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Student Bohdanovych L.O.
National University of Food
Technologies
THE
ATMOSPHERE OF THE STORE AS A WAY TO INCREASE SALES
Retail industry is a kind of business with high level of competition.
The success of retail business is influencing by its fast response and its
ability in understanding consumers’ behaviors. Retail business must focus to
its consumer preferences and factors influence a customer’s purchase decision.
Store atmospheric attributes (including color, lighting, sales personnel, music
etñ.) form the overall context within which shoppers make decisions of
store selection and patronage. Past research on retail environment suggests
that such attributes affect the image of the store. Retailers realize the
importance of such attributes and systematically try to avail of an ambience,
including appropriate colors, music and so on that will attract their target
customers. Further, purchase decision making has become complex due to
inseparability of product and services offered in retail outlets.
For
the formation of the store atmosphere the architecture, layout, visual
components, lighting, colors, music, smells, temperature and other factors are
used stimulating the emotional state, the adaptive capacity, a positive
perception of the goods by the buyer, creating in consumers' minds a certain
way of commercial enterprise, emphasizing his individuality, etc. Let us consider a number of features and store
elements of the atmosphere, which marketing experts and merchandising should
take into account [1].
Visual
components of the store atmosphere are used as additional sources of
information to simplify reading and searching for the right products. They are
the elements of personal "handling" of the goods to the buyer, create
a sense of beauty, romance, offer entertainment, etc. These are images, signs,
and other effects. Pictures and signs can act as a link between the goods and
visitors, and their coloring and tone - complementary goods. Color combinations
should highlight specific products: simple colors - products for children,
bright and saturated - products for teens, pastel - for underwear, etc.
Informative
signs and drawings make goods more desirable. For example, large graphic
panels, placed in the area of adaptation, depict items in
everyday circumstances or inform about its characteristics, facilitate its
perception at the lowest concentration.
Figured
signs and images are used to attract the attention of consumers and inform the
customer in a more accessible and understandable form. They simplify the task
of unification and presentation of different products. Using different but
compatible with each other sings creates a variety of font effects. However,
the signs, accompanied by long texts, made elaborate fonts, visitors get tired
faster, and such signs are not perceived properly [2]. The font and format of the
information posted on signs helps to present the same information in different
ways and causes different associations. Too intricate fonts may discourage
visitors’ desire to decipher and perceive them. Good perceived compatible fonts
create a sense of diversity. The information provided in the form of numbers,
facilitates the comparison of performance of the goods; the same information
presented in a semantic form, is perceived more difficult.
The lighting effects are used to highlight
sections of goods, creating a certain mood, awakening the senses, corresponding
to a given department (target market) or reinforcing the image of the store, as
well as for the formation of the store design. Together with the other
components of the store atmosphere lighting can hide the shortcomings of
architecture, which are often found in trading floors located in buildings
originally intended for other purposes. The most commonly used lighting effects
are:
− recovery section (assumes control of the movement of customers based on
the fact that consumers prefer lighter places than the dark);
− choice of goods. The lighting system should cause not only customers’ delight
but also provide a light distribution of the various products, orient the
visitor’ opinion, contribute to adequate perception, etc .;
− mood creation. By lighting, you can create the right mood, such as
lighting in warm, soothing colors create a relaxed atmosphere;
− muting shortcomings. With the help of lighting effects system can hide
design flaws trading floor or equipment.
Smells
form the basis of the sense of smell; have a very strong and rapid effect on a
person's emotional state, form the atmosphere. Scents can be used to focus and
manage other cognitive resources on the subconscious level of the buyers. Typically,
it's intentionally so subtle that it triggers a reaction without being
overbearing [1].
Research
by Nobel Peace Prize winners Richard Axel and Linda Buck reveals that our sense
of smell is widely considered by scholars to be our "most emotional"
sense. The reason is that analysis of the information we receive from a
particular scent, we immediately get a feeling when we smell something. A fun
fact you can quote to others is that human beings can remember about 10,000
distinct odors that can trigger important memories and can take us all the way
back to our childhood.
The
scientists are now beginning to play with smell or, if you prefer, aroma. It is
now perfectly feasible to develop cheap, synthetic but impressively realistic
scents of anything you fancy.
Smells
can make you hungry; or relaxed; or even cross. Some researchers have attempted
to use smells to increase sales. They found the best smell to pump into a
petrol-station mini market was “starched sheet smell.” Why? The answer appears
to be that garage forecourts are dirty, oily places and that people have a
clear concern with the cleanliness of the foodstuff (especially fresh pastries)
in the shop. The exceptionally clean association of starched sheets does the
business. People’s concern disappears and they buy more.
But
individuals have specific smell associations too. Thus, unique smells like Earl
Grey tea, Pear’s soap, or particular perfumes can have unusual effects on
individuals. And the same smell can have opposite effects on two people. The
smell of tea can bring pain and pleasure: memories of boredom and excitement.
Studies
have shown that if you match music and product, people buy more. If they hear a
French accordion music in a wine shop, sales of French wine will increase.
Music can make a significant contribution to the formation of the store
atmosphere, adequately differentiated behavior of visitors to the various
stages of the route of its movement. Music has powerful emotional associations
and memories. Know an individual and you can induce happiness and sadness,
pride and shame, sentimentality and coolness. Music is used to quicken the
heart and the pace (marching music) as well as to relax. Few state occasions or
indeed any with rites-de-passage significance take place without music to
signify the mood and meaning of the occasion.
Music
and smell work on mood. And moods do not last long, though they can profoundly
influence both thinking (decision making) and behaviour (shopping). The process
can even be semi-subliminal: while people are initially aware of particular
scents, they remain unaware of how their purchasing behaviour is changed.
All
store atmospheric factors have significant impact on customer approach
behaviors. Ordering from high to low according to the extent of impact, the
factors are design factors, intangible factors, image of service personnel,
visual stimulus and image of other customers. This reveals that the design
factor of a store is the biggest environment factor that impacts customer
approach behaviors; its power of influence and interpretation are significantly
higher than other factors [2].
Thus,
the store's atmosphere is a result of the combination and the complex
interaction of various elements that have an effective impact on customer
behavior and forming in the minds of visitors to the benevolent image of trade
enterprise.
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