It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a light beer.
Could you tell the difference?
In a recent report, the American Association of Wine Economists took a break from their sommelier studies and tapped the keg on light beer customer loyalty. The study sought to discern whether taste buds or branding “Buds” had a greater impact on consumer purchase behavior concerning light beer varieties.
Results from the study were illuminating. A group of drinkers were all administered a blind taste test, and they could not differentiate between various light lager brands. Of-age consumers can try this blind taste-test at home, though repeated re-testing may cause drinkers to fail to differentiate between their left and right hands.
This study was based on 1964 data in the same vein, in which six-packs were mixed and shipped to participants to glean general preferences for particular brands in a blind test. Similarly, the data found “virtually no preference” for any particular brand overall.
The verdict from these studies is conclusive: branding wins by a landslide, and leaves the taste in the dust. Consumers who enjoy light lagers are overwhelmingly loyal to the branding and packaging, while differences in flavor are few and subtle – certainly not strong enough to leave an impression.
For loyalty marketers, is this a truth worth chugging, or a message in a bottle, best lost at sea? Surely, few companies who truly value customer experience would be willing to sacrifice their unique product or service offerings, for it is a wide combination of factors that create the positive experiences at numerous touch points.
Yet, should marketers be disheartened by some light beer brands’ apparent failure to stand out at the single “touch” point their industry targets – the taste bud? Are they allowing consumers the experience of diving into malty depths, or is it all just foam?