System and method for measuring reactions to product packaging, advertising, or product features over a computer-based network

• US 7,912,898 B2
• Filed: 10/15/2007
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Consumer LLC (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: Harris Interactive Incorporated (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Inventors: DiGregorio, Joseph M., Gold, Peter, Thomas, Randall K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shingles; Kristie D
• Application Number:
  US11/974,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20080040205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,254 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys

Abstract

A system and method is provided for enabling respondents at their computer systems to connect via a browser with a server computer over a network, such as the Internet, and receive an initial set of survey questions on one or more pages during which primary images are downloaded into the browser'"'"'s cache but are not presented to each respondent as they are each displayed into a small (e.g. 1 by 1) pixel area on display of the respondent'"'"'s computer system and thus are not detectable by respondents. After receiving answers to such questions for each of the respondents, the server computer directs the browser of each respondent computer with at least one survey question in which the primary image is displayed from the browser'"'"'s cache for a brief interval of time to the respondent, and the respondent answers the question with respect to the primary image. Different survey questions may be presented to the respondent having different timed displayed primary images. The results of the survey questions and the answers after each timed displayed primary image are registered at the server computer. The primary images may be images of store shelves of different product packages, advertisements, or product having different features, in which the questions relate to recall or findability of a target element, such as a product package, a feature of an advertisement, or a product feature, respectively, in the primary image.

Claims

1. A system for measuring reactions to packaging, advertising, and product configuration at computer systems over a network, said system comprising:

at least one first computer system connected to said network;

at least one second computer system capable of connecting to said first computer system through said network in which said first computer system has a browser for viewing pages from said second computer system;

said second computer system sending to said first computer system a set of questions to be displayed by the browser on one or more pages having one or more images downloaded from said second computer system for storage by the browser in memory of said first computer system which are displayed into pixel areas on display of the first computer system which avoids user detection or avoid user discernment of the downloaded images, and said second computer system receives answers from said questions from said first computer system; and

said second computer system instructs the browser of said first computer system to display for user viewing at least one of said downloaded images from the memory of the first computer system for a pre-determined short interval of time, and to display at least one question regarding said image displayed for said pre-determined short interval of time, and said second computer system receives the answer from said question from said first computer system, wherein a plurality of said images are downloaded from said first computer to said second computer, and a common set of said plurality of images are downloaded in each of a plurality of successive ones of said pages in said pixel areas.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein said image displayed for said short interval of time has a plurality of elements and said question regarding said displayed image enables selection of one or more of said elements recalled from the displayed image.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein said image displayed for said short interval of time has a plurality of elements and said question regarding said displayed image enables selection of the location of a target element in the displayed image.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein said image displayed for said short interval of time represents product packages, an advertisement, or a product.

5. The system according to claim 1 wherein said pixel area is a 1 by 1 pixel area.

6. The system according to claim 1 wherein said pixel area is a 1 by 1 pixel area displayed as part of text providing said set of questions.

7. The system according to claim 1 wherein said second computer system represents a plurality of second computer systems in which one of said plurality of second computer systems provides said one or more pages to said first computer system, and another of said plurality of second computer systems provides said one or more images for download to said first computer system in response to requests in said one or more pages.

8. A method for measuring reactions to evaluate the effectiveness of a target element in one or more primary images of a plurality of elements including the target element by a respondent over a network, comprising the steps of:

connecting a client computer system of a respondent over a network to at least one server computer system;

sending from the server computer system to a client computer system survey questions;

displaying on a display coupled to the client computer system said survey questions on one or more pages on the display;

answering the questions at the client computer system displayed on each of said pages on the display;

returning from the client computer system to the server computer system answers to the survey questions from each page;

downloading a plurality of images to the client computer system from the server computer system for storage in memory of the client computer system while said displaying and answering steps are being carried out, in which a common set of said plurality of said images are displayed in each of a plurality of successive ones of the pages at said displaying step at pixel areas which avoids user detection or avoids user discernment of the images;

sending from the server computer system to the respondent computer system instructions directing the client computer system to display survey directions and one of the images for a specified interval of time, and at least one question having selectable responses;

displaying at the respondent computer system in accordance with said instructions said survey directions and one of said images stored at said downloading step from memory of the client computer system for said specified interval of time, and

at least one question regarding the displayed image with at least one of said responses being selected by said respondent; and

returning from the client computer system to the server computer system said one or more of said selected responses to said question regarding the displayed image.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein said image displayed for said interval of time has a plurality of elements and said responses enables selection of one or more of said elements recalled from the displayed image.

