Coke? Pepsi? I prefer Diet Coke

Today's blog is slightly off topic, but hey, it was an interesting day today. My day, excuse me, my Saturday, consisted of spending 6 hours (noon to 6) in the Science Library at Butler. Now see, I'm not sure why they call it the science library. It's in the Business building...but I mean, I guess there are lots of science books there. Anyway, the main focus of today was working on my lit review for my honors thesis.

Background:
I started the Honors Program at Butler my freshman year. That consisted of taking a variety of classes: everything from one that took place at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, one called "Hands on Spirituality" in which I did everything from yoga, smoke a peace pipe, and simulated dying...twice, a class that required reading the entire "Les Miserables"...unabridged version...and now, writing my honors thesis. It's the only way to graduate Butler summa or magna cum laude...so I have my goal set high for finishing college.

Anyway - my thesis is about consumer behavior. Why do we buy the items we buy? Especially those items that take you 10 seconds to decide on: deodorant, tissues, laundry detergent. Items that seem VERY irrelevant and not worth much conscious effort.

So today, I spent 6 hours researching about generations and gender buying behaviors, consumer behavior in general, and a lot of VERY interesting (maybe I'm just nerdy...) studies have been done. One that is SOO interesting, I wanted to blog about it.

A study was done by Samuel M. McClure, Jian Li, Damon Tomlin, Kim S. Cypert, Latane M. Montague and P. Read Montague called "Neural Correlates of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks" or in layman's terms...a neuromarketing study between Coke and Pepsi on which tastes better.

You remember the Pepsi Challenge right? Blind taste test in malls, at games, wherever, and surprisingly enough, Pepsi wins almost every time. But Coke still dominates the soda industry. How can that be?? Well, a group of people were interested and they took 67 participants, hooked them up to a machine, and did another blind taste test. They found that only one part of the brain is used, the part that is stimulated by appealing tastes, and that in a taste test, Pepsi wins.

Then, the researchers told the participants in advance what they would be drinking. So instead of tasting blind, they KNEW whether it was Coke or Pepsi. And guess what? Most participants chose Coke! Even though, blindly, they like Pepsi better...confused?? So were they.

They found that when looking at the brain, when participants know what they are tasting TWO parts of the brain are affected. The one stimulated by appealing tastes and the one associated with memories. Basically meaning, people have such positive associations with Coke, whether it's the logo, commercials, history, childhood memories, whatever, that even though they like the taste of Pepsi better, emotions win and we tell ourselves we like Coke better.

Now if that isn't interesting, and frustrating for Pepsi, I don't know what is. So think about it. Are you a Pepsi fanatic? Coke fanatic? Neither? Maybe you should rethink WHY you like it...you may surprise yourself!