Dans la plupart des environnements de vente, le consommateur peut facilement manipuler les produits et ainsi vivre des expériences tactiles. Cependant, cette liberté de toucher les produits n’est pas sans conséquences. En effet, si le consommateur aime toucher les produits, il est réticent à ce le produit qu’il touche ait été manipulé au préalable par d’autres personnes. Ce paradoxe est un enjeu pour les praticiens. Comment permettre aux clients de toucher les produits tout en garantissant qu’ils soient dépourvus de contacts antérieurs avec autrui ? Cette thèse s’intéresse au phénomène de contamination perçue des produits. Elle a pour objectif de mettre en évidence les variables agissant sur la contamination perçue et sur les réponses à l’égard des produits perçus comme contaminés. Une étude première qualitative explore la vision que les consommateurs ont de la contamination perçue des produits ; une seconde étude qualitative s’intéresse au point de vue des manageurs. Cette phase qualitative sert de base au développement d’une échelle de contamination perçue. Puis, trois collectes de données quantitatives sont menées afin de comparer l’impact de deux facteurs de contamination. Les résultats montrent que le consommateur est plus sensible lorsqu’un produit présente un résidu suggérant qu’il a été touché que lorsqu’il voit un contaminateur manipuler ce produit. Ils mettent également en évidence que l’imagerie mentale est un mécanisme sous-jacent explicatif de la contamination perçue mais que le besoin de toucher n’a pas d’effet sur le phénomène. / In most retail environments the customer is able to handle products, feel their weight and try them, in other words the customer has a tactile experience. However, this freedom to touch products has a downside. Indeed, even if the consumer likes to touch products, he refuses the same product if it has been handled by other customers. This ambivalence concerning touch is a major problem for managers in retail outlets. How is it possible to allow consumers to touch products while guaranteeing that they are devoid of previous contact with others? This dissertation focuses on the concept of product contamination. It aims to understand the variables that reflect the impact of perceived contamination on consumer responses. A first qualitative study examines the vision of consumers on product contamination. A second qualitative study focuses on managers’ point of view. These studies are then used as a basis for the development of a perceived contamination scale. Lastly, three quantitative studies compare the impact of two contamination’s cues. The results suggest that the consumer is more sensitive when a product contains a cue that it has been touched, as compared to their reaction to seeing someone touch a product. These findings show that mental imagery is an underlying mechanism contrary to need for touch.

As a method of marketing communications between companies and consumers, packages serve as a ¡§spokesperson¡¨ of the product on the point-of-sale. These may have significant impacts on the process of consumers¡¦ purchase decisions. Consumers also make inferences from the products packages, and the location of the product image on a package facade was one of the factors that influences consumers¡¦ perceptions of the visual heaviness of the product and evaluations of the package, which is called ¡§product image location effect.¡¨ Based on previous studies on the product image location effect, this study distinguished the product image locations into two places: perceived as heavy or light. Furthermore, three types of sensation cues (¡§vision-only¡¨, ¡§vision and touch simultaneously¡¨, and ¡§vision then touch¡¨) are considered in this study in order to understand how the product image location effect works. In addition, individual differences in need for touch (NFT) is also incorporated into this research to examine how it may sway the results of product image location effect and consumers¡¦ confidence when judging products. The present study employed an experimental design to investigate the effects of product image location (bottom-right vs. top-left), the type of sensation cues (vision-only vs. vision and touch simultaneously vs. vision then touch), and autotelic need for touch (low vs. medium vs. high) on consumers¡¦ evaluation of perceived product heaviness and confidence in product judgments. A 2x3x3 factorial design was conducted. Six different scenarios were established through virtual packages and different sensation inputs. A quantile method was used to distinguish consumers into low, medium and high autotelic NFT. Consumers¡¦ evaluation was measured by perceived product heaviness and confidence in product judgments. The results indicated that when there was a tactile input, the product image location effect would disappear. Besides, compared to those who were medium and high in autotelic NFT, product image location effect was more influential on those who were low in autotelic NFT. In addition, in vision-only condition, location of the product image influenced consumers¡¦ confidence in product judgment. According to these findings, this research contributes to the further understandings of product image location effect and provides implications for researchers and marketers on package design.

