Published Research
Won the Taste Test. Lost the Market.
blind taste preference, yet lost market share to Coke for decades
Signal
50/50
The Study
The Pepsi Paradox is neuromarketing's founding case study. In blind conditions, both drinks produced identical neural taste responses with effectively equal preference. Introduce the brand and Coke wins 75/25. Two brain systems are at war: taste in the gustatory cortex versus brand memory in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Pepsi won on product quality. Coke won on the brain. The market followed the brain.
Myelin Sheets Insight
“If you're losing to a competitor with an inferior product, the battle is not in the product. It is in their neural footprint.”
Research Details
- Tool
- Blind Taste + Brain Imaging
- Year
- 2004
- Market
- Global FMCG
Next Step
Translate this research into your own category and creative decisions.
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