Sensory Marketing
Abstract
The book covers the ongoing shift from mass-marketing and micro-marketing to sensory marketing in terms of the increased individualization in the contemporary society. It shows the importance in reaching the individuals' five senses at a deeper level than traditional marketing theories do. © Bertil Hultén, Niklas Broweus & Marcus van Dijk, 2009. All rights reserved.
... The oPhone user can mix and match aromas creating up to 356 combinations. Though many of these technological developments are still under experimental phases, researchers are convinced that olfactory experience will soon provide a competitive edge to communicate emotional and sensory experience on the internet (Petit, Velasco, & Spence, 2019;Gosain & Sajwan, 2014;Hultén, et al., 2009). ...
... The tactile experience is another aspect of product design that has undergone huge technological advancement lately with the introduction of touch screen. Touch screen increases interaction between consumers and products encouraging positive emotional experience (Hultén et al., 2009). In early 2000, Kyung, Kim, & Kwon (2007) presented a haptic computer mouse that communicates texture feedback including patterns, gratings, and roughness. ...
... In the physical environment, stimuli generate experiences directly through consumers' five senses; whereas e-tailing environment primarily relies on visual experience (Spence & Gallace, 2011). But, for optimal sensory experience the other senses such as sound, touch, smell and taste are weighty (Petit, et al., 2019;Hultén et al., 2009). Using an additional technological device, sound can be transmitted directly to e-shoppers (Parsons & Conroy, 2006). ...
The digital environment has become the centre of the world with Covid-19 crisis. Businesses have been readjusting their strategies to respond to consumers’ needs and to survive the economic turning point. It is now more than ever vital to exist in a digital world with a distinctive competitive edge. However, investing in emerging technologies is not within the reach of every business owner. Consequently, this paper aims to combine practical technology with multisensory strategy and packaging design to attend to the immediate needs of businesses while addressing the challenge of connecting e-shoppers to products emotionally. The study adopts theories involving website design, packaging design, and multisensory design to construct a new concept intended to empower product display at phases of adding to cart and placing order. Findings showed that above all packaging design’s attributes, features providing touch perception are the chief factors contributing to evaluating products positively in e-tailing. Through websites’ interactive features, e-shoppers perceive a closeness with the product. The present research proposed a new concept named Interactive Appearance to enhance the product experience during online shopping activity. It further demonstrated that packaging design’s features and website design’s features are complementary to provide a positive condition for online shopping.
... Based on the research related with the auditory sensory stimuli, the easiest/cheapest/strongest factor of creating emotions and feelings, it has been found that specifi c music evokes memories and emotions, increases sales and time spent in the shopping areas, affects what places customers like; slow music creates positively loaded emotions (Güzel, 2013;Hulten et al., 2009;Valenti and Riviere, 2008;Lindstrom, 2007;Shaw, 2007;Turley and Chebat, 2002;North and Hargreaves, 1996;Yalch and Spangenberg, 1990;Millman, 1986). ...
... Findings on the olfactory stimuli suggest that pleasing aromas make customers spend more time at the shopping areas and make them feel good (Slatten et al., 2011;Bowie and Buttle, 2009;Hulten et al., 2009;Lindstrom, 2007;Shaw, 2007;Hirsch, 1995). ...
... The presentation and taste of food and beverages is another sensory content that strengthens the experience, attracts customers' attention and persuades the customers (Hulten et al., 2009;Valenti and Riviere, 2008). The disappointing experiences related to gustatory stimuli have negative consequences, as well. ...
... Tactile experience plays a crucial role in the purchase and consumption of services (Hult� en et al., 2009) and is an indispensable part of travel experiences (Agapito, Valle, & Mendes, 2014). For example, the texture and the comfort of the bed and pillow are among the most important attributes influencing hotel booking decisions (Kim & Perdue, 2013). ...
... Sensory marketing aims to engage consumers' senses and influence their perceptions, judgments, and behavior (Krishna, 2012). To date, in view of the importance of the five human senses in the consumer experience, abundant sensory research studies have been conducted in the fields of hospitality, tourism, and consumer behavior to explore the individual as well as holistic impacts of the senses on consumers' purchase decisions (Agapito et al., 2014;Crouch, 2002;Everett, 2008;Grohmann et al., 2007;Hult� en et al., 2009;Krishna, 2012;Krishna, Cian, & Aydıno� glu, 2017;Krishna, Cian, & Sokolova, 2016;Pan & Ryan, 2009;Quan & Wang, 2004;Small, Darcy, & Packer, 2012). For example, in the advertising domain, research shows that smell enhances memory (Lwin, Morrin, & Krishna, 2010). ...
... For example, in the advertising domain, research shows that smell enhances memory (Lwin, Morrin, & Krishna, 2010). Thus, many brands have strived to develop their own unique scents to form "signature scents" and to provoke consumers' recognition, such as the white tea fragrance popularized by the Westin Hotel chain (Hult� en et al., 2009). Relatedly, color is a dominant visual feature affecting consumer perceptions and behaviors (Aslam, 2006;Bellizzi, Crowley, & Hasty, 1983). ...
This study proposes that haptic cues (in online reviews, companies' descriptive information provided) significantly influence consumers' willingness to book hotel rooms online. Four studies examining the effect of haptic cues and using both primary and secondary data produced consistent results. We identified mental imagery as the underlying mechanism. In addition, the effect of haptic cues is moderated by the match between type of traveler and type of mental simulation. Haptic cues with outcome (process) simulation are more effective when matched with business (leisure) travelers who are performance (process) oriented. Implications for practice are discussed.
... As the focus on customer experience has advanced, a greater realization of the richness and complexity of this experience has become apparent. In particular, the emergence of the sensory marketing approach to enhancing the customer experience has occurred (Ganda, 2012;Hultén, 2011;Hultén, Broweus, & van Dijk, 2009;Krishna, 2010Krishna, , 2012Krishna, , 2013Lindstrom, 2005aLindstrom, , 2005bSoars, 2009;Spence, 2002). Products and settings are increasingly being designed to appeal to consumers on both rational and emotional levels, as well as across multiple senses (Neff, 2000;Spinney, 2013). ...
