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Research on cross-modal sensory interactions has shown that visual aspects of food can influence consumer's expectation and perception of taste, mouthfeel and liking. This paper aims to investigate the effects of a rounded (“bouba”) and a squared (“kiki”) shape on expected and perceived sweetness, bitterness, creaminess and liking of chocolates.

Brazilian consumers (N = 230) divided into two groups of 115 individuals each evaluated five chocolates containing 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70% of cocoa. One of the groups evaluated all formulations in the rounded shape and the other in the squared shape. Results were analysed with mixed multivariate analysis of variance (mixed-MANOVA) between shapes, repeated-measures MANOVA between pre- and post-tasting and Pearson's correlation analysis was performed between liking ratings and sweetness, bitterness and creaminess confirmation/disconfirmation.

The study found significant effects (p < 0.05) of shape on expected and perceived creaminess but not on other attributes; of cocoa percentage (30, 40, 50, 60 and 70%) on all four attributes; and time (pre- and post-tasting) on sweetness, bitterness and liking but not creaminess. Finally, it found significant negative correlations between the creaminess difference indices and the liking ratings for the 30, 50 and 60% chocolates.

This study reports that consumers may expect and perceive chocolates as creamier in a rounded shape than in an angular shape and that if the expectation of creaminess is not confirmed by sensory perception, acceptability may be negatively affected.

This paper aims to extend current understanding concerning the cross-modal correspondences between sounds and tastes by introducing new research tools and experimental data to study associations and their reflections between music and taste.

The experiment design addresses the multidisciplinary approach by using cultural, chemical and statistical analysis methods.

The paper provides further evidence that exposure to the “sweet” or “sour” musical pieces influences people’s food-related thinking processes and behaviors. It also demonstrates that sweet or sour elements in the music may reflect to actual sweetness (as measured by sugar content) and sourness (as measured by organic acid content) of foods developed in association with music carrying similar taste characteristics.

The findings should be replicated and expanded using larger consumer samples and wider repertoires of “taste music” and dependent variables. Also, the level of experimental control should be improved; e.g., the “sweet” and “sour” music were produced using different instruments, which may have an influence to the results.

Ambient “taste music” that is congruent with the basic flavors of the dishes can be played in restaurants to highlight guests’ sensory experience.

By carefully considering the symbolic meanings of the music used in different social situations, it is possible to create multimodal experiences and even subconscious expectations in people’ minds.

Cross-modal associations are made between the tastes and music. This can influence on perception of food and provide new ways to build multimodal gastronomic experiences.

Through a critical synthesis and reflection on the theoretical foundations and empirical evidence related to sensory marketing, this study aims to offer meaningful insights for hospitality operators and provides future research directions on sensory marketing in hospitality.

Building on an extensive review of sensory marketing studies across disciplines, this paper presents critical discussions of the theories and findings on the five senses in the context of hospitality.

The critical synthesis and discussion indicate that sensory marketing is highly relevant and applicable to operations in various hospitality sectors such as hotels and restaurants. Still, empirical evidence is required to lend support to the discussions. Although scholarly interest in sensory marketing has surged in the past decade, some research streams, such as sensory incongruence, cross-modal correspondence and sensory intensity, have yet to be extended. These under-researched areas provide directions for future hospitality research.

Through discussions of empirical evidence related to the five senses, mental simulation, cross-modal correspondence and sensory congruence, this paper provides implications for managing customers’ sensory experiences and behavior in hospitality settings.

Despite the increase of research on sensory marketing in the past decade, its full implications in the context of hospitality remain unknown. Through a critical synthesis and reflection on the hospitality literature, this paper offers research directions for a systematic expansion of sensory marketing.

Sensory experience profoundly impacts consumer cognition and behavior. This paper aims to illuminate the structure and development of sensory and experiential marketing research, to condense knowledge and to stimulate future research.

In all, 156 articles with 9,670 references serve as this paper’s database. The factor analysis on co-citation patterns of the top-cited 148 articles reveals the main research streams. The social network analysis unveils the degree of intellectual exchange between and within these schools of thought. The authors also map the temporal emergence of research streams and condense insights into an overarching framework that guides future research.

Early research in experiential marketing and store atmospherics emphasized the importance of affective reactions. Grounded and embodied cognition revised the understanding of the role perception plays in cognition. These developments culminated in the now most central research stream of sensory marketing, which bridges other research streams.

Although the research field is strongly interconnected, integration with other marketing disciplines potentially enriches the discourse.

This paper is useful for any reader who wants to gain a synthesized overview of the research field of sensory marketing. The framework presented in this paper can serve as a starting point for new sensory marketing research.

This paper offers a structured and unbiased account of sensory marketing and merges findings from diverse research backgrounds.

This study aims to explore brand meaning from a consumer perspective, identifying tangible attributes and intangible associations and their arrangement in brand meaning frameworks. Previous literature has focused on brand meaning flowing from intangible associations, and new insights are offered into the tangible attributes’ contribution to brand meaning.

A phenomenological approach was adopted, and meanings were gathered from lived experiences with consumers of local food brands. Quasi-ethnographic methods were used, including accompanied shopping trips to food fairs and local farm shops, kitchen visits and in-depth interviews in and around the county of Dorset in the south-west of England.

