Blind scores alone would have picked the wrong energy drink; tasting order, a taste benchmark and a regional read found the right one
An energy-drink company had two formulations in a savoury regional flavour and wanted them tested blind against a popular, cheaper drink in the same flavour as the taste benchmark.
Every respondent tasted all three in rotated order. Monadic ratings, forced preference and a regional split were read together rather than one at a time.
The benchmark won every monadic rating, as cheaper familiar tastes often do. Forced choice told a different story: one formulation led clearly once the benchmark was set aside, and the regional split explained why the other had looked competitive. The client took one formulation national and kept the other as a possible southern variant.
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- The question
- Which of two candidate energy-drink formulations should launch?
- Approach
- Blind central location test, rotated order, against a cheaper non-energy benchmark in the same flavour; forced preference
- Where
- Four cities, India, 2026
De-identified. Names, places and distinguishing details are generalised.
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