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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the introduction of auditory sensory cues, through a human voice, affect children’s and parent’s shopping behaviour in a retail grocery setting. In the field of retailing and sensory marketing research, there is a paucity of knowledge on how auditory sensory cues impact on consumers’ shopping behaviour.

The empirical study was a field experiment and entailed direct observation of shoppers of the Swedish grocery retailer ICA. The observations were based on a convenience sample of shopping families assigned to a control group (n=200) and an experimental group (n=131). A new innovative Swedish audio story track system was to be tested in a hypermarket containing 13 different stories for children.

Auditory sensory cues affect children’s and parent’s shopping behaviour in a significant way. Children are quieter, more relaxed and do not move around and reduce the parental stress behaviour during the shopping process.

The findings demonstrate that auditory sensory cues through human voice have a positive effect on children’s and parent’s shopping behaviour. It is also obvious that parent’s perceived stress is significantly influenced by the children.

The study provides guidelines for grocery retailers who wish to offer children and their parents a more pleasant shopping trip by emphasizing the role of the children.

The research demonstrates that the introduction of auditory sensory cues through human voice in a significant way affect the children’s and their parent’s shopping behaviour in a retail setting.

Retail stores are required to provide a stimulating in-store experience for customers and do this by developing various strategies. One strategy implemented by retailers is the use of sensory cues to encourage consumers to engage with the environment and the products on display and available for purchase. Conducted in a lighting department, the purpose of this paper is to consider how retailers can employ a multisensory cue, which is formed by combining three single cues to positively impact consumer behaviours – specifically time spent, touching and purchase.

The study comprised an experimental design, which implemented single congruent visual, auditory and olfactory cues that formed a multisensory cue. Consumer behaviour outcomes of these cues were measured using objective measures.

The results show that a multisensory cue impacts time spent and purchasing, but no evidence of it affecting touching was noted. In the case of the single cues, auditory and scent cues impacted time spent, but their effect was not to the extent of the multisensory cue, which was superior.

The study focussed on one product category within a general furnishing store, thus limiting the extent to which the findings can be generalised.

The effect of a multisensory cue exceeded that of single cues, emphasising the need for retailers to consider and develop a multisensory retail environment.

While research into the effect of single cues on consumer behaviours has shown positive effects, research into a multisensory cue, especially in a real-retail setting, is relatively scarce.

This paper aims to develop an integrative framework based on a convergence of embodiment, ecological and phenomenological theoretical perspectives to explain the multiple processes involved in the consumers’ mining, processing and application of brand-related sensory data through a sensory brand experience (SBE).

This research adopts a qualitative method by using face-to-face in-depth interviews (retail managers and customers) and focus group interviews (actual customers) with 34 respondents to investigate SBEs in the context of Chinese shopping malls.

Results show that the brand data mined through multisensory cues (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and taste) in a brand setting are processed internally as SBEs (involving sensory impressions, fun, interesting, extraordinary, comforting, caring, innovative, pleasant, appealing and convenient), which influence key variables in customer–brand relationships including customer satisfaction, brand attachment and customer lovemarks.

This study has implications for current theory on experiential marketing, branding, consumer–brand relationships, consumer psychology and customer experience management.

Obesity among elderly consumers precipitates undesirable health outcomes. This study aims to investigate the effects of environmental cues on food intake of elderly consumers in an aged-care facility.

A longitudinal study conducted over 17 weeks in situ within an aged-care facility with 31 residents investigated how auditory (soothing music), olfactory (floral-scented candle) and visual (infographic on health benefits of the main meal component) cues influenced food intake quantity during a meal, while accounting for portion size effect (PSE).

Analysing the cross-sectional results of individual treatments and rounds did not reveal any consistent patterns in the influence of the three environmental cues. Longitudinal analyses, however, showed that the presence of auditory and olfactory cues significantly increased food intake, but the visual cue did not. Moreover, PSE was strong.

Extending research into environmental factors from a commercial to a health-care setting, this study demonstrates how the presence of auditory and olfactory, but not cognitive cues, increased food intake behaviour among elderly consumers. It also shows that a cross-sectional approach to such studies would have yielded inconclusive or even misleading findings. Merely serving more would also lead to higher food intake amount.

Environmental factors should be a part of health-care providers’ arsenal to manage obesity. They are practical and relatively inexpensive to implement across different health-care settings. However, the same environmental factors would have opposite desired-effects with normal or underweight residents, and hence, aged-care facilities need to separate the dining experience (or mealtime) of obese and other residents. Quantity served should also be moderated to discourage overeating.

While studies into managing obesity, particularly among older adults, have mainly focused on techniques such as pharmacotherapy treatments with drugs, dietary management or even lifestyle change, less attention has been given to the influence of environmental cues. This study, executed in situ within an aged-care facility, provided evidence of the importance of considering the impact of environmental factors on food intake to help reduce obesity.

Customer experience is increasingly recognized as a source of competitive advantage. Customer experience refers to customers' responses and reactions to cues within touchpoints along customer journeys. Nowadays, customers often interact with online touchpoints – such as social media, websites, or e-commerce – in their customer journeys. Given that customer experience is multidimensional, this chapter addresses the following question: How can sensorial experiences be triggered in online touchpoints? Based on a review of the literature on customer experience and sensory marketing, four challenges in triggering sensorial experiences in online touchpoints are identified: (1) limited sensorial cues, (2) lack of thematic congruence between online and offline touchpoints, (3) sensory overload, and (4) lesser control over sensorial cues. Then, two routes through which organizations can trigger sensorial experiences in online touchpoints are proposed: (1) directly influencing sensations through sensory-enabling technologies, and (2) indirectly influencing sensorial perceptions through the use of sensory and nonsensory cues. The chapter closes with a presentation of a model that describes the process of triggering sensorial experiences in online touchpoints as well as a checklist of relevant questions for practitioners who wish to do so.

