Funny you mention that! Pepsi literally made this a huge ad campaign in the 80’s. They found that in blind tests between Coke and Pepsi, the vast majority of people picked Pepsi as their favourite, even the people who said they preferred drinking Coke.
Oddly enough, Coke ran a campaign at the same time saying “I picked Coke” and it was a smash hit. Pepsi ended up being meme’d on despite their blind tests showing they were better. It’s great proof that what sells a product isn’t how good the product itself is, but how good its marketing is.
In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), author Malcolm Gladwell presents evidence that suggests Pepsi’s success over Coca-Cola in the “Pepsi Challenge” is a result of the flawed nature of the “sip test” method.[6] His research shows that tasters will generally prefer the sweeter of two beverages based on a single sip, even if they prefer a less sweet beverage over the course of an entire can.[7] Additionally, the challenge more often than not labeled the Pepsi cup with an “M” and the Coca-Cola cup with a “Q,” suggesting letter preference may drive some of the results.[8]
Tested myself in an a-b test a while ago and tried to figure out what intricate differences are in the tastes specifically, after being a pepsi fan. Turns out here in europe pepsi tastes a lot sweeter, while coke has a lot more sparkle. The lesser sweetness turned me into a coke fan.
Funny you mention that! Pepsi literally made this a huge ad campaign in the 80’s. They found that in blind tests between Coke and Pepsi, the vast majority of people picked Pepsi as their favourite, even the people who said they preferred drinking Coke.
Oddly enough, Coke ran a campaign at the same time saying “I picked Coke” and it was a smash hit. Pepsi ended up being meme’d on despite their blind tests showing they were better. It’s great proof that what sells a product isn’t how good the product itself is, but how good its marketing is.
One idea I heard is that Pepsi is sweeter, so people prefer it when it’s only a shot glass amount. But a full can people prefer less sweet coke.
+1 and the wiki actually mentions that theory,
Tested myself in an a-b test a while ago and tried to figure out what intricate differences are in the tastes specifically, after being a pepsi fan. Turns out here in europe pepsi tastes a lot sweeter, while coke has a lot more sparkle. The lesser sweetness turned me into a coke fan.