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Lucy Wood
Stats Final Project
Will people be more likely to like brand name food
products over generic brand food products?
Hypothesis: Brand will not have a major contributing
factor in the decision of which product students like better.

AP Statistics
Kiker Pd. 6
May 14, 2015

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Table of Contents
Title Page1
Table of Contents2
Introduction3
Definition of Population3
Sampling Procedure..3-4
Four Conceptual Themes5
Inference Test & Calculations5-6
Assumptions5-6
P-Value6
Interpretation of Test.6
Conclusion..6-7
Works Cited8
Appendix and Hand Work9

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The brand of a specific food item is usually taken into account when at the
grocery store. When students are given the choice between the same product, but
different brands, it is expected that they would choose the name brand product over the
generic brand. However, sometimes students dont care as much about brand as they do
the actual product. CBS News wrote an article about if there was actually a difference in
taste between name brand and generic brand products. Wang proceeds to add that, in his
opinion, it depends on the actual product. When buying something he doesnt really care
about, he is more likely to buy generic than name brand because it costs less. However, it
is interesting to see if name brand is really better (Wang). Some people will agree that
name brand has better quality; therefore, they are more likely to buy name brand.
However, some people disagree, and would much rather buy generic brand and get the
same quality product for a smaller price: a win-win. When conducting an experiment on
the difference between name brand and generic brand, it is expected that the distribution
of observed preferences between the two bags of potato chips is the same as the
distribution of expected preferences between the two bags of potato chips.
This sample of 52 Austin High School students was taken from all four grades in
the Academy for Global Studies. There was not a specific number from each grade, but
instead, the 52 students were randomly selected using a random number generator on the
calculator from all students in AGS as a whole. After the 52 students were selected, each
student was pulled out of either their 4th, 5th, 7th, or 8th period class and tested. Once they
were pulled out of class, two bags of potato chips, one Lays and one generic, were put in

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front of them. They were told to try a potato chip from each bag, and once they had done
this, to decide which one they liked better. In order to decide from which bag they would
eat a chip first, a coin was flipped: Lays landing heads up and the generic brand landing
tails up. However, the control group was that even though they were looking at a Lays
chips bag and a generic chips bag, both bags had Lays chips in them, which the student
didnt know. The generic chips were poured out of their original bag and put in a Ziploc
bag. A second Lays bag was then poured into the generic chips bag. This was done so
that the student being tested would solely base their decision off of brand name and
visualization. Once they tried a chip from both bags, their preference was recorded and
they were sent back to class. Some students were very confident in their decisions, while
some were pretty hesitant and didnt know which brand to choose. This may have been
due to the fact that they recognized that the chips tasted exactly the same and couldnt
decide on which brand was better.
After all of the results were recorded, the counts for each brand were known. The
observed amount of students that preferred Lays was 20 and the observed amount of
students who preferred the generic brand was 32. The expected counts for each brand was
26. Because this information was dealing with counts and because there was only a oneway table, the specific test used was a Chi-Square Goodness of Fit test. The null
hypothesis was that the distribution of observed preferences is the same as the
distribution of expected preferences meaning that brand doesnt have an impact on
perception while the alternative hypothesis was that the distribution of observed

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preferences in not the same as the distribution of expected preferences meaning that
brand does have effect on perception.
This topic was relevant and addressed the four main conceptual themes of
statistics. The first theme it addressed is exploring data. This was included when the
conclusion of the Chi Square Goodness of Fit Test was found and interpreted. The
interpretation was important in dealing with what the data actually means and how it is
useful in the lives of everyday people, or in this case, shoppers of potato chips. The next
conceptual theme that was included was sampling and experimentation. This was
included because in order to collect data, a representative sample of 52 AGS students was
used. This was an experiment because, in order to test whether brand matters, a treatment
was imposed. This treatment was that the students each tried a chip from both bags and
indicated which chip they liked better. The students were able to see the bags in order for
the researcher to conclude if the visual of the brands swayed the subjects opinions in any
way. The next conceptual theme that was addressed was anticipating patterns. Before the
data was collected, it was anticipated that the students tested would not be swayed by
seeing the brand name and that they would choose their favorite chip based on taste, not
brand. That being said, the amount of preferences for each brand was anticipated to be
even, at 26 for each. Lastly, the statistical inference was addressed. In order to come up
with the results found, a Chi Square Goodness of Fit test was used. The parameters used
were equal.
In order to do a Chi-Square Goodness of Fit test, it was important to check the
assumptions. The first assumption was that a simple random sample was used, which as

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stated before, was the case. The second condition was that counts were used. Because the
amount of people who prefer each chip bag was being measured, this was working with
counts. The last condition was that all expected counts are greater than or equal to 5
which is also satisfied because both expected counts are 26, which is larger than 5. After
the conditions were found to be completely satisfied, it was okay to move on to the actual
test. The equation for a Chi-Square Goodness of Fit test is the total sum of the observed
values minus the expected values all squared over the expected values. With the data
collected, the equation is = ((20-26)/26) + ((32-26)/26). The test statistic comes out to
equal 2.769. After the test statistic was found, the p-value must be calculated in order to
determine whether the claim is rejected or retained. The p-value was p( > 2.769),
which equals .0961.
Because the P-value was greater than the alpha value of .05, the researcher failed
to reject the claim that the distribution of observed preferences is the same as the
distribution of expected preferences. Thus, there isnt significant evidence to prove that
there is a huge difference in the amount of people that like each brand. That being said, it
can be noted that brand, whether it be a brand people do recognize and a brand that
people dont recognize, doesnt really matter in the aspect of whether brand name sways
peoples opinions of the chips. In fact, more people liked the generic brand than the name
brand bag, which wasnt really expected. Overall it can be concluded that while it may
seem that brand has a swaying opinion over people, it generally does come down to the
actual taste and preference of the individual when deciding which brand is liked better.

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If this experiment was run again, there are a few issues that could be improved.
The first being that students would be asked to explain why they chose the chip that they
chose. This would help the researcher to better understand the reasons as to why they
liked the specific chip better instead of wondering whether it had to do with taste or with
brand name. Another thing that would be changed is that the generic brand bag chosen
would look significantly different than the Lays chip bag. The generic chip bag was very
similar visually to the Lays chip bag, so it wasnt as deceiving as it could have been.
This might change the opinions of students, making the results significant. Overall, this
experiment helped the researcher to discover that brand name doesnt have a huge impact
on a majority of the school. Many students were more willing to choose which brand they
liked better based on taste, and not just what they know. This being said, students are
more willing to take risks and are more passionate about their opinions. Brand name
doesnt matter to students; what really matters is the actual product.

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Works Cited
Wang, Jim. "Generic vs. Brand Name: Is There Really a Difference?" CBSNews. CBS
Interactive, 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

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Appendix A: Student Signatures and Preference (L=Lays, O=Generic)

Calculations:

Website Link:
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