Why are THEY so popular, anyway?

Have you ever looked around at your competitors and thought, “I just don’t get it. Their products are objectively inferior to our products. But they’re so popular! They have this huge fan base. Why? And how can I get those fans to get interested in my superior products?”

If you look at my LinkedIn profile, it opens up with the stories of three blind tests that explain exactly why:

• In the UK, Heinz baked beans are really popular. One of its competitors wanted to find out why. They ran blind taste tests—and discovered that two thirds of customers preferred the taste of the competitor’s beans to Heinz’s. But when they ran tests where the brands were revealed - customers preferred the Heinz beans!
• In 2004, Baylor College of Medicine monitored subjects’ brains via MRI while they tasted Coke and Pepsi. When the subjects didn’t know what brand they were drinking, the part of their brain involved with preference judgment remained inactive, while the part associated with reward lit up. And it lit up more when they drank Pepsi than when they drank Coke. Meaning - their taste buds enjoyed the Pepsi more. But when subjects were told they were drinking Coke & Pepsi, the preference judgment region of their brain became active and lit up by Coke, overriding the reward center’s taste preference.
• In several studies, subjects were given two bottles of wine to taste - a $10 bottle and a $90 bottle. When asked which they preferred - and which one was more expensive bottle - only the most sophisticated wine connoisseurs guessed right. But when they knew which bottle was more expensive, all subjects consistently said they preferred the $90 bottle!

It’s all about branding. The stories we internalize about products have such a powerful impact on our brains, they override a lot of other factors. As I write in my profile, one of the most important things we humans crave isn’t great taste or quality. What do we desire, deep down? Connection. Understanding. Belonging.

So if a brand really gets me, if they make me feel like I’m part of a great group, if they make me feel understood - I will like them and their stuff better, even if objectively it may not be better.

Of course, if a product is really bad, even if you tell a fabulous story that initially attracts people, they will soon catch on and your product will fail.

But that's not the case here. You KNOW your product is good.

And maybe you find yourself filled with resentment at subpar competitors who outstrip you in popularity no matter how hard you advertise.

If that’s the case - it might be the time to think about the story your brand is sharing with the world. How can you make potential customers connect with your brand on a deeper level, beyond the value of the product?

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