Scents and Sensibility: When Do (In)Congruent Ambient Scents Influence Product Evaluations?

Abstract

This research examines when and how ambient scents (i.e., scents that are present in the environment and do not emanate from a specific product) affect product evaluations. Consistent with theory in environmental psychology, the author predicts that such ambient scents can elicit emotional responses that can influence subsequent judgments, but only when specific conditions are met. Three factors are hypothesized to moderate the effects of pleasant ambient scents on evaluations: (1) the congruence of the scent with the product, (2) the salience of the scent, and (3) consumers' motivation to correct for extraneous influences. The findings of three experiments suggest that as long as ambient scents are congruent with the product, they continue to affect consumers' evaluations, even when their influence becomes salient or when consumers are sufficiently motivated to correct for extraneous influences. In addition, as long as the scent is not completely incongruent with the product, noncongruent scents are corrected for only when their influence becomes salient or when consumers are sufficiently motivated. These findings indicate that the impact of pleasant ambient scents on product evaluations may be stronger than that of other affective environmental cues.

In-store quality (in)congruency as a driver of perceived legitimacy and shopping behavior

“…While previous literature has already identified some negative effects of incongruency (Spangenberg et al, 2005;Mattila and Wirtz, 2006;Lunardo and Mbengue, 2013), no research has addressed the impact of the incongruency between the quality of the store environment and the quality of the merchandise on legitimacy. Therefore, our results make a strong contribution to the retailing literature dealing with incongruency in the store environments (Bosmans, 2006;Mattila and Wirtz, 2006;Lunardo and Mbengue, 2013). Specifically, they show that when the store environment is of high quality but the quality of the merchandise is of low quality, this results in a decrease in legitimacy.…”

“…Further, previous literature has mainly studied the incongruency between marketing tactics in physical stores (e.g., Spangenberg et al, 1996;Bosmans, 2006). However, since Internet represents a new context for inappropriate behaviors (Huang, 2001), it seems interesting to also look at the incongruency between the quality of products sold online and the quality of the store environments developed by e-retailers.…”

“…More specifically, no research to date has investigated the effect of incongruent quality cues on consumer's perception of retailer's legitimacy. What previous research shows is that incongruency exerts a negative impact on persuasion (Bosmans, 2006) and can lead consumers to appraise the in-store environment as a manipulative tool (Lunardo and Mbengue, 2013). Since legitimacy is derived from the social acceptance of an organization behavior (Pioch et al, 2009;Humphreys and Latour, 2013), in-store environment cues that lead consumers to overestimate the merchandise quality may be likely to result in lower legitimacy and more negative consumers' responses, thus putting under question the long term existence of the firm.…”

Music congruency in a service setting: The mediating role of emotional and cognitive responses

“…Mattila and Wirtz, 2001;Spangenberg et al, 2005). Past research examined the effect of atmospherics on cognitive processes such as perceptions of service and merchandise quality, service environment, service or store evaluations (Dubé and Morin, 2001;Bosmans, 2006;Morin et al, 2007). Other studies only consider affective variables as mediators between atmospherics and consumer behaviour (Sherman et al, 1997).…”

The role of aesthetic taste in consumer behavior

“…Bosmans (2006) examines the effect of ambient scents on product evaluations, and Peck and Childers (2003) research individual differences in haptic information processing. Furthermore, Holbrook (1982Holbrook ( , 1999Holbrook ( , 2005 investigates taste more generally in the cultural field.…”