Feature Retail technology
What were
you thinking?
Morag Cuddeford Jones discovers a new wave of technology that promises to deliver answers to
questions that retailers and their customers hadn't even considered asking yet
Consumers don't know
what they want, and even if
they did they couldn't tell
you. Just like witnesses in
court, shoppers can be
very unreliable in their
recollections. This is a
problem for global retailers
in a sector that succeeds
largely by understanding
its customers.
But now it seems that
the world of science and
technology is providing
answers that other researchers
can only dream
of. Bypassing the word of the consumer
altogether, these pioneers are going
direct to the source: their brain.
The eyes have it
Siemon Scamell-Katz, of retail consultancy
ID Magasin. claims that retailers
have been relying on flawed consumer
intelligence for too long. He explains:
"There's a huge amount of myth in
retail as to what does or doesn't work.
Most things consumers do in the store -
as in life - they aren't aware of. Asking
them how they have behaved results in
post-rationalisation and only a partial
view of events."
Illustrating the problem, he
explains that most shoppers believe
they travel every aisle of a supermarket
on the weekly shop. Simply filming
them reveals that fewer than two per
cent cover even half the store's area.
Scamell-Katz's system, called
EyeContact, is a small camera attached
to a shopper's head (see pictures, above
and right), which films what the wearer
can see in store. It also projects an
infra-red beam onto the retina to track
the wearer's eye movements. Scamell-
Katz claims this reveals where the
wearer is looking at all times, and what
in particular attracted their attention.
He believes that the system has
already revealed important information
that would have been impossible to
determine simply by questioning the
shopper Retailers place particular significance
on stocking brands at the customer's
eye level. For the brands whose
products are being stocked, being on
this shelf has been felt to provide competitive
advantage. EyeContact has
shown that the customer's eye level is
one or two shelves lower than previously
thought.
The UK's lottery operator, Camelot,
has already used this system to
improve sales. By studying the consumer's
buying behaviour from arrival
in the store to completing the sale,
Scamell-Katz's technology
was able to identify that
the presentation of its
various scratchcard and
lottery offerings in-store
was cluttered.
He adds: "Cards in convenience
stores were surrounded
by hundreds of
options, against a backdrop
of tobacco products.
The person at the head of
the queue felt under pressure
to make a decision."
Camelot used the findings
to develop a new
scratchcard dispenser that distinguished
it from other items on sale,
improving in-store presentation and
communication in 5,000 stores. Since
its use, Chris Connor, Camelot's customer
marketing controller claims:
"Sales increased four per cent in the
outlets which used the new design.
We've extended the concept across our
total estate."
Brain power
Some science-based marketing research
companies are trying to fmd out
quite literally more than words can say.
Using technology that looks more at
home on the set of a medical drama,
they're putting consumers through
Functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI), or hrain scanners to
see exactly how consumers' brains
respond to changes in the marketing
mix. The technique has been dubbed
' neuromarketing'.
Gemma Calvert, co-founder of
brand strategy febniary 2006
Retail technology Feature
"The question is, will this research be good at
gathering data or good at translating actionable
insights?" Siemon Scamell-Katz, ID Magasin
marketing consultancy Neurosense,
explains: "In much of daily life we
don't have conscious access to why we
made certain decisions. I could probably
conjecture but I can't really say
definitively why I did something, fMRl
gives us a way to break down the cognitive
process. Clearly this is of interest
to people selling products."
Calvert says that the technology,
which measures unconscious responses
to stimuli, is able to give a deeper
level of consumer understanding, provided
you ask the right questions. "It's
more advanced than lying the consumer
in a scanner and asking them
which jumper they prefer," she states.
For example. Calvert claims that
using the fMRl scanner showed a better
way of measuring advertising effectiveness.
"We discovered that consumers
found watching a TV ad more pleasurable
than listening to a radio ad.
However, the radio ad was more memorable,"
she adds.
In this case, it wasn't the consumer
explaining how they felt about items
and brands, but their impulsive brain
responses as measured by the scanner
that told the tale. PHD Media, the
Omnicom company that commissioned
the research, is using the data to help
plan campaigns more effectively.
