fruit extract question

Doing my first mead (actually my son did it, I held the funnel). Instead of real fruit or concentrate, I have a bottle of cherry extract that came with a 5 gallon beer recipe that we didn't use. How effective is the extract as oppose to real fruit or concentrate? Will it produce a stronger flavor? How is the taste, is it different from real fruit? Reading the threads, it seems you have to use a lot of fruit to get any kind of flavor.