Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
they really think about products versus what they say about them. Eye tracking is another cutting-edge
type of physiological measurement. It involves recording the movements of a person’s eyes when they look
at some sort of stimulus, such as a banner ad or a Web page. The Walt Disney Company has a research
facility in Austin, Texas, that it uses to take physical measurements of viewers when they see Disney
programs and advertisements. The facility measures three types of responses: people’s heart rates, skin
changes, and eye movements (eye tracking). [5]
Figure 10.9
A woman shows off her headgear for an eye-tracking study. The gear’s not exactly a fashion statement but...
Source:http://www.jasonbabcock.com/eyetracking_hardware.html.
A strictly descriptive research design instrument—a survey, for example—can tell you how satisfied your
customers are. It can’t, however, tell you why. Nor can an eye-tracking study tell you why people’s eyes
tend to dwell on certain types of banner ads—only that they do. To answer “why” questions an exploratory
research design or causal research design is needed. [6]
Causal Research
Causal research design examines cause-and-effect relationships. Using a causal research design allows
researchers to answer “what if” types of questions. In other words, if a firm changes X (say, a product’s
price, design, placement, or advertising), what will happen to Y (say, sales or customer loyalty)? To
conduct causal research, the researcher designs an experiment that “controls,” or holds constant, all of a
product’s marketing elements except one. The one variable is changed, and the effect is then measured.