Blind taste test

Last updated
Isolation booth for taste testing for an independent lab. Tasters will receive samples through the box at right. Blind taster booth 2 CR jeh.jpg
Isolation booth for taste testing for an independent lab. Tasters will receive samples through the box at right.

In marketing, a blind taste test is often used as a tool for companies to compare their brand to another brand. For example, the Pepsi Challenge [1] is a famous taste test that has been run by Pepsi since 1975. Additionally, taste tests are sometimes used as a tool by companies to develop their brand or new products.

Contents

Blind taste tests are ideal for goods such as food or wine that are consumed directly. Researchers use blind taste tests to obtain information about customers' perceptions and preferences on the goods. Blind taste test can be used to: [2]

What is a blind taste test

Blind taste tests require a "blind testing" meaning the people taking the blind taste test are unaware of the identity of the brand being tested, [3] or if done at home this can be as simple as a blindfold over the person taking the test. This means that any bias, preconceived ideas about a particular brand or food, is eliminated. The people taking the test will also be unaware of any changes done to the product. [2]

In the famous Pepsi Challenge, [1] people took a sip from two different unlabelled glasses, not knowing which was Coke and which was Pepsi.

Types of blind taste tests

In this single blind taste test of two cola brands, the experimenter knows which bottle is which Blind taste test.jpg
In this single blind taste test of two cola brands, the experimenter knows which bottle is which

There are two types of blind taste tests:

Taste tests are commonly employed by the public television show America's Test Kitchen and its spin-off series Cook's Country , typically administered by Jack Bishop. [4]

Related Research Articles

Gatorade Manufacturer of sports-themed beverage and food products

Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was first developed in 1965 by a team of researchers led by Robert Cade. It was originally made for the Gators at the University of Florida to replenish the carbohydrates that the school's student-athletes burned and the combination of water and electrolytes that they lost in sweat during rigorous sports activities.

New Coke 1985 reformulation of Coca-Cola

In April 1985, the Coca-Cola Company introduced a new formula for its Coca-Cola soda, known informally as New Coke. It was renamed Coke II in 1992, and was discontinued in July 2002.

The Cola Wars refer to the long-time rivalry between soft drink producers The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, who have engaged in mutually-targeted marketing campaigns for the direct competition between each company's product lines, especially their flagship colas, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Beginning in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the competition escalated, which gave this cultural phenomenon its current moniker of Cola Wars.

Crystal Pepsi

Crystal Pepsi is a soft drink made by PepsiCo. It was first sold in Europe in the early 1990s. The United States and Canada received it from 1992 to 1994, with brief re-releases throughout the mid-2010s. It was briefly sold in the United Kingdom and Australia. The product's original market life was admittedly sabotaged by competitor Coca-Cola, in a "kamikaze" plan to create and market the diet soda Tab Clear as its competitor to Crystal Pepsi, in an attempt to mislead the public into believing that Crystal Pepsi was a diet soda. Crystal Pepsi is notable for a fanatical revival by the public decades later, leading to a corporate response with these re-releases. Its flavor is greatly similar to standard Pepsi, with the absence of caramel color allegedly making the drink less "acidic" tasting.

Dietdrinks or light drinks are sugar-free, artificially sweetened versions of carbonated beverages with virtually no calories. They are generally marketed toward health-conscious people, diabetics, athletes, and other people who want to lose weight, improve physical fitness, or reduce their sugar intake.

Cheetos Brand of snack food

Cheetos is a brand of cheese puff snack made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the U.S. The initial success of Cheetos was a contributing factor to the merger between The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company in 1961 to form Frito-Lay. In 1965 Frito-Lay became a subsidiary of The Pepsi-Cola Company, forming PepsiCo, the current owner of the Cheetos brand.

Banner blindness Tendency to ignore banner-size notices

Banner blindness is a phenomenon in web usability where visitors to a website consciously or unconsciously ignore banner-like information, which can also be called ad blindness or banner noise.

PepsiCo American food and beverage company

PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo has interests in the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. PepsiCo has since expanded from its namesake product Pepsi to a broader range of food and beverage brands, the largest of which included an acquisition of Tropicana Products in 1998 and the Quaker Oats Company in 2001, which added the Gatorade brand to its portfolio.

The Pepsi Challenge is an ongoing marketing promotion run by PepsiCo since 1975. It is also the name of a cross country ski race at Giant's Ridge Ski Area in Biwabik, Minnesota, an event sponsored by Pepsi.

