| | Category | BE | L04 | Are Brands Worth the Bucks? |
| | Abstract | The goal of this experiment is to determine the effect of brand name |
| | recognition on the perception of taste. To conduct this experiment, |
| | subjects taste a brand name product, and then taste its Meijer brand |
| | equivalent. Subjects will be told to indicate which product they prefer. |
| | Each subject will taste five different sets of products: rice cereal, wafer |
| | cookies, crackers, potato chips, and bottled water. Before participation, |
| | each subject will complete a consent form and questionnaire. The |
| | questionnaire asks four questions. The questions relate to gender, age, |
| | time spent watching television, and experience grocery shopping. |
| | Three versions of the experiment will be given: Test A, Test B, and Test |
| | C. Each of the 150 subjects will participate in one version of the test. By |
| | this plan, there will be fifty participants for each test. Test A is the control |
| | group for this experiment. In this version, participants will simply taste |
| | each product, without knowledge of whether the products are or aren’t |
| | brand names. In this version, I intend to find the general opinion of taste |
| | when it cannot be influenced by brand name recognition. In Test B, the |
| | containers for each product will be set up next to each product. In this |
| | version of the test, subjects will know whether they taste a brand name |
| | product or a Meijer product. In Test B, I will compare the results to those |
| | for Test A, with the intent to determine the effect of brand name |
| | recognition on the perception of taste. In Test C, containers will be next to |
| | each product, but with each container set up by the wrong product. For |
| | example, a box of Nilla Wafers will be set up next to the Meijer brand |
| | samples, and the Meijer box will be set up next to the Nilla samples. In this |
| | test, I intend to find out if the recognition of a brand name product will lead |
| | subjects to prefer what is actually a generic product. |
| | Experimentation will be conducted at the Northville Parks and Recreation |
| | building and at the Livonia YMCA. |
| | Bibliography | "Caffeine In Colas: "The Real Thing" Isn't The Taste." Science Daily. 16 |
| | Aug. 2000. 23 Nov. 2008 |
| | <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/08/000816073153.htm>."Stu |
| | dy: Food in McDonald's wrapper tastes better to kids." 6 Aug. 2007. CNN. |
| | 23 Nov. 2008 |
| | <http://www.cnn.com/2007/health/diet.fitness/08/06/mcdonalds.preschool |
| | ers.ap/index.html>. |