IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pjm/journl/vxviiiy2013i2p67-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect Of Ambient Scent On Moviegoers’ Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • José Verissimo

    (ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management,Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Rui Alves Pereira

    (NOS Lusomundo Cinemas, Portugal)

Abstract

Atmospheres influence behavior, create a positive image, and influence consumer purchasing patterns and retail perceptions. Nonetheless, the physical environment is a potential source of competitive advantage, though neglected more often than not. In particular, research on the effects of aroma as an independent variable in natural settings is very limited and requires further research. A sample of 407 moviegoers participated in a “natural experiment” in a cinema complex, using scented and unscented conditions. Findings show that scent produces significant positive differences in the evaluation of the theater, its environment, and on intention to return. No significant differences are found in the evaluations of concession products sold, despite the fact that spectators in scented rooms considered product prices to be significantly cheaper than did spectators in unscented rooms. A major implication of this study is that scent significantly affects emotional reactions to atmospheres. Retailers can thus improve environments to create enjoyable experiences and positively influence consumer responses. Classification- JEL:

Suggested Citation

  • José Verissimo & Rui Alves Pereira, 2013. "The Effect Of Ambient Scent On Moviegoers’ Behavior," Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, vol. 0(2), pages 67-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:pjm:journl:v:xviii:y:2013:i:2:p:67-80
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ejms.iseg.ulisboa.pt/files/8_PJMS_Vol18_Issue2_The_effect_of_ambient_scent_on_moviegoers_behavior.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Bradford & Debra Desrochers, 2009. "The Use of Scents to Influence Consumers: The Sense of Using Scents to Make Cents," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(2), pages 141-153, November.
    2. Nicolas Guéguen & Christine Petr, 2006. "Odors and consumer behavior in arestaurant," Post-Print halshs-00094108, HAL.
    3. Michon, Richard & Chebat, Jean-Charles & Turley, L. W., 2005. "Mall atmospherics: the interaction effects of the mall environment on shopping behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 576-583, May.
    4. Morrison, Michael & Gan, Sarah & Dubelaar, Chris & Oppewal, Harmen, 2011. "In-store music and aroma influences on shopper behavior and satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 558-564, June.
    5. Orth, Ulrich R. & Bourrain, Aurelie, 2008. "The influence of nostalgic memories on consumer exploratory tendencies: Echoes from scents past," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 277-287.
    6. Spangenberg, Eric R. & Sprott, David E. & Grohmann, Bianca & Tracy, Daniel L., 2006. "Gender-congruent ambient scent influences on approach and avoidance behaviors in a retail store," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(12), pages 1281-1287, November.
    7. Spangenberg, Eric R. & Grohmann, Bianca & Sprott, David E., 2005. "It's beginning to smell (and sound) a lot like Christmas: the interactive effects of ambient scent and music in a retail setting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(11), pages 1583-1589, November.
    8. Turley, L. W. & Milliman, Ronald E., 2000. "Atmospheric Effects on Shopping Behavior: A Review of the Experimental Evidence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 193-211, August.
    9. Walsh, Gianfranco & Shiu, Edward & Hassan, Louise M. & Michaelidou, Nina & Beatty, Sharon E., 2011. "Emotions, store-environmental cues, store-choice criteria, and marketing outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 737-744, July.
    10. Philippa Ward & Barry Davies & Dion Kooijman, 2007. "Olfaction and the retail environment: examining the influence of ambient scent," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 1(4), pages 295-316, December.
    11. Aradhna Krishna & May O. Lwin & Maureen Morrin, 2010. "Product Scent and Memory," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 57-67, June.
    12. Chebat, Jean-Charles & Michon, Richard, 2003. "Impact of ambient odors on mall shoppers' emotions, cognition, and spending: A test of competitive causal theories," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 529-539, July.
    13. Michela Mari & Sara Poggesi, 2013. "Servicescape cues and customer behavior: a systematic literature review and research agenda," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 171-199, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Errajaa, Karim & Legohérel, Patrick & Daucé, Bruno, 2018. "Immersion and emotional reactions to the ambiance of a multiservice space: The role of perceived congruence between odor and brand image," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 100-108.
