Retail atmospherics are quite well studied but are poorly explained - Essay Example

?Topic: “Retail atmospherics are quite well studied but are poorly explained”. Discuss this claim and comment on the shortcomings of this field of research. The topic of retail atmospherics calls for promoting scientific research on customer behaviour patterns and strategies used by retailers by effectively managing retail atmosphere design. Before exam9ining the claim that retail atmospherics are thoroughly studied but not stated well, we need to define what is meant by retail atmospherics. According to Kotler (1974), it is the effort to design buying environments to produce specific emotional effects in the buyer that enhances his purchase probability. A renewed interest was created in retail atmospherics through the caricature reporting by the Wall Street Journal showing a bank manager asking a customer’s opinion on the background music, which the manager has boasted of selecting himself. Such complex decisions as presenting background music are made irrationally in retail ambience. It gives the impression that no serious thought is given on creating retail atmospherics to provide a memorable experience to customers in the retail industry. Such decisions if taken rationally and thoughtfully can create a positive impact on customer perceptions of service quality, purchase, and consumption behaviour (Chebat & Dube, 2000). Developing of a customer experience has become very crucial with the importance given to the purchase of commodities. Expectations from retail managers have increased to create an environment of understanding in creating the atmospheric resources for providing the desired customer experience. Challenges in the retail atmospheric research lie in understanding the psychology of consumer reactions on the one hand and the functional requirements and planning at the firm level to provide that experience to the customers on the other hand (Chebat & Dube, 2000). Babin and Attaway (2000) have specifically worked on developing a reliable mechanism tool to innovatively measure the customers’ behavioural outcomes. Customer spending is directly impressed by a store’s capacity to create value that benefits the customer. It was found that environmentally inspired emotions affect relative spending by the customer. Their research indicates that customer behaviour can be induced by developing the right retail atmosphere. The value of shopping through the relationship of the customer behaviour with the retail environment provided by the retailer is justified. Research has been done on the relation between shopping behaviour and environmental factors via transformations in emotional feelings. Shoppers’ behaviour was examined through fixed time and changing time during a simulated shopping test. It included listening experience of different but familiar music provided to the shoppers. Later on shoppers’ outlook on shopping time, their mental state and product appraisal were recorded, which indicated that shoppers spent long hours while listening to favourite music, which was their perception but actually they spent long hours shopping when listening to not-popular music. Limited actual shopping times in the known music scenario were associated with increased awareness. Longer assumed shopping hours by the shoppers in popular music listening experience were associated to unmeasured cognitive factors. Mental states of the shoppers played a part in taking a purchase decision on a product but these impressions were not directly associated to the playing of music (Yalch and Spangenberg, 2000). Research by Turley and Milliman (2000)) also shows that impact of music is not positive and good always. Their review shows weakness of the theoretical base. Majority of customer emotion measures depend on store type. Functional and job-oriented environments are related with lower levels of pleasure and arousal-related emotions, which provides an alternative to Mehrabian and Russel (1974)) model on environmental psychology. By changing the store design and settings, emotional shopping results can be achieved from the customer through a change in customer behaviour (Machleit and Eroglu, 2000). Laroche et al. (2000) have researched on the information from the Anglo and Franco-Canadians on Christmas shopping. Their review of the previous literature on a number of situational, personal and demographic variables indicated atmospherics’ role in finding a Christmas gift. After Christmas, they conducted a survey to find the effects of variables on the limit of search to be made on shopping a garment present. They found three types of in-store searches, namely displays, brands and sales staff. The in-store search behaviours were affected by cultural connections, relevant with latest insight and new realisations. Their research enriched the literature on cognitive reactions to be measured for creating of atmospherics effects on French and English customers. Sirgy et al. (2000) conducted research on retail environment and self-agreement among other factors impacting retail atmospherics. They have discussed on how to better measure self-agreement besides discussing the past and current attempts on measuring self-agreement in customers shopping behaviour. Research Shortcomings Problems are faced in using of atmospheric techniques, which are very different from other methods of inspiring customers. Implementation of atmospherics is not easy as noted by Yalch and Spangenberg (1992) particularly in playing of matching music in a department store. Mixing of colour, music and space is not a problem but some effects can not be predicted. The theoretical basis of research is very limited, which can be experimented with using of advertising principles to arouse emotions. Retail stores managers need to use more dramatic and fun creating features in malls. Machleit and Eroglu (2000) caution researchers not to divide emotions as negative and positive ones. An analysis of atmospheric factors can help in deciding whether such a division is right or not. Results indicate that mixing of different emotion types can blur the findings on particular emotion types that create distinct effects. It can result in losing of crucial information related to effects. The views of different academicians discussed above are ample proof of the quality research work done in this field. Shortcomings in this field of research are practical problems in using environmental factors that bring a change in the customer behaviour. Different shopping aspects can not be ruled by similar environment factors. Some factors can be predictive in creating desirable impression in a specific shopping experience but there are chances that the same factors would not create the desirable effect in a different retail shopping experience. Retailers may not find the wanted behaviour change in customers with their atmospheric design choices, as in the case of music customer liking can be different from that of the retail manager. But this shortcoming of the retail atmospherics in no way substantiates the limitations of the research. In fact, the impression one gets is that retail atmospherics are not only very well studied but explained well also. References Babin, Barry J., Attaway, Jill S. ‘Atmospheric Affect as a Tool for Creating Value and Gaining Share of Customer’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 49, no. 2, (2000), pp. 91-99, ebscohost, (accessed 21 May 2011). Chebat, Jean-Charles., Dube, Laurette. ‘Evolution and Challenges Facing Retail Atmospherics: The Apprentice Sorcerer Is Dying’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 49, no. 2, (2000), pp. 89-90, ebscohost, (accessed 21 May 2011). Laroche, Michel., Saad, Gad., Kim, Chankon, Browne, Elizabeth. ‘A Cross-Cultural Study of In-Store Information Search Strategies for a Christmas Gift’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 49, no. 2, (2000), pp. 113-126, ebscohost, (accessed 21 May 2011). Machleit, Karen A., Eroglu, Sevgin A. ‘Describing and Measuring Emotional Response to Shopping Experience’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 49, no. 2, (2000), pp. 101-111, ebscohost, (accessed 21 May 2011). Sirgy, M. Joseph., Grewal, Dhruv., Mangleburg, Tamara. ‘Retail Environment, Self-Congruity, and Retail Patronage: An Integrative Model and a Research Agenda’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 49, no. 2, (2000), pp. 127-138, ebscohost, (accessed 21 May 2011). Yalch, Richard F., Spangenberg, Eric R. ‘The Effects of Music in a Retail Setting on Real and Perceived Shopping Times’, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 49, no. 2, (2000), pp. 139–147, ebscohost, (accessed 21 May 2011). Read More