Country of origin Country of manufacture, production, or growth where an article or product comes from

Country of origin (COO) represents the country or countries of manufacture, production, design, or brand origin where an article or product comes from. For multinational brands, COO may include multiple countries within the value-creation process.

Neuromarketing is a commercial marketing communication field that applies neuropsychology to market research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. The potential benefits to marketers include more efficient and effective marketing campaigns and strategies, fewer product and campaign failures, and ultimately the manipulation of the real needs and wants of people to suit the needs and wants of marketing interests.

Blinded wine tasting is wine tasting undertaken in circumstances in which the tasters are kept unaware of the wines' identities. The blind approach is routine for wine professionals who wish to ensure impartiality in the judgment of the quality of wine during wine competitions or in the evaluation of a sommelier for professional certification. More recently wine scientists have used blinded tastings to explore the objective parameters of the human olfactory system as they apply to the ability of wine drinkers to identify and characterize the extraordinary variety of compounds that contribute to a wine’s aroma. Similarly, economists testing hypotheses relating to the wine market have used the technique in their research. Some blinded trials among wine consumers have indicated that people can find nothing in a wine's aroma or taste to distinguish between ordinary and pricey brands. Academic research on blinded wine tastings have also cast doubt on the ability of professional tasters to judge wines consistently.

Lipton Brand of tea

Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Unilever. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder Sir Thomas Lipton. The Lipton ready-to-drink beverages are sold by Pepsi Lipton International, a company jointly owned by Unilever and PepsiCo.

A glossary of terms used in clinical research.

In the area of food and beverage marketing, an Optimized Consumer Intensity Analysis uses data from a sensory perception experiment, often in the form of a blind taste test, to compare brands or products. For example, the Pepsi Challenge is a famous taste test that has been run by Pepsi since 1975 as a method to show their superiority to Coca-Cola.

Introspection illusion Cognitive bias where people think they understand the causes of their own mental states but dont trust others

The introspection illusion is a cognitive bias in which people wrongly think they have direct insight into the origins of their mental states, while treating others' introspections as unreliable. The illusion has been examined in psychological experiments, and suggested as a basis for biases in how people compare themselves to others. These experiments have been interpreted as suggesting that, rather than offering direct access to the processes underlying mental states, introspection is a process of construction and inference, much as people indirectly infer others' mental states from their behaviour.

Color psychology Study of influence of color on human behavior

Color psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior. Color influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food. Colors have qualities that can cause certain emotions in people. Colors can also enhance the effectiveness of placebos. For example, red or orange pills are generally used as stimulants. How color influences individuals may differ depending on age, gender, and culture. For instance, heterosexual men tend to report that red outfits enhance female attractiveness, while heterosexual females deny any outfit color impacting that of men. Although color associations can vary contextually between cultures, color preference is to be relatively uniform across gender and race.

<i>MasterChef</i> (American TV series) American cooking reality show

MasterChef is an American competitive cooking reality TV show based on the British series of the same name, open to amateur and home chefs. Produced by Shine America and One Potato Two Potato, it debuted on July 27, 2010 on the Fox network, following the professional cooking competition series Hell's Kitchen.

Frito-Lay American company producing snack foods

Frito-Lay is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Rold Gold pretzels, and Walkers potato crisps. Each brand generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009.

Between-group design

In the design of experiments, a between-group design is an experiment that has two or more groups of subjects each being tested by a different testing factor simultaneously. This design is usually used in place of, or in some cases in conjunction with, the within-subject design, which applies the same variations of conditions to each subject to observe the reactions. The simplest between-group design occurs with two groups; one is generally regarded as the treatment group, which receives the ‘special’ treatment, and the control group, which receives no variable treatment and is used as a reference The between-group design is widely used in psychological, economic, and sociological experiments, as well as in several other fields in the natural or social sciences.

References

  1. 1 2 Gee, James Paul (2010-05-22). "Sociocultural theory and blind taste-tests". Reading and Writing. 1 (1). doi: 10.4102/rw.v1i1.7 . ISSN   2308-1422.
  2. 1 2 "Carrying out taste tests - Consumer focused product development - GREGGS | GREGGS case studies and information | Business Case Studies". businesscasestudies.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  3. Luis Méndez, José; Oubiña, Javier; Rubio, Natalia (2011). "The relative importance of brand‐packaging, price and taste in affecting brand preferences". British Food Journal. 113 (10): 1229–1251. doi:10.1108/00070701111177665.
  4. "'Test Kitchen': Have Your (Gluten-Free) Cake, And Love Eating It Too". NPR via OPB. 2014-03-20. Archived from the original on 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2014-04-14.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)