Malcom Gladwell: Spaghetti Sauce

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html

Howard Moscowitz was asked by Pepsi to determine how much aspertane should be in Diet Pepsi, the criteria was between 8% and 12%.

Different mixtures of Diet Pepsi containging between 8% and 12% aspertane were created and sampled, the data came back showing "no correlation."

In the past people would split the difference 10%, but Howard questioned Pepsi's original questions. They were looking for the perfect Pepsi when they should have been looking for the perfect Pepsi's. He was looked at as crazy.

"To a worm in horseradish the world is horseradish"

Vlasic pickle hired him and "Zesty" pickles were born, Cambells Soup hired him to fix Prego which struggled versus Ragu. He made 45 different variations of sauce, and sampled individuals by giving them ten bowls of spaghetti sauce, individuals were asked to rank the sauce from 1 - 100.

Out of the 45 he clusted them around certain ideas: Plain, Spicy, and Extra Chunky. At the time Extra Chunky did not exhist but Howards research indicated 1/3 of Americans prefered the sauce to be extra chunky. In ten years Prego made 600 million dollars.

This idea launched differentiation amongst all food products.

1. The assumption was asking people what they want would lead to better products, but in all Prego's focus groups "extra chunky" was never mentioned once.
Coffee: Dark, rich, hearty, roast

2. Horizontal Segmentation - The story of "Grey Poupon" story: glass jar, doubled price, rolls royce commercial.

3. The Plutonic Dish - "The way food ought to be." People wanted what was culturally authentic. The search for universals vs. variability. (The cure for cancer or the cure for your cancer)

Coffee Example: Group think lowers means, embracing diversity leads to hapiness.