    2. Leenders, Mark A.A.M. & Smidts, Ale & Haji, Anouar El, 2019. "Ambient scent as a mood inducer in supermarkets: The role of scent intensity and time-pressure of shoppers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 270-280.
    3. Girard, Marc & Girard, Anna & Suppin, Anna-Caroline & Bartsch, Silke, 2016. "The scentscape: An integrative framework describing scents in servicescapes," jbm - Journal of Business Market Management, Free University Berlin, Marketing Department, vol. 9(1), pages 597-622.
    4. Ramona Luca & Delane Botelho, 2021. "The unconscious perception of smells as a driver of consumer responses: a framework integrating the emotion-cognition approach to scent marketing," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 145-161, June.
    5. Helmefalk, Miralem & Hultén, Bertil, 2017. "Multi-sensory congruent cues in designing retail store atmosphere: Effects on shoppers’ emotions and purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    6. Andreas C. Drichoutis & Varvara Kechagia, 2016. "The effect of olfactory sensory cues on economic decision making," Working Papers 2016-4, Agricultural University of Athens, Department Of Agricultural Economics.
    7. Francisco I. Vega-Gómez & Francisco J. Miranda-Gonzalez & Jesús Pérez Mayo & Óscar Rodrigo González-López & Laura Pascual-Nebreda, 2020. "The Scent of Art. Perception, Evaluation, and Behaviour in a Museum in Response to Olfactory Marketing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, February.
    8. Lunardo, Renaud & Roux, Dominique & Chaney, Damien, 2016. "The evoking power of servicescapes: Consumers' inferences of manipulative intent following service environment-driven evocations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 6097-6105.
    9. Kechagia, Varvara & Drichoutis, Andreas C., 2017. "The effect of olfactory sensory cues on willingness to pay and choice under risk," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 33-46.
    10. Jacob, Isaac & Khanna, Monica & Rai, Krupa A., 2020. "Attribution analysis of luxury brands: An investigation into consumer-brand congruence through conspicuous consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 597-607.
    11. Diogo Conque Seco Ferreira & Jorge Mendes Oliveira-Castro, 2010. "Effects of background music on consumer behaviour: behavioural account of the consumer setting," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(15), pages 2571-2585, September.
    12. Eliane Schreuder & Jan van Erp & Alexander Toet & Victor L. Kallen, 2016. "Emotional Responses to Multisensory Environmental Stimuli," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440166, February.
    13. OLAHUT Meda Roxana & PLAIAS Ioan, 2013. "The Effects Of Ambient Scent On Consumer Behavior: A Review Of The Literature," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 1797-1806, July.
    14. Herrmann, Andreas & Zidansek, Manja & Sprott, David E. & Spangenberg, Eric R., 2013. "The Power of Simplicity: Processing Fluency and the Effects of Olfactory Cues on Retail Sales," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 30-43.
    15. Martin Amsteus & Vidar Hwang, 2015. "Scent in Mail: The Effect of Scented Direct Mailings," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 7(6), pages 24-33.
    16. Roschk, Holger & Loureiro, Sandra Maria Correia & Breitsohl, Jan, 2017. "Calibrating 30 Years of Experimental Research: A Meta-Analysis of the Atmospheric Effects of Music, Scent, and Color," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 228-240.
    17. Lieve Doucé, 2022. "The Effect of High, Partial, and Low Multisensory Congruity between Light and Scent on Consumer Evaluations and Approach Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, May.
    18. Doucé, Lieve & Adams, Carmen, 2020. "Sensory overload in a shopping environment: Not every sensory modality leads to too much stimulation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Errajaa, Karim & Daucé, Bruno & Legohérel, Patrick, 2020. "Consumer reactions to olfactory congruence with brand image," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    20. Shuvam Chatterjee & Pawel Bryla, 2023. "Mapping consumers’ semi-conscious decisions with the use of ZMET in a retail market setup," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 50(2), pages 221-232, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pjm:journl:v:xviii:y:2013:i:2:p:67-80. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Luís Mota de Castro, Tiago Cardão-Pito, Mark Crathorne (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isutlpt.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.