Pepsi vs. Coke & fMRI Research. Guess What? It’s About More Than Just Taste.

All of our senses are involved during the decision making and branding process, even when we don’t know they’re playing a part. I’ll be conducting some of my own fMRI studies in the next few months, consider this a teaser from the tip of the iceberg.

For example, Pepsi’s “taste the difference” campaign. This was interesting because it focused on taste as the primary determinant of preference. There were a few issues involved with this. First of all, it was a “sip” comparison, not drinking an entire beverage. Think about taking that first sip, compared to sipping half the can. Taste changes slightly as we become more acclimatized to it. Preference during sipping does not equate to preference towards consumption.

In choosing a product preference, taste is not the only sense involved. Other physical properties such as color, texture and smell play a role. Additional influences include visual and auditory stimulus as well as reward input. Of equal or greater importance, are the cultural differences associated with the brand of product. Last but not least, mood and social context either are highly significant in how we perceive a product.


Today’s marketplace is not so much about the actual product, but brand and perception.


A study published in Neuron by McClure et. Al compared consumer responses between Coke and Pepsi under the fMRI. Pepsi and Coke were taste-tested under conditions where stimuli was used to prime for a response. The stimulus was either a yellow light (dummy variable) or visual Pepsi / Coke branding. No deception was involved in this test, and knowledge of what product they preferred was determined in advance.

When individuals preferred one drink to another, they were unable to distinguish them in an anonymous taste test. Additionally, there was an equal split in preference in the absence of brand information. It was thereby determined that label had a huge impact on taste.

fMRI usage was important because in order to understand this phenomenon, it was necessary to see the precise decision making process. We could see depending on which regions lit up, that preference was not related purely to appetite preference.

The taste test naturally activates the regions responsible for taste in the DLPFC (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). However, when the user was showed the product branding, the hippocampus region responsible for memory recall lit up.

When this happens before the taste test, the emotionally primed regions recall how we felt in a previous emotional state (how coke/pepsi make us feel through various ad campaigns) which determines in the end- what taste we prefer.


In other words, it’s far from just taste that influences product choice and loyalty.


- Darwin vs The Machine
http://www.darwinversusthemachine.com/