Pepsi and UX?

I just read the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. I discovered how Malcolm Gladwell explained that understanding the experience of our users makes us think more clearly about our product and its position in competition with other products.

He presents a case about the “Pepsi Challenge” that took place in the 80s. The Pepsi Challenge is a market research method by placing two small glasses in front of a group of participants. The two small glasses were filled with Pepsi and Coca-cola but were not told which one was Pepsi and which one was cola. The results were very surprising, the participants preferred Pepsi to Cola. This led the Coke company to clean up, and they experimented to improve the taste to rival Pepsi. But it’s make matters worse, Cola sales fell. However, over time the Coke Company realized that there was something strange about the Pepsi Challenge. When participants drink pepsi or cola, they only drink small glasses, drink it while standing, and drink it in an unlikely place. In fact, people drink Pepsi or Cola at home when they are relaxing, when they are watching TV, and not just a small glass, they drink a can.

This has a lot to do with UX, when we want to test our products to consumers, they must be in a normal situation when they use our products.

Picture source: tirto.id