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yes / Abstract Purpose: The best possible way for brick-and-mortar retailers to maximise engagement with personalised shoppers is capitalising on intelligent insights. The retailer operates differently with diversified items and services, but influencing retail atmospheric on personalised shoppers, the perception remains the same across industries. Retail atmospherics stimuli such as design, smell and others create behavioural modifications. The purpose of this study is to explore the atmospheric effects on brick-and- mortar store performance and personalised shopper’s behaviour using cognitive computing based in-store analytics in the context of emerging market. Design/methodology/approach: The data are collected from 35 shoppers of a brick-and-mortar retailer through questionnaire survey and analysed using quantitative method. Findings: The result of the analysis reveals month-on-month growth in footfall count (46%), conversation rate (21%), units per transaction (27%), average order value (23%), dwell time (11%), purchase intention (29%), emotional experience (40%) and a month-on-month decline in remorse (20%). The retailers need to focus on three control gates of shopper behaviour: entry, browsing and exit. Attention should be paid to the cognitive computing solution to judge the influence of retail atmospherics on store performance and behaviour of personalised shoppers. Retail atmospherics create the right experience for individual shoppers and forceful use of it has an adverse impact. Originality/value: The paper focuses on strategic decisions of retailers, the tactical value of personalised shoppers and empirically identifies the retail atmospherics effect on brick-and-mortar store performance and personalised shopper behaviour.

This study brings forward the field of non-musical sound branding, concerning the use of sound in practical marketing and brand development. This interpretive, qualitative study has been conducted with the purpose of examining and explaining what aspects within non-musical sound branding that advocates and inhibits its use, ase well as exhibit how it can be created and developed. Interview data from advertising agencies and sound producers with extensive experience and knowledge in the field, is interpreted and analysed through theories within the fields of sensory marketing, brand theory, sound theory and non-musical sound branding. The results confirm that the intimate, subliminal qualities of sound, as well as the context in which it is mediated, are fundamental parameters for its reception and interpretation. The results also show that non-musical sound branding possess a number of aspects that both advocates and inhibits its use. The study also exhibit how it can be created and developed in regard to a number of fundamental and contributing perspectives.

Svenskarna handlar allt mer kläder och intresset för mode och kläder är större än någonsin.Bara produkten räcker dock inte för dagens konsument, utan platsen där den inhandlas har fåttallt större betydelse för kundens shoppingupplevelse. De olika faktorer som påverkar kunden ibutik brukar samlas under konceptet butiksatmosfären. Atmosfären ska, för att på bästa sättstimulera kunden, byggas utefter människans fem sinnen, syn, känsel, doft, smak och hörsel.Tidigare forskning har fokuserat på hur aktiviteter i butiksmiljön fungerar inom vanligdetaljhandel. Vi har i vår uppsats valt att undersöka hur dessa tidigare rön skulle gå atttillämpa på secondhandbutiker, som skiljer sig från detaljhandeln bland annat genomproduktutbud. Secondhand har på senare tid fått mycket uppmärksamhet och det finns idag ettökat intresse för återanvändning av kläder.Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera möjligheterna för secondhandverksamheter att arbetamed butiksatmosfären för att skapa en mer tilltalande butik. Vi vill utarbeta en förståelse förhur butiksatmosfärsstrategier, utarbetade och framforskade för detaljhandeln, kan appliceraspå secondhandbutiker, för att öka försäljning samt locka en bredare målgrupp. Uppsatsen haren kvalitativ utformning och är baserad på en fallstudie av tre fallföretag inomsecondhandhandeln. Datainsamlingen har skett genom intervjuer med informanter från de treföretagen, Judits, Myrorna och Röda Korset, samt genom observationer i butiksmiljön.Empirin har analyserats