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The purpose of this paper is to figure out the impacts of soft innovation in the city hotels in general, whereas the focus is on figuring out if there exists a difference in vitality on the components of soft innovation among the hotel categories, as 4 stars, 5 stars and boutique hotels in Izmir, Turkey.

The first part is related to a detailed literature review on the soft innovation components as color, sound, light, scent and decoration. Literature review is followed by a qualitative research where expert information on the research topic is collected. Judgmental sampling is used to identify experts’ views where in-depth semi-structured interviews are conducted with 12 hotel managers in Izmir city. The soft innovation hotel application areas taken into consideration are: lobby and reception, rooms, restaurant, bar and ballroom areas, meeting and congress halls, SPA and pools, gardens and landscape and other exterior hotel architecture.

The findings of the research reveal the sample hotel managers’ views as all the soft innovation applications are important for all city hotels regardless of their category, meaning that soft innovation may lead to better marketing results. Thus, according to hotel managers, soft innovation offerings have a potential for better customer satisfaction as positive feedback. However, the vitality degree among components changes according to the hotel’s category. For boutique hotels the most important component is found to be the decoration of the hotel, whereas for 4 stars hotels it is light and for 5 stars hotels it is scent.

The results of this study give relatively limited information because only managers’ point of view are shown. In the research, customers’ perceptions on soft innovation based interviews with the top management of the hotels studied takes place, indicating which may not be the case to reflect the real perception of customers. Therefore, for further researches, it is recommended for the other researches to take into consideration of customers’ point of views as well. Also, time limitation, sample size and application of only qualitative research may be stated as the limitations for this study. Quantitative research applies to customers on the same topic and problem statement is recommended for further studies related to city hotels’ soft innovation applications.

Motivation of this study is to understand how soft innovation can change hotels’ atmosphere and make it more attractive from the managers’ perceptions. According to hotel managers’ views, soft innovation applications may lead to higher customer satisfaction, but the level of investment among the components may change according to the city hotel’s category. Research implications indicate that hotel managers may optimize the effectiveness of their soft innovation efforts by taking into consideration their hotel type, application areas and innovation category as decoration, color, scent, sound and light. According to hotel managers, decoration-related soft innovation is more important to boutique hotels, lighting-related soft innovation is an effective investment for 4 stars hotels and scent-related soft innovation is a suitable investment for 5 stars hotels.

The originality of the study lies in the analysis of the components of soft innovation as a means for effective city hotel marketing and innovative management applications. Though it is a very suitable industry for implementation, improvement and development, there are limited studies on soft innovation applications in the hotel industry.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the effect of age, gender and education level on customer evaluations of store atmospheric attributes (colour, lighting type, musical genre/tempo/volume, circulation area, lighting, climatic conditions, ambient scent and cleanliness) in the context of retail furniture stores.

To that end, a questionnaire was administered to 273 customers who shopped at furniture stores in the Siteler district of Ankara. The reliability coefficients of the data were defined based on their percentage values. Then, to examine the effect of age, gender and education level on customer evaluations of store atmospheric attributes, the appropriate χ2 analysis was applied.

Significant differences in customer evaluations of store atmospheric attributes emerged based on age, gender and education level. Based on those results, certain store atmospheric attributes (colour, lighting type, musical genre/tempo/volume) preferred by customers were suggested to enhance the design of furniture stores. In addition, the store’s circulation area, lighting, climatic conditions, ambient scent and cleanliness were found to have a significant impact on the duration of customer visits to furniture stores.

The study scientifically assessed the effects of age, gender and education on the perceptions of customers in terms of ambient atmosphere. Application of these findings to store design should have positive effects on the willingness of customers to remain in the store and should positively affect their shopping decisions.

