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Understanding

Consumer Behavior and Consumption Experience

Rajagopal

EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, México

Raquel Castaño

EGADE Business School, Tecnológico de Monterrey, México

A volume in the Advances in Marketing, Customer

Relationship Management, and E-Services (AMCRMES)

Book Services

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Copyright©2015, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited

Chapter 1

Sensory Marketing

INTRODUCTION

Passengers boarding Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner are in for a very different ride that they

may be used to when flying the world skies. As soon as they step through the cabin door,

they will realize that this is an airplane designed to please the senses. High vaulted ceilings,

adaptable LED lighting, and larger windows with electric dimming capabilities create a

visually spacious and comfortable cabin. A new air filtration system removes contaminants

and odors, letting consumers breathe clean, fresh air. A quieter air conditioning system,

sound-deadening materials in the walls and ceiling, and new engine components

significantly reduce noise and improve sound quality in the cabin. Even interior equipment

is specifically intended to reduce squeaks. Softer plastics and materials enfold passengers in

their seats. Finally, the in-flight entertainment system provides on-demand audiovisual

content to every seat.

Boeing is not alone among marketers in appealing to consumers’ senses to help their

products stand out in a crowded marketplace. An increasing number of managers are using

the sensory qualities of their products and retail spaces to connect their brands and products

with consumers. These efforts leverage the ability of sensations to influence moods, form

product memories, and build brand attachments in order to increase sales. Such efforts can

be described as sensory marketing, which is defined as “marketing that engages the

consumers’ senses and affects their perception, judgment and behavior”; it represents the

application of sensation and perception principles to the field of marketing (Krishna, 2012).

Over the past three decades, consumer researchers have begun to explore the roles of

sensation and perception in consumer behaviors. These two intricately related concepts

refer to different stages of sensory processing. Sensation, which is primarily a physical

process, occurs when environmental stimuli (e.g., light) reach the sensory organs (e.g.,

eyes) and stimulate the receptor cells in these organs. Perception, on the other hand, is the

understanding or interpretation of the environmental information obtained through the

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senses. In other words, in perceiving stimuli, consumers draw from their experiences,

learning and memory to interpret the information they receive through their senses. This

distinction is important, because it suggests that consumers may not perceive marketing

stimuli exactly as they are presented in the environment.

A good way to understand this difference is to think of visual illusions, in which what

people “see” does not necessarily correspond to the actual features of an image or object.

Consumers have learned through experience that certain things “look” a certain way; thus,

when they encounter these things, they see what they have learned to expect rather what is

actually shown. Consumer perception is a complex process that is affected by the

characteristics of the individual consumer (knowledge, interests and experiences),

characteristics of the stimulus (the features of the stimulus itself), and the context (the

setting in which the stimulus is found). Sensation and perception are automatic processes

that, to a large extent, occur outside of conscious awareness. Although research suggests

that there are multiple sensory systems, this chapter will focus on the traditional

classification of the five senses – touch (also known as haptics), smell, taste, hearing and

vision – as they have broad applications in marketing. Research on sensation and

perception contains important insights for marketing managers. Because complete product

information is desirable but seldom available before purchase and consumption, consumers

make inferences about the quality and performance of a product on the basis of sensory

cues such as appearance, shape, sound, smell, taste, and texture, as well as other product

cues perceived through the senses such as brand, price, or package. Thus, sensory cues are

important in consumer evaluations and decision making.

One important cue from which consumers derive information and make inferences

about a product is its package. Packaging not only protects the product but also conveys

important information about the product and its positioning. In fact, the package has

become an important point of differentiation for many consumer products. Firms and

consumers are increasingly interested in the sensory and aesthetic features of product

packages. This chapter will also discuss recent research on the influences packaging can

have on consumer behaviors. Some of this research has used sophisticated brain imaging

technology to explore how consumers react to the attractiveness of product packages.

It is important to note that sensory cues can influence consumer behavior through both

conscious and unconscious mechanisms. The sensory cues consumers perceive in their

environment outside of their awareness can also have effects on their minds. Unconscious

consumer processes constitute both an interesting area of recent research and an

opportunity for managers to develop marketing strategies based on consumers’ non-

conscious perceptions of stimuli. This chapter will illustrate how insights from research on

sensory cues and unconscious processes can help managers develop effective marketing

strategies based on the five senses. The chapter will close with a set of rules for managerial

action. Overall, this chapter is intended to provide managerial guidance on the basis of

recent research findings on perception and consumption processes.