utifrån analysmodellen utformad i den teoretiska referensramen,vilken grundas på hur man tilltalar människans olika sinnen i butik.De ekonomiska och kreativa förutsättningarna skiljer mycket mellan fallföretagen, men vi harfunnit att man med enkla medel kan skapa en mer inspirerande och tilltalande miljö. Genomatt fokusera på att tillfredsställa människans olika sinnen kan man jobba med doftminimering,lämplig musik, lättillgänglighet och visuellt tilltalande skyltningar och displayer. Butikensmiljö ska tydligt förmedla butikens image till kunden. Genom dessa åtgärder kan man bådelocka nya kunder till butiken, och ta ut högre priser för sina varor. För butiker med en ickemodeintresserad personal kan en instruerande ”butiksmanual” hjälpa. Det är dags för butiksinnehavarna inom andrahandsindustrin att sätta butiksmiljön i första hand - det vinner både kunderna och de själva på. The Swedes are buying more and more clothes, and interest in fashion and clothes is greaterthan ever. The product alone is not enough to satisfy consumers today, and the place wherethe product is purchased has become increasingly important for the shopping experience. Thevarious in-store factors that affect and influence the customer are described as atmospherics.The atmospherics should be designed and adopted so as to best stimulate the customerthrough its five senses, sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. Previous research has focusedon how activities in atmospherics have affected consumers in the ordinary retail environment.In this essay we have investigated how these previous findings could be applied to secondhand stores, which differ from the retail sector, especially when it comes to the product range.Second hand has recently received much attention and there is currently an increased interestin the re-use of clothing.The purpose of this paper is to analyse the possibilities for second hand businesses to workwith atmospherics to create a more attractive store. We want to develop an understanding ofhow the strategies for atmospherics developed, through research, for the retail sector can beapplied to second hand stores, to increase sales and attract a wider audience. The thesis has aqualitative nature and is based on a case study of three companies in second hand trade. Datahas been collected through interviews with informants from the three companies, Judits,Myrorna and the Red Cross, and through observation in the store environment. Empirical datais analysed according to the analysis model designed in the theoretical framework, which isbased on how to, in-store, appeal to the human senses.The financial and creative conditions differ widely between the case companies, but we havefound that they can create a more inspiring and attractive environment with simple means.They should focus on satisfying the various human senses, which could be done by workingwith smell minimization, appropriate music, ease of access and visually appealing displaysand windows. The store environment has to clearly convey the store image to the customer.These actions can both attract new customers to the store, and allow them to charge a higherprice for their goods. For stores with a non-fashion-conscious staff, an instructional "shopmanual" could help. It is time for shop owners in the second hand industry to put the storeenvironment first - it will benefit both themselves and their customers. / Program: Textilekonomutbildningen

This chapter discusses atmospherics as a sport marketing strategy. Even though it has traditional retail roots, atmospherics have emerged as a strategy that may be utilized in the physical, online, and mobile sport environments. A comprehensive review of major traditional and sports atmospheric variables, online atmospheric variables, and applications to sport are discussed. In addition, the spectator experience cycle is introduced with atmospheric correlations. The purpose of the chapter is to explain why atmospherics are important to the sport industry and to demonstrate how sport marketers may use physical, online, or mobile atmospherics to enhance spectator experience, increase loyalty, impact attitude, consumer choice, and impact purchase behavior. In addition, the chapter is meant to emphasize the importance of atmospherics to ultimately achieve promotional and marketing objectives. Finally, future research directions are recommended.