... For example, the smell of freshly starched cotton has been released as shoppers walk by certain display stands in the Thomas Pink shirt store (Ellison & White, 2000), and at least one chain of enterprising travel agents tried to boost sales by pumping in the smell of coconut to their stores. Other retailers reportedly have experimented with releasing a scent linked to a given holiday (e.g., mulled wine at the end of the year, or chocolate near Valentine's Day) with the goal of tickling the consumers' olfactory sense ("Seat sniffers," 2000; see also Demetros, 1997;Hinds, 1988;Hultén, Broweus, & van Dijk, 2009;Jellinek, 1994;Miller, 1993;Terrling, Nixdor, & Köster, 1992). Spangenberg, Sprott, Grohmann, and Tracy (2006) investigated the effect of adding a vanilla scent to a women's department and a sweet floral scent (Rose Maroc) to the men's section of a store (after pretesting to ensure those scents appealed to each gender). ...
... Some evidence suggests that the presence of certain scents causes people to perceive products differently such as items of clothing being rated as softer (Demattè, Sanabria, Sugarman, & Spence, 2006;Laird, 1932; see also Churchill, Meyners, Griffiths, & Bailey, 2009). To capitalize on scent marketing, marketers should identify a signature scent that is both pleasant and congruent with the store and brand identity (Bosmans, 2006;Parsons, 2009), such as the white tea fragrance popularized by the Westin Hotel chain (Hultén, Broweus, & van Dijk, 2009;Pacelle, 1992;Trivedi, 2006). The scent is distinctive in the hotel environment and can also be purchased by any guest wanting to recreate "the hotel experience" at home. ...
In a multisensory perspective, there can be little doubting that the multisensory atmospherics in stores and other commercial spaces affect the behavior of consumers in systematic ways (see Spence 2018a; Spence et al. 2014, for reviews). This message has created a revolution in sensory marketing, such that across virtually every product category, retailers (and manufacturers) are now increasingly seeking to influence the “sensory experience” of their consumers. One of the key questions then becomes how should a company design its multisensory atmospherics in store to ensure that the return on investment is worthwhile? And what is the relevant metric, anyway? Increased sales, or column inches in the press? But lurking in the background is also an ethical question around whether the effective design of multisensory atmospherics may be pushing more of us into consuming more than we otherwise might (see Spence 2015, 2018b, for reviews). In this talk, I will review the consumer scientific evidence related to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and even gustatory aspects of the store environment and their influence on the consumer’s behavior. I will highlight a number of areas where further research is needed in order to better understand how the multisensory retail environment shapes customer experience and shopping behavior. I will also discuss the latest findings in terms of the currently accepted cognitive neuroscience models of multisensory perception. Should there be time, I would also like to briefly address the question of whether there are meaningful individual/cultural differences in the desire for/avoidance of overly stimulating environments among consumers. Finally, I will take a look at how new technologies are changing the multisensory landscape for consumers.
... Dette er sentralt i Pine og Gilmores klassiske bidrag, «Welcome to the experience economy» (Pine & Gilmore, 1998), som trekker frem betydningen av sensoriske virkemidler. Det er gjennom sansene vi oppfatter verden, og dermed også destinasjoner, produkter, merker og opplevelser (Hultén, Broweus & van Dijk, 2009). Gjennom sansene samler vi inntrykk som fører til følelsesmessige reaksjoner på det vi opplever. ...
... Forskning på opplevelser viser at sansestimulering har stor betydning både for å intensivere en opplevelse (Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2009;Schmitt, 1999) og for å påvirke kundens persepsjon, preferanser og atferd (Hultén et al., 2009;Krishna, 2012). I litteraturen er det funnet støtte for sammenheng mellom sensoriske opplevelser og gjestenes tilfredshet med hoteller (Guzel & Dortyol, 2016;Nysveen, Oklevik & Pedersen, 2018), valg av hoteller og destinasjoner (Agapito, Valle & Mendes, 2012Diţoiu, Stăncioiu, Teodorescu, Onişor, & Anamaria-Cătălina, 2014;Kim & Park, 2017;Kim & Perdue, 2013) og vurdering av varemerkeopplevelser (Brakus et al., 2009;Nysveen et al., 2018). ...
... Una vez allí no solo se logra excitar o motivar la memoria auditiva, sino también a activar imágenes sensoriales que inundan varias regiones de la corteza cerebral con sensaciones y vibraciones (Legrenzi & Umiltà, 2011). Dentro del procesamiento cerebral de los sonidos, la excitación musical estimula y despierta los estados emotivos alojados en la memoria auditiva, la misma que está compuesta por reacciones fisiológicas transitorias que producen emociones (Malfitano, Arteaga, & Romano, 2007) entre las cuales, la nostalgia aparece acompañada con asociaciones de sonidos, los que aparecen como un complemento en las experiencias, para quedar retenidos en la memoria (Pradeep, 2010) y se presentan como una forma de mejor asociación con las marcas debido a que el sentido auditivo no puede "apagarse" y puede crear ambientes de percepción (Hultén, Broweus, & Dijk, 2009). ...
... Este filtro generacional influye en el uso de los sentidos siendo la vista el sentido más usado, pero el oído, el sentido complementario (Pradeep, 2010) que ayuda a crear una mejor asociación de marca (Álvarez del Blanco, 2011) debido a una experiencia más completa (Hultén et al., 2009). De esta forma, el sentido auditivo activa la memoria de grupos de edad superior, lo que los autores denominan memoria generacional de marca y que se relaciona con el almacén sensorial y el grado de involucramiento de marca (Schiffman et al., 2010) que tiene la persona, creando recuerdos que los otros grupos no pueden obtener. ...
La marca se haya vinculada a los estímulos sensoriales y motivaciones que generan emociones que fortalecen la fidelidad hacia ella. A través de un estudio cuantitativo-cualitativo, transversal y analítico basado en una muestra de 450 personas, se
demuestra cómo la marca se vincula a los sentidos de la vista y oído, generando en grupos de personas de 40 a 50 años la marca nostálgica, la cual se basa en actitudes de aceptación y fidelidad.
The brand has been linked to sensory stimuli and motivations that generate emotions that strengthen loyalty. Through a quantitative-qualitative, transversal and analytical study based on a sample of 450 people, it demonstrates how the brand is linked to the senses of sight and hearing, generating in groups of people from 40 to 50 years the nostalgic brand, which is based on attitudes of acceptance and loyalty.
... VR gives viewers a more realistic and immersive experience than TV or movies because it increases the response time to changes in visual information (Aebli et al., 2021). Several studies supported the favourable association between sense and telepresence (Algharabat and Dennis, 2010;Dinh et al., 1999;Hulten et al., 2009). ...
