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Making products seem less radical
That might be surprising, because neither vitamin-enriched nor green coffee sound particularly appealing. But when they are combined, the colour green helps people make sense of the vitamins.
Basically, people tell themselves that this is a different coffee subtype. It doesn’t replace or maybe even directly compare to regular coffee; it is a category of its own, related to regular coffee but also quite distinct. As a result, people felt less anxious about the new product.
We looked at other incongruent products, but my favourite study revisited the classic case of Crystal Pepsi.
To do so, we set up a taste-test booth at the entrance to a busy mall just after a very limited re-release of Crystal Pepsi (which, it turns out, almost no one knew about).
We told our taste testers that this was a new cola; we didn’t want any bias to be introduced by the Pepsi brand. And we examined what people thought about the regular cola (caramel-coloured Pepsi) versus the clear cola (Crystal Pepsi).
Consistent with Crystal Pepsi’s original market failure, people didn’t like the clear cola. But when we added an “enabler,” things changed. Specifically, when we enabled understanding of the clear colour by telling people this cola was made with natural spring water, they liked it a whole lot more.
Spring water a game-changer
In fact, in that experimental situation, they liked the clear cola as much as the regular one. Telling people that regular cola was made with natural spring water had no effect, but for the clear cola, adding that natural spring water detail made it easier for them to make sense of the colour.
Many new products have features that change the look and feel of a beloved product in ways that may appear extremely odd. As a result, these offerings often fail to find a foothold with consumers.
For example, Renova sells toilet paper in colours like black, brown and purple, which people tend to find unappealing. One of the largest milk producers in the United Kingdom recently announced that it is going to start making sparkling milk. Prior attempts at similar beverages have failed, as consumers tend to dislike carbonated milk.
Our findings reveal how minor design or promotional changes can significantly improve evaluations when it helps consumers make sense of otherwise unappealing innovations.
That’s not to say that we could turn Crystal Pepsi into a billion-dollar brand, but we have certainly found a way to make what seems like an extremely weird product much more attractive to consumers.
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Kyle Murray is Professor of Marketing, University of Alberta
Source: theconversation
