The Unconscious Pepsi Challenge
We all would like it if there was one thing – one factor that if we increased it would directly result in sales. In reality brands are very complex and there are numerous different factors influencing sales and consumption. The important thing is that we identify all the core influences that can contribute towards increasing sales so that we can influence, increase and track them. Unconscious brand bias is one such key measurement.
Much has been discussed about the unconscious elements that may be impacting on sales. The conscious and unconscious mind of the consumer work together to make purchase decisions and therefore only measuring conscious factors can miss significant sales potential.
Take our recent survey on cola purchasing for example. We measured stated purchase quantities alongside stated brand preference, brand loyalty and brand satisfaction. We then also measured unconscious bias for or against Coca Cola and Pepsi using our ELIOT tool.
ELIOT measures response times to a set of words to identify unconscious automatic biases for or against brands. The principle is simple – things that are associated with each other by the consumer get activated together. For example most people associate the colour green with apples. So when we show them the colour green and then the word apple they recognise the word apple quicker than if they had not been shown the colour green first. Following the same principle consumers who unconsciously prefer Coca Cola will react quicker when seeing positive words in conjunction with Coca Cola than consumers who have a preference for another brand. The ELIOT score goes from -2 (people with bias against the brand) to +2 (people with strong bias for the brand) and scores of 0.5 or above are classified as medium to strong biases.
Unconscious preference, as measured by the Emotional Logic ELIOT test, has a strong correlation to actual sales. The participants in our survey who stated that Coca Cola was their preferred Cola brand bought on average 17 units per month (1). We also found that those within the sample who showed a medium to strong unconscious bias towards Coca Cola bought on average 17 units each month. Brand Loyalty, measured by asking consumers how happy they would feel switching from their favourite brand, was the strongest individual factor linked with sales – people who stated they really would not like to switch from Coca Cola bought on average 24 units per month. However, the highest average monthly purchase quantity was shown by consumers who stated Coca Cola as their favourite would be unwilling to switch and showed an unconscious bias for the brand – their purchase quantity is 27 which is 12.5% higher than people who just show brand loyalty alone.
When we look at brand preference and brand loyalty in conjunction with unconscious preference in the table above we can see the impact the ELIOT score has on sales. Unconscious preference clearly adds influence on sales over and above stated preference and brand loyalty measurements. We also repeated the test with brand satisfaction and the same is true there.
If we are serious about driving sales through brand development we need to measure and track unconscious preference over and above stated preference, brand loyalty and brand satisfaction measures. All those factors are linked to each other – yet they all measure slightly different aspects of the brand and only when we understand the combination of all elements can we strongly influence sales.
As we can see in the table above Coca Cola has an ELIOT score of 29 meaning in an average sample of cola drinkers 29% of people will show a strong to moderate bias towards Coca Cola, which is far above Pepsi's score of 3 and yet it still has potential for growth.
Emotional Logic can help you measure how strong the unconscious preference for your brand is and identify the factors that contribute to this unconscious bias. As we have seen above this could open up potential sales increases of up to 12.5% from loyal users. Surely this is worth investing in.
Notes: (1) We asked consumers how many of the different bottle and can sizes they bought per month and then converted them into 330ml ‘serving units’.