The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted tourism globally due to international travel restrictions. One of the technological advancements, Virtual Reality (VR), offers the pre-travel experience as an alternative method to alter human existence in tourism destinations. VR has been applied in tourism and hospitality to promote tourist experiences, especially for Gen-Z, a generation born in the technology era. This paper investigates the determinant factors of VR experience impact on Gen-Z's visit intention to Indonesian tourism destinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study presents a Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework to provide a sequential process of the interaction between antecedents and consequences. The model was examined using 199 respondents and employed Smart PLS 3 for empirical analysis to assess the relationship. This study result confirmed that Gen-Z visit intention was derived from their satisfaction as a part of the response stage in the SOR model. Their satisfaction was affected by telepresence, focused attention, and temporal distortion, influenced by the sense and quality of information. This study contributes to digital tourism literature, particularly in VR studies amidst the pandemic. Furthermore, for the managerial implication, this study will give insight for tourism marketers and local or national governments to understand consumer behaviour through the technology approach in order to thrive back in business.
... Perhaps the most obvious domain of application is in advertising and marketing (see also Fenko et al., 2010). Several researchers have argued for the importance of what is called "sensory marketing" (Hultén, 2015;Hultén, Broweus, & van Dijk, 2009;Lindstrom, 2010), an approach to marketing that focuses on engaging all the senses. In particular, sensory marketing pushes against the fact that to this day, most advertising focuses almost exclusively on sight and sound alone. ...
... A consumer experiences, elements sensory,affective,creative,behavioral and relational senses (Bh Schmitt, 1999;Iglesias, Singh and Batista-Foguet, 2011;Rageh Ismail, Lim and Woodside, 2011;Schmitt, Brakus and Zarantonello, 2015).This multi-sensory engagement of the consumer with the brands can happen directly when the consumer, is using the product or service or indirectly via brand cues like brand logo, store atmosphere, visual merchandising and display store staff behavior, advertisements and brand ambassadors etc. (Bellizzi and Hite, 1992;Meyers-Levy and Peracchio, 1995;Dahl, Chattopadhyay and Gorn, 1999). In the current day era when there are a multitude of brands vying for attention from the same segment of consumers it is important that brands create a superior value via brand experience during the pre-purchase, consumption and post purchase/after sales experience (Hultén, Broweus and Dijk, 2009;Schmitt, 2009) and this value is repaid by the consumers by depicting band loyalty (Payne, Storbacka and Frow, 2008).Several authors have tried to define and quantify brand experience, but the only definition which conveys dimensionality of the concept and puts it across a measurable scale is the one by (J. Josko Brakus, Schmitt and Zarantonello, 2009) who conceptualized brand experience as "sensations, feelings, cognitions and behavioral responses evoked by brand related stimuli that are part of a brand's design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments". ...
... Sensory experience has been conceptualized as the aesthetic and sensory perceptions about a firm's environment, atmosphere, service and/or products (Schmitt, 1999). The literature underscores that each of the five human senses (touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell) contribute to the development of an experience and all the senses work together to form the basis of sensory experience (Hulten, Broweus & Dijk, 2009). Consumers' sensory experience creates what has been referred to as the "experience logic" which maintains that people's sensory experience in the brain and the experience evaluation that can guide subsequent behavioral, cognitive, emotional, relational and symbolic values relative to the services offered. ...
The overarching aim of this research is to empirically test the effect of customer experience on customer perceived value and behavioral intentions while assessing the mediating role of customer perceived value. To achieve this aim, we collect data from 338 customers of restaurants in South Korea. The hypotheses intended to achieve this aim are tested using the structural equations modeling technique. The outcome of the research reveals that customer experience positively and significantly affects behavioral intentions. Additionally, customer experience has a significant positive effect on both hedonic and utilitarian value respectively. Hedonic value positively and significantly predicts behavioral intents while utilitarian value is negative but significantly related to behavioral intentions. The study further finds support for a mediating effect of hedonic value on the relationship between customer experience and behavioral intentions. The current study provides managerial and theoretical insights into understanding customer experience management, customer perceived value, and customer behavioral intentions.
... Hence, 'the more senses an experience engages, the more effective and memorable it can be' (Pine & Gilmore, 1998, p. 104). Each tourist has a subjective experience of the destination, which is a result of how these individuals' five senses, either singly or together, perceive and interpret experiences (Hulten, Broweus, & van Dijk, 2008). ...
This study sought to identify the main themes of sensory experiences of Douro wineries shared online by tourists. Douro is a demarcated wine region famous for Port, which is on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage List. The research used 470 visitor reviews posted on the TripAdvisor website, which referred to experiences of the five regional wine brands that run wine hotels. Mixed content analyses extracted the main themes from the reviews, as well as identifying concepts associated with the five senses. The results include 12 main themes: wine, view, staff, room, hotel, food, restaurant, pool, service, Douro, delicious (food and wine) and comfort. Most concepts are linked with sight and taste, followed by hearing, with only a few reviews mentioning touch or smell. These findings have managerial implications for wine tourism, contributing to a better understanding of how sensory dimensions create memorable experiences for visitors. ARTICLE HISTORY
For luxury brands in particular, there are many opportunities for multi-sensual staging. Particularly suitable for this are own luxury brand shops, which in this way develop from a point of sale to a point of experience. They offer customers the opportunity to experience the brand with all their senses. Starting with the specifics of multisensual marketing and luxury goods marketing, the goals and strategies for luxury brands at the point of sale are examined in more detail. Based on this, the possibilities of visual, haptic, acoustic, olfactory and gustatory customer appeal in luxury brand shops are discussed, whereby both perception mechanisms and design possibilities are analysed. Following on from this, possibilities for the multisensual staging of “luxury” are described. Finally, the limits of multisensual brand staging are discussed and a three-stage approach for multisensual branding is presented.
يسعى البحث الحالي الى تحديد أثر التسويق الحسي في قرار الشراء دراسة استطلاعية لآراء عينة من المرضى في عدد من المستشفيات الاهلية في مدينة الموصل، وتم في هذا البحث الوصول لمفهوم متكامل عن التسويق الحسي ومدى تأثير ابعاده على قرار الشراء، وبناء عليه تم اثارة تساؤلات عديدة حول مشكلة البحث، منها )هل هناك تأثير معنوي للتسويق الحسي في قرار الشراء(. ووقع الاختيار لعينة مؤلفة من ) 04 ( فردا واعتمدت استمارة الاستبيان للحصول على البيانات واستخدمت عدة اساليب احصائية في تحليل البيانات واستخراج النتائج باستخدام البرنامج وتوصل البحث الى استنتاجات منها وجود علاقة ارتباط معنوية بين التسويق )SPSS( الاحصائي الحسي منها وقرار الشراء وقدم البحث عدد من المقترحات.
