Sprite vs. 7up, Essay Example

Introduction

This study is a managerial study for us to know if an individual can correctly distinguish between two products, Sprite and 7up. Both drinks are clear and carbonated, when placed in a clear glass, they are identical, and only their tastes vary slightly. Numerous companies pay a lot of money for this type of testing, the most common is the Coca Cola vs. Pepsi test (Buchnan & Morrison, 1984). This type of testing is popular with companies proving that there is a huge impact on the psychological preferences of consumers (McLure, et.al., 2004).

Purpose of Study

This study is conducted to find if an individual can readily tell the difference between the brands Sprite and 7up. This test is to validate the claim that the two can be distinguished from one another according to taste preference during a blind test. The study is set around a null hypothesis of (.5), and the alternative hypothesis of (<.5).

Ho: p = .5
Ha: p < .5

This assumes that the participant of the experiment is able to discriminate between the products Sprite and 7up. This type of experiment is conducted for the purpose of managerial studies, if taste really equals consumer expectations.

Method

I have chosen a participant who is definite that he is able to tell the difference between the products Sprite and 7up. The participant claims that he is more favorable towards the drink Sprite, and that he can tell the product just by taste. There is only one participant in this experiment (n=1). The experiment will be using the triangular method of testing, as well as the paired testing, and also the identification test. This will be done using both products, where the participant does not know which product he will be receiving. The collection of the data will be doe according to which test was conducted, and will be averaged. Each test will be done a total of ten times over. Once the data is collected, the accuracy of the results will depend on how well the participant performed, and how many times he committed an error; the error being not able to distinguish the taste between the two products.

The first test, which is the triangle test, will need the following materials: three clear shot glasses, a bottle of Sprite, a bottle of 7up, and a blind fold (Morrison, 1981).

1. Two shot glasses are filled with one product, the third glass is filled with the other
2. The participant is blind-folded and given the three glasses
3. He is to tell which one he believes is different from the other
4. The test is repeated with different variations of the repeating products

This test is simply to be able to tell if the participant can distinguish if there is a difference between the two products, and if he is able to select the product which “doesn’t fit”. This is repeated ten (10) times; five (5) times with the two Sprite glasses, and five (5) times with the two 7up glasses.

The second test is the paired testing (Buchnan, 1988). This is where there are only two shot glasses given, and the participant is asked which out of the two he prefers over the other.

1. One shot glass is filled with Sprite, another with 7up
2. They are presented to the participant, and he is asked to choose which one he believes tastes better

This way of testing is to determine if he is right in his claim that he can properly distinguish the taste of Sprite over 7up because of his preference for the former. This will be repeated ten (10) times.

Lastly, the identification test will show if the participant can tell it is his preferred product with tasting one random glass in front of him.

1. A single shot glass will be placed in front of the participant
2. He tastes the contents of the glass and tells us if it is either Sprite of 7up.
3. This is repeated 10 times

The variation for the shots will be random; the number of times Sprite will appear is five (5), the number of times 7up will appear is five (5). This test is to analyze if the participant is able to identify his preferred drink without the confusion of other glasses being present.

Data Analysis

For the Triangular Test, the participant was correct six times (60%), being able to tell which out of the three shot glasses presented to him were different. The participant was given one point for each correct answer seen in Table 1.0. According to graph 1.0, the participant was could not distinguish if 7up was different, answering incorrectly 3 (30%) times when 7up was the odd one out of the variation. The participant could tell the difference between the products more likely when Sprite was the different one out of the variation. He correctly answered Sprite four out of five times (80%) when Sprite was the different out of the three. Graph 1.0 shows that during the variations, 7up was more likely incorrectly chosen than Sprite when 7up was presented to be the different out of the products. Overall, the participant scored two out of five times (40%) correct when 7up was the different product in the variation.

The Paired Test was more successful than the previous test. The participant showed that he was consistent with his preference, choosing Sprite over 7up seven out of ten times (70%). The results of test are shown in Table 2.0, where he chooses Sprite as his preference over 7up out of the ten different variations. Chart 1.0 shows the percentage of times the participant chose Sprite. Graph 2.0 shows how many times he chose Sprite over 7up when Sprite was first tasted (80%), choosing Sprite four out of five times. It also shows how many times Sprite was chosen over 7up when 7up was presented first, the participant chose Sprite three out of five times (60%).

The last test which was the Identification Test showed that the participant can correctly identify which of the products is which by tasting nine out of ten times (90%). Table 3.0 shows the participants’ answers on the random variations of glasses given to him for tasting. He only answered incorrectly once, stating that it was Sprite given to him, when it was 7up. Graph 3.0 shows how many times the participant correctly answered Sprite when Sprite was given to him, he answered correctly five out of five times (100%). The next bar shows how many times he answered correctly when 7up was given to him, this resulted in the participant scoring four out of five times correctly (80%). The participant only answered incorrectly once, and this was when 7up was given to him during the third test, with the 2^nd product given to him. The participant was given points for each correct answer in Table 3.0, and he tallied a total of nine out of ten points (90%).

Out of all the three tests, the participant scored twenty four out of thirty (80%).

Discussion

The results overall showed that the participant can correctly tell if the product is Sprite, according to his taste expertise as well as because of his taste preference. Out of all the tests, the participant answered correctly twenty four times, with a total score of (80%).

The first test proved more difficult, with the participant only answering six out of ten times correctly, however still earning a (60%). This test showed that the participant is more likely to tell the product difference if Sprite was placed in front of him. He answered this correctly four out of five times (80%), whereas his score for being able to tell if 7up was different was poor, earning him only (40%). The second test was more successful, and the participant correctly chose the drink he claims to prefer seven out of ten times (70%). This experiment showed that the participant preferred Sprite over 7up more when Sprite was tasted first, choosing Sprite Four out of five times (80%), and choosing Sprite over 7up a total of three out of five times when 7up was presented first (60%). The result of this test shows that the participant is more likely to chose Sprite if Sprite was presented to him as the first drink.

The last test was the most successful. The participant could tell which of the products he was tasting nine out of ten times (90%); this shows that he was familiar with the tastes of the product and could tell which ones were being presented to him. He answered correctly that it was Sprite five out of five times (100%), and he answered correctly that the product was 7up four out of five times (80%). This test was to simply be able to tell which of the products were being presented to the participant, and he proved to be able to know which product is which.

Overall the participant scored 80% correctly being able to tell the difference between Sprite and 7up. The first test was probably a bit confusing for the participant, since there were a lot of drinks and variations presented to him, and maybe this confused his selection of the product. However, the second and third tests were more successful, and the participant was able to tell which product was which, and his statement of being able to tell it is Sprite because of his taste preference is correct. The null hypothesis is to be accepted in this experiment, and the result is that the participant can correctly distinguish between the two products Sprite and 7up.

References

Samuel M. McClure, Jian Li, Damon Tomlin, Kim S. Cypert, Latané M. Montague and P. Read Montague (2004) Neural Correlates of Behavioral Preference for Culturally Familiar Drinks. Neuron,  44(2),  379-387.

Morrison, Donald G. (1981). Triangle Taste Tests: Are the Subjects Who Respond Correctly Lucky or Good? Journal of Marketing, 45 (Summer), 111-119.

Buchanan, Bruce, & Morrison, D.G. (1984), Taste Tests: Psychophysical Issues in Comparative Test Design. Psychology and Marketing, 1(1).

Buchanan, B. (1988). A model for repeat paired comparison preference tests. Psychometrika,  53(2), Jun, 209-221.