Have you ever gone to your favorite restaurant and instead of trying something new, ended up ordering the same dish again? I have more times than I can remember and there’s a reason for it: our brains are used to choosing familiarity over novelty because it brings us comfort and safety, it’s part of our human nature. Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman stated that 95% of buying decisions happen unconsciously, influenced not by logic but by emotions, memories, and instinctual shortcuts our brains use every day.
Business owners and marketing leaders often invest enormous amounts of time and money when creating their marketing strategies, to result in flashy campaigns that follow the latest trends and vanity KPIs, only to wonder why sales stall. What is the missing factor? Buyers Psychology.
A great example is the Pepsi vs. Coke’s story that proves that buying decisions go beyond just about taste or logic; they are deeply tied to our emotional brain, also known as the limbic system. In 1975, Pepsi launched The Pepsi Challenge, a blind taste test where most participants leaned toward Pepsi’s sweeter flavor. Convinced by this data, Coca-Cola made one of its biggest mistakes a decade later, introducing “New Coke” in 1985 to match Pepsi’s taste. Coca-Cola underestimated the emotional bond people had with the original drink, proving that taste alone doesn’t drive loyalty. (I talk more about this in The KPI Trap, where measuring the wrong indicators can cost companies millions.)
In 2004, neuroscientist Read Montague revisited the Pepsi Challenge, this time using MRI scans to track brain activity. When drinking Pepsi in blind tests, participants showed activation in the brain’s reward center because they were experiencing a flavor they liked. However, when they knew the brand name the preference shifted, having more preference for the Coke. Additionally, their brain activity moved to the limbic system, the part of the brain tied to memory and emotion. This revealed the strength of Coca-Cola’s emotional associations, participants were recalling feelings of happiness, comfort, and belonging tied to the brand. Consumers were choosing based on the emotions and memories Coca-Cola had consistently anchored in their minds, even without being aware of it.
This is a lesson for business leaders: this hidden layer of decision-making is crucial to gain trust and build customer loyalty, because trying to win customers on rational grounds is not enough. The reality is that emotional connection and brand experience are the main factors shaping how buyers perceive products and services. Keep in mind that most marketing strategies don’t fail because they lack creativity or investment; they fail because they overlook the way people actually make decisions.