Recent years have seen a swift embracement of augmented reality (AR) as an interactive marketing tool, which has been accelerated even more rapidly by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the general attitude toward the technology as well as the factors that inhibit or facilitate its adoption from both, the consumers, and practitioners, remain elusive. This prevents marketers from fully exploiting the potential related to AR marketing. This chapter (1) draws on current literature to conceptualize consumer experience in AR marketing and (2) complements these findings with a practitioner perspective by conducting interviews with small retailers. The results of the present chapter indicate that, from the consumer perspective, AR can give rise to diverse cognitive, affective, and social-psychological outcomes, which can translate into behavioral outcomes, including purchase intentions, word-of-mouth intentions, and brand engagement. From the practitioner’s perspective, initial interview results reveal that advancements toward an easy integration of AR within existing IT infrastructures, as well as efficient ways to create virtual product replicas are crucial for the adoption of AR by small retailers. Based on the combined observations from literature and the conducted interviews, a comprehensive framework of interactive AR marketing is provided, and a way forward is discussed by addressing the emergent trends of AR as an interactive marketing technology.KeywordsAugmented realityInteractive marketingShoppingRetailConsumer experience
The survey purposes are to preliminarily understand the current situation of atmospheric music broadcast in hot spring hotels and why these choices of music were made. We reviewed literatures regarding applied music and music types, and applied questionnaire, participant observation and unstructured interviews with hotel staff who broadcast music in the unique, famous and historic Guanzihling hot spring region of Taiwan. Results show that music is often broadcast in public areas, such as lobby and restaurants. On the contrary, there was no music broadcast in private areas, such as guest rooms and private thermal baths. Light music is the primary music choice. Music types is chosen without rules by staff who have no basic trainings in music. Possible marketing strategies for future studies include the staff trainings and construction of hotel’s own hot spring music database, and better marketing of hotel’s unique multi-sensory brand image through its distinctive and pleasant music.
With economic advancement, technological development, and the emergence of new trends related to brands, consumer behavior has been transformed as a result of several factors that influence their decision making towards a product, service, or brand. For this, it is necessary to know the importance of the brand experience in determining consumer behavior and intentions. The authors mobilize two theories on which to base their model and to formulate their research hypotheses. The investigation is one of the first empirical investigations of the determinants and consequences and the central role of brand experience. The purpose of this chapter is to propose a new model in the marketing literature. This model proposes (1) to test the central role of brand experience; (2) to measure its effects on customer loyalty, brand love, and emotional value brand; and (3) to measure the effects of customer engagement, sensory marketing, and customer loyalty as antecedents of brand experience. These three contributions make the research original.
The rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and its transformation into a pandemic caused travel restrictions around the world and people had to stay in their homes. In this period, businesses that offer product or service that require physical contact or make it compulsory to be together with other people, especially businesses operating in the tourism sector, are among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to reduce these effects, many tourism businesses have started to develop virtual travel tours for their target audience to experience a destination at home. In this context, it is aimed to investigate the effects of the information quality of the virtual travel experience and the satisfaction created by the perceived sense of the virtual travel experience on the intentions of visiting that destination in the real world. The population of the research consists of individuals who have virtual travel experience. Among the individuals constituting the population, 564 people were reached by convenience sampling method, 172 people were excluded because they stated that they did not have a virtual travel experience or because they were under the age of 18, and 392 people were included in the study. In the research, factor, correlation, and regression analyzes were applied with a statistical package program to the data obtained by the online survey application. In the results of the analysis, it was found that the sense of virtual travel and the quality of information perceived from a destination experience in the virtual world have a positive and significant effect on satisfaction with virtual reality travel. It has been determined that this satisfaction, which consists of virtual reality travel, has a positive and relatively strong significant effect on visit intention.
(1) Background: the present research addresses sensory marketing to check its possible potential in making the consumer shopping experience in physical points of sale more sustainable and efficient, both for potential buyers and for the selling company. (2) Aims: the main purpose of this study is to check whether, by applying sensory marketing and merchandising techniques in a shop, the business can be more economically profitable and, thus, make it more sustainable. The main objective is, therefore, to find out how consumers respond to different communication strategies in an experimental men’s fashion shop located in a Spanish municipality. (3) Methodology: researchers adapted the so-called Sensory Marketing Model to a real case. Based on scientific evidence and documentary review, an experiment of implementation of sensory marketing tactics (visual, sound, olfactory and haptic) and its subsequent quantitative analysis based on the before-after, cause-effect relationship was carried out. (4) Results: the results obtained shed light on the importance of sensory marketing, as this study showed a considerable increase in sales, customer retention and customer satisfaction in the shop, following the deployment of appropriate sensory marketing strategies. (5) Conclusions: the Sensory Marketing Model is valid and reliable for implementation, not only to increase sales, but also to make the store more sustainable, as all actions carried out involved a decrease in material resources typical of retail shops.
The emergence of short-form videos brings the sensory experience of the destination from offline to online and connects with the online destination brand experience (ODBE). Within the data crawled from short-form video content about Moshi Park, the study explored users’ destination sensory stimulation. Furthermore, we propose a cognitive–affective-conative model to investigate the relationship between sensory experience, ODBE and behavioral intentions. The results illustrate that visual stimuli dominate in the five senses, and hearing, touch, smell, and taste play an auxiliary role in influencing specific brand experience dimensions. All brand experience dimensions have a positive impact on users’ offline visit intention. However, affective and behavioral brand experience fails to motivate users to continue watching similar videos online for potential aesthetic fatigue and substitution effects. This study fills the research gap by examining the experiences and subsequent behaviors elicited by users watching short-form videos of tourist destinations. The model and discovery have made valuable contributions to refine sensory theory and brand experience, especially for virtual environments with advanced technology.
The 21st century is a period of great changes in terms of both consumers and brands. In the baseline of the age of emotion, where the main purpose of brands is to keep the product alive rather than selling the product; where the stories created by brands are spoken rather than the product’s features; where the consumer psychology is prioritized rather than the benefits consumers obtain from the product, lies multi (five-dimensional) sensory experience. The multi-sensory experience, which appeals to consumers’ senses such as seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, and touching, holds an important place for brands’ marketing communication and advertisement strategies. Especially, the digitalization process, which accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, led the brands that wanted to offer different experiences to their young consumers to multi-sensory marketing. This study descriptively analyzes the effects of sensory marketing elements created in both traditional store and online web atmosphere on the consumer shopping experience. For the analysis three main categories were determined and 14 people aged 18-24 were interviewed using the semi-structured in-depth interview technique. Findings reveal that during both traditional and digital shopping, young consumers want to undergo the multi-sensory experience in which their five senses are actively stimulated. Visual and auditory experiences come to the fore in digital shopping; but they think brands give importance to visual elements while being insufficient in audio studies. Although young consumers desire to experience the “Internet of the Senses” and the shopping experience that appeals to the five senses, they think that there will be no internet that can access the senses of taste and smell in 10 years. Research shows that young target audiences for brands need not only find/buy a product or service, but also an sensory and unique experience.
