Role of Smell, Sound and Sight on the Customers’ Purchasing Behaviour
It may strike as something odd to most readers that how and what effect can sight, smell or sound have on a customer and how can it be used in increasing the sales. But if you give it a little thought, you will know why some stores appeal to you smell wise and you like to shop there again and again while the ambience of an another store may repel you.
We in this post will tell you how much important these seemingly very small factors are in context of sales in your store and how you can exploit them in your favour.
Scent Marketing
When we are in a shop, as a customer, we do not usually pay attention to how the store smells. The scent in the store is intentionally made low key so that it triggers a positive reaction in your brain without overpowering your senses.
Scientists have found that our brain can differentiate between over 10,000 different smells, with each one associated with a particular memory. Therefore, odours have a very effective way to create a mental image of a brand and register in the memories of customers.
According to a study, while certain scents attract women, others are more appealing to men. Vanilla fragrance has been found to be very binding in case of women. They prefer to shop more in these stores. Other fragrances alluring females include citrus which is very effective in grabbing her attention and musk which holds her captivated in the store.
Men on the other hand, prefer stronger scents. They react more to masculine fragrances like that of rose maroc; while they like to make an exit asap from a store smelling more feminine.
Sight Marketing
Although, recently many companies and media have been criticised for over promoting certain idealistic looks and creating a mythical parameter for the average masses; it is proven through various studies that people get attracted to beautiful people.
In studies conducted on babies, they were found to be looking at the pictures of comparatively more attractive people (as rated by adult panels), longer than the others.
Referred to as ‘Halo Effect’ by scientists, we associate the more beautiful people with positive attributes like talent, intelligence, kindness etc. which develops in us, a sense of liking for them. And those whom we like, we naturally tend to comply with thus with an evident extension, also trust the products they are endorsing and prefer to buy them more.
This also triggers what is known as ‘mirror neurons’ which make us believe what we are looking at is what we are also doing or are like. That is why, we picture ourselves in those skinny jeans and feeling attractive ourselves when we look at a model on the banner ad.
Sound Marketing
Music has been now proven to play a major role in stimulating our senses. It can calm us down while it can also increase our heart rates. While slow music does the former, latter is achieved by a louder music.
Restaurants playing soft music in the background have been found to be able to hold their customers longer and let them enjoy their food, while even making them spend more. While, loud music has been found to create a sensory overload that causes us to lose our control and get our decisions influenced by the discounts, offers etc.
The kind of music being played also plays a significant role. An Indian handicrafts store may use classical music to give it a suitable environment where Indian culture lovers may thrive more and thus spend more; while, those stores which focus on youngsters play loud music since they have a greater threshold in the terms of withstanding it.
