How do you grow your retail brand in today's cluttered stores?
That’s the million-dollar question – and there is a simple, effective method: grab the shopper’s attention before they know what’s happening. It’s about neuroscience, and how motion affects the brain.
Major retail brands have started to leverage basic human behavior, turning science into sales. Or, we might say, motion into money.
So how does this work?
Our brains react to motion before we do
Each second, our eyes pick up about 10 million bits of information from our surroundings. Our brain then filters out what we need to be aware of, using less than 100 bits (the exact number varies among scientists) to create our conscious visual impressions.
So there’s an enormous flow of visual information that we are not aware of. But here’s the thing: the human brain still processes it and reacts to it. It uses something called preattentive processing to extract relevant information from the environment before we direct our conscious attention toward it. And nothing captures our attention and influences our perception as motion does.
Our visual system is highly sensitive to motion and can detect the most subtle movements. When something moves in our field of vision, a specialized neural pathway called the magnocellular pathway is engaged. It rapidly processes low-resolution, coarse information about the motion, such as the direction and speed, enabling us to react quickly to potential threats or salient stimuli. And it happens before we are conscious of the moving object.
We are survival machines, inherently hardwired to detect anything that moves. As far as the brain is concerned, it could be a mountain lion behind the bushes. We simply can’t not look.
Preattentive processing in the store
Now let’s look at shopping. About 70-80% of the purchasing decisions are made in the store. And the first 4-7 seconds facing the lined-up products is when we decide what to focus on - the moment of truth.
Moving objects stand out from static surroundings and inevitably attract our visual focus. This is why displays in motion dramatically increase the likelihood of shoppers noticing and engaging with a specific message and product.
There’s hardcore scientific research behind it.
For instance, scientists Lee and Park exposed participants in a study to static and dynamic displays featuring various products. Using eye-tracking, they showed that displays in motion captured more visual attention compared to static displays. Participants looked at them longer and fixated on the moving elements within the displays. Also, they rated the products showcased in these displays as more attractive and expressed higher purchase intentions.[i]
A similar study by Verleye and Van Kerckhove revealed that dynamic signs, especially signs in motion, attracted higher visual attention compared to static signs. The participants also engaged in the products more and were more likely to buy them.[ii]
Premium locations - no longer needed
After 25 years in retail, I’ve never seen a more effective way to increase sales than Motion Display signage (possibly with the exception of a person handing out taste samples). Of course, as always, the result also depends on having the right message, the right timing, and the right customers in the shop.
In a case study, Hidden Valley Ranch increased unit sales by 66% in Walmart Super Center stores with Motion Display compared to stores with printed signs. In another study, Motion Display reduced the time to notice a coupon from an average of 12.5 seconds to 1.6 seconds. That´s 8 times faster.
Another noteworthy business study: one of the largest adult beverage brands in the world made a remarkable discovery. They found that the sales of products placed in regular locations and marketed with Motion Display signs were comparable to the sales the same products when placed in premium locations. Conclusion: products in standard shelf positions sold equally as in feature locations like an “end cap” or in the “action alley.”
Which translates into an extremely high ROI.
So, science and business cases align: displays in motion have a significant impact on consumer attention, product evaluation, and purchase behavior.
If you’d like to discuss how this could grow your brand, reach out to me at jakob.nilsson@motiondisplay.com.
Jakob Nilsson
Executive Vice President
Sources
[i] Lee, S., & Park, S. (2017). The Effects of Motion Displays on Consumer Attention and Product Evaluation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 39, 234-240.
[ii] Verleye, K., & Van Kerckhove, A. (2014). The Impact of Dynamic Signs on Visual Attention and Consumer Behavior. Journal of Business Research, 67(12), 2528-2535.