Retailers increasingly experiment with a wide variety of store elements; this chapter focuses on in-store marketing tactics and reports the results of 12 in-store experiments conducted in cooperation with different retail chains. Experiments 1–3 address in-store signage (digital, floor) and reveal that digital screens and signage can draw customers toward merchandise and deeper into shopping aisles. Experiments 4–6 explore the impact of the organization of a display (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, waterfall) and generally demonstrate the superiority of vertical organizations of merchandise. In Experiments 7–9, results pertaining to the location of a product in a store highlight the importance of placing merchandise at eye level. With Experiments 10 and 11, the authors reinforce the importance of retail atmospherics (scent, lighting). Finally, Experiment 12 explores product placement and other factors that can enhance the effectiveness of in-store merchandise demonstrations.

The presented research aims to depict shoppers' touching behaviour in relation to the introduction of visual and olfactory sensory cues at point‐of‐purchase in a retail setting. In the field of retailing research, there is a paucity of knowledge on how visual and olfactory sensory cues impact on consumers' touch behaviour.

The author presents a review of theoretically relevant work from retailing and consumer psychology, and an original study examining the impact of visual and olfactory sensory cues on consumer touch behaviour. The study was a field experiment in the glass department of the Swedish retailer IKEA. The design was quasi‐experimental with a convenience sample of shoppers assigned to a control group (n=451) and an experimental group (n=435).

In the reported study, the author finds significant differences between shoppers' touching behaviour in a manipulated point‐of‐purchase compared to a conventional one. The findings show that visual and olfactory sensory cues have a positive impact on shoppers' touching behaviour, purchase intentions and total sale.

The findings demonstrate that sensory cues exert a positive impact on consumers' desire to touch. Sensory cues frame consumers' affective responses and decision making through involving the sense of touch.

The findings provide guidelines for managers of retail and service outlets, concerning the benefits of sensory cues in enhancing shoppers' touching behaviour at point‐of‐purchase.

The research demonstrates that the introduction of visual and olfactory sensory cues impact consumers' touch behaviour at point‐of‐purchase in a retail setting.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce the concept of associated scents for retail stores that are normally odourless, and provide an understanding of how associated scent can be used by these non‐scented retailers to influence shopper behaviour and the appeal of the store.

The study involves both an experiment and a field study. The experiment is design to see if scents that have been identify as associated with different store types differed in their influence on behaviour and affect from scents that are not associated with the store. The field study involves an actual store where scent is manipulated, with an associated scent during one period, and a non‐associated yet pleasant scent present during another period. Customer perceptions of the store are measured, their purchase behaviour is measured, and actual year‐on‐year weekly sales are compared.

Previous studies have suggested that simply having a pleasant scent present can enhance liking for the store and encourage positive sales behaviour, however, this study shows that for a store that is normally odourless, the scent needs to have a perceived association with the store‐type to gain positive responses. Presence of a pleasant but non‐associated scent can actually lead to negative affective or behavioural responses.

An important research implication is that the association of a non product‐specific scent with a particular (normally odourless) store might mean that encountering that scent elsewhere may trigger in the person thoughts of the store, which further research could show to be a motivator for visiting the store. Another implication is the need to identify best performing associated scents, and whether a retailer through a marketing campaign can create an artificial association, thus gaining a unique, sustainable competitive advantage.

Because it is expected, the naturally scented store (e.g. the florist or bakery) gains no competitive advantage through the use of scent, but this study shows managers of normally odourless stores that they can gain a competitive advantage in their category through the identification and use of scent customers would associate with the store‐type. Furthermore, because the store is not stuck with the scent, unlike the naturally scented stores, and because there may even be multiple associated scents, managers can vary the use of scent so that desensitisation can be mitigated.

The paper introduces for the first time to the literature the concept of associated scents for stores, and demonstrates the managerial value that use of an associated scent in a normally odourless store can have with regard to enhanced shopper behaviour and liking for the store.

The aims of this paper are to establish: a typical women's apparel store environment as a realistic base for measuring the effects of changes; effective environmental stimuli levels; and the effect of repeated exposure on affect.

A schema of typical stimuli is developed through literature, observing 212 stores, and surveying 39 women's fashion retail GMs. An experiment (n=489) establishes the set of stimuli and effective levels for creating affect for a women's fashion store. Shoppers (n=62) were repeatedly exposed to combinations of the two sets (industry standard and “ideal”) to examine whether decay in affect occurs, and whether changes can mitigate this.