This thesis develops technology adoption and sensory information literatures through an evaluation of antecedents to consumers’ purchase location intention of Musical Instruments (MI). With the unique factor of instrument heterogeneity MI e-retail sales are information asymmetric propositions, where the consumer may make a sub-optimal purchase online having foregone the opportunity to experience the haptic information required to ascertain the instrument’s true quality. Despite a reticent adoption of MI e-retail from the traditional retail industry online MI sales are increasing, resulting in off-line marketplace contraction, thus investigation of consumers’ online MI purchase motivations is of value to the industry. The exploration of this topic uses a pragmatic, two-stage mixed-methods process incorporating inductive in-depth interviews with MI retail industry personnel, followed by deductive MI consumer based quantitative questionnaires. The reluctance to adopt e-retail is based on ‘expertise-led aversion’ and ‘expertise gap’ where key MI retail influencers attempt to enforce their own views on the correct way to purchase an instrument, rather than responding to consumer trends. This aversion was influenced by their own reliance on haptic information, coupled with knowledge of instrument heterogeneity and their level of musicianship. Consumer research conclusions identify that high haptic-need consumers, who tend to have greater ability and involvement, are more likely to purchase in-store whilst those with lower haptic needs are more willing to purchase MI online. Through the design and empirical testing of the Musical Instrument Need-for-Touch (MINFT) model numerous factors were identified as moderators to this basic supposition. The subsequent development of a MI consumer typology identified five distinct groups that respond to differing stimuli in relation to MI purchase location intention. These findings add to the academic discourse and enable MI retailers to enhance their offerings both in-store and online, leading to more effective targeting of their key customers.

Titel: Individuella skillnader i sensoriska behov: “Need for Scent”, “Need for Sound” och “Need for Vision” skalor. Ett bidrag till ämnets teoriutveckling.   Nivå: C-uppsats, examensarbete i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Emma Ekholm och Alexandra von Schreeb Handledare: Jonas Kågström Datum: 2017- maj                                                      Syfte: Avsikten med vår undersökning är att bidra till teoriutveckling inom ämnet sinnesmarknadsföring. Syftet med undersökningen är att analysera om och i så fall hur “Need for Touch” skalan går att omsättas till andra sinnen och användas inom multisensorisk marknadsföring.                                                                                                                        Metod: I denna studie har en kvantitativ studie utförts där 158 enkätsvar samlades in via en webbaserad undersökning där skalorna testades på respondenterna. Enkätsvaren analyserades i analysprogrammet SPSS där faktoranalys, klusteranalys och korrelationsanalys genomfördes. Resultat & Analys: Studien visade att sex faktorer kunde bildas varav faktor ett och två kunde bilda två stycken självständiga skalor, behov av doft (“Need for Scent”) och behov av ljud (“Need for Sound”), medan faktor tre, fyra och fem visar en tredimensionell skala, behov av syn (“Need for vision”). Fyra stycken kluster bildades även där vi fick fram ett kluster som uppvisar mycket högsensoriska beteenden och ett kluster som uppvisar mycket lågsensoriska beteenden.                                                                                             Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då vi har konstaterat att sinnena doft, ljud och syn bildat självständiga skalor kan fortsatt forskning använda skalorna i konsumentforskning. Fortsatt forskning kan även studera varje kluster på ett djupare plan genom kvalitativa intervjuer. Vidare vore det även intressant att se om våra skalor går att omsätta till sinnet smak, någonting som inte har studerats tidigare. Uppsatsens bidrag: Undersökningen har bidragit till att utveckla den teoretiska grunden inom ämnet sinnesmarknadsföring och genom att vi har utökat Peck och Childers (2013) skala om behov av beröring till tre stycken nya fungerande skalor har vi belyst att det faktiskt är möjligt att använda sig av skalor för doft, ljud och syn för att mäta konsumenters individuella behov av doft, ljud och syn gällande produktutvärdering. / Title: Individual differences in sensory needs, “Need for Scent”, “Need for Sound” and “Need for Vision” scales: a contribution to theory development, in the subject of sensory marketing.  Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degrees in Business Administration Author: Emma Ekholm and Alexandra von Schreeb Supervisor: Jonas Kågström Date: 2017 - May Aim: The purpose of our study is to contribute to the field of theory development, in the subject of sensory marketing. The aim of the survey is to analyze how the Need for Touch scale can be converted into other senses, and to be used in multisensory marketing. Method: In this study, a quantitative study was performed and 158 questionnaires were collected from a web-based survey where the scales were tested on the respondents. We analyzed our collected data in the statistical program SPSS and a factor analysis, cluster analysis and a correlation analysis were conducted. Result & Analysis: This study present six different factors from the factor analysis, of which factor one and two made two independent scales, “Need for Scent” and “Need for Sound”. Factor three, four and five all includes vision, and developed a three-dimensional scale “Need for Vision”. This study also present four clusters, where we developed one cluster that exhibited very high-sensory behaviors and a second cluster that exhibited very low-sensory behaviors. Suggestions for future research: Since we found that the senses smell, sound and vision could be formed into three independent scales, future research could use the scales on consumer research. Future research could also study each cluster individually on a deeper level with qualitative interviews. Furthermore, it would be interesting to examine if our scales could be transformed into the sense of taste. Which has not yet been studied. Contribution of the thesis:  The study has contributed to develop the theoretical foundation in the subject of sensory marketing, and by expanding Peck and Childers (2013) “Need for Touch” scale to three new functional scales. We highlighted how it is possible to use scales for scent, sound and vision to measure consumers individual need for scent, sound and vision in regarding product evaluation.