This conceptual review focuses on the importance of sensory processing in influencing consumer buying decisions. It gives an overview of sensory processing, along with the difference between sensory marketing and consumer sensory processing. In addition, it explores the relationship between the product sensory information and sensory evaluation. It provides information on the role of sensory information on sensory evaluation and consumer judgement. Moreover, the information on sensory congruence is provided to examine the multisensory congruence-effects on consumers’ judgements.
Due to the changing consumer expectations and the driving force of technology towards innovation, there have been radical changes in products and services. Today, in addition to products and services, experience has changed the direction of consumption towards experiential consumption. The change in the understanding of consumption in the postmodern world causes experiential economy and experiential marketing to be a strategic understanding. Beyond meeting basic needs with products and services, it focuses on providing benefits to consumers with an unforgettable and magical experience. This chapter mainly focuses on the experience economy and experiential marketing. Moreover, this chapter focuses on post-experience behaviors such as experiential satisfaction and loyalty intentions. Experience economy and experiential marketing practice areas will be mentioned and suggestions will be made for future studies.
Consumers use their sense of touch to interact with products and salespeople in direct marketing; they use touchscreen devices to interact with products and others on e-commerce and mobile commerce platforms. Understanding the role of touch in consumers’ experiences in both physical and digital realms is essential for businesses to implement effective haptic strategies and for scholars to advance knowledge in touch literature. This chapter offers an initial review of the role of touch, touchscreens, and haptic technology through an interactive marketing lens. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual framework for continued research by situating current haptic and tactile research within an interactive marketing frame. It summarizes new knowledge of three important topics in interactive marketing: technology adoption, customer behavior, and multichannel marketing. It also draws readers’ attention to the multifaceted research of touch from psychology and neuroscience perspectives. The first half of the chapter summarizes the most up-to-date research findings and theories (e.g., psychological ownership) on haptic and tactile effects that substantially affect interactions between consumers and products and between consumers and service providers. Then a summary of recent research outlines how touchscreen devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) and haptic technology (e.g., smart wearables) influence consumers’ experiences in the digital world.
Firms can be seen as value facilitators, offering various types of services for consumer consumption, as well as value-generating methods, while following a service viewpoint. It has been proposed that a company's relationships with consumers are used to influence value generation processes. Different experiences influence the form and kinds of meaning that consumers interpret in terms of interactive, relativistic, preferential, or perception beliefs, as well as self- and other-oriented values, in these systems. The aim is to make the procedure easier by grouping alternative options into three main explanatory stages of means. Furthermore, the classification's aim was to include an exhaustive classification when none existed in the marketing literature. The three levels are paradoxically both connected to and independent of each other, according to a general observation made here. They can appear concurrently or independently of one another, but they can also be defined separately.
Customer brand identification is described by the customer's perception and feeling about a brand. It brings value and meets the customer's needs. The four drivers of CBI are brand self-similarity, brand social benefits, brand identity, and memorable brand experiences. The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of CBI (and, consequently, its drivers) on customer loyalty and its perception of hotel brands. Although the importance of CBI has already been recognized in some studies, its effects on customer loyalty in the hospitality context are still relatively unexplored. A survey was used to understand and confirm that CBI and all four of its dimensions significantly influence customer loyalty. This means, in the hotel industry, customers tend to look for brands that are distinct from their competitors, have an identity of their own, and close to their values. It was also possible to conclude that the client tends to behave more favorably towards the brand, spreading positive word of mouth and recommending brands that meet CBI conditions.
Abstract
The study focusses on the store design and store environment of the garment retail stores situated in malls of Mumbai. For this purpose, observation checklist was used; layout and lighting measurements of the store were recorded. The findings of the study revealed that size of the stores and changing rooms were almost same. All the stores had a free flow store layout with adequate circulation spaces between racks except in one international brand store; the shelf height and rods were within the reach except in one Indian brand store that was little high, while clearances spaces between the shelves were adequate, but the clearance in-between the merchandises, rods and hangers was not adequate. The walls of all the stores had smooth finishes and painted in light colours and vitrified tiles, and vinyl was used for flooring. The trial rooms had better privacy in Indian stores, and the lighting levels in store were as per standards. Finally, it can be concluded that some of the design features like counter heights, privacy, clearances and efficient shelves spaces for easy accessibility needs to be considered.
Keywords
Design
Garment store
Shelves
Lighting
Clearances
This research examined how multi-sensory dimensions like sight, sound, and smell would influence customer attitudes toward quick-service restaurants, restaurant patronage intentions, food purchasing decisions, food consumption satisfaction, restaurant attachment, repurchase intention, and positive word of mouth in South African quick-service restaurants. The research embraced a quantitative approach. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from restaurant customers in the Bloemfontein metropolitan. The hypotheses were analysed by applying structural equation modelling. The results uncovered that the study variables were significantly associated and surprisingly, restaurant attachment had a negative and insignificant effect on positive word of mouth. This research adds new fresh knowledge to the established body of knowledge in the context of restaurant food consumption behaviour. This area has little research attention in developing African countries like South Africa.
Synchronic studies in marketing propose that sensory stimulus, like colour, lighting effects, backdrop music, ambient scents or upholstery’s texture, affect consumers’ evaluation of the milieu, the wares presented and affect consumer behaviour (e.g., approximate amount spent, time spent at a store). A customer is frequently attracted towards a brand based on its sensory experience. In toto, the unexpurgated world is experienced through multiple senses (Lindstrom, 2005b). Ingenious brands are discovering means to captivate the entire consumer senses to fortify their brand experience, by amalgamating every sense into the marketing strategy; this approach is called ‘sensory marketing’. Sensory branding is based on the idea that we are most likely to form, retain and revisit memory when all five senses are engaged. Many companies are discovering that when they engage consumers with multiple sensory touch points—not just the traditional sensory channels of sight or hearing—they can enhance customers’ emotional connection with their products and brands. The multisensory strategies seek to go beyond delivering functionality and value to evoking significant personal identification with products. It aims to fill in the lacuna of the conventional marketing. Technology is one of the main factors driving sensory marketing to success. Sensory marketing has made its mark in multiple fields like automobiles, airlines, hospitality, casinos, retail stores, textile, leather production, skin care and cosmetics at multiple levels.
