While research has shown the positive impact of sensory cues and cue- congruency on emotion and behavior in retail store atmospheres, these cues have primarily been investigated in isolation or in pairs. Consequently, little is known on how multi-sensory cues in interplay impact on consumer emotions and purchase behaviors. In addition, research has not yet provided any clear conceptualization of congruency in marketing when designing retail store atmospheres, other than stating that some cues are expected to match, therefore become pleasantly perceived. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to examine and show how multi-sensory cues in interplay and congruency can be utilized in creating a retail store atmosphere to enhance consumer emotions and purchase behaviors. To address the purpose, a sequential method was adopted with four essays. The first essay explores multi-sensory interplay in marketing contexts with a literature review that forms the basis for a research agenda. The second essay employs focus groups to highlight the congruency between cues, products and the retail setting, and identifies which category of cues is in need of investigation. The third essay uses field experiments to investigate two congruent visual, auditory and olfactory cues (six cues in total) in a retail setting, and their impact on consumer emotion and purchase behavior. The final essay, also use field experiments to examine and duplicate one cue from each sense, and employs these together in interplay, to show how multi-sensory cues in interplay impacts emotions and purchase behaviors. This research concludes that multi-sensory cues in interplay in a retail store atmosphere have a greater impact on consumer emotions and purchase behaviors than single visual, auditory and olfactory setting-congruent sensory cues. Among single sensory cues, those perceived as complementary in the atmosphere, specifically auditory and olfactory in an already visual dominated atmosphere, have the largest impact on consumer emotions and purchase behaviors. Overall, this research signifies that congruent multi-sensory cues in interplay emerge as reliable predictors for the influence on consumer arousal, valence, time spent, touching, browsing and purchasing Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

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.

En kombination av ljud och bild, audiovisuell media, har under en längre tidsperiod varit ett sätt att skapa uppmärksamhet kring en artist. Den teknologiska utvecklingen har förbättrat de audiovisuella verktygen och gjort de mer tillgängliga. Dock har denna utveckling även skapat fler digitala kommunikationskanaler och ett informationsbrus som kan vara svårt för en artist att nå igenom. Utifrån detta kan artister behöva nå sin publik på ett djupare plan, vilket eventuellt kan uppnås genom sinnesmarknadsföring. Denna uppsats har därför som syfte att undersöka hur och varför artister använder audiovisuell media i sin kommunikation via sociala medier samt vilken betydelse samspel mellan flera sinnen har för att förmedla artistens identitet. Undersökningen har tillämpat en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med hermeneutik som kunskapsteoretisk utgångspunkt. Utifrån denna har studien antagit en abduktiv ansats. Datainsamling för studien utfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer, varav två genomfördes personligen, tre via telefon och två respondenter besvarade intervjufrågor via e-mail. Respondenter valdes genom ett målstyrt urval med kriterierna att respondenterna skulle inneha kunskap eller erfarenhet om ämnet genom sitt arbete och inkludera olika åldrar, könstillhörigheter och geografiska hemvister. Resultatet av denna undersökning är att artister kan använda audiovisuell media på ett mångfacetterat sätt som beror på artistens genre, sammanhang och målgrupp. Studien har identifierat tre typer av audiovisuell media: kortare videor, fullskaliga musikvideor samt livestreaming. Artister använder audiovisuell media utifrån olika syften som kan innefatta att kommunicera sin varumärkesidentitet, att addera till ett konstnärligt uttryck eller att etablera närmare relationer till sin målgrupp. Semantisk kongruens mellan flera sinnen är av betydelse för att förmedla en autentisk helhetsbild av artisten. I framtiden kan audiovisuell media få ökad betydelse genom en allt snabbare konsumtionskultur och mer tillgänglig teknik. Denna teknik kan även komma att möjliggöra inkludering av fler sinnen och därmed bidra till en starkare immersiv upplevelse för konsumenten. / A combination of sound and image, audio-visual media, has for a long time been a way to create attention around an artist. Technological developments have improved the audio-visual tools and made them more accessible. However, this development has also created more digital communication channels and an information noise that can be difficult for an artist to get through. Based on this, artists may need to reach their audience on a deeper level, which can possibly be achieved through sensory marketing. This study therefore aims to investigate how and why artists use audio-visual media in their communication via social media and the importance of interplay between several senses in conveying the artist's identity. The study has applied a qualitative research strategy with hermeneutics as the epistemic foundation. Based on this, the study has adopted an abductive approach. Data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews, of which two were conducted in person, three by telephone and two respondents answered interview questions via e-mail. Respondents were selected through a goal-directed selection with the criteria that the respondents would have knowledge or experience of the subject through their work and include different ages, genders and geographical residences. The result of this study is that artists may use audio-visual media in a multifaceted way that depends on the artist's genre, context and target group. The study has identified three types of audio-visual media: shorter videos, full-scale music videos and live streaming. Artists use audio-visual media for various purposes that may include communicating their brand identity, adding to an artistic expression or establishing closer relationships with their target audience. Semantic congruence between several senses is important for conveying an authentic holistic picture of the artist. In the future, audio-visual media may become more important through an ever-intensifying consumer culture and more accessible technology. This technology may also enable the inclusion of more senses and thus contribute to a stronger immersive experience for the consumer.