Ambient scent and consumer exploratory behaviour: a causal analysis.

摘要

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 consumers' (n=246, from USA) actual and optimum stimulation levels, exploratory tendencies, and behaviour. The pleasantness of a scent moderated the 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..