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This paper aims to examine how olfactory imagery, triggered by scent brand names prior to smelling, influences scented-product purchase intention.

Five studies were conducted. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict likelihood of olfactory imagery formation. ANOVA and t-test analyses were used for scent brand name group comparisons, and serial mediation analysis was used to test how scent brand names impact purchase intention through olfactory imagery vividness and the (dis)confirmation between imagined (i.e. expected) and experienced scents.

Scent name familiarity stimulates olfactory imagery formation. Scent brand name specificity (e.g. “Lavender Bouquet” vs. “Floral Bouquet”) influences purchase intention, with specific names leading to lower purchase intention, because they generate vivid olfactory imagery and induce a disconfirmation between imagined and experienced scents.

Branding scents on products should be a strategic product design decision. Surprisingly, although specific scent brand names trigger vivid olfactory imagery and precise scent expectations, they mitigate purchase intention and thus are riskier. General scent brand names are safer.

This research contributes by extending the literature on the effect of verbal cues on scent perception by considering the role of scent brand name specificity on purchase intent. It also adds to work on how olfactory imagery influences purchase intention by incorporating olfactory imagery vividness. Finally, it proposes and tests an underlying cognitive mechanism to explain the relationship between scent brand names and purchase intention.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the list of boundary factors which impact consumer evaluation of ambient scenting. More specifically, this study aims at demonstrating that pre-informing about the scenting measure, the particular environment in which the scenting takes place and the disposition of persuasion knowledge are necessary variables to be considered for achieving positive evaluations.

A field experiment was carried out in a local grocery store (a “pay-now” environment) and in a medical therapy centre (a “pre-paid” environment, n=200). The paper draws on the theoretical concept of spreading activation, the consumer decision process and the persuasion knowledge model. Data were analysed by using ANOVA and moderated regression analysis.

Consumers evaluated the scenting as more favourable when having been pre-informed about the marketing measure. Consumers were also more in favour of ambient scents in the usage-oriented, pre-paid service environment than in the purchase-oriented, pay-now store environment. Persuasion knowledge moderated the relationship between environment and evaluation of ambient scenting.

As important research implication, the role of customers’ pre-information, environment and persuasion knowledge as boundary factors for scent marketing interventions is supported. These results can inform retailers how best to proceed in scent marketing. Future research could extend the present results with various informational measures and in different pre-paid and pay-now environments and experiment with different scents.

The results speak for pre-informing customers and using scents particularly in pre-paid environments, such as medical therapy centres. For customers with a higher level of persuasion knowledge, pre-information and a fitting environment are particularly advisable.

This paper adds important insight to scent marketing literature by addressing additional boundary factors which so far have been neglected. Methodologically, it differentiates itself by employing a field experiment, which offers higher external validity than laboratory experiments which are frequently used in scent research.

The intangible character of services makes it difficult for customers to evaluate a service offering before consumption. Scent offers a powerful means of making services tangible. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of how scents can be used for services marketing purposes.

The paper presents an overview of studies, mainly from the area of retailing, indicating how scents can be used in services, and this is followed by a number of examples of such applications.

The paper finds that, although there are examples of service providers utilising scents to tangibilise, enhance and differentiate services, this area has been relatively neglected in marketing literature.

By adding the component of scent to their offerings, service providers have the opportunity to create a competitive advantage. When using scents in services marketing, managers should consider the aspects of presence, pleasantness, congruity and memory of scents.

No other paper with a specific focus on scent as a tangibiliser, enhancer and differentiator of services has been found in marketing literature. This paper provides important insights into the use of scents for services marketing purposes.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of scent congruence with the brand image in the formation of consumers’ reactions to the atmosphere of a place.

Using a factorial design (i.e. scent congruent with the brand image, scent not congruent and control), an experiment was conducted in a multi-service and hospitality space welcoming both local consumers and tourists (N = 303).