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1. EFFECTS OF SENSORY CUES

As mentioned before, this chapter will focus on the traditional classification of the five

senses: touch—also known as haptics—smell, taste, hearing and vision.

Touch

Interest in how the touch properties of objects affect consumers has been growing in recent

years. Because the skin is the largest organ in humans, the sense of touch is very important

for consumers, who perceive a wide array of stimuli through touch. Touching not only

allows for the active manipulation of objects but also, in an interpersonal context, has also

been shown to affect attitudes and behaviors. Research on airline passengers has found that

being touched on the shoulder or forearm by a flight attendant increases passengers’ liking

of the flight attendant, liking of the airline in general, and feeling of safety while flying

(Wycoff & Holley, 1990).

As a form of direct experience with a product, touch has been found to play a role in

product evaluation (Peck & Childers, 2003). Consumers prefer to buy products from

vendors who allow them to touch their products, especially when touch characteristics are

important to evaluate a product through information that cannot be obtained visually

(McCabe & Nowlis, 2003). This is particularly important when touch sensations are

diagnostic of a product’s quality or performance (e.g., textiles and clothing). In fact,

research shows that attitude and purchase intentions are significantly more influenced by

tactile information than by visual information. For example, consumers in one experiment

expressed stronger unfavorable feelings when they were not allowed to touch the product

than when their vision of the product was blocked. Also, findings from the same study

suggest that visual cues and tactile information may interact and have additive effects on

product evaluation (Balaji, Raghavan, & Jha, 2011).

Consumer preference for touching products has become more relevant with the

increasing frequency of Internet shopping, which does not allow consumers to touch

products before purchasing them. The concept of virtual touch, refers to the sense of touch

that consumers perceive in a virtual product experience online. Providing consumers with a

“simulated touching experience” could have effects on consumers’ evaluation of and

intention to buy a product (Demirci, 2007).

Smell

The human sense of smell can identify around 10,000 different scents (Buck & Axel,

1991). Of the five senses, the sense of smell is the most closely related to emotion and

memory, because olfactory organs are structurally linked to the regions of the brain that

process emotions and memory (Herz & Engen, 1996). Thus, scent information is more

emotional, more easily remembered recalled, and stored longer in memory than information

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from other senses (Herz, 2004). This suggests that scents can be powerful cues to help

consumers learn and remember products and experiences. In marketing, smells have been

used mainly in two ways: to create an association with a product and to create an

atmosphere or ambiance in a place.

Product scent can increase memory for product information. In one experiment,

consumers received a pencil imbued with a pine scent, a tea tree scent, or no scent, along

with a list of ten attributes of the pencil. Consumers who received the scented pencils could

recall more attributes two weeks later than consumers who received the unscented pencils

(Krishna, Lwin, & Morrin, 2010). In addition, scent is more powerful when it is congruent

with the product. For instance, consumers evaluated a suntan lotion with a coconut scent

more positively than a suntan lotion with a lemon scent, because the former was perceived

as more congruent (Bone & Jantrania, 1992).Furthermore, imagining a scent can enhance

consumers’ evaluations, and even influence physiological responses, such as salivating, and

actual consumption when imagining a fresh baked cookie. (Krishna, Morrin & Sayin,

2014). This effect can be significantly increased by pairing the scent with a visual image.

In contrast to product scent, ambient scent does not originate from a product; instead, it

is present in the environment of a specific location (Spangenberg, Crowley, & Henderson,

1996). Research indicates that scents can influence cognition, affective responses and even

behaviors. Studies of the effect of ambient scent have shown that scents can have a number

of positive effects. Ambient scents can improve recall and recognition of both familiar and

unfamiliar brands (Morrin & Ratneshwar, 2003). Neutral or pleasant scents can improve

consumers’ store and product evaluations, can make consumers feel they have spent less

time in the store (Spangenberg et al., 1996), and can influence consumers’ intentions to

visit and return to a store (Bone & Ellen, 1999). Under some conditions in a shopping mall

environment, pleasant scents have been found to improve shoppers’ perceptions of the

retail environment and, indirectly, product quality (Michon, Chebat, & Turley, 2005). A

study in a dance club found that pleasant scents (orange, seawater or peppermint) used to

mask unwanted odors enhanced dancing activity and improved evaluations of both the

music and the evening (Schifferstein, Talke, & Oudshoorn, 2011).

