The physical environment: retail atmospherics

Psychology A2 · Consumer Psychology. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Atmospherics means designing a shop's ambience (smell, sound, lighting, space) to change how shoppers feel and behave. Mehrabian and Russell's PAD model says that a setting produces three emotional responses: pleasure, arousal and dominance (the feeling of being in control). These emotions then lead to approach behaviour (staying, exploring, buying) or avoidance behaviour (leaving).

Odour is one stimulus. A pleasant ambient scent can improve how shoppers judge the shop and its goods.

Crowding is another. Density is the objective number of people in a space. Perceived crowding is the subjective feeling of being crowded, which lowers pleasure and dominance and so reduces satisfaction.

Rules to remember

PAD sequence: environmental stimulus → emotions (pleasure, arousal, dominance) → approach or avoidance.
Approach = stay longer, explore, spend, return; avoidance = leave early, buy less.
Chebat and Michon (2003): field experiment in a Canadian shopping mall with a citrus scent on some weeks and none on others, measured by questionnaire.
Chebat and Michon result: the scent improved shoppers' perception of the mall and of product quality, and through this their spending; its direct effect on mood was weak.
Machleit et al. (2000): questionnaire studies; higher perceived crowding went with lower shopping satisfaction, through its effect on emotions.
Machleit: two kinds of crowding, human (too many people) and spatial (too little room); the effect depends on expectations and tolerance of crowds.
A head count is objective data; a crowding rating is subjective data.

Common mistake

Treating dominance as the shop dominating the shopper. In the PAD model, high dominance means the shopper feels in control and free to act.

Worked example

On sale day a shop is full. Bilal expected crowds and enjoys the buzz. Hina expected a quiet shop and leaves after two minutes. Density was the same for both. Explain the difference.

Density is objective and identical for both shoppers.
Perceived crowding is subjective and depends on expectations and tolerance.
Hina's expectation was broken, so she feels crowded: pleasure and dominance fall.
In the PAD model low pleasure and low dominance lead to avoidance, so she leaves.

Answer: Crowding is a perception, not a count: Hina shows avoidance and Bilal shows approach in the same density.

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