The findings show that when the scent is perceived as congruent with the brand image, reactions in the store are more favourable. It is not enough to use a scent that “smells good” or that is congruent with other factors (e.g. sensory environment); the scent must be perceived by consumers as consistent with the brand image. Findings also reveal that the diffusion of a scent congruent with the brand image improves guest satisfaction, intention to revisit and perceptions of the product and service.

The limitations are both the emphasis on direct links and the focus on a French brand (café/co-working space franchise). It would be appropriate to extend the research to other contexts.

The findings show how important it is for hospitality organisations to use scents to generate a positive impact on their guests. Hotel, restaurant and café managers wishing to enhance customer reactions through the creation of an olfactory atmosphere should take scent congruence with the brand image into consideration.

The study of the effects of the atmosphere on consumer behaviour as a function of olfactory congruence with the brand image uses in-situ experimentation (café/co-working and food and beverage area).

This research aims to examine the conditions under which individuals’ olfaction is actively engaged in purchase decisions. Consequently, it introduces the concept of need for smell (NFS) to measure differential motivation for the extraction and use of odor information in buying contexts. A ten-item NFS scale was developed that consists of hedonic and utilitarian dimensions.

The scale’s dimensionality and construct validity were examined in five studies. The moderating role of NFS and the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between odor perception and consumer responses were examined. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses and customized PROCESS models.

The results show that NFS is a two-dimensional construct. The results further support the scale’s internal structure as well as its reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. NFS moderates the relationship between odor perception and consumer responses, and emotions mediate this relationship. While hedonic NFS strengthens the impact of odor perception on consumer responses, utilitarian NFS weakens this effect.

The present research extends Krishna’s sensory marketing framework, De Luca and Botelho’s scent research framework and Herz et al.’s scent benefits framework, by introducing the concept of NFS into these frameworks. The study demonstrates the relevance and functionality of NFS construct and NFS scale. The study extends the consumer scent research by introducing NFS and illustrating the interplay of odor perception and NFS on consumer responses to scent stimuli.

The NFS scale used in this study adds to the genre of individual difference scales such as need for cognition and need for touch. Given its smell-specific focus, it has applications in a range of consumption contexts. Using NFS, marketers could effectively identify low and high hedonic and utilitarian NFS consumers and position product or ambient scents to serve these segments better. The NFS scale also has implications for the areas of product and service design and development, consumer information search, brand judgments and choice preferences in both scented and non-scented environments.

This work is one of the first attempts, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explain motivational differences in active engagement of olfaction, especially in purchase decisions. As a critical step in exploring olfactory information processing, the study demonstrates the relevance and functionality of NFS construct and NFS scale. The study extends the consumer scent research by introducing NFS and illustrating the interplay of odor perception and NFS on consumer responses to scent stimuli.

This meta-analysis aims to examine and compare the pleasant ambient scent effects on consumers’ affective, cognitive and behavioural responses in the retail and hospitality sectors.

55 articles, including 102 effect sizes, are collected from electronic databases and search engines. The effect of pleasant ambient scents on consumer responses is examined using meta-regression analysis.

The results show a positive effect of pleasant ambient scent on all responses in both sectors, while the effects on cognitive and behavioural responses are stronger in hospitality than retailing. Moreover, the scent effects in hospitality research vary with method aspects, including sampling frame, research design, setting and location.

The findings provide theoretical insights on the sensory tangibilization of experience and methodological insights on designing scent research.

The stronger effect of pleasant ambient scents on cognitive and behavioural responses in a hospitality environment signals that contextual differences should not be neglected. Moreover, hospitality researchers need to stay vigilant to the methodological influence on the findings about scent effects. These findings enrich the sensory marketing literature, in which contextual comparison is scarce.

This research aims to uncover consumers' deeply hidden thoughts and feelings about store scent and its effects on shopping experiences.

Following a qualitative approach, this research uses Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET). All the steps of the ZMET have been performed, and important constructs and contents have been explored.

Ultimately, a hierarchical value map was presented. Accordingly, the naturalness and intensity of the scent played a prominent part in its effectiveness. The pleasantness and complexity of the scent, the malodor, congruity and incongruity of the scent, as well as nostalgia, were seen as the predominant originator constructs that resulted in approach or avoidance reactions.

