EMOTIONAL EFFECTS OF SHOP WINDOW DISPLAYS ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR Sabine Fliess, University of Hagen, Germany Jens Hogreve, University of Hagen, Germany Dirk Nonnenmacher, University of Hagen, Germany
SUMMARY Shop window displays are regarded as a key instrument of a retailer’s communication and visual merchandising strategy (Schmalen 1985; Sen, Block, and Chandran 2002) and can function both as an advertising and promotion tool forming the base for a competitive advantage (Edwards and Shackley 1992; Lea-Greenwood 1998). Shop window displays are an integral part of a consumer’s surrounding during his/her shopping experience and therefore have an impact on consumer behavior in retail settings. While store atmosphere as a part of the in-store experience has already attracted the attention of more and more researchers (e.g., Grewal et al. 2003; Turley and Chebat 2002), there is only some theoretical and empirical research dealing with the impact of shop window displays as an element of the outside-shopping-experience (Edwards and Shackley 1992; Sen, Block, and Chandran 2002). From the consumer’s point of view cognitive and emotional effects of shop window displays can be distinguished (Schmalen 1985). Actual research so far stresses the cognitive effects, while emotional aspects of shop window displays have been neglected. This is notable because it is empirically proven that emotions strongly affect consumer behavior in retail settings (e.g., Dawson, Bloch, and Ridgway 1990; Sherman, Mathur, and Smith 1997). This paper explores how the design of a store’s window displays affects the emotional states of consumers and how consumers’ buying behavior is influenced by these emotional reactions. Our study is based on the Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) environmental psychology model (M-R model) which is a special kind of a S-O-R model. Although the MR model has been developed and tested some thirty years ago and also improvements have been suggested during the last years (e.g., Foxall and Greenley 2000; Terlutter 2000), our choice of the original model is motivated by the following considerations: First and most important, window displays are part of the consumer’s shopping environment. Therefore, a model regarding environmental influences should be used. Second, the design of window displays differs in many aspects like lighting, colors, merchandise grouping, posters, product displays or decoration elements. According to the M-R model, even highly American Marketing Association / Summer 2004
differing environments (representing the stimulus variable) can be measured by using one single theoretical construct: the information rate. Using one single measure lowers complexity, facilitates comparisons and reduces measurement mistakes. Third, in order to analyze emotional effects (as organism variable) a model depicting different emotional states is needed. According to Mehrabian and Russell, consumers’ emotional states can be divided up into three dimensions: pleasure, arousal, and dominance (Mehrabian and Russell 1974). While pleasure denotes the amount to which a person feels happy, content, or annoyed in a certain environment, arousal refers to the degree of stimulation by an ambience. Dominance indicates the extent to which a person perceives himself/herself to be able to cope with a specific situation (Mehrabian and Russell 1974). Fourth, a consumer’s behavioral reaction (response variable) towards window displays is to be analyzed. According to Mehrabian and Russell, a person’s reaction towards any environment can be categorized as either approach or avoidance behavior. As the desired consumer’s action in our setting is approach behavior, the M-R model meets our requirements well. Consumer reactions are measured as “liking of the shop window displays,” “intended shopping time,” and “willingness to buy.” Last but not least, there are tested scales for the different variables used in the M-R model (e.g., Groeppel 1991; Tai and Fung 1997; Van Kenhove and Desrumaux 1997). The study used data collected in the pedestrian area of a large city in Western Germany in fall 2003. Interviewers were located in front of different retail stores (cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry) and surveyed female and male shoppers at random immediately after they had viewed the selected shop windows. In contrast to other studies in which students filled in questionnaires in a lecture hall, in this study actual shoppers were interviewed in a real shopping situation in order to gain situation relevant unbiased information which did not rely on recall of emotions but on situation specific emotions related to the window displays they had looked at. Analyses according to our derived hypotheses from the M-R model, mainly based on regression, revealed the following: Structure, novelty and dynamics, forming the three factors of information rate, were significant positive predictors of pleasure. Novelty and dynamics have a 264
significant impact on arousal, while structure’s impact on arousal was not significant. Arousal and pleasure had a positive impact on approach behavior with a better fit between emotions and liking and willingness to buy than intended shopping time. Pleasure clearly was the significant better predictor of the three response variables than was arousal which may be a consequence of the supposed relationship between arousal and pleasure. In environments with pleasant window displays high scores of arousal generate a positive impact on consumer behavior. Inversely, in environments with unpleasant window displays arousal has a negative impact on the intended shopping time and the willingness to buy. This implies a prudent use of design elements which cause arousing emotional reactions. The findings suggest that retailers can influence the emotional effects of window displays by altering the information rate dimensions: Novelty and dynamics of shop window displays can draw the consumer’s attention to the shop while novelty, dynamics and structure create pleasant feelings and, therefore, can be used to attract consumers and invite them to enter the store. As this paper represents only a first step in the empirical exploration of window displays’ effects on consumer behavior, there are a few limitations which can
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provide the basis for further research. First, as the respondents had some problems in understanding and differentiating the pleasure and arousal items, we suggest using imagery scales. Furthermore, to increase reliability of customers’ emotional states additional methods of measurement should be used. Second, the sample, conducted in one regional pedestrian area in front of four window displays, is obviously neither truly random nor necessarily representative of any larger population. Future studies need to be extended to other shopping environments (e.g., shopping malls) and to other regional areas. Finally, the complete M-R model has to be tested as a whole to explore its appropriateness for the explanation of emotional effects of window displays and their impacts on consumer behavior. For this purpose different statistical methods like structural equation modeling may be used. Therefore, much research remains to be done to explain the impacts of window displays on consumer behavior. Despite these limitations our study provides a useful starting point for future research in this area by presenting a powerful measure of the “key factor” information rate of window displays and by presenting a psychology based model of the impacts of window displays on consumer behavior. The results may also be useful for practitioners by giving important implications for the design of window displays.
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For further information contact: Sabine Fliess Faculty of Business Administration and Economics Chair of Service Management University of Hagen Profilstr. 8 58084 Hagen Germany Phone: +49 2331.987.2534 FAX: +49 2331.987.4494 E-Mail:
[email protected]
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