We conducted a study to investigate how self‐construal priming can modulate the influence of receptacles on people's food perception. Self‐construal refers to how an individual views the self, with interdependent or independent self‐construal describing the self as a context‐embedded or context‐independent entity, respectively. After reading an essay containing either interdependent or independent pronouns, each of 112 Chinese participants viewed photos of Asian noodles served on plates of different sizes and colors and rated their feelings about and willingness to pay for these foods. Compared to independent self‐construal priming, priming with the interdependent self‐construal elicited a greater influence of plate size on the participants' willingness to pay for the noodles as well as the pleasantness ratings of the noodles served on red plates. Collectively, these findings suggest that the consumers' processing of and sensitivity to contextual information can be modulated by self‐construal priming when they are evaluating food products.
Practical applications
Previous research demonstrated that people from varied cultural backgrounds are differently susceptible to the influence of contextual cues, such as the receptacles in which foods or drinks are served. The results of this study suggested that priming with the interdependent self‐construal could strengthen the influence of plate size on the participants' judgments and decisions about foods. These findings provide insights into how the nudging effects of contextual cues may vary as a function of the consumers' self‐construal. Moreover, the findings of this study suggest that consumers' susceptibility to immediate contextual cues may be temporarily modulated via presenting verbal materials, which has direct implications in the practice of sensory nudging in the process of selling or serving foods. For example, advertisements or menus may be skillfully designed to contain cues that can prime self‐construal in customers to subtly modulate the influence of contextual cues on their judgment and decisions about foods.
Insbesondere für Luxusmarken bieten sich vielfältige Möglichkeiten der multisensualen Inszenierung. Besonders dafür geeignet sind eigene Luxusmarken-Shops, die sich auf diese Weise vom Point of Sale zum Point of Experience weiterentwickeln. Sie bieten Kunden die Möglichkeit, die Marke mit allen Sinnen zu erleben. Ausgehend von den Besonderheiten des multisensualen Marketings und des Luxusgütermarketings werden die Ziele und Strategien für Luxusmarken am Verkaufsort näher betrachtet. Hierauf aufbauend werden die Möglichkeiten der visuellen, haptischen, akustischen, olfaktorischen und gustatorischen Kundenansprache in Luxusmarken-Shops diskutiert, wobei sowohl Wahrnehmungsmechanismen als auch Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten analysiert werden. Hieran anknüpfend werden Möglichkeiten der multisensualen Inszenierung von „Luxus“ beschrieben. Abschließend wird auf die Grenzen multisensualer Markeninszenierung eingegangen und ein dreistufiger Ansatz für multisensuales Branding vorgestellt.
Like all entities, media need to achieve a high level of reputation, which requires not only the provision of an excellent product or service but also for it to be perceived as such in order to create a positive image. The aim of this study is to confirm whether there is any correlation between the information content disseminated by audiovisual media and their level of reputation among their audiences. To this end, the notion of reputation is based on variables such as credibility, informative rigor, journalistic quality, professional ethics, and deontology. This study involved two phases. Firstly, we conducted a survey among communication professionals and audiences to determine their perception of media in terms of the aforementioned aspects. Secondly, we carried out a content analysis to gauge the degree to which the indicators that define these variables are present in news production. Finally, the study compares and contrasts the results from both phases. Overall, this case study covers the most important Spanish television channels and generalist radio stations, namely La primera (TVE), Telecinco, Antena 3, and La sexta, as well as COPE, Onda cero, RNE, and SER. The main results reveal correspondences between the assessments made by respondents and the results of the content analysis. In this regard, the channels and broadcasters that achieve the worst positions show greater correspondences. Therefore, it can be concluded that the information product contributes to the construction of media’s reputation, where the indicators play a key role,
Information technology expertise has comprehensively revamped and made well recognized, the hospitality and tourism industry. Electronic businesses, which are different type of commercial business was constructed and established with the help of the internet, and this now affects the way clients react. The current research seeks to explore the effect of information‐task‐fit, on electronic word of mouth (eWOM) of users of Turkish airlines. Furthermore, the present study examines the moderating role of website quality on the aforementioned relationship. Six hundred and four usable questionnaires were obtained online within a 6 month period with the use of Google forms The current study used a quantitative and cross‐sectional type of research method. The anticipated interactions were estimated using structural equation modeling. All anticipated relationships were supported, with discernment that the availability of users required information on the website impacted them to engage in eWOM. As hypothesized, the quality of the website, moderated the relationship between information‐task‐fit (INTF) and eWOM. The consequences of the present research proposes comprehensions into maintaining and why not improving the website quality by making the website user friendly, so as to attract potential users and keep current users. This study's complete model is scare in the airline service literature. In consequence there should be an added research on the influence of information task fit website information and design on supposed service quality and internet word of mouth. Managers should also uphold an elevation website ethics by employing good professional website builders to attract their usage. This study offers inferences for airline website quality.
Traditionally, architectural practice has been dominated by the eye/sight. In recent decades, though, architects and designers have increasingly started to consider the other senses, namely sound, touch (including proprioception, kinesthesis, and the vestibular sense), smell, and on rare occasions, even taste in their work. As yet, there has been little recognition of the growing understanding of the multisensory nature of the human mind that has emerged from the field of cognitive neuroscience research. This review therefore provides a summary of the role of the human senses in architectural design practice, both when considered individually and, more importantly, when studied collectively. For it is only by recognizing the fundamentally multisensory nature of perception that one can really hope to explain a number of surprising crossmodal environmental or atmospheric interactions, such as between lighting colour and thermal comfort and between sound and the perceived safety of public space. At the same time, however, the contemporary focus on synaesthetic design needs to be reframed in terms of the crossmodal correspondences and multisensory integration, at least if the most is to be made of multisensory interactions and synergies that have been uncovered in recent years. Looking to the future, the hope is that architectural design practice will increasingly incorporate our growing understanding of the human senses, and how they influence one another. Such a multisensory approach will hopefully lead to the development of buildings and urban spaces that do a better job of promoting our social, cognitive, and emotional development, rather than hindering it, as has too often been the case previously.
