UK researcher studies how sensory cues in retail influence consumer behavior
From soft music to scented air, subtle sensory cues in retail environments shape how consumers feel, shop and spend.
Corinne Hassler, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing in the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky, is examining how businesses use interventions in the marketplace to influence consumer behavior. The goal is not only to improve business outcomes, but also to better serve shoppers.
“Most of my research looks at different types of interventions that firms can utilize to shape and encourage different types of consumer behaviors,” Hassler said. “Basically, how we operate when we’re shopping and how it can benefit the firm, but also benefit the consumer, too, in terms of their well-being.”
One component of this research explores how sensory elements, such as sound and smell, carry gendered associations that influence how consumers perceive a space. These cues often work in the background, influencing behavior without people realizing it.
“These things influence what consumers do most of the time subconsciously,” Hassler said. “The scent in the store, the music in the store…they’re happening in the background. Most consumers aren’t paying attention to them, but there’s a ton of research that shows that these things do nudge them to behave in certain ways.”
From how long someone stays in a store to how much they ultimately spend; those nudges can have real economic impact.
“There’s a strong association with how long you shop and how much you spend,” Hassler said. “It influences what you buy in the store. So, it’s good for consumers to know that these cues are there for a reason.”
Hassler has been able to field test these ideas beyond controlled experiments thanks to support from Celebrating University Research Across the Enterprise (CURATE), a program funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Her project is shaped through collaboration with co-authors, Nicole J. Hess, Ph.D., ESCP Business School; Poja Shams, Ph.D., Karlstad University; Anders Gustafsson, Ph.D., BI Norwegian Business School; and Maura L. Scott, Ph.D., and Martin Mende, Ph.D., both of Arizona State University.
“With CURATE, we were able to run a new field study in an electronic store, which we found to be relatively masculine,” Hassler said. “We could show that this happens in the real world, not just in the laboratory. CURATE also helped fund the process studies that helped us understand psychologically what was going on with men and women.”
Those insights have implications for businesses seeking to serve a broader customer base.
“Even though they might be a more masculine-focused retailer or service provider, they’re offering their product or their service to all types of people with all types of gender identities,” Hassler said. “They have to figure out how to better serve, because they want all of their business.”
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'UK researcher explores how sensory cues in retail environments influence consumer behavior' video transcript
My name is Corinne Hassler, and I'm an assistant professor of marketing here in Gatton College of Business and Economics.
Most of my research looks at different types of interventions in the marketplace that firms can utilize to shape and change and encourage different types of consumer behaviors—basically how we operate when we’re shopping and specifically interventions that help and benefit the firm, but also I have a lot of research that looks at how it can benefit the consumer too—in terms of their well‑being.
With CURATE, we were able to run a new field study in an electronics store, which we found to be relatively masculine. We could show that this kind of happens in the real world, not just in the laboratory. CURATE also helped fund the process studies that helped us understand psychologically what was going on with men and women.
Things in the environment that impact our senses, whether that’s smell, whether that’s sound, also have gender associations with them. Certain smells, certain sounds, that trigger a consumer to perceive it to be relatively more feminine or more masculine. These things influence what consumers do most of the time, subconsciously. The scent in the store, the music in the store, they’re happening in the background. Most consumers aren’t paying too much attention to them, but there’s a ton of research that shows that these things do nudge them to behave in certain ways.
There’s a strong association with how long you shop and how much you spend. It influences what you buy in the store. So, it’s good for consumers to know that these cues are there for a reason.
Even though they might be a more masculine‑focused retailer or service, they’re offering and they’re selling their product or they’re offering their service to all types of people with all types of gender identities. So they have to figure out how to better serve both sides, right? Because they want all of their business.