Prof. Manfred Krafft (Universität Münster)

Program

Date: December 2017 RESCHEDULED TO April 23rd, 2018

Time: tbc

Place: tbc

Title: On Your Wavelength? The Interaction of Music and Light and its Effects on Consumers' In-Store Behavior

Abstract:

In-store atmospherics are becoming increasingly important for traditional retailers to remain competitive in the drastically changing retailing landscape. Using ambient stimuli, retailers can positively influence consumers' in-store experience and behavior. While previous research has focused on the main effects of sensory stimuli, research on the interplay between different ambient stimuli is scarce. We draw on environmental psychology to investigate how the congruence of two distinct ambient stimuli — music and light — affect consumers' in-store behavior. Based on a field experiment in a retail store, we show that congruence between music and light — that is, fast/bright, or slow/dim (vs. incongruence, i.e. fast/dim or slow/bright) — increases the time and money consumers actually spend in a store. At a store level perspective, ambient stimuli congruence increases the actual number of transactions and, thus, total sales. This study enhances our understanding of effects of coherent atmospheric stimuli on consumer behavior.