TNS Magasin Combines Biosensory Techniques

Shopper behaviour consultancy TNS Magasin has combined EEG (electroencephalography) and eye tracking technologies to capture shoppers' emotional and cognitive responses at what it describes as 'an unprecedented level of detail'.

The technique joins EEG from neuroscience specialist Emsense with Magasin's own eye tracking technology. EEG measures the brain's electrical activity via electrodes placed on the scalp. This is combined with respiration, heart rate, temperature and head motion measurement to assess shoppers' responses.

TNS Magasin's eye tracking enables every eye fixation - defined as 3/25th of a second - of every shopper to be recorded and analysed. Instead of simply recording what was in front of the shopper, it measures what attracts each one, and which elements are being used at what stage in the decision-making process.

'The combination of these two powerful methodologies is fundamentally challenging many received ideas about in-store decision-making,' explains Siemon Scamell-Katz, Founder of TNS Magasin. 'At last we are able to gain insight into responses to the visual stimuli that the shopper actually looks at, as well as prefrontal cortex responses. This enables us to gauge the relative roles of emotion and cognition at each and every stage of the shopping journey to understand, literally, what is going on in shoppers' minds.'

TNS acquired retail and shopper insight consultancy ID Magasin in 2007, to accelerate implementation of its Retail and Shopper Insights business internationally.

Web site: www.tns-magasin.com .