The Effect of Thinking Style on Promotional Message Effectiveness: An Experimental Study with Eye-Tracking

Purpose. Companies in the area of health products use innovative sales promotions for encouraging customers to purchase their products. Sales promotions are important devises that are used by companies and marketers to increase attention towards products and improve sales levels. Among different types of sales promotions, the two types of product discount and percentage discount are well-known and widely used. Although these two methods are commonly used, their effectiveness is obscure and marketers are not certain about the choice between them. Previous studies have shown that different types of promotions have different effects on consumer attention and behavior. In addition, individual differences can influence individuals’ attention when faced with these two types of promotion messages. According to dual process theories of thinking style, individuals often make decisions using two types of information processing systems, including rational and intuitive thinking. Based on previous studies, thinking style can influence information processing, decision making and behavior of consumers when faced with different types of promotions. From a theoretical perspective, the purpose of this study is to examine the simultaneous effect of rational thinking style and type of sales promotion message (product versus discount promotion) on visual attention among consumers. Our research hypothesis is that individuals who are low in rational thinking style pay more visual attention to product promotions compared to discount ones. From a practical perspective, the purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding regarding the effectiveness of different promotion messages. This can help in increasing the effectiveness of marketing activities by considering the role of individual differences such as thinking style. In this study, the effect of rational thinking style on the effectiveness of these two sales promotions is examined using an eye-tracking technique. Eye-tracking is an advanced method which is used to analyze the patterns of eye movements and to determine the area and duration of visit when an individual is encountered with a certain stimuli or type of information.

Method. The current research uses a cross-sectional lab experiment. It utilizes a 2x2 between-subject factorial design. The study has two independent variables, including promotion type (2 levels: product discount and percentage discount) and thinking style (2 levels: rational and intuitive). The study’s dependent variable is visual attention which is measured by five eye-tracking measures, including time to first fixation, fixation duration, fixation count, visit duration, and visit count. In total, 121 individuals participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. The study was conducted in the Business Research Lab at the Faculty of Management, the University of Tehran.

Findings. Research hypothesis was tested using multiple regression analysis on SPSS27 software. The results indicate that lower levels of rational thinking conduce to lower times to first fixation for product discounts compared to percentage discounts. Similar interaction effect is observed for visit duration as well. These results indicate that there is a significant interaction between the type of sales promotion and thinking style on several measures of visual attention.

Conclusion. The results of the study are aligned with the research hypothesis. They indicate that individuals who are low on rational thinking take a longer period of time to have their first fixation to discount promotions compared to product promotions. As the level of rational thinking increases this effect becomes mitigated. In addition, lower levels of rational thinking result in longer visit duration for product promotions compared to discount promotions. Higher levels of rationality result in lower differences in visual attention between the two types of sales promotions. These results have important implications for the marketers. They indicate that people are generally more inclined towards product discounts compared to percentage discounts.