Smelling the books: The effect of chocolate scent on purchase-related behavior in a bookstore

Doucé, Lieve; Poels, Karolien; Janssens, Wim; Backer, Charlotte De

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.07.006

Cited by 65 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…An apt illustration of this point is the work by Cutright and colleagues (2012;Cutright, Bettman, & Fitzsimons, 2013) who have shown that marketing stimuli such as brand logos with clear boundaries can and indeed do provide people with a sense of structure. In addition and related, studies have also focused on the motivational (side) effects of architectural features of the retail environment (Douc e, Poels, Janssens, & De Backer, 2013). In this context, and in line with our notions, studies have shown that narrow store aisles lead to compensatory reactions aimed at regaining a sense of control (Chae & Zhu, 2014;Levav & Zhu, 2009).…”

Section: Goal Pursuit Provides Ordersupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Most studies on these so-called store atmospherics have examined how specific environmental factors affect judgments and, only occasionally, behavior (Douc e et al, 2013;Levav & Zhu, 2009;Meyers-Levi & Zhu, 2007;North, 1996). The present work investigates the effect of (dis)order as a common denominator underlying a variety of retail environmental, atmospheric variables on actual behavior, and demonstrates that subtle, incidental disorder cues people frequently encounter significantly impact real-life behavior, regardless of whether they specifically relate to noise, store layout, or (social and visual) clutter.…”

Section: Summary and Implications Of Key Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disordered environments prompt mere goal pursuit

Fennis

Wiebenga

2015

Journal of Environmental Psychology

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a b s t r a c tPeople have a strong need to perceive their environment as orderly and structured. Among the various strategies to defend against the aversive experience of disorder, the authors propose and test the novel hypothesis that people may reaffirm a sense of order by setting and pursuing goals that may be unrelated to the source of disorder. In a series of (lab and field) studies, the authors show that when environmental cues trigger an experience of disorder, or when people have a chronic need for order, and hence when they are motivated to restore perceptions of order, people are more attracted to clear, well-defined goals and motivated to attain them. Moreover, the authors show that the effect of a disordered environment on goal pursuit is driven by the need to reaffirm perceptions of order, anddconverselydthat setting and pursuing goals is indeed functional in promoting a sense of order.During the so-called "Blitz"dthe terror bombing campaign on cities in Great Britain that created destruction, chaos and mayhem during the early years of World War IIdthe British government issued a propaganda campaign featuring large, bright red printed posters urging its citizens to "Keep Calm and Carry On". Hence, the now iconic posters advocated people to control their nerves, and, importantly, to move on pursuing their daily, mundane, goals. Could such an advocacy to tend to one's daily business, which probably did nothing directly to remove the source of chaos and disorder, have been effective in restoring a sense of purpose and order in the British people of the time? While that may seem unlikely and while, to our knowledge, no systematic study has evaluated the impact of the campaign, the present research will demonstrate that such an advice to carry on pursuing one's goals even if these are unrelated to any environmental source of disorder might be less naïve and inadequate than may appear at first glance and may actually serve to promote a sense of order under these conditions.In this research we ask whether and how an environmentallyinduced need for order influences the likelihood that people set and pursue goalsdregardless of the goals' relation to the source of disorderdas a means to cope with the experience of lack of order, predictability, and regularity. In addition, we examine the underlying assumption of whether a disordered compared to ordered environment indeed increases the need for order, thereby boosting the need to regain a sense of order, and that a high need for order drives the effect of a disordered environment on mere goal pursuit. In addition, we explore two logical extensions of our reasoning and test whether the effect mainly holds when the goal is clear rather than vague and whether cues signaling environmental disorder promote actual, overt goal pursuit. Finally, we test the functionality of the proposed mechanism and examine whether the mere pursuit of goals is an effective way to reaffirm perceptions of order after exposure to a disordered environment. The need to reduce disorderWhil...

