OLFACTORY BRANDING: IMPACT OF AMBIENCE SCENT ON CONSUMER MOOD, AND PURCHASE INTENTION

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to study the concept of olfactory branding. In this study it was studied that how the scent use in the stores effect the shoppers mood, cognition and spending. This research contributes in previous researches on sensory marketing by giving the answers which are unanswered till now. How olfactory branding is taking its place and becoming most important sense to target. The purpose is to find out the new tactics used by the retailers to affect consumer rnoods and their spending and how ambient odor affects the shoppers mood and cognition and how this change the perception of store choice and product quality. In what ways the aroma use in retail store change the mood of consumer (change of unplanned shopper to planned shopper or planned shopper to spend more time to evaluating other options). METHABOLQGY: In this study survey method was adopted to collect the data. Web based questionnaire was used to collect the data from the people easily available on the social sites. Sample size of this study was 250 and sampling technique chosen was convenience sampling. To analyze the results frequencies, regression, anova and correlation was studied. FINDINGS: Results clearly states that ambient scent effects shopper’s perception of store environment and product quality which ip result effects consumer emotions positively. Positive mood influence shoppers to stay more in store, spend more money, explore the environment and feel friendly with the staff. Results reveal that Positive mood changes unplanned shopper to planned shopper. Result shows that pleasing ambient scent also affect emotion directly without any cognition process in between. Scent has strong affect on consumers; this branding tactic is now becoming most important sense to target. PRACTICAL IMPLICATION: the outcome of this research is to point out the importance of olfactory branding in retail environment.