Over the past few years, advertisers have adopted augmented reality (AR) technology in advertising campaigns. To overcome the geographic limit, advertisers record the interaction between people and virtual objects in AR campaigns and upload promotional videos on social media, such as YouTube. This study aims to develop and validate a measurement instrument to gauge the content characteristics of YouTube videos featuring AR ad campaigns.

To this end, possible items were generated via a review of prior literature, and supplemented by content analysis and a free association task. The measurement instrument was then refined and validated using a pretest of a general consumer sample, and further validated using a second general consumer sample with two online experiments.

Results indicate that the content characteristics of YouTube AR campaigns can be measured using a 15-item, four-construct (informativeness, novelty, entertainment and complexity) instrument. This study also found the direct and indirect relationships between each content characteristic and ad efficacy variables.

The measurement instrument provides practitioners with a broad measure of the content characteristics of YouTube AR campaigns. The results also reveal the effect of different content features of YouTube AR campaigns on the outcome of successful advertising execution.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge in marketing communications via exploring the primary content characteristics of AR advertising campaign videos uploaded on YouTube. It also develops an understanding of the impact of AR technology on consumer behavior and on the experience that it delivers.

This paper aims to examine how multi-sensory cues, when store-congruent, influence consumer browsing behaviour and its subsequent effect on purchasing.

Two studies were used with a field experimental design in a furnishing retail store to examine browsing behaviour and purchasing in a visual, auditory, olfactory and a multi-sensory treatment group. Data were gathered over 12 weeks. This study was a set of studies comprising my dissertation thesis (Helmefalk, 2017).

Findings show that multi-sensory cues in a retail atmosphere are evidently influencing purchasing via browsing behaviour as a mediator.

The findings evidence browsing behaviour as a mediator and predictor for purchasing, which emphasizes its conceptual and empirical contribution in terms of modifying retail atmospheres. The work contributes to the field of retailing, sensory marketing and consumer behaviour, a novel view on the linkages between multi-sensory cues, browsing behaviour and purchasing.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss how sensory cues are preferred in relation to products, service and store image in a retail context and why retailers should consider the importance of congruence in a retail setting.

Four qualitative focus group discussions were conducted, following a semi-structured interview guide. A total of 24 participants discussed how and why a lighting department in an IKEA store in Sweden could be regarded as more appealing than the traditional layout.

The findings indicate that congruency works as a mediator between a retail setting, sensory cues, products, service and store image. Consumers prefer, compare and categorize sensory cues in relation to the specific product in the department, the service offered by the firm and the store image.

A model is developed that conceptualizes congruency as a mediator in a retail setting, which provides an opportunity to further explore external influences on congruency in retail settings, both conceptually and empirically.

Despite a well‐established corporate identity construct there is still ambiguity and disorientation regarding the corporate visual identity construct. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the inconsistent use of terminologies such as “symbolism” and “corporate design” as well as pointing towards an insufficient conceptualisation of the corporate identity and visual identity construct vis‐à‐vis other sensory dimensions.

A review of existing categorisations and conceptualisations of the corporate identity and visual identity construct is provided.

The paper presents a remodelled corporate visual identity construct that takes a holistic sensory perspective and proposes the corporate sensory identity construct as a more adequate and flexible reflection of current business reality.

The paper offers fundamental guidance for managers regarding the integrated and holistic utilisation of a set of sensory communication activities as part of their corporate identity management.

This paper contributes to the further understanding of the complexity of corporate identity management by addressing additional sensory dimensions apart from visual identity management. Moreover, by stressing the particular relevance of music and sound, this paper stimulates the integration of the auditory dimension as additional facet of a communication tool kit.

The purpose of this study is to understand whether increasing the number of sensory modalities being stimulated impacts consumers’ in-store emotional responses (i.e. in-store enjoyment and arousal), store image perception and brand attitude.

The study used a between-subjects experimental design to examine 551 individuals’ perceptions and emotional responses in four sensory modalities stimulation conditions (i.e. visual, visual-smell, visual-taste and visual-smell-taste). The study used virtual reality visualisation technology and psychophysiological measurements (i.e. skin conductance and facial expression) to improve the ecological validity of the study design.

The current study supports the importance of multisensory in-store atmospheric design. When increasing the number of sensory modalities being stimulated, more positive emotional responses and perceptions were recorded. Additionally, increasing the number of sensory modalities also increased perceived intensity, and perceived intensity mediate the relationship between the stimulation of multisensory modalities and perception.

The study is without its limitations. For instance, the scope of the study was limited by the exclusion of auditory and haptic stimulation, the lack of manipulation of sensory intensity and the absence of sensory congruency examination.

This study contributes to retail and marketing practices by providing evidence to assist the retail design of in-store sensory cues and customer experiences.

This research uses both self-reported measures and biometric measures to test the sole effect of sensory modalities being stimulated on consumer evaluation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine store atmospheric designs with psychophysiological methodologies and an immersive, two-story-high, 180-degree-visual-field and dome-shaped display.