INSEAD

Consumer behavior at the point of purchase is influenced by out-of-store memory-based factors (e.g., brand awareness and brand image) and by in-store attention-based factors (e.g., package design, shelf position, and number of facings). In today’s cluttered retail environments, creating memory-based consumer pull is not enough; marketers must also create “visual lift ” for their brands—that is, incremental consideration caused by in-store visual attention. The problem is that it is currently impossible to precisely measure visual lift. Surveys can easily be conducted to compare pre-store intentions and post-store choices but they do not measure attention. They cannot therefore tell whether ineffective in-store marketing was due to a poor attention-getting ability—“unseen and hence unsold”—or to a poor visual lift—“seen yet still unsold”. Eye-tracking studies have shown that eye-movements to brands displayed on a supermarket shelf are valid measures of visual attention and are generally correlated with brand consideration (Pieters and Warlop 1999; Russo and Leclerc 1994). However, they have not provided a method for separating the effects of attention and memory on consumer point-of-purchase decisions. Mor