rbg@cbosgd.UUCP (Richard Goldschmidt) (05/29/85)
We used a Memorial Day picnic as an excuse for a scientifically controlled,
blind cola tasting. Zeke Haley and I put it together with suggestions for
experimental design from Bob Warren.
We had eleven subjects who each compared five unidentified colas against a
standard unidentified cola. Each of the five was rated with respect to
the standard as much better, better, the same, worse or much worse.
The votes were scored as +2, +1, 0, -1 and -2 respectively, and summed
for each of the 5 test colas. As a control, the standard cola was
also included as one of the test colas.
New Coke was used as the standard. The results were quite interesting:
Pepsi New Coke Old Coke Diet Pepsi Diet Coke
-5 +4 -10 -1 -2
We drew two general conclusions from this study. Old Coke was much less
preferred than New Coke. Only two people out of eleven rated it as better or
much better than New Coke, and one thought it was the same. Other than that,
people couldn't reliably tell the difference between the other colas. The
margin of taster error was indicated by the score for New Coke of +4. Pepsi
was just at the threshold of taster error with a score of -5, while the two
diet colas were clearly indistinguishable from the standard.
The bottom line is Old Coke loses big.
Note: Zeke and I both prefer different versions of Diet Coke, so we weren't
biased towards New or Old Coke, and we didn't vote.
--
Rich Goldschmidt {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax,allegra,seismo} !cbosgd!rbg
ARPA: cbosgd!rbg@seismo or cbosgd!rbg@ucbvaxepm0@bunny.UUCP (Erik Mintz) (05/31/85)
> We used a Memorial Day picnic as an excuse for a scientifically controlled, > blind cola tasting. > ... > We drew two general conclusions from this study. Old Coke was much less > preferred than New Coke. Only two people out of eleven rated it as better or > much better than New Coke, and one thought it was the same. > ... > The bottom line is Old Coke loses big. There is a chance of error in this kind of taste test. In the short run, and with a small taste, people often simply choose the sweeter drink. This leaves open the possibility that in the long (one or more cans) a person will tire of all that sweet, and prefer a different drink. I suspect that the way Pepsi ran the taste tests for their old ads was by giving out very small portions, thus taking advantage of their sweeter taste. By the way, I drink neither Coke (old or new) nor Pepsi, so I am not expressing an opinion on the results; just the procedure. -- Erik Mintz ARPA or CSnet : epm0%gte-labs.csnet@csnet-relay UUCP: ...harvard!bunny!epm0
jv@tut.UUCP (Jukka Vanhala) (06/07/85)
I just wanted to note that this Coke flaming is a nonissue here in Finland because we drink it only with vina. :-) jv -- ------------------------------------------| Jukka Vanhala | Tampere University of Technology, Finland | I know all about computers. Computer Systems Laboratory | I saw a TV program about them once. ASENTO (Ada Software ENgineering TOols) | jv@tut.UUCP, ...!mcvax!tut!jv |
rlr@avsdS.UUCP (Rhode L. Roberts) (06/11/85)
> I just wanted to note that this Coke flaming is a nonissue > here in Finland because we drink it only with vina. :-) Wow!! Zinfindel and Coke, man, that takes guts.