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Section: Goal Pursuit Provides Ordersupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Summary and Implications Of Key Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disordered environments prompt mere goal pursuit

Fennis

Wiebenga

2015

Journal of Environmental Psychology

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“…Previous research has found that pleasant ambient scents improve consumer evaluations and approach behaviour more when the scent is congruent with the setting than when the scent is incongruent with the setting (e.g. Bone and Jantrania, ; Bosmans, ; Spangenberg et al ., ; Doucé et al ., ). However, based on the mate attraction theory, this study suggests that incongruity does not always have a negative effect on consumer evaluations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

What to diffuse in a gender‐specific store? The effect of male and female perfumes on customer value and behaviour

Doucé

Janssens

Leroi‐Werelds

et al. 2015

J of Consumer Behaviour

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Sensory marketing can be an efficient way to involve consumers in the store environment. Diffusing a pleasant ambient scent that matches with the store setting is often used to create pleasant shopping experiences. The aim of this study is to extend scent marketing research: (i) by examining the effect of pleasant ambient scent on the different dimensions of customer value; and (ii) by exploring whether product-scent incongruity can have a positive effect on consumer evaluations. A field experiment with 182 participants showed that a pleasant genderincongruent ambient perfume positively influences different dimensions of customer value as compared to the absence of a perfume. Moreover, a gender-incongruent perfume also leads to a more positive evaluation of the play, product excellence, and social dimension of customer value as compared to a gender-congruent perfume. A pleasant gender-congruent ambient perfume, on the other hand, only has a positive effect on the aesthetic dimension of customer value as compared to the absence of a perfume. The observed ambient scent effects do not differ between men and women. These results are in contrast with existing literature. However, an explanation for this undocumented effect can be found in the mate attraction theory.

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“…However, if a pleasant scent does not match expectations based on product theme, lower responses towards merchandise are obtained, even compared to when no scent is used at all (Doucé et al 2013;Fiore et al 2000;Mattila and Wirtz 2001). In the present research, we were fortunate to test target fragrances that seem to have been perceived as thematically compatible with body lotion.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…To date, it has been demonstrated that a pleasant ambient scent can favorably increase the perception of a shopping environment and consequently product quality (Chebat and Michon 2003), and that a scent which is perceived as thematically or conceptually congruent with a product can enhance perceived product value and desirability, approach behavior, and spending (Doucé et al 2013;Fiore et al 2000;Spangenberg et al 2006). Importantly, it was also recently found that a product's scent can enhance recall for product information and create long-lasting scentproduct associations in memory (Krishna et al 2010).…”

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confidence: 99%

Proustian Products are Preferred: The Relationship Between Odor-Evoked Memory and Product Evaluation

et al. 2015

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Introduction The Proustian memory effect-that fragrances elicit more emotional and evocative memories than other memory cues-is well established. Fragrances also potentiate a variety of psychological states from moods to motivated behavior. Consumer research has shown that pleasant, product-congruent scents enhance product appeal, that products with greater emotional and cognitive involvement are perceived more positively, and that scent can increase recall for product information. However, the effect of Proustian memories on product perception has never been examined. The aim of the present study was to address this issue. Methods An extensive pilot test in which the methods for the main experiment were established was first conducted. The main experiment then tested how a product (body lotion) that varied in fragrance pleasantness and Proustian memory potency was perceived. Results Data analyses from a nationwide study showed that if the lotion fragrance was perceived as very pleasant, and it evoked potent personal emotional memories, that lotion was liked better and judged to be superior on a variety of functional and emotional attributes than the same lotion whose scent was perceived as equally pleasant but was not experienced as evocative.Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that it is the personal potency of Proustian memories evoked by a product's fragrance, more than the hedonic qualities of the scent per se, that drives product perception and has important implications for the development of scented products.

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Smelling the books: The effect of chocolate scent on purchase-related behavior in a bookstore

Cited by 65 publications

References 25 publications

Disordered environments prompt mere goal pursuit

Disordered environments prompt mere goal pursuit

What to diffuse in a gender‐specific store? The effect of male and female perfumes on customer value and behaviour

Proustian Products are Preferred: The Relationship Between Odor-Evoked Memory and Product Evaluation

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