Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how analysing sales flyers with a combination of eye tracking, measurement of emotions, interview and content analysis can give an in-depth understanding on how different design aspects influence sales flyers’ effectiveness as a communication tool. The paper shows the relationship between different sales flyer design principles and a person’s preference towards it, as well as the intent to read it.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper chose for pilot study using eye tracking and emotions measurement to analyse retail sales flyers. In addition, interviews and content analysis were conducted to fully understand which aspects of sales flyer design influenced consumers.
Findings
The paper’s main findings are that sales flyers that evoke more positive emotions are prone to be chosen, and the attention and the view time of content pages is related to the number of elements on the page, page coherence and the location of the offers.
Research limitations/implications
This research uses eye tracking were sales flyers are shown on screen, which is not a natural way to read sales flyers. Future research should aim to test this methodology and prepositions in the natural environment.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for designing better sales flyers.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, sales flyers have never been studied with a research design combining eye tracking, measurement of emotions, interview, content analysis and preferences.
Purpose
This paper aims to test the similarity of the results of on-screen eye tracking compared to mobile eye tracking in the context of first fixation location on stimuli.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies were conducted altogether with 117 participants, where the authors compared both methods: stationary eye tracking (Tobii Pro X2-60) and mobile eye tracking (Tobii Pro Glasses 2).
Findings
The studies revealed that the reported average first fixation locations from stationary and mobile eye tracking are different. Stationary eye tracking is more affected by a centre fixation bias. Based on the research, it can be concluded that stationary eye tracking is not always suitable for studying consumer perception and behaviour because of the centre viewing bias.
Research limitations/implications
When interpreting the results, researchers should take into account that stationary eye tracking results are affected by a centre fixation bias. Previous stationary eye tracking research should be interpreted with the centre fixation bias in mind. Some of this previous work should be retested using mobile eye tracking. If possible small-scale pilot studies should be included in papers to show that the more appropriate method, less affected by attention biases, was chosen.
Practical implications
Managers should trust research where the ability of package design to attract attention on a shelf is tested using mobile eye tracking. The authors suggest using mobile eye tracking to optimise store shelf planograms, point-of-purchase materials, and shelf layouts. In package design, interpretations of research using stationary eye tracking should consider its centre fixation bias. Managers should also be cautious when interpreting previous stationary eye tracking research (both applied and scientific), knowing that stationary eye tracking is more prone to a centre fixation bias.
Originality/value
While eye tracking research has become more and more popular as a marketing research method, the limitations of the method have not been fully understood by the field. This paper shows that the chosen eye tracking method can influence the results. No such comparative paper about mobile and stationary eye tracking research has been done in the marketing field.
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