Interactions between sensory stimuli have a significant effect on fashion shoppers’ affect for a store. Fashion retailers are less differentiated in their use of sensory stimuli than they could be to achieve the responses they expect. Stagnation from repeated exposure can diminish affect for the store whereas small changes in stimuli levels can revitalise and increase affect.

A model of sensory stimuli‐based relationships with shopper affect should incorporate interactions. Empirically, different stimuli can easily be added or substituted within a dimension to test its effect within a factorial design. A model of fashion store atmosphere is likely to require a mediating influence of repeated exposure.

It is worthwhile getting the “correct” package of stimuli for a fashion store's atmosphere. This does not necessarily require wholesale changes; rather small changes in stimuli level can enhance a store.

The paper presents the only study to use a holistic approach to store atmosphere and base effectiveness measures against the fashion industry norm, and consider the effect of repeated exposure.

The existence of retail spaces lies far back in history. However, retail design as an academic field of work is relatively recent and available for development. The common points and differences between commercial spaces and retail spaces, as well as the relationship between private and public spaces, require academic attention from a retail perspective. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the academic knowledge on retail design by interpreting retail spaces according to their relationship with their surroundings and their way of defining borders.

The focal point of the paper lies on a case study based on built examples of retail spaces in Turkey. An actual perspective, along with the historical background of retail design, provides the theoretical framework of the study, as the term “border” is being interpreted according to encountered restrictions and intentions throughout the retail design process.

The case study conducted in the scope of this paper has shown that borders are an important component in retail design and they are affected by various factors like the limitations of the surroundings and atmospheric tools such as colours, lighting, sound or scent.

Although there are existing studies on retail design from various perspectives, the interpretation of retail spaces in relationship with their borders is missing in academic literature. This paper provides a definition of borders in retail design including the elements that describe them and the knowledge of borders according to different corporate tendencies.

This study provides insights into the most salient elements of the Costa Rican bar servicescape/barscape (atmosphere). This is done qualitatively via six focus groups, six expert interviews, and six on-site observations. Results indicate that servicescape elements traditionally covered by the literature are of secondary importance. Participants instead emphasized social elements (other patrons, staff), supplemented by ambience elements (music, lighting, colors, noise, air, odors, scents). Moreover, the underlying socialization interest steered ambience preferences. Results support the increasingly important social servicescape notion. Generalizing traditionally studied servicescape elements across cultures and hospitality settings, as conventionally done, may result suboptimal. Commonalities might exist. However, research should be specifically contextualized to gain more nuanced servicescape understandings. Relating servicescape preferences to macro, meso, and micro considerations further enhances how servicescapes are understood. This study is the first to explore Latin-American barscapes. Notably, it expressly links servicescape preferences to patronage motives. It thereby uncovers why certain servicescape elements become important.

This paper aims to identify antecedents that influence perceived cleanliness by consulting experts and end-users in the field of facilities management (facility service providers, clients of facility service providers and consultants). Business models were evaluated to understand why some antecedents are adopted by practitioners and others are not.

A qualitative study, with end-users (n = 7) and experts (n = 24) in the field of facilities management, was carried out to identify antecedents of perceived cleanliness. Following the Delphi approach, different research methods including interviews, group discussions and surveys were applied.

Actual cleanliness, cleaning staff behaviour and the appearance of the environment were identified as the three main antecedents of perceived cleanliness. Client organisations tend to have a stronger focus on antecedents that are not related to the cleaning process compared to facility service providers.

More (visible) cleaning, maintenance, toilets, scent, architecture and use of materials offer interesting starting points for practitioners to positively influence perceived cleanliness. These antecedents may also be used for the development of a standard for perceived cleanliness.

A basis was created for the development of an instrument that measures perceived cleanliness and includes antecedents that are typically not included in most of the current standards of actual cleanliness (e.g. NEN 2075, ISSA).

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.