Can Marketing Really Change Our Preferences? The Case Of Pepsi Vs. Coca Cola
A few years ago, the company PepsiCo beverage manufacturer and bottler Pepsi , launched a very particular advertising campaign on the market. It was known throughout the world as “the Pepsi challenge” and basically consisted of a social experiment that sought to prove that the public, in general, preferred the taste of Pepsi at Coca Cola which was, and remains today, the main competing brand.
Tasting tables were set up in public places in many cities around the world where people could try both soft drinks, under a procedure called “blind tasting.” That is, the participants took a sip of one of the drinks, then tried a sip of the other, and then had to determine their preference, stating which of the two they liked more.
As the company expected, most people said they liked Pepsi better Of course, the company ensured that these results were disseminated and made known to the farthest corners of the planet.
Coca-Cola’s response was not long in coming. First they screamed, and then they set out to replicate the advertising campaign, but this time, obviously, starting from the exact opposite premise.
And indeed, what they were able to observe was that the majority of people, when it came to choosing, leaned towards Coca-Cola.
The contradiction in the comparison of the data quickly became apparent. Either the people in Pepsi’s research and marketing department had misrepresented the data and were lying, or the people at Coca-Cola were. Both companies couldn’t be right
An independent investigation into Pepsi and Coca-Cola
It seems that the mystery reached the ears of a group of scientists who are fans of drinks, who, motivated by curiosity, set out to do their own research. They were determined to find out which of the two brands had the public’s preference
But they introduced a variant in the process. This time, while the participants drank the soda, their brains were going to be monitored under functional magnetic resonance technology.
What is functional magnetic resonance imaging?
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a tool based on the use of a device that allows scientists to observe, in vivo, what group of neurons activate in a person’s brain while they are asked to perform some activity ; In this particular case, savor the dark and bubbly drink.
To do this, the person must be introduced, horizontally, into a resonator. His head is secured with a harness, as it is necessary for him not to move so that brain activity can be monitored.
This is possible since this type of technology allows us to measure the metabolism of nerve cells that give shape to the different structures that make up the brain. Where greater blood flow and greater oxygen consumption are detected, it follows that there are neurons turned on and doing their job.
How did the soda reach the participant’s mouth in such uncomfortable experimental conditions? Simple: through a little hose that made it possible for the drink to travel from afar.
The power of the Coca-Cola brand on our brain
And here comes the truly surprising thing.
The researchers found that both when people drank Pepsi and when they tried Coca-Cola, What is commonly called “the pleasure circuit” was put into operation in their brains This refers to certain brain areas, which are responsible for the enjoyment we experience when we expose ourselves to circumstances that we like. It can be about drinking soda, as in this case, but also in very varied experiences, such as having sexual relations, watching our favorite television series, reading a book that we are passionate about, eating churros stuffed with dulce de leche, or smoking marijuana.
But the curious thing about the case is that, when the people participating in the experiment were informed what brand of soda they were drinking, something else happened, another region of the brain was activated.
This time, it was a very different structure from the previous one, called dorsolateral prefrontal cortexand which is located, approximately, behind each of the temples of the human skull.
What is the function of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex?
Well, this part of the brain is considered to be the anatomical basis of several higher-order mental processes typical of humans, including the formation of concepts and the organization and regulation of intellectual functions.
Simplifying things a little, When participants drank soda without knowing the brand, the brain’s pleasure circuit turned on triggered by the pleasant sensation coming from the taste buds.
But when they were informed of the brand of the drink, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex also lit up. In other words, The area of the brain where the knowledge and appreciation of the brand is housed was also activated
And here is a detail that is not minor. The dorsolateral neurons were much more laborious when people drank Coca-Cola compared to when they drank Pepsi. The resonator monitors showed much more intense activity when the participants were aware that the brand they were tasting was the number one in the world.
And it turns out that, precisely, the only difference in procedure between the two original advertising campaigns had been that the Coca-Cola people told those who came to drink at their tasting stations which glass contained which soda or which soda. Furthermore, the containers were marked with their respective logos.
On the other hand, in the “Pepsi challenge”, participants made value judgments based solely on the taste of the drinks they were trying, since they had no knowledge of which was which. In this case, the choice was strictly based on the degree of sensory satisfaction that the person experienced.
When marketing trumps flavor
What does all this lead us to? First of all, for most people, everything seems to indicate that Pepsi is tastier than Coca-Cola
Second, when people know what they are drinking, they prefer Coca-Cola, and this choice is fundamentally driven by the power of the brand.
It seems incredible, but A simple commercial brand can have enough weight to prevail over net sensory enjoyment that we experience when we consume a product. A simple brand can beat enjoyment based on the senses, distorting our decisions and leading us to opt for an alternative that gives us less pleasure than another.
When the participants in the experiment had the expectation that they were going to drink Coca-Cola, that soda seemed tastier than the competition. On the other hand, when they did not have the expectation of drinking Coca-Cola, the ground was paved for real, clean and unconditioned sensory pleasure, based solely on flavor, and Pepsi clearly won there. Amazing.
All trademarks have value to us And that value occupies a place in our brain. Marketing companies have known this for a long time. Their job consists, precisely, of creating all the possible added value through the brand, which takes the product to a privileged position in the consumer’s mind. The instrument used for this purpose is the incessant advertising bombardment by all possible media. Something that Coca-Cola knows and does very well.