As sensory marketing is becoming a more widely used strategy in the world, the need to distinguish oneself is more important than ever. The general knowledge of sensory cues, their interplay and sensory overload among Swedish retail beauty companies is researched in this thesis. We set out to identify the baseline knowledge of the store personnel and the implications thereof in Sweden on the subjects formerly mentioned.       This investigative study aims to provide an insight into the workings and knowledge gap of retail store design from the perspective of store personnel with sensory- marketing, interplay and congruency in mind with focus on the senses vision, audio and scent. The knowledge of these are assumed to influence a stores’ ability to cater to and adapt to everyday and sensory-sensitive consumers. The study also aims to provide an insight into the subject of sensory overload, what causes it and the effects that might be had from the experience.    To achieve this, we formed the research questions: “How do beauty retail stores in Sweden keep sensorial interplay in mind when designing their retail setting?” and “How do beauty retail stores in Sweden take sensory overload into consideration?”. We performed qualitative interviews with Swedish retail beauty stores’ employees. A foundational knowledge was established in the form of a literature review followed by empirical findings, to be discussed in the analysis.   The conclusions drawn from our research, were that there is awareness among managers on sensory marketing. However, sensory cues are commonly broken down and compartmentalized into singular events. While we found that there are congruence considerations taken as to how the cues relate to the stores’ brand, there seemed to be little to none taken to how the cues interplay with each other. We could also conclude that sensory overload is not a consideration. However, that there are various reasons to this, one major being that Swedish retailers are careful about the implementation of sensory experiences and therefore consider themselves safe from the possibility.

Impulse buying is a widely pervasive phenomenon. Statistics shows that more and more shoppers are experiencing irresistible urge to purchase unplanned and in most cases unnecessary product. Existing researches fall short in identifying most suitable tools that marketers can adopt in order to promote impulsive sales. Therefore, this thesis provides deep analysis of those, controllable factors that influence impulse buying. Particularly four external cues are examined: product display, promotional signage, sensory elements and social atmospherics. Research has deductive approach. First, existing academic articles and research papers are analyzed. Then two different methods of primary data collection are covered. Self-reported online survey is used as a main research tool. Received data of 193 respondents is analyzed in SPSS software using Pearson correlation test and standard multiple regression analysis. Results of store experiment and interviews are covered next. The research concludes that product display has strongest impact on impulse buying, influences and encourages consumer unplanned purchase decisions. Thus, marketers are advised to promote product presentation in the stores.

In today’s constantly changing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail market environment, it is imperative that retailers should focus on creating a pleasant shopping experience to differentiate their stores in order to achieve a competitive advantage. One of the strategies to achieve competitive advantage can be human variables. This study focused on the influence of human variables on consumers’ shopping experience in FMCG retail stores in Ekurhuleni. Therefore, this study expands the existing knowledge of human variables in the FMCG retail environment. Human variables in the context of this study comprise other customers and sales associates. Each of these human variables is made up of sub-variables. The sub-variables of other customers include crowding and social relations. On the other hand, the sub-variables of sales associates are sales associates’ availability, physical attributes of sales associates and behavioural attributes of sales associates. This empirical study was conducted with 400 FMCG retail stores consumers of the ages between 18 and 60 who reside in Ekurhuleni. The study followed a descriptive research design and quantitative approach in order to address the research objectives. A convenience sampling method and a mall-intercept survey by means of self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted in which the Likert scale statements in question 2 - 6 (see Appendix B) measuring different sub-variables of other customers and sales associates were subjected to a Principal Axis Factoring with Oblimin rotation. The results of the final EFA involved 13 Likert scale items. The test were conducted to validate the measures of human variables. The Principal Axis Factoring revealed five factors. These factors were social relations, behavioural attributes, crowding, physical attributes and sales associates’ availability. Therefore, reliability tests were conducted on the final items measuring the human variables. The results of this research study indicate that social relations, sales associates’ availability, physical attributes of sales associates and behavioural attributes of sales associates influence consumers’ shopping experience in FMCG retail stores in Ekurhuleni. However, the consumers felt neutral with regard to crowding. The test results of a chi-square for equal proportion revealed that all the five hypotheses (H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5) were supported as the proportions of consumers with regard to the influence of these sub-variables on their shopping experience were statistically different. Furthermore, ANOVA and F-test results for testing whether there were differences between demographics indicated that H1a, H2b and H5c were supported because there were statistically significant differences between genders with regard to the influence of crowding, between age groups regarding social relations, as well as between racial groups with regard to the influence of behavioural attributes of sales associates on consumers’ shopping experience. / Business Management / M. Com (Business Management)

