Resumen de Ambient scent and consumer exploratory behaviour: A causal analysis
Aurelie Bourrain, Ulrich Orth
Stimulating consumers to explore ‘new’ wines constitutes a major marketing challenge. This paper investigates the potential of retail atmospherics, namely ambient scent, for supporting consumer exploratory behaviour. Scents pretested to vary in pleasantness were diffused in a laboratory setting. Data were collected on consumer actual and optimum stimulation level, exploratory tendencies, and behaviour. It was determined that the pleasantness of a scent moderated effects of optimum and actual stimulation on risk taking, variety seeking, and curiosity-motivated behaviour. Downstream effects extended onto the importance of label colour, text, and grape variety in the preference development process. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
