Eye Tracking Testing for Pack Design Research

Test the Success of Existing, New or Concept Pack Design with Pinpoint Accuracy

Eye-tracking testing gives you the benefit of advanced technology so that you can ‘see’ what your consumers see.

It allows you to closely monitor visual attention and which elements of your product’s packaging attract your customers. This enables you to refine and enhance your pack design for maximum performance and high ROI.

Uncovering Customers’ Subconscious to Design the Perfect Packaging

“Recent research in the US shows 80% of the decisions made in today’s supermarkets are made in store, and 60% of purchases are made on impulse.”

Insight managers, product developers and marketing managers know all too well that emotion is linked to brand loyalty. But, which visual cues on your packaging are your customers most attracted to, and what feelings do they elicit?

Traditional survey methods such as straightforward questioning cannot answer all the questions that insight managers need to guide pack design. We help our customers to identify the subconscious emotional triggers of their consumers, and what influences their purchasing decisions.

Using eye-track testing, we are able to identify which elements of design draws a person’s eye. We can also see how long their eye stayed on specific details or if they revisited an element multiple times. All of this provides insight into what people are looking for, and how your pack design can be improved.

What does eye tracking testing look at?

Eye tracking is the only unobtrusive tool for measuring the overall performance of your pack design. It allows the measurement of visual attention as it objectively monitors where and what people look at.

Eye-track testing is used throughout the life of a product from strategy, concept design to final design validation.  Eye-track testing can reveal:

• What people look at on a pack
• Which visual elements attract attention?
• How long does the eye focus on specific elements of the package’s design?
• Are there elements of your packaging, which attract repeat views?
• Which design captures and hold the consumers’ attention
• Is your brand’s voice being accurately conveyed
• How your brand’s packaging compares with that of your competitors.

Eye tracking testing helps you to keep within your design budget

We understand that redesigning product packaging or launching a new product can be a very costly undertaking. Your package is the face of your product; it must immediately attract the consumer and compel them to buy the product.

Recent research in the US shows 80% of the decisions made in today’s supermarkets are made in store, and 60% of purchases are made on impulse.  By using eye-track testing, you know where your customers are looking and what to use to attract their attention.

Arguably one of the most significant benefits of eye-tracking is that it helps you to keep design costs low, and even more important yet, save on production costs. By testing the success of your pack design before you go to market, you guarantee high returns from the onset.

Case Study: See Eye Tracking Testing in Action

A small case study was conducted amongst 60 respondents in the Gauteng area. We used a convenience sample of respondents within a shopping centre (not recruited category users). Respondents were exposed to various packaging, namely All Gold, Heinz and Wellington’s tomato sauces.

Respondents were shown the packaging images on a computer screen and were exposed to each pack for 10 seconds. The eye tracking device recorded the respondent’s eye movement around each pack for the 10-second duration. Also, respondents were asked to give each pack a liking score out of 10, with 10 being most-liked and 1 indicating no favour.

Tip: These studies can be designed to best suit the set objectives; however we aimed to evaluate what consumers focus on in washing powder and tomato sauce.

Our Findings

Wellington’s

Liking score 6.75

The image of the tomatoes is a strong trigger and re-enforces that this is a tomato sauce. The brand name also receives high attention. The new recipe message in the middle of the pack should possibly be more closely aligned with “thicker with more tomatoes” as this emphasises and re-enforces the message of a new recipe.

Heinz

Liking score 5.80

The brand name and tomato drawing are the strongest triggers on this pack. Some attention is paid to the words “tomato ketchup”, and they are revisited often, possibly as it is not a commonly-used phrase. It is also interesting to note that those who notice the wording “world’s favourite” revisit it quite frequently as well.

All Gold

Liking score 7.98

The tomato and brand name are indistinguishable from one another; they are seen as one entity and, therefore, are the most potent trigger combined. Another strong visual element is the wording “the original” – consumers revisit this wording more than anything on the pack. This element strongly re-enforces the quality aspect for All Gold.

Our Observations

A good, wholesome tomato image triggers a positive response for the category and needs to be prominent and clearly identifiable. Additional quality descriptors also attract attention.