“Tendencias en la Investigación Universitaria. Una visión desde Latinoamérica”, de la Colección Unión Global adscrita al Fondo Editorial Universitario Servando Garcés de la Universidad Politécnica Territorial de Falcón Alonso Gamero (UPTAG), es una publicación internacional, seriada, continua, arbitrada de acceso abierto a todas las áreas del conocimiento; muestra la producción intelectual y científica de investigadores de varios países del mundo, cuyo esfuerzo está orientado a contribuir con las nuevas perspectivas en el quehacer científico, tecnológico y humanístico que consolida la construcción y transformación del conocimiento a partir de la práctica investigativa desarrollada en los diferentes escenarios de la sociedad.
The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationships of hotels’ sensory marketing, customer satisfaction, and revisit intentions in light of the moderating effects of customers’ prior experience and gender. Data were collected from customers in hotels in South Korea, after which 286 usable surveys were processed. To investigate the data, we used descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling. The results reveal that there is a positive relationship between sensory marketing by hotels and customer satisfaction and that customer satisfaction significantly influenced revisit intentions. Also, subsequent tests for metric invariance showed differences in the moderating roles of customers’ prior experience and gender. This study discusses findings and implications for research and practice in the hotel industry.
As the main communication platforms for today's competitive air transportation market expands, airline websites need to be user friendly to trigger positive electronic word of mouth. Website quality constitutes an influencing factor in consumer behavior and decision-making. Therefore the purpose of this study is to test informarion-task-fit on electronic word of month, purchase intention and website quality. The study tested the effect of information-task-fit on website quality, electronic word of mouth and purchase intention of users of Turkish Airlines. A total of 604 questionnaires was obtained online within six months, using a quantitative and cross-sectional approach. The proposed above relationships were evaluated via structural equation modeling. Results were as hypothesized, with the perception that the availability of information required by users on the website influence website quality, electronic word of mouth and purchase intention. The website quality also influenced users' intention to purchase and electronic word of mouth. These results offer insights into improving and maintaining website quality by making the website user friendly so as to attract greater audience. This study's comprehensive model is lacking in service airline literature, thus this is an added research on the influence of information-task-fit web information and design on supposed quality of service and intention to purchase. Managers should also maintain high standards by hiring professional website builders so as to increase their usage. This study provides implications for airline website quality. A conclusion and further studies are presented below.
Every destination needs to create a unique identity to sustain competition. However, it is difficult to create a destination identity between alternatives which share the same market and have similar environments. As creating the destination identity for travelers requires a memorable tourism experiences for travelers. From the perspective of experiential approaches, the sensory is one of the most vital entity of the destination based on his/her perception elements of an experience and therefore it is a powerful key to identify the destination characteristic. To become destination with distinct characteristics, they should provide positive tourism experiences by stimulating effectively five senses such as sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. This study was aimed to find out the effects of sensoryscape factors on creating destination identity. With this aim, a total of 322 questionnaires were distributed to those who visited Nami Island and 300 copies of questionnaires were used for the empirical analysis. The results can be summarized as follows. First, this study found two single senses including vision and touch are most positively associated with all types of travel destination identity. Second, the result showed the effects of interaction of two senses on travel destination identity and obtained that when combining the senses, the vision and smell are the most effective to create a travel destination identity rather combinations of vision and touch, which are effective senses when acting individually. This study is meaningful in that the study of sensory perception, which was mostly done in retailing setting, was carried out targeting travelers in a destination.
This chapter focuses on servicescape in the context of physical servicescape and digital servicescape. It also highlights service and digital service. Within the framework of gamification, it is important to have an understanding for and knowledge of what is of importance when developing and providing services delivered in servicescapes, physical or digital, to customers. Hence, the focus also lies on co-creation between the three main stakeholders, the developer, the provider, and the customer. Finally, the chapter contains some suggestions built on previous research on the group of young elderly (age group 60 – 75), but that can be beneficial when working with other target groups.
The demand for sustainable and healthy food is increasing. Therefore, it is necessary to find new sources of functional ingredients for design of novel food products. Microalgae are reliable sources of functional ingredients, ready for exploitation with purpose of production of human food. This work explores consumers’ acceptance of novel foods based on microalgae. To achieve natural and realistic eating location, sensory analysis was conducted in a real restaurant in Universitat Politècnica de València. A check-all-that-apply questionnaire and hedonic scale registered the consumers’ expectations ( N = 85), perceptions and acceptance, before and after taste of typical Valencian breadsticks. Food neophobia can affect acceptability of novel foods, thus, participants completed a test designed to measure their attitudes towards new food. Microalgae breadsticks have distinctive characteristics compared to control breadsticks, such as colour, flavour and odour, because of microalgae presence. Still, those breadsticks were as acceptable as the control breadsticks according to the consumer preferences. Consumers expected more differences amongst both breadsticks before tasting, but they lowered the differences in perception after trying them. Consumers consider that the product is healthier, and they would understand if it had greater expense. We believe this information can be useful for selling / marketing this novel product.
Purpose: The recently established field of sensory marketing attributes its existence to customer demand for sensational experiences, among other things. Consequently, scent is acknowledged as an effective form of communication of the brand. This study focuses on olfaction, comparing consumer behaviour between scented and odourless products, aiming to address the question of how scent impacts the consumers' experience, offering recommendations to companies with regards to scented products. The study is relevant to all the enterprises that manufacture or develop their own product. The SME´s can benefit through understanding the importance of scent and empirical insights about how scent impacts consumer´s experience. Design/methodology/approach: A Qualitative study has been conducted through the collection of primary data using two types of questionnaires, a-priori and posteriori of a tested product distributed to 100 participants with 89 % response rate which provides a sufficient basis for a good overview of many possible effects of scent. A subsequent stage of the investigation involved ten in-depth interviews which expanded on the subject. The study has been conducted over two months (March to May) at the University of South Wales in 2015. The participants were randomly selected students and staff of the university. All age categories and ethnicities were represented. Findings: The results indicate enhanced (a) quality perception when the product is scented, (b) semantic associations with the scented product, (c) multi-modality of senses e.g. scent increases the desire to touch, (d) impact of scent on preference where the decision is not impaired by other factors such as availability or price and e) perceived favourability towards a hypothetical brand behind the scented product in some cases. However, where price was a parameter, the scent did not have an effect; presumably as aspects such as price and brand loyalty overshadow sensory aspects. Research/practical implications: It is preferable to increase the range of products that stimulate consumers' senses. On the contrary, the cost is a determinant factor to consider before launching the product on the market as the price sensitivity can be quite high. The recommendation for companies is to diversify the portfolio and position scented products as more luxurious. Moreover, other sensory characteristics such as colour could be used in order to differentiate the purpose of the same product and facilitate multiple purchases. Other themes emerged such as the role of environmental aspects might be in some cases more important than the functional aspects. Originality/value: This paper offers comprehensive overview of possible effects of scent on consumer experience. The study further indicates how scented products should be positioned and incorporated in brand portfolio.
