Battle of the Beverage

Overview

Objectives/Goals The "Battle of the Beverage" was conducted to see if product packaging influenced a consumer's purchase of colas. I was trying to prove the hypothesis that product packaging influences a consumer less if they drink a large amount of cola every week. Methods/Materials I conducted a series of three taste tests of colas on 95 subjects, after each of them had filled a questionnaire. The first was a blind taste test. The second test used labels that I made myself, put on three cola bottles. One label had a negative connotation, one had a neutral connotation, and the third was a positive logo. Based on the subject's number-one choice of cola in the blind taste test, I served the next colas, in a special order. Their first choice of cola came from a bottle with the negative label, their second choice had the neutral label, and their third choice had the positive label. If the subject did not choose the negative label (their first choice in the blind taste test) as their favorite in the substitute label test, the label had swayed their opinion. If they chose the negative label as their number one choice, they were not swayed. On the third test, the actual label test, I used the real product labels of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and A+ cola. Once again, if the subject did not have the same number one choice as in their blind taste test, then the real label had swayed them. Results After conducting the tests I found that Coca-Cola received 47% of the votes, being the favorite, in the blind taste test. 42.1% of the subjects did not choose the same cola on the substitute label test as they had during the blind taste test, due to the influence of packaging. On average, this 42.1% drank more cola than the 57.9% of subjects whose preferences were not swayed by the substitute packaging. The data showed that 48 of the 95 subjects did not choose the same cola on the blind taste test as in the actual label test (where I used the actual Coke, Pepsi and A+ labels). This proves that the actual product labels swayed 50.5% of the subjects while they did not sway 49.5% of the subjects. Conclusions/Discussion Packaging does affect a consumer's cola preference. Though my hypothesis may not have been proven, significant amounts of people were swayed by the substitute and actual labels.

Competition history

• CSEF 2003 Social Sciences (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1711

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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