Scents can also increase the amount time spent on a decision task (Bone and Ellen

1999) and the amount of time spent shopping. For example, one study found that

consumers spent more time shopping, but did not buy more, in a scented store

(Spangenberg et al., 1996). Other studies have found that ambient scents may influence

purchasing behaviors. For example, gamblers in a casino spent more at slot machines when

the casinos were infused with a pleasant scent (Hirsch, 1995). Another experiment tested a

lavender scent, a lemon scent or no odor diffused in a restaurant and showed that the

lavender scent increased both the time spent and the amount purchased (Guéguen & Petr,

2006).

Because consumers generally use product and environmental cues as information, the

congruency of the scent and the product or the environment in which the product is offered

seems to be important. Scents that are consistent with the product tend to produce improved

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product evaluations, whereas scents that are incongruent tend to have a negative effect

(e.g., Bosmans, 2006). Moreover, retail stores commonly have separated areas for feminine

and masculine categories of products. Gender-based scent congruity can improve

consumers’ evaluations of the store in regard to selection, style, quality and prices; and the

time consumers spend at the store (Spangenberg et al., 2006).

Hearing

Sound refers to the small vibrations in the air caused by speech, music, and other noises

that are detected by the auditory system. Sound is ubiquitous in marketing communications;

it is an important dimension of brands, products, advertising and retail environments.

Sound symbolism, or the meaning we attach to sounds, is an important factor in how

consumers interpret brand names. Consumers use information from the sound of brand

names to infer product attributes and evaluate brands. For example, one study found that an

ice cream with the brand name Frosh was perceived as richer, smoother and creamier than

the same ice cream with the brand name Frish (Yorkston & Menon, 2004). Furthermore,

homophones can serve to prime behaviors in consumers. For example, when consumers’

cognitive resources are busy: the word “bye” (homophone to “buy”) can lead to a higher

willingness to pay; “right” leads to more words written; and “phew!” resulted in predicting

saving less money (Davis & Herr, 2014).

The sound a product makes can also impact consumer evaluations and the benefits

consumers derive from the product. For example, the sound certain foods like carrots and

chips make when they are consumed influences consumers’ evaluations of their quality and

freshness (Zampini & Spence, 2005). Moreover, music that has been categorized as bitter

(or sweet) played in the background can alter the bitterness (or sweetness) of food while

being sampled (Crisinel et al., 2012).

Music used in marketing-related contexts is capable of producing affective and

behavioral responses in consumers (Gorn, Pham & Sin, 2001). Research has found that

varying musical elements (e.g., mode, tempo, pitch, rhythm, harmony, or volume) can non-

consciously alter affective states (e.g., happiness, sadness, or amusement; Bruner, 1990).

Moreover, music influences how a product is evaluated depending on the available

resources that the consumers have to process the information and their level of need for

cognition (Zhu & Meyers-Levy, 2005). For example, consumers will evaluate a travel

agency higher in the dependable and hassle-free dimensions if the ad is easy to process and

the music is sedative (vs energetic; Zhu & Meyers-Levy, 2005).

Background music in retail settings can also influence consumer perceptions and

behaviors. The mere presence of music can have a positive effect on store patronage as well

as consumers’ feelings of pleasure. In addition, music can influence consumers to select

certain products, particularly when it is perceived as congruent with the target product. For

example, playing French or German music has been shown to have a positive effect on

sales of French and German wines, respectively (North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1999),

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and classical music has been shown to induce customers to purchase more expensive wines

compared to Top 40 music (Areni & Kim, 1993). Music can also influence shopping and

consumption pace. Slow-tempo, low-volume, and more familiar music lead consumers to

stay longer than high-tempo, high-volume or less familiar music (Garlin & Owen, 2006).

For example, one study found that supermarket shoppers shopped longer and moved more

slowly through the store when slow-tempo music was played than when fast-tempo music

was played (Milliman, 1982). In another study, when slow-tempo background music was

played in a restaurant, customers stayed longer and consumed more alcoholic beverages

(Milliman 1986). Research has also found that consumers spend more time and more

money in a store (Herrington, 1996) or restaurant (Caldwell & Hibbert, 2002) when they

like the music that is being played. Also, when consumers enjoy the music, they feel they

have spent less time shopping (Yalch & Spangenberg, 2000) and have a more positive

emotional response to waiting (Hui, Dube, & Chebat, 1997). Music is likely to have its

greatest behavioral effect when consumers have high affective and/or low cognitive

involvement with the product (Bruner 1990).

Taste

The sense of taste provides information mainly about the food and beverages we consume.

