The Label Tastes Good – why perception creates brand value

So you think that taste really is the deciding factor in food choice. Think again. The brand makes all the difference.

A recent study done by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that kids don’t just ask for food from McDonald’s but actually believe that the chicken nuggets branded with McDonalds taste better than the unbranded identical food.

Children were given a fully branded version of the nuggets with unbranded, identical nuggets and asked which taste better. They uniformly said the branded product tastes better and was different even though the only difference was the wrapping was plain and unmarked with anything from McDonalds.

Lot’s of folks are saying that this gives more credence to the debate over restricting fast food marketing to children. What I think this shows is that branded products have established, consistent experiential relationships with consumers. You could take other well known branded foods and do the same test on adults and I’m positive the results would be the same whether it’s fast food, beer or clothing.

The brand message and experience adds value to what consumer’s belief that they have something that’s better than the average nugget.

Ultimately this says a lot about brand messaging and building loyalty with consumers and leveraging the brand.

So, I’m waiting for the identical test with Corona beer and an unbranded version in a plane bottle. We shall see.