All Brownies are Good, But are They All Equal

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All Brownies are Good, But are They All Equal?

• The Effect of Brand Name on Perception of Taste
• Shanna Vaughan
• Fort Lewis College, Durango Colorado.

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Key theories and previous work

• This research is important because consumers
  perceptions of quality affect their decision
  processes in purchasing goods.
• Previous research has found that our perceptions
  of quality and taste can be altered by brand.
• 1) Jacoby, Jacob, Olson, Jerry C., Haddock,
  Rafael A., 1971.
• 2) Bonham, Pamela Greenlee, Dana Herbert,
  Cheryl S., Hruidi, Lidi Kirby, Cheryl Perkins,
  Angela Salkind, Neil J., Wiflong, Roberta, 1995.
• 3) Yoo, Boonghee Donthu, Naveen Lee, Sungho,
  2000.
• 4) Morgenson, G,. 1991.

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Research Question and Hypothesis

• Will brands with greater brand equity be
  perceived as better tasting than a brand with
  lower equity?
• I think that subjects will prefer the taste of
  Ghirardelli brownies over Betty Crocker or Great
  Value brownies. I am also interested in the
  effects of gender on ranking.

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Research Design
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Independent Variables

• The variable being manipulated and having
  three levels was brownies. Ghirardelli brownies
  were operationally defined as the best name
  brand, Betty Crocker as the middle name brand,
  and Great Value was the lowest name brand.
  These distinctions were made based on price,
  reputation, and overall perceived quality. Also
  manipulated was subject gender.

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Dependent Variable Measurement
Instructions Below are three ranking scales to
rank the taste of each brownie you try. Please
eat the brownies in the order corresponding to
the color code shown below. Ghirardelli Brownies
will be in blue cupcake holders, Betty Crocker in
pink, and Great Value in yellow. Rate each
brownie for how it tastes, on a scale of 1-5, one
being not very tasty, 5 being very tasty.
Remember to drink water or milk between each
sample. Please do not change your rankings of
the brownies once you have moved on to the next
brownie. Bon Appetite!   Not very
tasty Very tasty 1 2 3 4 5   Not very
tasty Very tasty 1 2 3 4 5   Not very
tasty Very tasty 1 2 3 4 5   Have you ever
heard of Ghirardelli Chocolate products?   If so,
would you consider it a better brand than Betty
Crocker?   If you have one, what is your favorite
brand of brownie?    
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Mean Ratings and Standard Deviations
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Table of Mean Ratings
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Will brands with greater brand equity be
perceived as better tasting than a brand with
lower equity?

• Although there was a trend indicating that
  Ghirardelli brownies were perceived as tasting
  better, the effect was not statistically
  significant. Further, women provided higher
  overall ratings, and men were influenced by brand
  names more than women.

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Problems with Methodology

• In analyzing how many people had heard of
  Ghirardelli Brownies and questioning if they
  thought it was a better brand than Betty
  Crocker, I found that the results may have been
  confounded.
• Twelve people (20) had never heard of
  Ghirardelli brownies
• Twenty-four (40) did not consider Ghirardelli a
  better brand than Betty Crocker.
• It would have been helpful to state that ratings
  should be independent of price.

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Interesting trends

• Not one man liked Betty Crocker the best, while
  eight women did.
• Two men liked Great Value brand the best, not one
  woman did.
• Four men and seven women liked Ghirardelli the
  best.

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Conclusions

• Despite not finding a statistically significant
  effect, I feel that my findings did not disagree
  with previous studies, as a trend in the
  perceived direction was apparent.
• I do however, think that brand equity in
  decreasing, as many recognize that the generic
  brands are very comparable to the name brand,
  which could be a contributing effect to my
  results. This may be especially true for college
  students on a budget.

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Further Directions

• It might be interesting to have an unbiased group
  actually taste the different brands and rate them
  without knowing which brand was which to see if
  Ghriardelli brownies really were perceived to
  taste better based on composition.
• It would be interesting to do a similar test,
  comparing adults responses to young children's
  responses, who may or may not be more familiar
  with brand expectations, depending on the
  stimulus used.

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What they really said

• Quotes on would you consider it (Ghirardelli) a
  better brand than Betty Crocker?
• by far, much better, better consistency
  and flavor, not better but more expensive,
  about the same, quite bland actually, and I
  would have before this test

• Quotes on If you have one, what is you r
  favorite brand of brownie?
• all of em, cheapest, mas, hard to
  say, and home-made with love