Summary
The aim of this research is to analyse consumer behaviour when looking at print advertisements. The research is based on an article by Rayner, Miller and Rotello (2008) proposing that a foreknown goal of a viewer when looking at an advertisement influences where the viewer’s gaze is directed first. Therefore, the hypothesis for this paper is that when viewers are presented with a product before presenting them with a print advertisement, their focus is directed at the same product on the advertisement instantly, whereas this might not be the case for viewers who are only presented with the print advertisement. The eye-tracking method was used for tracking the gaze of a sample consisting of 13 people, divided into two groups. A print advertisement was shown to the first group, and a product picture as well as a print advertisement was shown to the second group. Using the data gathered from the gaze plots of the two groups, an analysis was made and the results of the groups were compared. The results of the study confirm the hypothesis and show that people who are presented with a product before, are more likely to focus on it when seeing it on a print advertisement. This knowledge can be used in the industry for improving advertising campaigns.
This study used eye tracking method in order to investigate how viewers see and analyse products on fashion advertisements. Eye tracking is a computer based tool for observing and following a person’s eye movements. The eye-tracking software tracks and records where a person is looking as well as what things are displayed on the screen at the same time. An empirical data, fixation and gaze pattern, show how participants were looking at three chosen fashion advertisements. Using the fixation data, a gaze plot was generated in order to see the trail of person’s gaze and demonstrate the elements which catch person’s attention.
Eye Tracking Methodology
The study was conducted at the Retail Laboratory within a half hour time period on the 5th of October 2016. The sample included 13 fashion management master students from The Swedish School of Textiles, divided into two groups. Both groups saw the same three advertisements from the three chosen fashion brands which were Bvlgari and Zimmermann and Kenzo. The first group of six persons saw just three advertisements each for 5 seconds. The second group of seven persons saw each of three advertisements for 5 seconds as well as a close-up picture of a product for 3 seconds before each advertisement. The close-up pictures presented one product that was advertised on following advertisement. The chosen products were earrings from Bvlgari, a dress from Zimmermann and high heels from Kenzo.
When conducting an eye tracking test, people sat in front of a computer with eye-tracking device: an eye tracking sensor and web camera. The photo of test environment is presented on the appendix 7. Eye-tracking tests were performed and data analysed by using Tobii Pro software. The eye-tracking test started with a calibration where people were asked to follow a movement of the red dot on the screen. The calibration was needed in order to make sure that the eye tracking sensor was recording all of the participants’ eye movements. After the calibration, persons read a given assignment from the screen and were asked to press space button to perform the test. The participants were informed to look at the screen the whole time in order to get valid eye-tracking data. The eye-tracking test took approximately two minutes from each participant.
Result
The results of the eye tracking experiment show differences in attention between the two sample groups. The first group, to whom only an advertisement was shown, had more spreaded gaze across the shown picture. The second group participant’s attention, who first saw a picture of advertised item and then the advertisement, had more concentrated attention. Also, another observation derived from the gaze plot’s results, is that most of the participants from both groups started looking the presented ad from the center.
The analysis of the findings acknowledge the results of Rayner, Miller and Rotello (2008) who claimed that viewers with a foreknown goal look at the advertisement with a more concentrated attention, while the participants, who were only shown the advertisement and not the product picture, had a more spreaded gaze across the photo. Also, the results confirm the findings of previous research, that most viewers from both groups directed their gaze in the center of the advertisement when first presented the photo.
