Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control, Third Edition

192 Strategic Marketing: Planning and Control

Limited facilities

Full range of facilities

High

price

Low

price

Hotel

A

Hotel

Hotel C

B

Figure 9.7
A perceptual map of
various hotels

Illustrative Example 9.2

Coca-Cola

Recent research using brands scans revealed that consumers reacted differently to the Coca-

Cola brand than they did to the Pepsi-Cola brand. When the individuals participating in the

experiment were shown the company logos prior to tasting the product, the Coca-Cola brand

stimulated responses in the areas of the brain associated with cultural knowledge, memory

and self-image. Pepsi failed to initiate these brain responses. This effect was so strong that

researchers could identify what drink the individual had been shown merely by looking at the

brain scan. The Director of the Brown Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at Baylor College,

Houston, Texas, Dr Read Montague, is quoted as saying ‘There is a huge effect of the Coke

label on brain activity related to the control of actions, the dredging up of memories and self-

image. There is a response in the brain which leads to a behavioural effect’. When the con-

sumers were subjected to a blind product tasting between the two brands there was no

preference for one product over the other. However when they were shown the label prior to

tasting the product 75 per cent stated they preferred the taste of the Coca-Cola product. The

researchers believe the label is so influential, stimulating responses in the brain the Pepsi

brand failed to reach, that it actually altered the individual’s perception of the taste of

the product.