Brand names taste better. That’s the conclusion from a savvy study of peanut butter and consumer choice.
The details were first reported years ago in The Journal of Consumer Research. They resurfaced in 2007 in a book by psychologist Gerg Gigerenzer about the “intelligence of the unconscious” (Gut Feelings, Viking-Penguin).
The study gave consumers a choice between three jars of peanut butter. In a pretest, consumers identified one brand as having significantly higher quality 60% of the time in blind taste tests.
Then the researchers put labels on the jars with another group of participants. One label was a well-known, heavily-advertised national brand. The other two labels were brands the participants had never heard of before.
The higher-quality peanut butter went into one of the jars with an unfamiliar label. Would the same percentage still chose the best-tasting spread?
Nope. This time, 73% chose a lower-quality product with the well-known brand name. Only 20% chose the high-quality product in the unfamiliar jar.
Similar results have come from other studies using blind taste tests among beer drinkers.
Bottom line: Name recognition has more influence than taste perception.
The Blake Project Can Help: Differentiate Your Brand In The Brand Positioning Workshop
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education
