Lieve Doucé

Hasselt University · Marketing Research Group (MAR)

Two main types of value have been established in the retail literature: merchandise value based on the quality and price of a store's offerings and differentiation value based on the extent of atmospheric cues in the environment. However, it is not clear what happens when a store offers both types of value to a high degree. We investigate how offer...

Over recent years, online shopping has grown at a tremendous rate, reaching a worldwide online retail sales of 4.9 trillion USD in 2021. Moreover, forecasts predict a growth by 50% over the following four years, reaching 7.4 trillion USD in 2025 (Statista, 2022). Needless to say that it is crucial for retailers to optimally market their offerings o...

Despite the robust evidence that congruent background music in the physical store environment positively affects consumer reactions, less is known about its effects in an online context. The present study aims (1) to examine whether congruency via multiple elicited crossmodal correspondences between background music and the online store environment...

Ambient light is inherent in the store environment, making research on the interaction effects between light and other atmospheric cues crucial to understanding how the store environment can affect consumers. This study extends existing research on multisensory congruity effects between atmospheric cues by examining whether multiple sensory associa...

Photographs are commonly used in store atmospherics research, although their ecological validity lacks conclusive support. To this end, we examine the effect of different representation media of a retail environment (i.e. one photograph, three photographs, or a real store visit) on customer experience, satisfaction, and behavioural and attitudinal...

Retailers use atmospheric cues to trigger emotional reactions that enhance consumer behavior. However, introducing cues into a store environment may also trigger sensory overload, due to too much stimulation. This study aims to examine the effects of adding high arousal atmospheric cues in a store environment on affective reactions, approach behavi...

When consumers shop online, it is primarily their visual sense that is being triggered. With technology under development to also provide an experience in the olfactory, taste, and haptic sense, this paper investigates the added value of background music in the online store environment. In particular, a study is conducted with three conditions: a n...

When selecting an ambient scent to be diffused in a store, one can focus on pleasantness of the scent, congruency of the scent with product category, or a variety of concepts that can be the basis for congruency between scent and other atmospheric elements. However, more information is needed concerning the concepts from which congruency could be s...

The most important dimensions of an ambient scent when selecting this scent to be diffused in the store environment are its pleasantness and its congruity with the object (e.g., product or store) under investigation (Doucé et al. 2013). In this study we examine the importance of the congruency of the ambient scent with the crossmodal correspondence...

Previous research found that ambient scents used by retailers should be pleasant and product congruent. This paper proposes that an ambient scent should also be crossmodally congruent with the store environment. Crossmodal congruency refers to the shared crossmodal correspondences (i.e., tendency of a sensory attribute to be associated with an attr...

Sensory marketing can be an efficient way to involve consumers in the store environment. Diffusing a pleasant ambient scent that matches with the store setting is often used to create pleasant shopping experiences. The aim of this study is to extend scent marketing research: (i) by examining the effect of pleasant ambient scent on the different dim...

Atmospheric elements such as lights, music, and scents make up the physical environment of a store and can have an impact on consumers’ shopping behavior. This doctoral dissertation aims to provide a better understanding of the effects of ambient scent in the store environment on consumer reactions. Specifically, the moderating role of individual d...

This research studies the effect of scent expertise (laymen vs. novice experts vs. experts) on product and taste evaluations of three products that are (in)congruent with an ambient scent and examines whether this effect is mediated by these groups’ awareness of scents in their environment and by how well they are able to identify different scents....

Although retailers know that consumers do not like cluttered stores, messy layouts are sometimes inevitable. This research examines whether diffusing pleasant scents can overcome consumers’ negative response to a messy store. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of pleasant scents (un)related to neatness on consumer evaluations of a tid...

Differentiation is necessary to survive in today’s homogeneous retail landscape. One way to differentiate is by making use of store atmospherics. However, other marketing tools such as offering a bargain might conflict with this store differentiation strategy. In study 1, an experimental consumer lab survey (n = 50) confirms that store environment...

This paper focuses on whether congruency at the crossmodal correspondence level between an ambient scent and a product packaging leads to a higher preference for that product packaging than when they are incongruent. The crossmodal correspondence under study is the ‘angularity’ versus ‘roundness’ aspect. Pilot studies made clear that (1) rosemary i...

Marketing managers are increasingly using olfactory marketing instruments in the retail environment. However, the question is whether scents in the store are desirable for all consumer types. Research on the moderating role of individual differences on the impact of scents in the marketplace is scarce. This article focuses on how ambient fragrances...

This study examines the different effect of consciously and unconsciously perceived scent on desire for food products. In most retailing studies, the scents that are used to influence consumer reactions are below awareness level, which is different from food cues studies where these cues (e.g., aromas) are rather strong and obvious. In our study, 9...