Elsevier

Journal of Retailing

Volume 77, Issue 2, Summer 2001, Pages 273-289
Journal of Retailing

Article
Congruency of scent and music as a driver of in-store evaluations and behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(01)00042-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Retailers have long understood the importance of store environment in enhancing the shopping experience, and past research has examined the main effects of many pleasant ambient stimuli such as music and scent. To further our theoretical understanding, we extend the notion of Gestalt to consumers’ perceptions of retail environments and demonstrated that consumers perceive Servicescapes holistically. Specifically, we suggest that the arousing quality of ambient stimuli is one dimension along which holistic evaluations occur, and that pleasant ambient stimuli are perceived more positively when their arousing qualities match rather than mismatch.

We manipulated scent and music in a 3 (no music, pleasant low arousal and high arousal music) by 3 (no scent, pleasant low and high arousal scents) factorial design in a field setting. Our findings show that when ambient scent and music are congruent with each other in terms of their arousing qualities, consumers rate the environment significantly more positive, exhibit higher levels of approach and impulse buying behaviors, and experience enhanced satisfaction than when these environmental cues were at odds with each other.

Introduction

The notion that atmospherics influence consumer behavior is widely accepted in the marketing literature, yet theory development is clearly limited in this area (Turley & Milliman, 2000). Past studies have examined the effects of individual pleasant stimuli such as music, color or scent on consumer behavior, but have failed to examine how these stimuli might interact. Consequently, little is known about the effects of global configurations of aspects of the environment (Wakefield & Baker, 1998). To further our theoretical understanding of atmospherics on consumer behavior, we extend the notion of Gestalt to consumers’ perceptions of retail environments. We argue that consumers perceive Servicescapes holistically and that consumer responses to a physical environment depend on ensemble effects (configurations). Specifically, we suggest that the arousing quality of stimuli in a Servicescape is one dimension that effects this holistic evaluation. We test this proposition using two pleasant ambient cues: scent and music. We suggest that to maximize these holistic effects, consumers need to perceive the arousing qualities of music (fast or slow tempo) to be coherent with those of the scent (stimulating or relaxing) present in a Servicescape. Matching ambient stimuli might lead to higher evaluations of the store environment, more positive behavioral responses and higher satisfaction levels and than mismatching.

Section snippets

Conceptual background

The literature review will first provide a brief overview of environmental psychology with a focus on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) work, gestalt evaluations, and Bitner’s Servicescapes, followed by a summary of olfaction and music research.

Hypothesis development

Optimal arousal theory suggests that minor changes in the environment, such as adding a low level of scent or playing background music, increases the environment’s perceived novelty and pleasantness Berlyne 1971, McClelland and John W Atkinson 1953. Consequently, we expect that adding either a pleasant scent or pleasant background music to the retail environment should enhance the perceived positive state of the store environment, including the amount of pleasure associated with it. In the

Research design and stimulus selection

A 3 (no scent/low arousal scent/high arousal scent) x 3 (no music/low arousal music/high arousal music) fractional, factorial design in a field setting was employed to test the hypotheses. A gift shop served as the context of the study.

Lacking theoretical guidance on scent selection in consumer behavior literature, we turned to essential oil reference books (e.g., Gill, 1996). The scents used in our study were selected based on two criteria: the mood effects and cautionary effects. Taking into

Sample characteristics and scale reliabilities

A total of 343 customers were asked to participate in the survey. Of those approached, 270 agreed to be interviewed, yielding a response rate of 78.7%. Twenty-three questionnaires were rejected due to incomplete data, thus resulting in an effective response rate of 72.0%. Nearly 75% of the respondents were female, and close to 65% were young people less than 20 years old. Taken together, these sample characteristics closely match the retail store’s primary target markets. Sixty two percentage

Conclusions and theoretical implications

Consistent with past research, our findings show that adding pleasant environmental cues enhances the shopping experience. More importantly, we found that such environmental stimuli should not be considered in isolation, since it is the total configuration of cues that influence consumer responses. We also demonstrated that the arousing quality of pleasant stimuli is one dimension along which these holistic evaluations occur. The objectives of this study were to add to theory development on

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Sharon Tan Shin Ngee for her excellent research assistance, and the National University of Singapore for partially funding this project. Furthermore, the authors wish to thank the three anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments.

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