Sensory marketing leads to a 10 percent increase in sales at the PoS
Numerous findings from Mood Media’s study, «Quantifying the Impact of Sensory Marketing,» underscore the emotional influence of sensory marketing on customers’ moods and show that it positively changes purchasing behavior.
Picture: Mood Media/Shutterstock
The study shows that sensory marketing can lead to a ten percent increase in sales. In addition, shoppers spend an average of six minutes longer in the store if a pleasant shopping atmosphere is created using digital signage, sound and scent.
"We know that a pleasant atmosphere is decisive for 78 percent of shoppers when it comes to the question of whether they prefer to shop in-store or online. In the neurological study with Walnut Unlimited, we now wanted to investigate which individual factors in sensory marketing have what influence on customer behavior," says Scott Moore, Global CMO at Mood Media. "If sensory elements are given strategic priority when designing and setting up a store, this has an immediate positive effect on the emotional state of customers. And this leads to directly measurable effects."
Evidence of the positive influence of sensory marketing
- Customers buy more products (increase of four percent) - and higher-priced products (on average, the value of goods increases by six percent) when sensory marketing is used.
- The use of fragrances is very effective, for example, when it emphasizes certain areas in the store. In the football department of Intersport, for example, the emotional level of visitors increased by 28 percent when a special fragrance concept was used there.
- The use of fragrance also led to a 26 percent increase in sales in the football department of the test store (compared to sales in the corresponding departments of the other stores).
- Eye-tracking studies (ET) show that attention to digital in-store screens increases by five percent when videos and moving images are displayed instead of static images.
- GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) measurements show that customers become restless when sensory elements are missing in the store. 17 percent of shoppers feel significantly less comfortable in an unusually quiet and stimulus-free shopping environment.
- Consumers like to look at themselves. The authors of the study describe this effect as the "science of narcissism". GSR and ET measurements show that shoppers' nervous systems are significantly stimulated when they can look at themselves in the mirror and interact with the products there.
- Customers' emotional reactions increase by 50 percent when they can touch products and engage with them. These results underline how important bricks-and-mortar retail is for the shopping experience.
"We will continue to ensure that we offer our customers an impressive and sustainable customer experience in our stores as part of our omnichannel strategy," says Chris Kleine, Director Design & Development at IIC-Intersport Intl Corp. "The study clearly shows how important sensory elements are in creating an emotionally positive environment in the store and thus ensuring that customers are happy to return."
On behalf of Mood Media, the market research institute Walnut Unlimited, together with the sports retailer Intersport, conducted the Study "Quantifying the impact of sensory marketing" performed.
In order to understand how Intersport customers react to sensory elements, two phases were experimented with in a store in Amsterdam. In the "All Senses" phase, all sensory elements were activated, i.e. music, the smell of fresh grass and animated digital screens.
In the second phase, all of these elements were missing. The results were then compared with three Intersport Control Stores where nothing was changed during the study period.
To measure the impact of sensory marketing and gain insights into consumer behavior, Walnut Unlimited conducted measurements in the areas of Galvanic Skin Responses (GSR) and Visual Eye Tracking (ET).