In a longitudinal study design with three waves, we show that strong sensorimotor associations of past service experiences positively influence consumers' attitude formation during postconsumption stages by (a) leading to more postconsumptive memories, specifically if (b) the initial experience has been perceived as moderately positive. Our study complements extant research on sensory marketing, consumer retrospection, and cognitive reinforcement by introducing memory frequency as an important mediator to explain time‐related antecedents of consumers' word‐of‐mouth. The results provide novel insights into the dynamics of attitude formation based on prior service experiences and help marketers to create long‐lasting customer relationships during postconsumption stages.
In this chapter, a number of key ethical issues associated with the recent emergence of the related fields of neuromarketing and sensory marketing are reviewed. Now that these new techniques are really starting to show their predictive mettle relative to other, more traditional, consumer psychology/behavioural testing approaches to marketing, questions around the ethics of stimulating the brain’s “buy button” start to raise their head. Here, I want to question what exactly is so special, and so worrying, about “looking inside the mind of the consumer”. I will argue that public fears around the dangers of neuromarketing have been overblown, at least up until the present time and, as far as I can see, for the foreseeable future. I do, though, want to raise a number of concerns around the growing influence of sensory marketing on our behaviour, focusing, in particular, on the world of food and drink marketing. Ultimately, I believe that the consumer of tomorrow may well have much to fear from the emerging neuroscience-inspired approaches to sensory marketing. In fact, before too long, we may all start to find ourselves being sensorially “nudged” into a range of less healthy food behaviours. As such, establishing clear ethical guidelines will, I believe, become an increasingly important issue for those working in the field.
The paper analyses the sensory marketing of the sense of smell, its dimensions and usage in marketing decisions. By invoking the scent marketing decisions, one aims at attracting the consumer attention, to keep him/ her at a point of sale as long as possible, to affect the behaviour and encourage an impulsive process of buying decision making. e theoretical study was performed by analysing the insights of Lithuanian and foreign authors on the purpose of elaborating the coherence between the ambient scent at the point of sale and the consumer impulse buying behaviour. It was revealed during the study that the ambient scent at a point of sale can be assessed as a stimulus which invokes the consumer's impulsive buying behaviour. e logic of the prepared conceptual model is related to S-O-R paradigm: the environmental stimulus (ambient scent at a point of sale) affects the human organism (consumer internal response) and causes a reaction (consumer impulsive buying behaviour). Keywords: sensory marketing, ambient scent, consumer behaviour, S-O-R paradigm, impulsive buying behaviour.
It’s very difficult to differentiate the brands for companies in these days. Because branding is not just market share but also share in mind and share in heart that is the core of experiential marketing. In this research using a research model and applying SEM and PLS, the effect of experiential marketing on brand commitment with the mediating role of brand attachment, brand trust and brand loyalty are investigated. 115 participants in live experience of Kaleh in Anzali Free Zone are surveyed through the questionnaire that its validity and reliability are secured. The results show that experiential marketing has a positive impact on brand attachment, loyalty, trust and commitment of customers.
Sensory trademarks present a compelling case in which to explore the senses as “containers of possibility,” and this article explores the emergence and logic of sensory trademarks from a legal and marketers’ perspective. Using sensory trademark cases from the United States, I suggest that the current socio-legal environment opens a conversation about what I would call sensory capitalism—the monetization of the senses rather than the propertization of the senses—that requires intellectual property law to properly function. I argue that the sensory model espoused by the trademarking of the senses is one of the mass sensorium, whereby the “audience” universally recognizes marks as designating a particular source or origin of goods. The mass sensorium offers something quite novel, however, because embedded in it is the (corporate) promise of a lingua franca that valorizes all of the senses and generates a type of mediated affect that is shared.
The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence to support the role of sensory marketing in the restaurants. Data were collected through a survey from the customers of the restaurants. A sample of 362 respondents was taken for the study. Hypotheses were tested through statistical tests using SPSS and SmartPls 3.0. Empirical evidence supports the view that restaurants using sensory marketing techniques have more satisfied customers than otherwise. The sample was chosen on the basis of income of respondents. Data were collected from three major cities of Pakistan (Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad). The study should be replicated in different contexts to find the similarity of results along with finding new perspectives. The paper provides support for the significance of sensory marketing to enhance the satisfaction of customers in restaurants by using service quality.
Yoga is both a sociocultural phenomenon and a multibillion dollar industry. As consumers shift spending habits towards transformational and well-being experiences, the yoga industry provides a sophisticated and diverse offer of commodities, services and experiences that mix and bricolage conscious luxury with holistic and sustainable practices. The promise of happiness, harmony, balance and self-actualization are key indicators of cultural capital and status in contemporary consumer society. The yoga industry offers these services across a multitude of platforms and uses branding strategies that borrow emotional and sensory dynamics from the luxury market as well as upward mobility logics of social differentiation. The success of this consumption pattern is evident in the economic worth of the yoga and wellness industries. Yoga brands function as aspirational lifestyle brands offering social, symbolic, and psychological benefits that go beyond the physical practice. These brands also propose new aesthetic and ethical body ideals. This article argues that yoga is a multisensory luxury experience, providing consumers with achievement of both tangible and intangible physical, mental and spiritual individual needs and aspirations. The yoga studio becomes the immersive or escapist space that replaces traditional religious institutions; representing self-transformation, self-empowerment and community engagement. It is the space where the quest for meaning takes place, under hyper-individualistic logics of consumer capitalism and luxury market dynamics. Through the analysis of aspirational lifestyle branding and marketing strategies associated with three yoga studios, this article considers the inherent paradoxes of yoga as a conscious luxury experience and yoga as a traditional practice.
The purpose of this study is to investigate which opportunities and threats the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) may have in relation to the multisensory brand experiences of guests in 4- and 5- star hotels. The reason is that digital experiences have become an important issue in the hotel industry. At the same time, an increasing number of high-end hotels have developed sophisticated multisensory strategies to generate multisensory brand experiences of their guests during their stay. To answer our research question, we carried out two studies, i.e. interviews and an internet survey. Our findings show that both hotel managers and guests seem to believe that the application of IoTs may stimulate guests’ sensory experiences and increase their satisfaction and loyalty. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that the different digital tools available on the market need to be carefully analyzed (e.g. SWOT) in view of their potential impact on customers’ sensory experiences prior to their implementation. Limitations and avenues for further research are given.