Atmospherics in retail: The effect of multisensory congruity between light and scent via multiple versus single sensory attributes on consumer reactions

Abstract

Ambient light is inherent in the store environment, making research on the interaction effects between light and other atmospheric cues crucial to understanding how the store environment can affect consumers. This study extends existing research on multisensory congruity effects between atmospheric cues by examining whether multiple sensory associations (i.e., warmth and brightness) of ambient cues (i.e., light and scent) must match to create positive effects on consumer evaluations and behavior or whether a match of only one sensory association is sufficient. Previous research operationalized multisensory congruity primarily via the match on one specific association; however, the results of our two studies show that matching ambient light and scent (compared to a mismatch between the stimuli or compared to only one ambient cue) only led to enhanced evaluations and approach behavior when these stimuli were matched on both their perceived association with a warm or cold temperature and with a dim or bright illuminance level. Our research supports the importance of perceiving the store environment holistically and suggests that the description and selection of an atmospheric cue to create positive congruity effects on consumer evaluations and behavior is quite complex.