Background: Nowadays, customers tend to take product quality and positive brand image for granted, which makes the formation of a new marketing strategy even more vital. In an age characterized by information overload and lack of time, factors such as emotional, cognitive or symbolic values become increasingly valuable in marketing. In contrast to American retail clothing stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch, who to a large extent use ambience as a strategic approach, the authors have not experienced as strong ambience strategies among Swedish retail stores. Therefore, the authors want to investigate if Swedish retailers make use of ambience as a strategic marketing approach and how the ambience is perceived by the consumers. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore if and how ambience (lighting, fragrance and music) is used as a strategic marketing approach by retailers in Sweden and how the ambience is perceived by the consumers. In addition the authors will examine if the consumers’ perception of the current ambience is reflected in their in-store behaviour (willingness to browse and willingness to buy). Method: In order to fulfil the purpose, a mixed method of explanatory and descriptive design was chosen, by collecting quantitative data in the form of a survey and qualitative data through interviews. The questionnaire consisted of 91 respondents from JC, Carlings and Dressmann. Interviews with store-managers from JC, Carlings and Dressmann were also conducted in order to reflect if and how the current ambience is used as a marketing approach. Conclusion: Swedish retail stores use the ambience merely as a means for creating a pleasant store environment. The perceived atmosphere varies for different customers. The three ambient factors, lighting, music and fragrance, differed in level of importance for the three chosen stores. One conclusion drawn from this is that the age-group plays an important role in how the ambience is perceived. The results show that there is a positive relationship between the consumers’ perception of the ambience, their feelings and in-store behaviour; within all three stores. This indicates that if the positive feelings increase in intensity, so will the consumers’ willingness to browse and their willingness to buy from the store. As a conclusion, Swedish retails should consciously use ambience as a strategic marketing approach to intentionally affect the consumers’ willingness to browse and buy. / Bakgrund: Nuförtiden, tenderar kunder att ta produktkvalitet samt en positiv butiks image för givet, vilket gör att en ny typ av marknadsföringsstrategi blir alltmer betydelsefull. I en tid som kännetecknas av alltför stort informationsflöde och brist på tid, har faktorer som emotionella, kognitiva eller symboliska värden blivit alltmer värdefulla inom marknadsföring. I motsats till amerikanska detaljhandeln för klädesbutiker, såsom Abercrombie & Fitch, som i stor utsträckning använder sig av atmosfären som ett strategiskt marknadsföringsverktyg; uppfattar författarna inte att användandet av atmosfären som marknadsföringsstrategi är lika starkt bland svenska butiker. Författarna vill därför undersöka om svenska återförsäljare använder sig av atmosfär som ett strategiskt marknadsföringsverktyg, samt hur atmosfären uppfattas av konsumenterna. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om och hur atmosfären (ljus, doft och musik) används som ett strategiskt marknadsföringsverktyg inom svenska klädesbutiker samt hur stämningen uppfattas av konsumenterna. Därutöver kommer författarna att undersöka om konsumenternas uppfattning om den rådande atmosfären återspeglas i deras butiksbeteende (villighet att gå runt i butiken samt villighet att köpa). Metod: För att uppfylla syftet, valdes en blandad metod med en förklarande och beskrivande design, genom att samla in kvantitativ data i form av en enkät och kvalitativ data från intervjuer. Enkätundersökningen bestod av 91 svarande från JC, Carlings och Dressmann. Intervjuer med butikschefer från JC, Carlings och Dressmann har också genomförts för att undersöka om och hur atmosfären används som ett marknadsföringsverktyg. Sammanfattning: Svenska butiker använder atmosfär enbart som ett medel för att skapa en trivsam butiksmiljö. Den upplevda atmosfären varierar för olika kunder. De tre omgivande faktorerna, belysning, musik och doft, skilde sig åt i nivå av betydelse för de tre utvalda butikerna. En slutsats av detta är att åldern på kunderna spelar en viktig roll för hur stämningen uppfattas. Resultaten visar att det finns ett positivt samband mellan konsumenternas uppfattning av atmosfären, deras känslor och beteende i butiken, inom alla tre butiker. Detta indikerar att om positiva känslor ökar i intensitet, kommer även konsumenternas vilja att vistas och köpa från butiken att öka. Som en slutsats, bör svenska återförsäljare för klädesbutiker medvetet använda atmosfären som ett strategiskt marknadsföringsverktyg, för att avsiktligt påverka konsumenternas vilja att vistas i samt köpa från butiken.