These findings have practical implications for managers seeking to design a store atmospherics making way for consumers to engage with the store and the brand. The cultural milieu in which the study was performed could be seen as a possible limitation of the study. This cultural angle should also be taken into consideration while the findings were considered.

Using ZMET as an innovative research method makes the study significant. By doing so, the metaphors of consumption are extended to the sensory marketing field to provide a more comprehensive understanding on the effects of store scent. Moreover, the study contributes to the existing literature of smell marketing.

The purpose of this paper is evaluate to what extent consumers can recognise a scent within a context that is congruent either with the product or with the user, respectively, objects’ quality or subjects’ involvement.

This paper consists of two experimental studies. The first study assesses people’s capacity to recognise three scents: leather, synthetic leather, and fabric. The second study assesses the way in which a frame of reference (quality or involvement) affects people’s capacity for scent recognition (leather and fabric).

Results confirm the difficulty of scent recognition revealing, in the first study, a low level of consistency in subjects’ responses. The second study shows an interaction between the type of scent and consumers’ framework: subjects who are primed to think about product quality present more accurate scent recognition when they smell leather, whereas subjects who are primed to think about themselves present more accurate scent recognition when they smell fabric.

These results can be used in brand communication. A scent, such as that of leather, should highlight quality attributes in its communication. If the product is unscented, communication should highlight the subject who uses the product.

Previous studies show the importance of the consistency between scent and product marketing strategies. This study complements these findings by differentiating the context where a scent is presented considering either the product (the object’s quality attributes) or the individual who uses that product (subject’s involvement).

Este estudio evalúa en qué medida los consumidores pueden reconocer un aroma en un contexto congruente con el producto o con el usuario, respectivamente, calidad del objeto o involucramiento del sujeto.

Este artículo consiste en dos estudios experimentales. El primero evalúa la capacidad de los individuos para reconocer tres aromas: cuero, cuero sintético y tela. El segundo estudio evalúa de qué forma un contexto de referencia (calidad o involucramiento) influye en la capacidad para reconocer un aroma (cuero y tela).

Los resultados confirman la dificultad para el reconocimiento del aroma mostrando, en el primer estudio, un bajo nivel de consistencia en las respuestas de los sujetos. El segundo estudio muestra una interacción entre el tipo de aroma y el contexto de los consumidores: Sujetos que se les induce a pensar en la calidad del producto tienen un reconocimiento del aroma más acertado cuando huelen cuero; mientras que sujetos que se inducen a pensar en sí mismos tienen un reconocimiento del aroma más acertado cuando huelen tela.

Los resultados pueden ser utilizados en la comunicación de la marca. Un aroma, como el del cuero, deberá destacar en la comunicación atributos de calidad. Si el producto no tiene aroma, la comunicación debe destacar el sujeto que usa el producto.

Estudios previos señalan la importancia de la consistencia entre el aroma y las estrategias de mercadeo de un producto. Este estudio complementa estos hallazgos diferenciando el contexto en el que se presenta un aroma considerando el producto (atributos de calidad del objeto) o el individuo quien lo usa (involucramiento del sujeto).

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.

Retail marketing is in the midst of an evolution. The paradigm is shifting from a product-centric to a consumer-centric focus, with a particular emphasis on understanding how consumers transition from harboring an interest in a product to actually purchasing that product. In response, shopper marketing, and in-store marketing (ISM) in particular, have emerged as important mechanisms to influence shopper behavior in brick & mortar and online retail environments. The academic literature is replete with work on what factors of ISM influence shopper behavior. In this chapter, we categorize prominent streams of findings on ISM into firm, customer, competitor and product characteristics of ISM and examine how the notion of a “store” is evolving from bricks to clicks – namely from physical formats to online shopping experiences. Insights from this chapter will help retailers and store managers identify what their customers respond to within a physical store, how technology is changing the way they can capture information on customers, and how shopper behavior is evolving in response to brick & mortar and online retail environments.