The eye tracker is using new technology to help discern exactly what consumers track and then respond to with an instore package. This brings in focus groups of consumers to judge the effectiveness of new packages. Those consumers sit in front of a regular computer monitor that has cameras in the screen itself and records movement of the eyes and pupils. The moving camera captures eye movements at different angles, recording 50 data points a second. Compared to other eye tracking devices that use headbands worn by consumers to depict response, the computercontrolled devices record a fixed dimension in a single frame of reference for greater accuracy. The market assumes consumers give 100 percent attention to a package on a shelf, but assuming that all consumers have 10 to 12 seconds to look at all packages on a shelf, they must form retention and comprehension very quickly. Or else they won&rsquot get it at all. The allure is the data&rsquos accuracy and ability to show a business what consumers engage in and what they are more apt to walk away from, while focus group studies can offer similar help, there is sometimes a disconnect between what consumers say and what actually stimulates their senses. And by fixing on a single eye movement, the cameras can draw pictures of eye response to form hard quantitative data. The company is using the technology both for pharmaceutical packaging, easing concerns by the u.s. Food & drug administration fda that consumers are not picking up the medicine they need on the shelves, and for new consumer package designs where comparisons must be made.
