The Secret Behind Coke’s Triumph Over Pepsi: It’s All in the Branding
The Best Product Gets Beat Buy The Best Branding – The Pepsi/Coke Story You Don’t Know
Anyone born after 1990, this 1985 bedtime story is for you.
Here is the rest of the Coke/Pepsi Story you don’t know.
Year after year, Pepsi, in blind taste tests, beat Coke by 2 to 1 margins…over and over again. This goes back to the 1970s.
people liked the taste of Pepsi better
So In 1985 Coke rebuilt its formula.
Coke, wanting to ensure a successful product, did massive testing. Bling testing.
More than 200,000 people tasted New Coke before the rollout and overwhelmingly preferred it to Old Coke and Pepsi.
But, consumers revolted, and the backlash was swift and brutal.
How did 200k positive blind taste tests get it so wrong?
Or did they?
Pepsi is a soda. Coke is not a soda. Coke is a subpar, feel-good, identity product.
Identity products are linked to feelings and memories.
In 2004 researchers wanted to know just how deeply ingrained in consumers’ minds were these feelings/memories about Coke.
(To start, the researchers re-ran the Pepsi challenge with similar results. People still preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi)
Following the blind test, the volunteers were told precisely what they were going to drink.
With that knowledge, 75% chose Coke. And the emotional, thinking, and memory areas of the brain began firing.
Oddly, when drinking Pepsi, none of the same brain activity fired.
Pepsi is a superior product.
Coke is a subpar product but a superior brand.
And superior branding wins every time.
What’s your takeaway?
Having the best product or service doesn’t guarantee you success. Pepsi has been winning blind taste tests for decades.
People buy things, products and services that they connect with. People love those Coke polar bears at christmas
Last point… Your clients need to connect with you on an emotional level. You can’t just hang out a sign that says” I’m here, and I do or sell this.
If you are struggling to connect with your audiences Embracing an emotional-connection strategy can be a new source of competitive advantage and growth.
