The ‘Coca-Cola Syndrome’ is a concept we came up with while observing people’s behavior. One of the biggest obstacles in doing consumer research, is the gap between what your costumers say they do and how they really behave. A proper field observation should tell you the real story.
Take, for example, junk food. Parents would argue against buying junk food. Some years ago, we were doing field ethnography on a soft drink. While I was observing a family eating dinner, suddenly, one of the kids stood up, and went to the kitchen with a cup. A moment later, another kid went to the same place with his cup. It turned out, the family put only healthy food on the table and the not so healthy stuff in the kitchen. The kids went to the kitchen every time they wanted Coca-Cola.
The ’Coca-Cola Syndrome’ works the same way with technology. When it comes to entertainment for example. Parents distinguish between good electronic devices, and ‘junk’ gadgets for entertaining their family. Occasionally, kids would take their parent’s mobile phone and search for that hidden folder with that game they like. Parents would prefer to buy specific smart gadgets to properly entertain their kids.
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