10. The method according to claim 8 wherein said image displayed for said interval of time has a plurality of elements and said responses enables selection of a location of a target element in the displayed image.

11. The method according to claim 8 wherein said image displayed for said interval of time represents product packages, an advertisement, or a product.

12. The method according to claim 8 wherein each of said pixel areas is a 1 by 1 pixel area.

13. The method according to claim 8 wherein each of said pixel areas is a 1 by 1 pixel area displayed as part of text providing said survey questions.

14. The method according to claim 8 wherein said interval of time is at or less than one second.

15. The method according to claim 8 wherein said one of the images represents a first image, and said method further comprises the steps of:

sending from the server computer system to the respondent computer system instructions directing the client computer system to display a second one of said images with other survey directions, and said client computer system displays said other survey directions said second one of said images stored at said downloading step in memory of the client computer system; and

displaying at the respondent computer system in accordance with said instructions said other survey directions and said second one of said images stored at said downloading step from memory prior to displaying said first image for said specified interval of time.

16. The method according to claim 8 further comprising the step of selecting said one of said images to be displayed for said specified interval of time by said server computer system based upon one or more of said returned answers to said survey questions prior to carrying out said step of sending instructions.

17. The method according to claim 8 further comprising the step of repeating said step of sending instructions, said step of displaying in accordance with said instructions, and said step of returning one or more selected responses with different ones of said images downloaded into memory, survey directions, and question regarding the displayed image.

18. A system having one or more computer systems providing a web site for downloading images to a browser operating on a client computer system having a display and a cache for temporary storage of files, said client computer system being capable of communicating via a network to the web site, comprising:

at least one server computer system at the web site storing images in which said server computer system is capable of communicating with said client computer system over said network; and

means for sending instructions defining a plurality of pages from said server computer system to said client computer system in which each of said plurality of pages requests from said server computer system a common series of image files, and in response to said requests said image files are sequentially downloaded from said server computer system via said network into said cache of the client computer system and displayed on said pages by the browser each in a small pixel area on the display so that said images are not detectable or not discernable by a user of said client computer system.

19. The system according to claim 18 further comprising:

means for sending instructions to said client computer system to display from said cache an image from one of said image files.

20. The system according to claim 19 wherein said image from said cache is displayed for a pre-determined interval of time.

21. The system according to claim 19 wherein said image from said cache is displayed for a short interval of time.

22. The system according to claim 18 wherein said images downloaded represent one of a product packages, an advertisement, or a product.

23. The system according to claim 18 wherein advancement through said plurality of pages by the user provides sufficient length of time for all of said image files to be downloaded to said client computer system.

24. A system for downloading latent images having two or more computer systems coupled over a network comprising:

a first computer system which stores a plurality of images; and

a second computer system which receives successive pages from said first computer system in which each of said successive pages are capable of having a common series of image requests to enable download of images from said first computer system which are displayable in said pages in pixel areas on a display of said second computer system that avoids user detection or avoid user discernment of each of the downloaded images, wherein at least one of said images downloaded is displayed for a pre-determined interval of time at said second computer system.

25. The system according to claim 24 wherein said pages are part of a survey.

26. The system according to claim 24 wherein advancement through said successive pages by the user provides sufficient length of time for all of said image files to be downloaded to said second computer system.

27. A system having one or more computer systems providing a web site for downloading images to a browser operating on a client computer system having a display and a cache for temporary storage of files, said client computer system capable of communicating via a network to the web site, comprising:

at least one computer server storing one or more images in which said computer server is capable of communicating to the client computer system over a network, in which said computer server sends instructions defining one or more pages from said computer server to said client computer system, and each of said one or more pages requests from said computer server a common series of one or more image files, and in response to said requests said image files are sequentially downloaded from said computer server via said network into said cache of the client computer system and displayed on said one or more pages by the browser of said client computer system each in a pixel area on the display so that said images are not detectable or not discernable by a user of said client computer system, wherein said computer server sends instructions to said client computer system to display from said cache of said client computer system at least one of said downloaded image files for a pre-determined interval of time.

28. A system for downloading images over a network comprising:

one or more computer servers which store one or more images, said one or more computer servers being capable of sending in successive pages to at least one other computer system over a network, in which each of said successive pages are capable of having the same requests for said one or more images to enable download of said one or more images from said one or more computer servers to the other computer system which are displayable in said pages in pixel areas on a display of said other computer system that avoids user detection or avoid user discernment of said one or more of the downloaded images, and then sending instructions to the other computer system to display at least one of said downloaded images in a marketing survey of one or more pages having one or more questions related to one or more elements in the displayed image, and to return one or more answers to said one or more questions for storage at said one or more computer servers.