Nous étudions dans cette thèse une dimension particulière de l’emballage : la texture. Dans la première étude (A), composée de trois expérimentations, nous présentons l’influence de la texture, en l’absence de contact tactile, sur l’attitude envers un produit et sur le choix du consommateur. Nous manipulons la texture de l’emballage ainsi qu'une stimulation tactile au préalable en prenant en compte le niveau du besoin de toucher de l’individu. Nous montrons que la stimulation tactile positive induit une appréciation plus positive du produit lorsque ce dernier n’est pas texturé et ce, indépendamment du besoin de toucher. Lorsque le produit est texturé, les individus à faible besoin de toucher présentent une dévaluation du produit. Ensuite, nous présentons l’influence d’une stimulation tactile négative sur le choix entre un produit lisse et un produit texturé. En l’absence de stimulation tactile, le produit contenu dans l’emballage texturé est préféré. La stimulation tactile négative conduit principalement les individus à faible besoin de toucher à préférer le produit contenu dans l’emballage lisse. Dans la deuxième étude (B), nous étudions l’influence du contact tactile avec la texture de l’emballage sur le goût perçu du produit. Dans une première expérimentation nous montrons que lorsque la texture n’apporte pas d’informations sur le produit contenu, elle n’influence pas le goût perçu. Lorsque la texture de l’emballage induit des attentes sur le produit, l’évaluation dépend de la situation de congruence sensorielle. S’il y a une incongruence sensorielle entre la texture de l’emballage et celle du produit lors de la consommation, le goût du produit sera moins apprécié. Dans la deuxième expérimentation, en utilisant un électro-encéphalogramme, nous étudions les effets de la congruence sensorielle entre la texture de l’emballage et celle du produit sur les émotions du consommateur. Nous montrons que l'incongruence sensorielle induit un niveau d’éveil plus élevé mais induit également des émotions plus négatives comparativement à une situation de congruence sensorielle. / We study in this thesis a particular dimension of the packaging: the texture. In the first study (A), composed of three experiments, we present the influence of the texture, in the absence of tactile contact, on attitudes towards a product and consumer choices. We manipulate the texture of the packaging as well as a tactile stimulation previously taking into account the level of the need for touch. We first show that the positive tactile stimulation induces a more positive assessment of the product when it is not textured, regardless of the need for touch. When the product is textured, individuals with a low need for touch have a devaluation of the product. Then we present the influence of negative tactile stimulation on the choice between a product whose packaging is smooth and the other textured. In the absence of tactile stimulation, the product inside the textured packaging is the preferred. Prior negative tactile stimulation leads mainly individuals with a low need for touch to favor the product inside the smooth packaging. In the second study (B), we present the influence of tactile contact with the texture of packaging on the perceived taste of the product. In the first experiment we show that when the texture does not provide information about the product contained, it does not have influence on the perceived taste. When the texture of the packaging induced expectations about the product, the assessment depends on the situation of sensory congruency. If there is a sensory incongruency between the texture of the packaging and the texture of the product during consumption, the taste of the product will be less appreciated. In the second experiment, by using a EEG, we study the effects of sensory congruency between the texture of the packaging and the texture of the product on the emotions of the consumer. We show that sensory incongruency induces a higher level of arousal, but also induces to more negative emotions comparatively to a situation of sensory congruency.

Between 4000-10 000 ads each day every day. That is how many ads we as customers are exposed to individually, each and every day. To reach a higher efficiency in marketing, marketing managers and store owners nowadays aiming to increase the customer satisfaction by striving to understand the customer behavior and their decisioning-making. For the aim of this thesis, we investigated if coloring cues in the retail environment had an impact on customers’ behavior in a specific retail store environment. This experiment was taken place in a small town within Sweden, named Karlstad. The retail store belongs to the electronic sector and the participants included in the experiment were randomly visiting customers of this electronical retail store. In the experiment we used IoT devices from Texas Instruments, a sensor device, called CC2650, enabled us to collect data from interactions by customers and products. In our experiment we compared three periods of data with the help from the analysis method of one-way ANOVA. The result was showing that there is a significant variance between at least two of our three periods of measurements, and by the results of this thesis we could reject the Null Hypothesis (H0). As the H0, were telling that there would not be any differences between any of the three measured periods of time. Further, with insights from our one-way ANOVA, we could determine with help from a complementary analysis method, the Tukey’s HSD, we could point out which periods that were significant different from one another. This made us come into conclusions that there is a possibility to predict the customer behavior and the customer’s Need for Touch (NFT), a part of the nudging theory, and can give the marketing managers and store owners in retail an increase of understanding of the customer’s behavior. Future research could look into how customer’s behavior can change within different type of retail stores, and also if coloring cues in retail stores within bigger cities will have another impact on customer’s behavior.