Enticing consumers to enter fashion stores : a sensory marketing perspective

Abstract: During the past years, there has been a re-emergence of sensory marketing in the paradigm of marketing. However, there is a lack of empirical studies done on the subject. Furthermore, the previous literature has focused on whether senses affects, rather than how they affect. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to study how sensory stimuli affects the consumers’ choice of entering physical fashion stores. This thesis is based on sensory marketing, consumer behaviour, and retail marketing theory. The theoretical framework in this thesis consists of an adapted sensory-stimuli-response model with the five main senses of sensory marketing as stimuli, emotional response of arousal and pleasure as organism, and entering or not entering as response. A qualitative research strategy was used to study the phenomenon. The empirical findings and the analysis showed that touch, sight, and sound were effective in enticing the consumer to enter by affecting their arousal. Furthermore, scent was on the opposite side as it was only affective in creating disinterest when bad. Lastly, taste displayed potential which warrants further research. This thesis might be of value for companies looking to implement sensory marketing as part of their marketing plan.