A Review of Sensory Imagery for Consumer Psychology

Abstract

This review of mental imagery research has the core objective of fostering more research on the topic of sensory imagery. The review is organized around a conceptual framework highlighting (a) how mental imagery is formed, (b) the elicitation and elaboration of mental imagery, (c) the multi‐modal nature of sensory imagery, and (d) the consumer behavior consequences of mental imagery. This conceptual framework provides many new lenses through which researchers can view prior findings, and thereby motivates innovative new research ideas. Future research directions are provided in each section of the review, with additional unexplored opportunities presented in a final section.

Experiencing the sense of the brand: the mining, processing and application of brand data through sensory brand experiences

“…Elder and Krishna (2021) noted that sensory impression is related to an individual’s perception of the intensity of stimuli. How is intensity achieved in a sensory-driven experience?…”

“…(Xu, Marketing Manager) However, informants' (managers and customers) views on what SBE represents have also extended our understanding of SBE where perception of the phenomenon is described in terms of overall affects and feeling states, rather than the stimulation from individual sensory cues. This is how one customer respondent commented: Elder and Krishna (2021) noted that sensory impression is related to an individual's perception of the intensity of stimuli. How is intensity achieved in a sensory-driven experience?…”

“…Taste modality is unique because its efficacy depends on a whole range of parallel stimulation. When something is sensed as tasty, it is not just the sensations generated by receptors embedded in the tongue that are providing the information; receptors representing different modalities are also involved (Elder and Krishna, 2021; Krishna and Elder, 2021; Schlosser, 2015). Spence and Van Doorn (2017) highlighted the significance of this mouth/mind relationship by reminding us that the pleasures of the table reside in the mind rather than the mouth, while Roggeveen et al (2020) have argued that taste sensory cues are a key element of the trialability factor and consumer-perceived brand information after their taste sampling experience.…”

“…Understanding sensory brand experience (SBE) is fundamental to successful brand management as well as to scholars, as a superior sensory experience is crucial for brands to engage customers, forging meaningful consumer-brand relationships and increasing brand competitiveness (Elder and Krishna, 2021;Roggeveen et al, 2021). Euromonitor International (2021) states that over half of global consumers shop in stores that have engaging sensory experiences.…”

Consumer Consciousness in Multisensory Extended Reality

“…For example, Schlosser (2003) showed that when consumers interact with a product online (vs. passively view it), they engaged in greater mental imagery and had increased cognitive elaboration. Even if consumers do not have access to all of the sensory stimuli that are desirable for their decision-making, mental simulation can nevertheless still facilitate multisensory perceptual re-enactments ( Petit et al, 2019 ; Elder and Krishna, 2021 ). For example, the visual exposure to appetising pictures of food not only activates regions of the visual cortex that represent object shape, it also activates gustatory areas in order to produce conceptual inferences about taste ( Simmons et al, 2005 ).…”