A CROSS CULTURAL COMPARISON OF VISUAL SCANN114G
PATTERNS
Background
For the past eighteen months. Psychology Group
have been researching ways
in which. the.. pr4oduct can be communicated in
the context of increasing
restrictions on advertising. In:,th:Ls context
point of sale has received
attention and a technique is in the process of
being developed which
allows the measurement of visual scanning
behaviour over a POS gantry.
This technique makes use of an eye-gaze monitor to
make the measurements
and infra-red technology and computorised
digitisation to analyse the
results. By examining the. routes of tracking over
the display the output
of the analysis provides a cumulated picture of
the visual hot spots on
the display. With this information it is possible
to better position own
brands or the gantry in order to receive the
maximum amount of visual
attention.
Since the technique is quite complex it is not
anticipated that operating
companies would conduct their own research in this
area. Rather, the
Measurements will be conducted predominately at
Charter Research Associates.
It is houed that the results from these ei e
Xp riments-c-onducted.in-house
will be put together to form a handbook'providing
guldelines on maximising
the potential of the POS display. However, before
doing this. it is
important that a clear picture is built up
concerning the variables that
may affect visual scanning behaviour e.g. size of.
POS display, number of
shelves on the unit, number and type of pricing
information. This
obviously leads on to the question as to what
extent cultural factors
have a role to play in influencing visual scanning
behaviour.
Objective
To compare the way, in which individuals from
Eastern and Western Cultures
visually scan a Point of Sale display.
Hypothesis
That differences in the predominant reading style
of Eastern and Western
cultures may influence visual scanning behaviour.
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U.K. SUBJECTS
(1)
U.K. GANTRY
U.K. PACKS
I
(6)
U.K. GANTRY
F.E. PACKS
(3)
F.E. GANTRY
F.E. PACKS
I
(7)
F.E. GANTRY
U.K. PACKS
F.E. SUBJECTS
(2) (4)
U.K. GANTRY F.E. GANTRY
U.K. PACKS F.E. PACKS
1 1
X F.E. GANTRY
U.K. PACKS
The experiment has been designed to answer two
questions and they are as
follows:
1. To what extent do culturally determined reading
styles influence
visual scanning behaviour?
A comparison between calls J and 2 in terms of
routes of tracking and
visual hot spots will provide some insight into
this problem. However,
the argument could be levelled that any observed
differences may be
due to the fact that the U.K. subjects are
familiar with this particular
set up whilst the F.E. subjects are not.
Consequently, cells 3 and 4
have been included in the design. If any
differences that are observed
as a result of comparing the findings relating to
cells 1 and 2 are
also apparent in the cells 3 and 4 comparison then
it can be concluded
that the differences are culturally determined
rather than influenced
by familiarity effects.
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2. Do the physical dimensions of the gantry unit
and pack layout
interact to affect visual scanning behaviour? If
so, is there a
differential effect related to culture?
It is hypothesised that the way in which
individuals visually scan a
display may be influenced by an interaction
between pack layout and
gantry dimensions. Dn the assumption that visual
scanning patterns
are to some extent culturally determined it is
important to know
whether factors such as the above differentially
affect visual scanning
behaviour according to the culture being tested.
For the research in
the Far Fast cell 5 has been included in the
design to answer this
question. It is intended that the pack layout in
this cell will
exactly model that on the U.K. gantry. Thus,
whilst the physical
dimensions of the gantry are the same as in Cell 4
the pack layout
has changed. On the other hand, whilst the pack
layout is the same
as in Cell 2 the gantry style has changed. In the
Far Fast the
research design is to some extent incomplete since
whilst it is
feasible to take U.K. packs over to Singapore to
be photographed it
is not practically possible to take a U.K. gantry
over. Cells 6 and
7 are included in the U.K. part of the research to
tackle the same
problem.
Method
The UK gantry to be used in the research measures
7ft 61ns by 3ft 61ns
and has 4 shelves.
So that is is possible to present the subjects
with a variety of stimulus
material, they are requested to look at (whilst
wearing eye-gaze monitoring
equipment) projected images of the gantry. 35mm
slides of the various
layouts are prepared before the experiment.
The basic layout of the packs has been chosen to
represent that found in
large supermarkets in the U.K. This layout tends
to be less complex than
those found in the average CIN. Several pack
facings of the same brand
are usually presented together using this model.
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So that the influence of extraneous variables can
be controlled in the
experiment the gantry is presented without any add
on POS material,
pricing stickers etc. The effect of these
variables will be evaluated in
a later stage of the U.K. research.
Task
In the research conducted to date subjects have
been presented with a
visual search task. This involves showing a series
of slides where the
target brand is embedded in the display. For each
slide the subject is
told what the target pack is and required to find
it. Once they have
found the pack they are immediately presented with
the next slide.
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BATCo document for Province of British Columbia 14
April 1999