Sip Test vs a CLT (central location test)

In today's The Mountain Press there is an article about the Tennessee Shindig and their hiring a producer to create a new show. They say they are told by the visitors that they have the best talent in the area so they have decided to build on that. Have you been to the Tennessee Shindig? If so do you think they have better talent than the other shows? For a show that has changed format almost every year it seems they do not fully understand what they want to do with all that "talent." I remembered Al's pride that the GSMCOC visitors are expressing fact when they compliment him and GSMCOC. Delusional may fit us too.

In his book "Blink: The power of thinking without thinking" Malcolm Gladwell has an account of New Coke. It provides insight into how the best and brightest minds with the best research and fact based analysis can often bamboozle themselves into a most disastrous course of action.

Remember the history? - The Pepsi Challenge, Pepsi tastes better, Coke responds with New Coke and then kaboom.

• Pepsi gaining market share
• The Pepsi Challenge - the majority of tasters preferred Pepsi
• Additional market research shows a preference for Pepsi - tastes must have changed
• New Coke under development
• New Coke - sweeter and more like Pepsi starts to perform better in taste tests
• Launch New Coke
• Major crisis launches the return of Classic Coke

The story is a good illustration of how complicated it is to find out what people really think.

Gladwell's insights:

• Taste tests don't tell the real story - there is always a bias for sweetness in a sip. (People knew that.)
• Drinking a whole bottle or can is a more accurate comparison - sweetness can get overpowering. (People knew that as well.)
• Home use tests over time will give you better information. (Most people knew that.)
• The entire principle of a blind taste test was ridiculous - in the real world no one drinks Coca-Cola blind!
• Pepsi's success in the blind taste tests never translated to much in the real world.
• The error was in attributing the loss of market share to the product, as opposed to the good things Pepsi was doing with branding.
• All of the unconscious associations and emotions we have of the brand, the image and the packaging were lost to "the guys in white lab coats."

Different does not mean better though individuals may think it is i.e. a sip versus drinking a whole bottle; listening to one or two sermons versus a steady diet of self promotion. I heard some comments from visitors that Al is telling more stories than before. GSMCOC is no different than any non-growing congregation in that refusing to think permits us to convince ourselves everything is going well. Look at what happened to Coke when they were wrong.