In their own efforts to build consensus, Aimee and her colleague Brady Brewer, a vice president of marketing, had discovered a solution. If partners knew VIA was an instant coffee prior to trying it, then they brought to the experience negative assumptions that tainted their perception. So we fooled them. At one meeting, every partner received two small paper cups and was told that he or she would be tasting two different brewed Starbucks coffees. As people sipped and discussed the flavors, no one questioned the samples’ authenticity.
