

Results The graph shows that the results are independent. This means that there is a difference between ratings by brand name and actual taste.

Results By Sex This is the same graph as the previous slide, only separated by sex. Again the p-value shows that they are independent.

Results - Misc. Facts 64 people said they last saw and ad for Pepsi. 47 predicted it number one. Only 13 ranked it first in taste testing. 93 people predicted Chek would be last. 42 ranked it tasting with in the first two places (top half). 84 people had never even heard of Chek. 41 people normally buy Coke. Only 19 ranked it first. Of the 48 people that predicted Coke would be the best tasting, 9 ranked it dead last in actual taste. 83% said that advertising did not have an effect on them and yet 79% buy name brands. Of those 79 people, 30 of them ranked a name brand cola worst.

Future Investigation Knowing results is brand loyalty maintained Say same thing is 2 different things Targets of advertising Change sample product

Conclusion We were correct in our predictions that people would have predetermined beliefs that the name brand product will taste better. We were also correct in our prediction that blind taste tests would show that taste is independent of brand.