But as the scanning equipment is
the size of a small van and needs to
remain in a medical facility, doesn't
this colour even the consumer's subconscious
responses? "Its application
isn't limited just because you can't take
it into a store to immerse the consumer
in the environment," Calvert insists. "A
lack of retail context doesn't seem to
affect the consumer's attitude."
In particular, she cites online shopping.
Because the consumer is using
their own money as they experience the
online store, Calvert believes it "focuses
the mind". In other cases, such as
researching visual stimuli, she claims
the projection of a virtual world on a
TV screen is enough to stimulate the
desired reaction.
Brand reinvention
Neuromarketing can be of particular
use in the risky process of reinventing
the brand. Calvert says: "Being able to
show categorically what a brain recognises
as belonging to the brand BMW,
for example, is valuable information.
The company can then begin to move
the brand in a certain direction, knowing
that it has gone too far when it ceases
to be recognisable to the consumer
as a BMW."
While the trend for this type of subconscious
marketing research, or
neuromarketing, is growing, it's not
without its detractors. Gary Ruskin,
executive director of Commercial
Alert, a self-appointed US commercial
watchdog, is so concerned about the
Orwellian overtones that he is urging
the US Senate to classify marketing as
an "unfair or deceptive art under the
Federal Trade Commission Act."
Neither ID Magasin's Scamell-Katz
nor Neurosense's Calvert claim the
technology is used for anything other
than giving greater depth to existing
levels of consumer understanding. But
is using such time-consuming and
expensive equipment like using a
sledgehammer to crack a nut?
Calvert believes that the worlds of
science and marketing are a natural fit.
She argues: "Why should marketing be
classified as non-scientific and fluffy
nonsense? Marketing requires justification
and validation. If we can fmd a
better framework that gives better
messages about what we expect from a
product, this forces manufacturers to
make products that deliver. Expectations
are met."
Scamell-Katz adds: "Every director's
office is full of unused research
reports. The fundamental question
is: will this research be good at gathering
data or good at translating actionable
insights? It's those actionable
insights that are the most important
thing." •
brand strategy february 2006 57
What were
you thinking?
Morag Cuddeford Jones discovers a new wave of technology that promises to deliver answers to
questions that retailers and their customers hadn't even considered asking yet
Consumers don't know
what they want, and even if
they did they couldn't tell
you. Just like witnesses in
court, shoppers can be
very unreliable in their
recollections. This is a
problem for global retailers
in a sector that succeeds
largely by understanding
its customers.
But now it seems that
the world of science and
technology is providing
answers that other researchers
can only dream
of. Bypassing the word of the consumer
altogether, these pioneers are going
direct to the source: their brain.
The eyes have it
Siemon Scamell-Katz, of retail consultancy
ID Magasin. claims that retailers
have been relying on flawed consumer
intelligence for too long. He explains:
"There's a huge amount of myth in
retail as to what does or doesn't work.
Most things consumers do in the store -
as in life - they aren't aware of. Asking
them how they have behaved results in
post-rationalisation and only a partial
view of events."
Illustrating the problem, he
explains that most shoppers believe
they travel every aisle of a supermarket
on the weekly shop. Simply filming
them reveals that fewer than two per
cent cover even half the store's area.
Scamell-Katz's system, called
EyeContact, is a small camera attached
to a shopper's head (see pictures, above
and right), which films what the wearer
can see in store. It also projects an
infra-red beam onto the retina to track
the wearer's eye movements. Scamell-
Katz claims this reveals where the
wearer is looking at all times, and what
in particular attracted their attention.
He believes that the system has
already revealed important information
that would have been impossible to
determine simply by questioning the
shopper Retailers place particular significance
on stocking brands at the customer's
eye level. For the brands whose
products are being stocked, being on
this shelf has been felt to provide competitive
advantage. EyeContact has
shown that the customer's eye level is
one or two shelves lower than previously
thought.
The UK's lottery operator, Camelot,
has already used this system to
improve sales. By studying the consumer's
buying behaviour from arrival
in the store to completing the sale,
Scamell-Katz's technology
was able to identify that
the presentation of its
various scratchcard and
lottery offerings in-store
was cluttered.
