A couple of months ago, Jay Brooks analyzed news of a study that found that more than anything labels and reviews by “experts” affect what we like.

The plan is to scientifically look at a variety of factors that may influence a purchase decision and to what extent they do influence. In addition to the label itself, they’re also planning on looking at lighting, background music, other people, and the influence of so-called expert or snob opinions.

I know from my time in retail that people really do shop the ratings. I’ve watched people walk wine aisles with a Wine Spectator in hand looking for specific wines that received a rating high enough for them to buy. I’ve even heard such people insult live human beings trying to suggest trying a different wine that they liked, but which perhaps wasn’t rated in that issue or didn’t get a rating high enough. I certainly don’t think ratings are unimportant or irrelevant, but I do think that they can be relied upon much too heavily.

The study specifically talked about wine, but applies to most products, including beer. We have specific experience with that, since Ron admittedly passed up Flying Dog beers for a long time because of the labels.

Of course, as happens far too often, beer is used as an example of something consumers can just pick up without thinking about, because they’re all pretty much the same.

And, Prof. Heymann adds, [people agonizing over their wine purchase] is regrettable. ‘People pick up a beer without thinking about it. They should be able to pick up wine the same way.’

Okay…. Where to begin? First, that she believes that wine is the only consumer product “loaded with emotional and psychological baggage” or is loaded with the most seems almost delusional. Has she not been watching the evolution of advertising over the past century? Every single consumer good is tied to an emotional need, that’s what advertising does. Does she think people buy expensive, inefficient cars unemotionally with cool detachment? What does she think brand loyalty is, for chrissakes, if not an emotional response? An entire industry exists for the sole purpose of selling us emotions.

But, of course, that’s small potatoes compared to that second-last sentence. Let’s look at that one more time. “People pick up a beer without thinking about it.” Well, I guess Anheuser-Busch can dismantle their gargantuan advertising and marketing budgets and concentrate on making a better tasting beer. Is the good professor smoking crack? People pick up their beer of choice because of years of relentless marketing and advertising designed to get them to do just that. Hellooooo! That she honestly doesn’t appear to think people consciously — or even unconsciously — choose what beer they buy is positively baffling.

Of course, Jay is “preaching to the choir” here. We’re all very aware of the power of marketing when it comes to beer here in the United States.

I also try to not let labels affect my purchasing decisions, and try to form my own opinions about things, especially beer. We beer snobs geeks have a terrible tendency to go too far in the opposite direction, automatically rejecting anything by one of those industrial brewers. Don’t be a sheep! Think for yourself!

In any event, Jay’s piece is worth a read.

Do Labels Matter?