Shopping Centre Marketing: Management approach to atmospherics and experiential marketing

Abstract: Beyond the satisfaction of basic shopping needs, researchers point out that the shopping centre is also a destination for consumers to have a good time in. This has been described as a holistic customer experience. One of the factors influencing customer shopping experiences is the retail environment. Here, atmospherics is the practice of consciously designing the retail space in order to produce certain effects in customers. While most research on atmospherics has tended to focus on individual stores, this study looks instead at atmospherics from the broader retail view of the shopping centre. A managerial perspective is also adopted in the study.Specifically, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how shopping centre management in Sweden relate to and approach atmospherics, in the context of creating customer shopping experiences. To fulfil this purpose, a qualitative research study was designed, and interviews were conducted with nine shopping centre managers. These are complemented by an interview with a shopping centre owner; and together, form the ten case studies in this thesis.The main conclusion of this thesis is that shopping centre managements' approach to atmospherics in their shopping centres is influenced by how they relate to the concept. Further, within the framework of experiential marketing, the managements' understanding of customer experiences also contributes to affect and be affected by how they relate to and approach the concept of atmospherics. Moreover, this affective process is dynamic, in that learning from past approaches to atmospherics contributes to influence how the management relates to atmospherics, and how they understand customer experiences in turn.