CONSUMER EYE-MOVEMENT PATTERNS ON YELLOW PAGES ADVERTISING

Process tracing data help researchers understand how yellow pages adve rtisement characteristics influence consumer information processing be havior. In a laboratory experiment eye movement data were collected wh ile consumers chose businesses from telephone directories. Consumers s can, listings in alphabetic order. Their scan is not exhaustive. As a result, some ads are never seen. Consumers noticed more than 93% of th e quarter-page display ads but only 26% of the plain listings. They pe rceived color ads before ads without color, noticed more color ads tha n noncolor ads, and viewed color ads 21% longer than equivalent ads wi thout color. Also, they viewed 42% more bold listings than plain listi ngs. Consumers spent 54% more time viewing ads for businesses they end ed up choosing, which demonstrates the importance of attention for sub sequent choice behavior.