The findings demonstrate that tangible attributes have sensorial and functional brand meanings and are mentally processed. Both hierarchical and flatter patterned approaches are present when connecting attributes and associations. The hierarchical approach reflects both short and long laddering approaches; the flatter alternative offers an interwoven, patterned presentation.

This is a small in-depth study of local food brands, and the findings cannot be generalised across other brand categories.

Local food brand practitioners can promote relevant sensorial (e.g. taste) and functional (e.g. animal welfare) attributes. These can be woven into appropriate intangible associations, creating producer stories to be communicated through their websites and social media campaigns.

A revised brand meaning theoretical framework updates previous approaches and develops brand meaning theory. The study demonstrates that tangible attributes have meaning and hierarchical connections across tangible attributes, and intangible associations should not always be assumed. An additional patterned approach is present that weaves attributes and associations in a holistic, non-hierarchical way.

In many food marketing contexts products are sampled while music is played in the background. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether changing the pleasantness of background music while tasting two identical products in succession may influence the experience of taste and preference.

Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, 60 participants were asked to taste two identical cookies, one with pleasant and one with unpleasant background music, in differing orders. In Study 2, 60 participants tasted two cookies with two unpleasant musical pieces and 60 participants tasted two cookies with pleasant background music. Participants were asked to evaluate each cookie and indicate which cookie they preferred.

In Study 1, a main effect of music was found, with cookies tasted with pleasant background music evaluated as better than those tasted with unpleasant background music. In addition, an interaction between presentation order and music was found, with a stronger difference in evaluation between the cookies when the first is tasted with pleasant background music. In Study 2, no main effect of music was found. A primacy effect was found, with higher evaluations for the first tasted cookie.

The studies considered only one type of product, which in itself is pleasant-tasting. Further studies, using other products, are thus needed to allow generalization.

A discerning use of background music in consumer settings involving sampling of a sequence of products may aid marketers in maximizing music’s effect on product evaluation and choice.

Although the effect of music on taste has been previously studied, this is the first research to examine presentation order effects of music pleasantness on the experience of taste. The pleasantness of background music is integrated into the experience of taste, and food marketing strategies should take into account how the order in which different musical pieces are heard may influence consumers’ evaluation and preference for sampled products.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and provide a future research agenda for (in)congruence regarding cues between products, brands and atmospheres.

A semi-systematic literature review was conducted. The aim was to assess, critique and synthesise (in)congruence, which was found in the literature to be dispersed and interdisciplinary, and to propose a theoretical framework in the marketing domain.

Firstly, the review reveals that sensory and semantic cues are interrelated in products, brands and atmospheres. It illustrates that these cues are the foundation for (in)congruence. Secondly, the findings show various theoretical foundations for (in)congruence. These explain where and how congruence occurs. Lastly, a theoretical framework for (in)congruence and a future research agenda were developed to stimulate further research.

A theoretical framework was developed to enrich the theoretical knowledge and understanding of (in)congruence in the marketing domain.

The review reveals that products, brands and atmospheres have spillover effects. Managers are advised to understand the semantic meaning carried by cues to foster various outcomes, to estimate the trade-offs when modifying (in)congruent cues for products, brands and atmospheres.

The developed theoretical framework advances and deepens the knowledge of (in)congruence in the marketing domain by moving beyond the match and fit between two entities and by revealing the underlying mechanism and its outcomes.

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.

This paper is aimed at examining and critically analyzing systematical literature on wine and cross-modality between the five senses. In particular, the researchers want to highlight the role of multisensory analysis on wine marketing and consumer behavior studies.

This paper is based on a systematic review of literature conducted on peer-reviewed journals.

Results highlight how multisensory analysis of wine is a growing topic insomuch that research on this kind of topic is exploded in the last years. Nevertheless, wine and cross-modality is more analyzed on food science journals than in marketing ones.

The paper examines a field of research moderately explored in order to shed light to the current status of scientific studies and to propose new research questions to develop.

The increase of turbulence sources and risk points under the complex social information network has brought severe challenges. This paper discusses risk perception and intelligent decision-making under the complex social information network to maintain social security and financial security.

Cross-modal semantic fusion and social risk perception, temporal knowledge graph and analysis, complex social network intelligent decision-making methods have been studied. A big data computing platform of software and hardware integration for security combat is constructed based on the technical support.

The software and hardware integration platform driven by big data can realize joint identification of significant risks, intelligent analysis and large-scale group decision-making.

The integrated platform can monitor the abnormal operation and potential associated risks of Listed Companies in real-time, reduce information asymmetry and accounting costs and improve the capital market's ability to serve the real economy. It can also provide critical technical support and decision support in necessary public opinion monitoring and control business.

In this paper, the theory of knowledge-enhanced multi-modal multi-granularity dynamic risk analysis and intelligent group decision-making and the idea of an inference think tank (I-aid-S) is proposed. New technologies and methods, such as association analysis, time series evolution and super large-scale group decision-making, have been established. It's also applied in behavior and situation deduction, public opinion and finance and provides real-time, dynamic, fast and high-quality think tank services.