Abstract
This study presents an analysis method for processes of reading printed advertisements in terms of acquired information quantity and strategy by use of eye tracking data. Acquired information quantity is evaluated on the basis of a combination of the following three indices : total reading duration, fixation duration, and number of fixations. Information acquisition strategy is elicited in the form of a reader's cognitive behaviour concerning how information about advertising claims was acquired. To extract these strategies, we categorize information in advertisements into 4 groups in terms of the claims involved as follows : Brand name, explanation of benefits, catch copy, and others. Each reader's strategy is classified into one of 11 categories (ex. wholistic monitoring strategy category, and so forth) on the basis of the most frequently observed adjacency pairs of information groups gazed at. A series of experiments was performed with thirteen female subjects in order to analyse the effects of television commercials (CM's) on the process of reading printed advertisements for the same product applying the proposed method. Self-reported data were also obtained to examine the relationship between the subject's reading process and her personal profile, e.g., interest in brands exposed in printed advertisements and daily attitudes towards advertising media. As one of the major results obtained by applying the proposed method, we could find evidence that the degree of matching between contents of printed advertisements and those of CM's may affect reading processes. We also reached another conclusion that subjects' daily attitudes towards advertising media may be one of the major factors for individual differences in reading processes. The results obtained seem to make a contribution to decision-making for effective media planning in practical advertising companies.
