What Does a Brand Taste Like?
The Honolulu Star Bulletin had a great piece this morning. The first two sentences summarize it best:
“Anything made by McDonald’s tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children. Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids if it was wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.”
Basically, when given the same fries wrapped in McDonalds packaging vs. not, kids overwhelmingly opted for the Golden Arches. The same went for healthy food. The stats are unbelievable: almost 77 percent said that the labeled fries tasted best, only 13 percent liked the unlabeled ones. 54% preferred McDonald’s labeled carrots versus 23% who liked the unlabeled variety. Less than a quarter of the kids thought both samples tasted the same.
I love that these are 5 year old preschoolers too! It gives it such a Brave New World feel.
This begs two questions. First, how do we go about identifying all the arbitrary brand defined preferences we have built up inside our minds by the time we reach adult hood? We’re already overwhelmed with choice. How many times do we “just pick something” when we’re really following a pre-programmed response to a particular color or label? Maybe the brand is actually doing us a favor by helping us just pick something. After all, imagine a shopping aisle with only generic brands. How would you know what to pick?
Second, doesn’t this give super brands a higher responsibility? Take the case of McDonald’s. With all their effort to come across as a charitable organization helping impoverished kids all over the world, what if they turned their attention instead to the sky rocketing obesity rate in the US? Habits and thought patterns are instilled in people at a very early age, and can be almost impossible to change in adulthood. A company like McDonald’s could fundamentally change the way Americans approach food over the course of one generation and make serious money doing it. Everyone is concerned about their health. McDonald’s has an opportunity to ride the health wave and become the “healthiest burger chain in the world.” I know it’s not going to happen, but it sure would make for an interesting case study in brand extension.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
on August 8, 2007 at 2:49 am Katharine Osborne wrote:
Yikes, what a frightening picture! Your comment about aisles full of generically labeled food reminds me of the movie “Repo Man” where all the products are generically labeled with black letters on white packaging. To me, it looked like it would be easier to make a choice.
Appearance does affect appetite, and kids are especially prone to marketing (ever watch Saturday morning cartoons in the last decade? The commercials are a little scary, and they are almost always for food: kid sees frenetic food ad, kid whines at parent, parent buys product for kid, company makes zillions). I bet the stats for adults would be significantly different.
on August 8, 2007 at 3:00 am Lorenz wrote:
I don’t know about that. I would think that because the stats are so true for kids, they are true for adults as well simply because I don’t see the imprint from childhood disappearing. I think McDonald’s is gross, but I still get cravings a couple times a year for no apparent reason. I would actually be really surprised if the stats were different.
I think although a small minority of adults may be aware of how much advertising they are exposed to and actually conscious of it, I would think the average American is completely oblivious to all the impressions that get registered in the back of their head daily. You might not be able to actively “recall” every add that you see, but it still makes a huge impression.