Eating is one of life’s great pleasures for many consumers, and food holds an important

place in modern society. Flavor is the combination of taste, smell, touch, and trigeminal

(mechanical, thermal, chemical or pain; e.g., the slight irritation caused by chili) sensations,

as well as visual and auditory cues (Auvray & Spence, 2008). As a result, most research in

this area has focused on how interactions among the senses affect taste perceptions, and a

common finding is that taste perceptions are highly susceptible to other sensory cues. Taste

perceptions of a food item can be affected by its smell, texture, consistency and temperature

and the sound it makes when eaten.

Product attributes, such as color, brand name, labeling, or packaging, can also influence

the experience of taste. For example, consumers often misidentify the flavor of drinks when

the coloring is inappropriate, relying more on the color than on the taste of the drink to

identify the flavor. In one experiment, only 20% of participants correctly identified the

flavor of a drink when its color was not visible, and 26% of participants reported that a

cherry-flavored drink tasted of lemon/lime when it was colored green (DuBose, Cardello, &

Maller, 1980).

2. NON-CONSCIOUS PROCESSES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Imagine the following scenario: You are at the grocery store buying groceries for the week.

You are exposed to hundreds or even thousands of sensory stimuli, such as colors,

products, designs, brands, prices, packages, and textures. While moving through the store,

you listen to the nice background music and smell the aroma of freshly baked bread

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emanating from the strategically situated bakery at the store’s entrance. Your brain’s

attention mechanisms automatically filter out non-essential information, but what

information do you actually perceive? How does it affect your purchase decisions?

For many years, it was assumed that buyer decision making was a conscious and

deliberate process. New research, however, suggests that environmental and contextual

stimuli can have an important influence on behavior outside of conscious awareness.

Mental processes are considered non-conscious when individuals are not aware that their

behavior is being influenced by context or environmental stimuli.

Non-conscious processes are considered to be beyond conscious awareness or voluntary

control (Epley & Gilovich, 2001). Although prior research has made important progress in

the field of non-conscious processes of consumption (e.g., Bargh, 1990; Tom, Nelson,

Srzentic, & King, 2007; Chartrand, Huber, Shiv, & Tanner, 2008; Fitzsimons, Chartrand, &

Fitzsimons, 2008), still little is known about its implications for marketing.

Non-conscious stimuli can be presented in two ways. The first form is subliminal,

which refers to stimuli that occur outside of consumer’s awareness. Subliminal stimuli can

be produced by presenting a stimulus very rapidly. To be considered subliminal, a stimulus

has to be presented for less than 20 milliseconds. (By comparison, each still frame of a

traditional film is projected for 42 milliseconds.) At this speed, individuals are not able to

see the stimuli, but their subconscious is able to perceive it. Research on this topic,

however, has produced contradictory and inconclusive results on the effects of subliminal

stimuli.

Subliminal advertising has been the focus of study as early as the 1950’s, when market

researcher James Vicary claimed an increase in sales of both soft drinks and popcorn after

flashing the messages “Drink Coca-Cola” and “Eat popcorn” in a movie theater. After

unsuccessful attempts to replicate these findings, it was concluded that the messages had no

effect on behavior. However, several decades later, in the early 2000’s, research showed

that it is possible to modify behavior outside the individual´s awareness using non-

conscious primes. Although both subliminal primes (i.e. stimuli of which the individual is

not aware) and supraliminal primes (discussed below) happen on a non-conscious level,

they do not operate in the way that Vicary assumed (Karremans, Stroebe, & Claus, 2006).

The form of non-conscious stimuli is supraliminal. In this case, consumers are aware of

the stimulus but not of its potential influence on their behavior. For example, in a study

conducted by Ferraro, Bettman, and Chartrand (2009), subjects observed a series of

photographs of individuals engaged in everyday activities (e.g., waiting for a bus or having

lunch), after which they were asked to choose a brand of bottled water. Researchers found

that, when the photographs the subjects observed had images of a water bottle with its

brand visible embedded into them the subjects more frequently chose the brand they had

seen in the photographs. What is interesting about this study is that, when questioned after

completing the task, subjects could not recall having seen the chosen brand in the

photographs. In addition, a product’s effectiveness can be diminished if consumers paid a

reduced (vs full) price, which is a form of the placebo effect (Shiv, Carmon & Ariely,

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2005). This effect has been found to work at a supraliminal level (i.e. the consumer is

aware of the promotional discount). However, in the field of medicine, a recent study

showed that the placebo effect can be induced subliminally (Jensen et al., 2012). This

finding opens a possible new line of research in the marketing field in order to investigate if

it can be replicated in consumer behavior.

