Login 

• Research Methods
• Research Technologies
• Online Sample Sources

Socratic ProductExhibitor^SM

Description: The Socratic ProductExhibitor^SM provides an excellent way of delivering a product demonstration via the Web with the most detailed information possible, yet without overloading the respondent with minutia. This tool allows the respondent to study aspects of the design, packaging, text, and other elements used to communicate the concept or actual product attributes.

Characteristics: The ProductExhibitor provides a platform for scrutiny of a product or package in a standard viewing environment. Rotate, zoom, move and re-position are standard navigation tools built into the tool. Glossary entries, pricing, and other information can be applied to programmable hot buttons. The tool tracks all movements, time spend in examination and detects whether "additional information" is accessed or not. The ProductExhibitor, like all Socratic WebComm tools, can be fully integrated within our active survey environment. Following exposure and study, standard ratings and measurements can be captured using a survey process.

Output: The output from the ProductExhibitor is generally related to the quantitative data captured in the survey following the exhibition. These data may range from attribute communication ratings, purchase intent, preference, likeability, etc. to open-ended statements about the concept in general. Behavioral data (e.g. time examining the product, whether text was zoomed in on, whether the glossary was accessed, etc.) can be used as co-variants in the analysis of data (i.e. "Did those who read the text provide higher ratings?" etc.)

Like the name suggests, the Socratic ProductExhibitor^SM is a standard interface for displaying and demonstrating product characteristics. Just like in the real world where display items are put out for customers to examine, the ProductExhibitor allows participants to take a closer look, look at the product from various angles, get more information on specific features and spend time becoming more familiar with a product before making purchase decisions.

In the research design application for this technique, we can use the ProductExhibitor in several ways. First, we can use this to give respondents more in-depth exposure to design and feature elements prior to asking them about preferences or comparisons to other, competitive items. Studies involving this type of product demonstration show that findings from product ratings and price-feature tradeoff exercises are more like results from tests where respondents were actually able to view a real product, than results from tests where the stimulus was a static picture or text description.

Secondly, we can use the various time and interaction variable captured during the test to act as a surrogate for interest. In specific, there is a positive correlation between the time people spend looking at a virtual product demonstration and their eventual purchase interest. Similar findings have been noted when comparing the proportions of groups that zoom, rotate or engage feature explanations or animations. Sub-groups of people, e.g., men, women, age, etc, who study the products in greater depth tend to express more interest in the category being studied.