He adds: "Cards in convenience
stores were surrounded
by hundreds of
options, against a backdrop
of tobacco products.
The person at the head of
the queue felt under pressure
to make a decision."
Camelot used the findings
to develop a new
scratchcard dispenser that distinguished
it from other items on sale,
improving in-store presentation and
communication in 5,000 stores. Since
its use, Chris Connor, Camelot's customer
marketing controller claims:
"Sales increased four per cent in the
outlets which used the new design.
We've extended the concept across our
total estate."
Brain power
Some science-based marketing research
companies are trying to fmd out
quite literally more than words can say.
Using technology that looks more at
home on the set of a medical drama,
they're putting consumers through
Functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI), or hrain scanners to
see exactly how consumers' brains
respond to changes in the marketing
mix. The technique has been dubbed
' neuromarketing'.
Gemma Calvert, co-founder of
brand strategy febniary 2006
Retail technology Feature
"The question is, will this research be good at
gathering data or good at translating actionable
insights?" Siemon Scamell-Katz, ID Magasin
marketing consultancy Neurosense,
explains: "In much of daily life we
don't have conscious access to why we
made certain decisions. I could probably
conjecture but I can't really say
definitively why I did something, fMRl
gives us a way to break down the cognitive
process. Clearly this is of interest
to people selling products."
Calvert says that the technology,
which measures unconscious responses
to stimuli, is able to give a deeper
level of consumer understanding, provided
you ask the right questions. "It's
more advanced than lying the consumer
in a scanner and asking them
which jumper they prefer," she states.
For example. Calvert claims that
using the fMRl scanner showed a better
way of measuring advertising effectiveness.
"We discovered that consumers
found watching a TV ad more pleasurable
than listening to a radio ad.
However, the radio ad was more memorable,"
she adds.
In this case, it wasn't the consumer
explaining how they felt about items
and brands, but their impulsive brain
responses as measured by the scanner
that told the tale. PHD Media, the
Omnicom company that commissioned
the research, is using the data to help
plan campaigns more effectively.
But as the scanning equipment is
the size of a small van and needs to
remain in a medical facility, doesn't
this colour even the consumer's subconscious
responses? "Its application
isn't limited just because you can't take
it into a store to immerse the consumer
in the environment," Calvert insists. "A
lack of retail context doesn't seem to
affect the consumer's attitude."
In particular, she cites online shopping.
Because the consumer is using
their own money as they experience the
online store, Calvert believes it "focuses
the mind". In other cases, such as
researching visual stimuli, she claims
the projection of a virtual world on a
TV screen is enough to stimulate the
desired reaction.
Brand reinvention
Neuromarketing can be of particular
use in the risky process of reinventing
the brand. Calvert says: "Being able to
show categorically what a brain recognises
as belonging to the brand BMW,
for example, is valuable information.
The company can then begin to move
the brand in a certain direction, knowing
that it has gone too far when it ceases
to be recognisable to the consumer
as a BMW."
While the trend for this type of subconscious
marketing research, or
neuromarketing, is growing, it's not
without its detractors. Gary Ruskin,
executive director of Commercial
Alert, a self-appointed US commercial
watchdog, is so concerned about the
Orwellian overtones that he is urging
the US Senate to classify marketing as
an "unfair or deceptive art under the
Federal Trade Commission Act."
Neither ID Magasin's Scamell-Katz
nor Neurosense's Calvert claim the
technology is used for anything other
than giving greater depth to existing
levels of consumer understanding. But
is using such time-consuming and
expensive equipment like using a
sledgehammer to crack a nut?
Calvert believes that the worlds of
science and marketing are a natural fit.
She argues: "Why should marketing be
classified as non-scientific and fluffy
nonsense? Marketing requires justification
and validation. If we can fmd a
better framework that gives better
messages about what we expect from a
product, this forces manufacturers to
make products that deliver. Expectations
are met."
Scamell-Katz adds: "Every director's
office is full of unused research
reports. The fundamental question
is: will this research be good at gathering
data or good at translating actionable
insights? It's those actionable
insights that are the most important
thing." •
brand strategy february 2006 57
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