This line of research suggests that most of our consumption decisions may be

primarily determined not by conscious intentions and deliberate choices, but by

psychological processes that are set in motion by stimuli from the environment that operate

outside of conscious awareness.

3. AESTHETIC PACKAGE DESIGN

Packaging refers to all activities related to the design and production of the container and/or

wrapper for a product. The original objective of packaging was to protect the product;

however, marketers have increasingly used the product packaging as a major factor in

gaining customers (Sehrawet and Kundu, 2007). Up to three levels of materials are used in

packaging: the primary package, secondary package, and tertiary or shipping package. The

primary package is directly in contact with the product; for example, a perfume bottle. The

secondary package serves to protect the product while identifying and communicating its

qualities and is usually discarded once the product is consumed. For example, this could be

a box containing the perfume bottle. Finally, shipping or tertiary package contains the two

previous forms and is used to distribute, unify and protect products throughout the

distribution chain. For example, this could be a cardboard box containing several boxed

bottles of perfume. This section focuses on the secondary package, which can be very

influential in persuading consumers because it is present at the crucial moment when the

purchase decision is made (Orth and Malkewitz, 2008).

Product packaging can be used to transmit and communicate brand information, to

modify brand beliefs, and even to affect consumption. Previous studies have shown that

product packaging creates desired consumer perceptions via packaging elements such as

color, typography or font, graphic form and illustrations (e.g. Ampuero & Vila, 2006). It

also communicates brand personality via multiple structural and visual elements combining

brand logos, colors, fonts, package materials, images, product descriptions, and shapes

(Underwood, 2003). Packaging has been found to be as important as price, as it is able to

change brand beliefs. Further, large product packages of familiar branded products

encourage more use than small packages, thus affecting the amount of product consumed

(Wansink, 1996).

Orth and Malkewitz (2008) found that package designs can be narrowed down to five

holistic types – massive, contrasting, natural, delicate, and nondescript – that are related to

brand personality. For example, massive package designs are associated with impressions

of excitement but score low in the areas of competence and sophistication, while

contrasting package design score higher on excitement, lower on competence and

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sophistication, and average on sincerity, in addition to leading to stronger impressions of

ruggedness.

Package design, shape, and size have been shown to have non-conscious effects on

consumers. For example, research has shown that aesthetic package design significantly

increases the reaction time when choosing a product compared to standardized packages,

and that, despite higher prices, such designs are chosen over products with well-known

brands in standardized packages (Reimann et al. 2010). Attractive and attention-grabbing

package shapes are perceived as containing greater volume (Folkes & Matta, 2004), and

taller package shapes are perceived to contain more than shorter ones, apparently leading

consumers to prefer them (Raghubir & Krishna, 1999). However, when consumers have a

low self-esteem related to their body image, they will prefer smaller food packages and

consume more of them (Argo & White, 2012).

Recent research has investigated the heuristics that consumers use to estimate changes

in package sizes (Ordabayeva & Chandon, 2013). It has been found that consumers notice

differences in each dimension individually (height, width and depth) but they cannot

combine them correctly to estimate the total volume change. For example, if a container

shrinks only in one dimension, like width, consumers will easily estimate the volume

change. However, when the container has a smaller width but a larger height, consumers

will find it harder to assess the total volume change (Ordabayeva & Chandon, 2013).

Design processing theory suggests that the way a design is perceived and interpreted

encourages beliefs about product characteristics and attributes and product categorization

(Veryzer, 1999). Specifically, there is debate in the literature regarding whether or not

packaging design is a product-related attribute or a non-product-related attribute

(Underwood, 2003). Keller (1993) argued that packaging is a non-product-related attribute

that is not related to any functional, experiential or symbolic benefits or product

performance. In contrast, however, recent literature has focused on packaging as a product-

related attribute that are often critical to creating and communicating brand identity

(Underwood, 2003). Brand identity elements (logo, font, colors) can be used to confound

the consumer. However, the law can protect registered trademarks from high-similarity

copy-cats, which strive to emulate the brand leader’s identity. When the brand leader is

present, these high-similarity copycats lose consumers’ favor because they are perceived as

lower quality brands. In contrast, moderately-similar copycats win in the presence of the

brand leader because usually they have a lower price and contain similar elements that

make consumers perceive them as members of the same product category of the brand

leader (Horen & Pieters, 2012).

Labels and Information Format

Consumers need information in order to make good decisions. Simply providing

information, however, is not sufficient; if the information provided cannot be easily

processed, consumers cannot use it appropriately. Thus, information should not only be

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provided to consumers but should also be presented in a way that facilitates its use and

comprehension. In other words, the processability of information is a function of

information format.

