Achedemic Marketing Vs Reality (Coke Vs Pepsi)

Was listening to the radio with Authur Martin Lindstrom talking about his book – Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong. Interesting interview and person with many relevant points but in my opinion he made some assumptions which don’t really wash in the real world; Ironically they are more designed for achedemics and college students.

Take for example the topic this morning on Coke VS Pepsi, very interesting piece about how using an MRI scan people took a sip of coke and the a sip of Pepsi and they conclusively proved that Pepsi is the preferred choice of softdrink without marketing in play. Then when they told the subjects which brand was which they reversed thier preferences (proven again on the MRI scan). The conversation then went on to say advertising was to credit for winning the minds of customers; Coke has a Big Red santa and trail of trucks that signals the start of Christmas and Pepsi has Michael Jackson with his head on fire.

Sounds reasonable??? Maybe, but in fact its not the cause. What it comes down to is an unfair comparison. Did you notice they only drank a sip??? Not drank a 500ml bottle! How many people do you know only take a shot of a soft drink? The reality is Yes pepsi is sweeter and therefore creates a nicer first sip but as you continue drinking the sweetness becomes too much and from peoples experiences a majority would far prefer the last “sip” of a bottle of coke to a bottle of pepsi.

Marketing is important, but at the end of the day you have to tweak your product to the consumer, advertising can’t fix a problem. As demonstrated in my favourite ad of the decade:

Which is the ingenious retort to the Microsoft 300Million investment to fight back and the taunts of Mac (who have a fractional share of the market).

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