Sensory and Luxury
1. Introduction
Background
The competition within the retail industry enters a white-hot stage. In order to please customers, retailers are using variable methods to strive for market share. Some goes for big advertising investment, attractive campaigns and non-stop promotions. When these are not enough, increasing customer added-value by providing pleasant shopping experience becomes a useful way for retailers to differentiate themselves and provide a unique brand experience. In other words, creating pleasant physical environment where customers enjoy coming to (Georges Olivereau in Engel 2010), plays a vital part in determining customers‟ satisfactions, their visit duration and intention to revisit the store (Turley and Fugate 1992).
Based on this, a new marketing technique, sensory marketing, has emerged, which stimulates the five senses of human (visual, sound, scent, touch and taste). In this paper we are defining sensory marketing according to the definition of Expressens (2011): a mean not an end in itself, which enable retailers to reenchant consumption, and provide of long term sensory mark on the customer.
Problems
As described in the background, retailers are increasingly conscious of the importance of their store atmosphere. Surprisingly, only a handful of them are using complete sensory marketing. The question is why? Furthermore, very few academic researches have been conducted on the subject to guide retailers in the management of their store environment. There is an obvious research gap between the call of some scholars and the studies conducted: Bitner (1992) suggests that “it is important to recognize that the dimensions of the environment […] as a holistic pattern of interdependent stimuli”. Similarly, Harris and Ezeh (2008) state that
“customers respond to the environments in a holistic manner”. This concern is also stressed by Lee and Brand
(2005) who propose that studies of the relationships between environmental
Background
The competition within the retail industry enters a white-hot stage. In order to please customers, retailers are using variable methods to strive for market share. Some goes for big advertising investment, attractive campaigns and non-stop promotions. When these are not enough, increasing customer added-value by providing pleasant shopping experience becomes a useful way for retailers to differentiate themselves and provide a unique brand experience. In other words, creating pleasant physical environment where customers enjoy coming to (Georges Olivereau in Engel 2010), plays a vital part in determining customers‟ satisfactions, their visit duration and intention to revisit the store (Turley and Fugate 1992).
Based on this, a new marketing technique, sensory marketing, has emerged, which stimulates the five senses of human (visual, sound, scent, touch and taste). In this paper we are defining sensory marketing according to the definition of Expressens (2011): a mean not an end in itself, which enable retailers to reenchant consumption, and provide of long term sensory mark on the customer.
Problems
As described in the background, retailers are increasingly conscious of the importance of their store atmosphere. Surprisingly, only a handful of them are using complete sensory marketing. The question is why? Furthermore, very few academic researches have been conducted on the subject to guide retailers in the management of their store environment. There is an obvious research gap between the call of some scholars and the studies conducted: Bitner (1992) suggests that “it is important to recognize that the dimensions of the environment […] as a holistic pattern of interdependent stimuli”. Similarly, Harris and Ezeh (2008) state that
“customers respond to the environments in a holistic manner”. This concern is also stressed by Lee and Brand
(2005) who propose that studies of the relationships between environmental