Maharry 1 Paul Maharry Dr.

Roger Stahl SPCM 2360 2 December 2011 Mall Atmospherics Malls are set in a way to make the consumer feel at home which in turns makes the consumer feel a sense of ease and open their minds to buy products and shop for longer periods of time. What the average consumer doesnt realize though is that researchers have worked for years to perfect the smells, floor structure, and background music to cater to the brain. In each of these articles being summarized, the authors goes into great detail about how surveys, field experiments, and focus groups determine exactly what the everyday person in a mall smells, walks on, and listens to is. In Robert Michon, Jean-Charles Chebat, and L.W. Turleys collaborative article entitled Mall Atmospherics: the interaction effects of the mall environment on shopping behavior, the three authors discuss how they went about researching and doing field studies to test exactly how the environment inside a mall results in different behaviors. They stated that they did their studies inside of a community mall instead of a bigger mall i.e. Mall of Georgia. Michon and company not only did their own research, but also went off of previous experiments to learn from those. One experiment from P.F. Bone and P.S. Ellen entitled Scents in the marketplace: explaining a fraction of olfaction stated there is little evidence to support the notion that an odor is likely to affect a retail behavior (Michon, Chebat, and Turley 1.1). In Michon et al. article he

Maharry 2 states that most odor studies have only been conducted inside a simulated environment and that in doing so doesnt exactly give retail executives a clear understanding of what smells would accurately work for their stores. Michon et al. also states the ability to match specific scents with products is much easier for single-line or limited-line specialty stores than it is in other retailing contexts such as department stores, discount stores, or malls. What Michon et al. says does make sense seeing how in smaller stores such as Yankee Candle the consumer realizes that they are smelling candles and that is the smell they expect when they come into the store. Whereas, inside of a Sears a consistent smell of candles wouldnt make much sense seeing how many different products are being sold. The actual study that Michon, Chebat, and Turley conducted was split into three different time periods all spaced out over different weekends and weekdays. Each one of the time periods they studied occupants of the mall were one week long and split between February, March, and April. The mall director cancelled all promotions by retailers for the duration of the experiment, giving the experiment a control to monitor the occupants. The two main scents they used were lavender and citrus with 26 different odors stemming off those two. The scents were also tested alongside mall density to see if the smells would give shoppers a different feeling while being crowded. The results showed that with the mall being at low density citrus and lavender werent affective compared to the control being no scent. When the mall was at medium density citrus and lavender skyrocketed with the mall perception. The last study was with a full house inside the mall and lavender remained constant all the while citrus dropped below the control (Michon, Chebat, and Turley Fig.1). With the results not showing a clear-cut favorite smell, and the different scents changing with the amount of people in the store Michon et al.

Maharry 3 believes that the only time the scents had a positive effects on shoppers was at the medium density level of the mall. Another article written by researchers L.W. Turley ad Ronald E. Milliman entitled Atmospheric Effects on Shopping Behavior: A Review of the Experimental Evidence goes into great detail about all the variables that influences shoppers, whether positive or negative. Turley and Milliman speak on external variables such as the color of a building, entrances, and exterior signs. They also touch on interior variables, layout and design variables, decoration variables and even human variables. One experiment in the paper done by Edwards and Shackley in 1992 studied two hundred and fifty city shoppers on how they reacted to window displays. Through their findings Recall of window information varies by design and colors used in the display. (Edwards and Shackley). Turley and Milliman go in depth on pleasant and unpleasant odors along with arousing odors. They state that odors are extremely hard to get unless they are combined with another cue such as color. For instance an apple smell is a lot more recognizable with a green box than with a blue box. The arousing odors have been observed though electroencephalographs (EEG) and with the research it was found that when the arousing odor gets stronger the reactions to those smells become more negative. In conclusion, Turley and Milliman state that Retailers should seriously consider ambient scent in their marketing toolbox. It is probably among one of the least expensive techniques to enhance shoppers perceptions(Turley and Milliman). In their experiment Turley and Milliman make it clear that the environmental cue of an ambient scent affects shoppers perceptions whether it be for better or worse. Not only do scents change the perception of shoppers but also so does the background music in stores. Jean-Charles Chebat, Claire Gelinas Chebat and Donique Vaillant discovered

Maharry 4 this in their research. The article titled Environment background music and in-store selling tells the reader about how different retailers use background music to enhance their store and the quality shopping experience. From personal experience working in a store with pre-picked music handed down from corporate office in the background while working does increase mood. Instead of the store having dead silence when customers are not present the background music gives the workers something to listen and think about while the stores are empty. With that being said Chebat et al. thinks that Retailers using background music in their stores favor the generation of some types of cognitive responses which may negatively influence the attitudes toward the employee and the store if the music does not fit in the sales encounter (Chebat, Chebat, Vaillant). Following up on Chebat et al., the music does shift from fast pace to medium to slow very frequently which leads me to believe that what Chebat talks about is indeed true. I conducted my own survey to see if different people realized the different mall atmospherics that were going on while they were inside. Questions included: How you ever seen a clock in a mall, Have you ever been lost in a mall, and Have you ever noticed the background music inside the mall. Responses included that sixty-five percent noticed the background music in malls, seventy-five percent had never seen a clock in the mall and sixty percent had never gotten lost in the mall. The research entails that malls do want the shopper to lose sense of time just like in a casino setting and that background music was heard by most inside malls. Forty percent have been lost in a mall and that could be due to the fact that malls are shaped in very peculiar shapes in order for people to maneuver them faster and to get people lost in the shopping daze. In conclusion, mall atmospherics have been around for a long time and most researchers and field agents are still tweaking things like odors and music to continue to help retail owners

Maharry 5 have the best chance of selling their product. Many different scents and styles of music have been tried and surely more will with the ongoing research into this amazing, yet particular field of study.

Maharry 6 Works Cited Bone, P.F., and P.S. Ellen. "Scents in the marketplace: explaining a fraction of olfaction." J. Retail. 75.2 (1989): 243-262. Print. Chebat, Jean-Charles, Chebat, Claire Glinas, and Dominique Vaillant. "Environmental background music and in-store selling." Journal of Business Research. 54.2 (2001): 115123. Web. 1 Dec. 2011. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296399000892>. Edwards, Su, and Myra Shackley. "Measuring the Effectiveness of Retail Window Display as an Element of the Marketing Mix." International Journal of Advertising. 11. (1992): 193202. Print. Michon, Richard, Jean-Charles Chebat, and L.W. Turley. "Mall atmospherics: the interaction effects of the mall environment on shopping behavior." Journal of Business Research. 58.5 (2005): 576-583. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296303002066>. Turley, L.W., and Ronald E. Milliman. "Atmospheric Effects on Shopping Behavior: A Review of the Experimental Evidence." Journal of Business Research. 49.2 (2000): 193-211. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296399000107>.

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