Understanding eye-tracking

In the domain of behavioural science, eye-tracking technology provides a robust market research method to observe and analyse the subtle and subconscious behaviours of individual’s reading patterns. This technique requires the precise tracking and recording of an individual’s gaze patterns within a given visual environment. Companies that comprehensively understand how their brand communication is engaged with can use these insights to increase brand sentiment and reduce churn.

Average reading time has declined over the past 4 years

The average time people spend reading each email has steadily declined over the past four years. A recent study from Litmus found that in 2022 the average read time of an email was only 9.0 seconds, which is a 33% drop since 2018 when it was 13.4 seconds. With dwindling attention spans, understanding how individuals engage with content, particularly emails, is becoming crucial for businesses.

Additionally, in a time marked by high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, effectively communicating the value of your service to consumers is more important than ever. After your price communication is sent out, have you ever stopped to think about how it is read? How does a consumer engage with your communication from start to finish? It’s worth considering the actual time consumers spend reading, which key information captures their attention most, and the emotional impact of the communication. Furthermore, what are the potential repercussions of miscommunication? Could it lead to questions about your brand’s integrity or honesty, prompt additional queries for clarity, and what the associated cost might be to your business?

So, whether your role is in Pricing, Marketing, Brand Guardianship, Customer Service, or any business unit focused on consumer engagement and retention, eye-tracking provides a unique lens through which you can fully comprehend customer reactions to your digital price communication.

Areas of Interest:

One of the key elements of eye-tracking is that each stimulus can be split into “areas of interest” with some as small and specific as particular words or prices. Metrics are delivered for each area, allowing direct testing of how formatting can influence attention to specific sections, words, and prices. This allows hypotheses to be answered easily with confidence that the insights and following recommendations are robust.

Gaze plots:

When candidate’s eyes are being tracked their gaze can be plotted in real time over a recording of what they’re seeing. Gaze is subconscious, so these videos allow you to see what they see. Click here to see an example showing the engagement of a real person visiting an e-commerce website. These insights are beneficial to demonstrate how formatting changes alter how users interact with content.

Heatmaps:

Heatmaps are the optimum way to visualise the insights, as they illustrate the general reading patterns of each format across all the candidates. Heatmap images illustrate the synthesis from the granular area of interest to paints a clear picture of how formatting changes influence readers’ attention. An example heatmap for the same e-commerce website shown in the gaze plot can be seen on the right. We note the general attention patterns with the website illustrated with areas of most attention (red), areas of least attention (light green), and areas of no attention (no colour).

How can Pearson Ham Group help you?

Pearson Ham Group are specialists in pricing, this includes market research studies into price communications such as a price increase campaigns.

Our multi-method approach incorporates both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of message content and tone. We also go a step further by evaluating formatting options.

To do this, we run anonymous eye-tracking tests, in a laboratory environment. We use technology created by Tobii who are a global leader in this field for over 20 years. Using their screen-based tracking technology, our studies provide vital insights for marketing, communications, and pricing teams. Studies are designed collaboratively with our clients, bespoke to the hypotheses we are testing, drawing out evidence of how particular formats impact attention span and time spent on areas of interest.

Eye-tracking studies always yield significant learnings, not only as a market research tool but also in its practical applications for business strategy. Eye-tracking studies will be instrumental in shaping price increase campaigns, pricing strategies and promotion strategies. If you are looking to leverage similar insights, or to explore how this approach can be tailored to your specific needs, reach out to Guljeet, our Head of Insights: guljeetsahney@pearsonhamgroup.com or via this contact form.