Previous research has suggested that information format influences consumer

processing and choice. For instance, in a classic study, Russo (1987) showed that providing

unit price information in the form of a sorted list rather than on individual price tags

increased consumer use of unit prices. This study suggested that consumer comprehension

and decision-making are affected by information that is easy to process. Since consumer

mental processing capacity is limited, presenting information in an easily comprehensible

format can reduce the mental effort needed to process it, which in turn allows consumers to

acquire, understand, and process more of the available information. In fact, consumers tend

to process information in the form provided rather than by transforming it (Bettman &

Kakkar, 1977). Cognitive effort is a major cost of acquiring and using information, which,

for practical purposes, can be indexed by time. In other words, given an individual’s

thinking capacity, “‘time on task’ is a good index of the total mental effort” devoted to a

given task (Russo, 1987, p. 122). In fact, fluency can affect how the information is

perceived. In a recent study, it was found that consumers evaluate better a brand which is

perceived as powerful when the brand logo is located in a high position in the package. In

contrast, consumers evaluate better a brand which is perceived as less powerful when the

logo is placed in a lower position in the package (Sundar & Noseworthy, 2014).

Information format can also influence the type of processing that occurs. Different

information formats can make some forms of processing easier.. Jarvenpaa (1989) extends

these findings to graphic formats and states that information in graphic or picture formats

may be easier to process and understand. The effectiveness of graphic over text-only

information is well-documented in education and health care research. Moreover, pictures

help consumers to organize and interpret information. In a literature review, Houts, Doak,

Doak, and Loscalzo (2006) concluded that the combination of pictures and text markedly

increased attention and recall, improved comprehension, and positively influenced

intentions and behavioral outcomes of health communications compared to text alone.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

We have reviewed the effects of perceptual and non-conscious processes on diverse

consumer behaviors. On the basis of the resulting insights, this section presented

implications for marketing, shedding more light on the practical relevance of research on

non-consciousness in consumer behavior. The research discussed in this chapter suggests

interesting ways in which marketing managers can leverage the results to develop better

marketing strategies based on scientific evidence. For example, manufacturers and retailers

may benefit from setting up their retail areas and showrooms in a manner that allows and

encourages consumers to touch and handle their products. Manufacturers and retailers who

sell their products over the Internet face particular challenges, because consumers are not

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able to physically touch products while shopping. Some online retailers have made attempts

to compensate for touch by providing written descriptions of touch properties along with

visual elements such as pictures and videos that allow consumers to imagine what the

product feels like to the touch. Some research indicates that touch descriptions can engage

the touch sense of consumers even if they cannot actually touch the product (Balaji et al.,

2011).

As the marketplace becomes more competitive and different providers’ offerings

become more similar, more marketers are resorting to the sense of smell to create pleasant

environments and establish their brands. For example, American youth-oriented retailer

Abercrombie and Fitch developed a signature and instantly recognizable scent, Fierce,

which it pumps into its stores; Singapore Airlines uses a proprietary scent called Stefan

Floridian Waters in its airplanes; the lobbies at Westin hotels are scented with a white tea

fragrance developed for the chain; and Samsung reportedly increased sales at its flagship

store in New York using a summery scent of honeydew melons (Klara, 2012).

To engage consumers’ visual sense, managers should consider package design and

shape, since it has been demonstrated that size attracts attention and that consumers tend to

choose products in packages that appear taller than other product packages.

Finally, marketing managers must be aware of the context in which their products are

presented in the event of external and incidental exposures (non-conscious primes) that

could encourage or discourage consumers´ preference for their product (Martinez, Castaño,

Quintanilla & Reimann, 2011).

FURTHER RESEARCH

Although there is a vast body of literature on vision and hearing, and studies on touch and

smell have recently become more frequent, the sense of taste still needs more attention. It

would be of particular interest to explore the effects of priming across two or more senses.

For example, is music more enjoyable when touching something smooth? Can different

lighting change the way food tastes and how enjoyable the music is? In terms of non-

conscious processes, more research is needed on the way that external stimuli can help

consumers to achieve both consumers’ and marketers’ goals consciously or even non-

consciously. Regarding aesthetic packaging, further research could study the

neurophysiological effects of different packaging in order to better understand the elements

that constitute an aesthetic package on different product categories and how it affects

choice. Furthermore, another line of research could continue studying how to improve

labeling in order to convey important information to consumers.

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