Sensory Marketing in Retail: An Introduction into the Multisensory Nature of Retail Stores

Sensory marketing is a way to differentiate businesses from their competition while influencing customers and their behaviour. At its best, sensory marketing guides or helps customers to make certain choices in a way that they are unaware of what actually influenced their choices. Although it sounds like an attractive way to “nudge” customers, it is a highly demanding practice that also involves risks and ethical concerns. This textbook delves into the world of sensory marketing in a physical retail setting and offers a comprehensive and coherent view of various sensory cues and their capacity to drive our behaviour through stimulating our senses and creating sensory experiences. It particularly highlights the meaning of the multisensory nature of retail stores and emphasises how cues tend to affect us in combination rather than separately as single cues. After reading this book, you will be able to: · Identify various cues in a retailing setting · Categorise cues into different groups · Explain how cues affect consumers when they make their daily choices · Understand the multisensory nature of retail stores and the meaning of cue (in)congruence · Describe how consumers are likely to respond differently to cue combinations than single cues · Apply cues in practice and assess their outcomes. Ideal reading for students taking classes in consumer behaviour, shopper marketing, retail marketing and store design among others, it contains more than 30 global examples from various retail companies, self-reflective questions and decisions-based questions to aid learning. Preface Contents About the Author List of Figures List of Tables 1 Why Do We Choose How We Choose? 1.1 The Difficulty of Explaining Choice 1.2 Freedom of Choice 1.3 Choice as an Object of Influence References 2 Consumer Psychology and Psychological Factors Affecting Our Choices 2.1 Senses and Sensory Information 2.2 Motives 2.3 Attitudes 2.4 Mental Images 2.5 Expectations 2.6 Emotions 2.7 Unconscious Mind 2.8 Summary References 3 The Goal and Scope of This Book 3.1 Focus on Sensory Marketing in Retail 3.2 The Elements of the Retail Marketing Mix 3.3 The Retail Store as a Context of Our Choices 3.4 The Retail Store as a Bundle of Cues 3.5 Ethical Considerations in Influencing Consumer Choices 3.6 Summary References 4 Identifying Cues and Their Effects in a Retail Store 4.1 Ambient Cues Background Music Scents Lighting Temperature and Airflow 4.2 Design Cues Store Design Colours Names, Signs and Symbols Store Layout 4.3 Social Cues Retail Store Employees Employee Clothing Social Presence of Others and Interpersonal Touch Spontaneous Mimicry Queues and Crowding Red Carpet Treatment 4.4 Haptic Cues and the Need for Touch 4.5 Merchandise-Related Cues You Are What You Sell You Get What You Pay For The Number of Alternatives and the Compromise Effect Product Display and Shelf Position The Scarcity Principle Product Packages 4.6 Pricing-Related Cues Odd-Ending Pricing Versus Even Pricing Absolute Versus Relative Price Discounts Premiums Versus Price Cuts Within- Versus Between-Store Price Promotion Cues Red Versus Black Prices Price Presentation Order Multiple-Unit Price Promotions Setting Purchasing Goals and the Goal-Gradient Effect 4.7 Summary References 5 The Multisensory Nature of a Retail Store and Joint Effects of Cues 5.1 From Unisensory to Multisensory Approaches 5.2 1 + 1 + 1 = 4 5.3 Sensory Overload and Degraded Responses 5.4 Cross-modal Interaction 5.5 Cue Congruence 5.6 Cue Incongruence 5.7 The Seesaw Effect in a Multisensory Retail Environment 5.8 Summary References 6 Factors That Accelerate or Inhibit the Effects of Cues in a Retail Store 6.1 Shopping Motives 6.2 Mood 6.3 Self-Control 6.4 Rules of Thumb 6.5 Routines and Habits 6.6 Involvement 6.7 The Presence of Others 6.8 Time Pressure 6.9 Familiarity of the Environment 6.10 Summary References 7 Key Points of This Book 7.1 Cue Diversity Explicit and Implicit Cues Tactical and Strategic Cues 7.2 Cue Impact Emotional Response Cognitive Evaluations Spontaneous Impulse Purchases Conscious and Unconscious Impacts Response Moderators Linking Cues to the Quality of the Shopping Experience 7.3 Summary: The Overall View of the Impacts of Cues on Our Choices References 8 Engaging in Sensory Marketing in Practice 8.1 Integrating Sensory Marketing into Retail Marketing 8.2 The Connection of Cues to the Customer Promise 8.3 Managing Cue Congruence 8.4 Measuring Cue Effectiveness 8.5 Responsibilities and Limitations Related to Sensory Marketing 8.6 Cultural Specificity of Cues 8.7 Summary References 9 What to Explore Next? 9.1 Joint Effects and Sensory Overload 9.2 Studying How Cues Are Related to Perceived Safety 9.3 The Ethics of Influence in Consumer Marketing 9.4 Sensory Marketing in an Omnichannel Environment 9.5 Digital Sensory Marketing 9.6 Neuroscience and Neuromarketing References 10 Concluding Remarks References Glossary Index