Do people actually know ANYthing about the stuff they buy?

Like, how good is our factual knowledge about the things we regularly use in our lives?

F’rinstance, do YOU even know the difference between “virgin” and “extra virgin” olive oil? (I don’t, and I wrote this post.)

UC Davis’ Olive Oil Center tackled this question with, well, a quiz. They asked 2,200 Americans some basic, general questions about olive oil. Like, is color the best indicator of quality? Is “pure olive oil” the best stuff? 

They found that most people’s objective olive oil knowledge was, well, rancid.

Only about 20% of people got any of the questions right. The rest either didn’t know or got it wrong. And we use a LOT of olive oil, often daily! Sheesh!

This is just one example of how little people objectively know about the stuff they use, even every day. Same with toilet paper. Eggs. Coffee. I could go on but I won’t — and partly because THERE’S NO DATA.

A team from the University of Jaén led by Elisa Garrido-Castro did a meta-analysis of academic literature on objective brand knowledge. And it turns out that we don’t know SQUAT about that either. We’ve mostly studied people’s perceptions, not their actual factual knowledge.

Well, in my own informal research, I’d say our basic product knowledge is crap.

Some lessons:

🔸  Assume people know objectively little-to-nothing about your product or brand.

🔸  Go ask some folks what they DO know. Both quant & qual are fine. Be prepared to be humbled.

🔸  If you want people to know something specific, be very very specific. And repeat it over. And over. And over. And over.