physical E

Question 1

Describe what psychologist have discovered about sound and consumer behaviour

Answer 1

North:
- Field study in British restaurant
- classical, pop and music were played over 18 evenings
- per table calculated, and compared as well as total time spent in restaurant
- people spent more and were prepared to spend more when classical music played, spent on starters, coffee and total spend on food rather than main courses
- This could be due to classical music being mutual with other aspects of the restaurants atmosphere, and this mutuality increase spending
- classical music promotes an upmarket atmosphere = increases contextually appropriate behaviour and increased purchase intentions

woods:
- lab study
- PPT were blindfolded + given diff foods to eat while listening to no sound, quiet or loud, white noise
- foods rated in terms of sweetness, saltiness, and liking
- sweetness, and saltiness rated lower in loud white, compared to quiet white noise
- crunchiness reported more intense in loud white noise
- correlation between ratings of liking background, noise and liking of food

Question 2

Evaluate what psychologist have found about consumer behaviour

Answer 2

• Study by north, had high ecological validity as it was a field study
• north, occurred in a normal life. Every day environment, PPT, more likely to behave naturally, and spend amount of money they generally would.
• However means there’s less control over extra variables E.G if restaurant is busy and very loud one day or empty and very quiet the next
• woods on background noise was lab so less ecologically valid
• PPT not in their natural environment and did not perform normal tasks/last Monday realism as listening to white noise with headphones and closing your eyes, while eating is natural task
• environment may have may have made PPT, uncomfortable and act differently than how they would in normal environment leading to demand characteristics/socially desirable results, as they may have rated the food as liking it more compared to what they actually did so less valid
• both studies are culturally biased since they occur in European countries/Eurocentric
• study by north occurred in the UK
• may not be general liable to other culture/countries, as music has different cultural meanings
• .classical music may decrease sales in other countries as it deemed as boring so ppl want to leave
• music in general, maybe irritating/uncommon so people will spend less time in restaurant
• both studies have ethical issues as participants and study by north, unaware they were in study, and being manipulated, no debrief
• however, it’s unlikely participants felt psychological distress or harmed in anyway
• was less unethical as participants were deceived, but debriefed had taken place and had given informed consent before study about judging food on different characteristics
• overall not a major weakness because studies were about and food and unlikely to cause distress

Question 3

PAD model: Meherbain and russel

Answer 3

• mood is a mediating factor between environmental cues and behaviour So anything in environment that improves mood of consumer makes them feel pleasure
• we react to environment with approach/avoidance.
• Positive response to music,smell, decor etc increases length of time, a consumer spends in a store increasing amount of money spent

Question 4

Chebat and michon ODOR shopper pleasure and arousal

Answer 4

• Field experiment in shopping mall in Canada over two weeks
• two weeks were identical in terms of cell volume, shopper traffic to limit extraneous variables
• all promotion/sales cancelled
• in week one there was no smell added by researchers to act as a control group
• in a citrus smell was added to moles main corridor, leading to conclusion being met, that there was a more favourable perception of the product, quality/shopping environment

Question 5

Macheliet crowding

Answer 5

• 722 marketing students were asked to complete the questionnaire
  after their next shopping trip.
• name the store, shopping centre
  or mall that they had visited.
  Questions were asked about purchases,
  purpose of the trip and perceptions about crowding, satisfaction and
  the outcome of the shopping trip.
• were also asked about emotions,
  crowding tolerance questions and demographic questions.
• finally asked to recall + rate a recent shopping trip.
• Perceived crowding was on an 8 point scale.
  Satisfaction on a 7 point scale.
  Emotion – Izard’s 10 emotion types were measured on a 1 to 5 scale

Found the more crowded the shops, the lower the positive experience of shopping/lower arousal(excitement)

Question 6

Vrechopoulos store design

Answer 6

• Aim was to investigate different layouts in virtual reality stores
• to investigate which virtual layouts would have the most positive effects on consumers.
• use of 3 diff layouts in online grocery retailing: freeform, grid, and racetrack.
• 120 ppt in Greece and the UK participated in a laboratory exp
• they were given a planned shopping task with money to spend,+ performed shopping through a virtual store with layout as the
  manipulated variable.

The results show that layout significantly affects
online consumer behaviour:
* Free-form was easiest to find items from list and most entertaining
to use
* Grid was the easiest to use
* Racetrack and freeform engaged the consumer for the longest

Question 7

Mower store exterior design

Answer 7

• investigated the influence of window displays/ landscaping on customer mood, liking of the external environment, and purchase intentions at a small clothing boutique.
• using independent measures.
  -ppt read descriptions of a small boutique varying in window displays and landscaping presence
• experimental setups used a consistent shop ss + color but differed in the presence or absence of window displays and/or landscaping.
• Data was collected through an online questionnaire assessing pleasure, arousal, liking of the store exterior, and patronage intentions.

Results:
- Landscaping + window displays did not significantly affect pleasure or arousal.
- These factors did increase liking of the store’s exterior, which was positively correlated with (likelihood of buying products, recommending the shop, and returning items).

Conclusions:
- While landscaping and window displays did not directly affect pleasure or arousal, they significantly enhanced liking of the store exterior.
- Increased liking of the store’s exterior positively influenced patronage intentions.