Aujourd’hui, un nombre croissant de formats de distribution (i.e. magasins amiraux, centres commerciaux,points de vente éphémères, corners, etc.) à travers le monde adoptent la stratégie d'artification de l'expérience de magasinage, reposant sur l'introduction d'éléments artistiques dans la surface marchande. Toutefois l'utilisation de cette variable d'atmosphère s’avère pour le moment très intuitive. D’un point de vue académique, la revue de la littérature amène à qualifier ce champ de recherche d’embryonnaire. Par conséquent cette thèse se propose de mesurer l'impact de l'artification de l'expérience de magasinage sur la performance du point de vente, ainsi que sur les réactions du consommateur. Dans cette optique, une expérimentation a été réalisée à partir d’un plan factoriel manipulant la dimension artistique de l’atmosphère du point de vente. La collecte de données a été effectuée pendant deux mois dans des magasins réels, selon une méthode quantitative. Les résultats indiquent que la stratégie d'artification de l'expérience de magasinage, lorsque adoptée au seul niveau du point de vente et en tant que proposition éphémère, a pour impact positif d’améliorer la performance marketing du point de vente,ceci au niveau de la différenciation perçue du point de vente, du caractère créatif de l’image (du point de vente et des produits), de la valeur perçue de l'offre (rapport qualité/prix et désensibilisation au prix), et de la satisfaction du consommateur. En revanche l'artification de l'expérience de magasinage n'agit pas sur la performance commerciale du point de vente (ventes, taux de transformation, fidélité attitudinale), suggérant un effet de muséification avec la perte de la finalité transactionnelle du point de vente et sa reclassification fonctionnelle en musée/galerie d'art. En conclusion, l'adoption de cette stratégie expérientielle nécessite une réflexion en amont relative aux objectifs de l’entreprise (stratégie d’image vs. rentabilité directe du point de vente) puisqu’elle implique des arbitrages en termes de coûts directs et indirects concernant l'allocation de la surface marchande. / Today a growing number of retail formats (i.e. flagship stores, shopping malls, pop-up stores, corners, etc.)worldwide are adopting the shopping experience artification strategy, consisting of introducing artistic elements in the sales surface. However using this atmospherics’ variable remains for now very intuitive. From an academic perspective, this research field can be qualified as seminal. Thus this dissertation’s aim is to measure the impact of the shopping experience artification on store performance, as well as on customer reactions. In that regard, an experimentation was carried out with a factorial design manipulating the artistic dimension of store atmospherics. The data collection was conducted during two months in real retail stores, using a quantitative method. The results indicate that the shopping experience artification strategy, when adopted only at the store level and as an ephemeral proposition, positively impacts store marketing performance, namely regarding store perceived differentiation, the creative dimension of image (store’s and products’), store offering’s perceived value (price/quality ratio and price desensitization), and customer satisfaction. However the shopping experience artification does not impact store commercial performance (sales, conversion rate, attitudinal loyalty), which suggests a museumification effect with the store possibly losing its transactional purpose and being functionally reclassified as a museum/art gallery. As a conclusion, adopting this experiential strategy calls for an upstream reflection upon the company’s objectives (branding strategy vs. direct store profitability) since it implies tradeoffs regarding direct and indirect costs concerning sales surface allocation.