Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

To be or not to be: this is shopping
Sensory branding and self satisfaction
Luca Petruzzellis, University of Bari; Italy
Richard Michon, Ryerson University, Canada
Jean-Charles Chebat, HEC Montréal, Canada
Claire Gélinas-Chebat, UQAM, Canada
Consumption is much more than the simple purchase of products and services. It is a way of self expression, individual
identity formation, creativity, or even art (Gabriel & Lang, 1995; Schmitt 1999). It involves experiential and
instrumental outcomes, which means that the socio-psychological characteristics of individuals and behavioural
variables are powerful cues to influence the consumption model (Babin, Darden & Griffin, 1994). Therefore, shopping
has three key dimensions, namely the ‗shopping environment‘, the ‗socio-cultural context‘ and the ‗roles, motivations
and behaviour‘ of the individual shopper (Woodruffe, Eccles & Elliott, 2002).
A causal link between the consumer self concept and his/her shopping behavior exists (Sirgy et al., 2000; Chebat, Sirgy
& St-James, 2006; Kaltcheva, Chebat & Patino, 2010;), that, in turn, is mediated by the effect a store atmosphere (Babin
& Darden, 1995). Some of the atmospheric elements of a shopping environment may be cognitively processed as
nonverbal cues, which in turn, may impact product evaluations, etc., without the direct involvement of affective
processes such as mood (Spangenberg, Crowley & Henderson, 1996; Chebat & Michon, 2003; Morrin & Ratneshwar,
2003). Many aspects of the retail ambience such as crowding, colors, layout, influence customer emotions and attitudes
(Bellizzi, Crowley & Hasty, 1983; Bellizzi & Hite, 1992; Baker, Grewal & Parasuraman, 1994; Machleit, Kellaris &
Eroglu, 1994; Sherman, Makur & Belk Smith, 1997; Babin, Hardesty & Suter, 2003).
The main objective of the paper is to understand the phenomenon of self-satisfaction. The basic assumption of the paper
is that consumers are satisfied with their choice not when they use the product/brand they bought but when enter the
shop; while browsing in the shop consumers identify themselves with the store and brands sold in it. The environment
encompasses the consumer identity, exchanging with him/her identity and personality features. People are satisfied with
stores and brands that contribute to increasing their self concept, identity and personality.
A sample of 70 tattooed people were interviewed in order to understand the determinants of self satisfaction. They were
asked to describe how they feel when they enter a store and what attracts most while shopping. Tattooed people were
chosen since they show a higher confidence with their self concept; a tattoo is seen as a form of marking identity (Lévi
Strauss, 1955, 220; Velliquette, Murray & Creyer, 1998). In fact, the body increasingly becomes represented as an
integral part of self construction and achieves new meanings and a new status that consumers learn through
socialization (Sweetman, 2000). People with no more than 3 tattoos were chosen as tattoos were used as cues of
fashion/style and self confidence and not of belonging to tribes, subcultures or groups or a sort of mania (Sanders, 1988;
Velliquette et al., 1998; Goulding et al., 2004).
Previous research has indicated that shopping behaviour is influenced by several factors such as consumer
demographics and psychographics (Gilbert & Warren, 1995), usage situation (de la Fuente & Yague, 2008), price
sensitivity (Han, Gupta & Lehman, 2001), social referents (Bearden & Etzel, 1982; Escales & Bettman, 2003),
involvement (Michaelidou & Dibb, 2008), need recognition (Grønhaug & Venkatesh, 1991), product category (Mehta,
2007) and so on. Therefore, consumer response proves to be cognitively as well as affectively driven by a number of
factors that impact consumer attitudes, perceptions and shopping behaviors (Bellizi & Hite, 1992). Most of the stimuli
are related to atmospherics (Kotler, 1974; Bitner, 1992), which has various facets (Turley & Milliman, 2000); music
(Herrington & Capella, 1996; Milliman, 1982; Yalch & Spangenberg, 1990), crowding (Hui, Dube & Chebat, 1997;
Michon, Chebat & Turley, 2005), effective exterior store windows (Edwards & Shackley, 1992), lighting (Areni &
Kim, 1995), store layout (Smith & Burns, 1996) and merchandise arrangement (Areni, Duhan & Kiecker, 1999).
Indeed, atmospherics may sometimes operate primarily via cognitive rather than affective routes (Chebat & Michon,
2003).
In such a scenario the experiences consumers live in a store or social environment (Fazio, Effrein & Falender, 1981;
Markus & Kunda, 1986) and the social roles they perform in it (Forehand & Deshpande, 2001; Forehand et al., 2002)
influence, or better evoke, the self-concept components, namely dispositional characteristics and traits; perceptions of
the ongoing or past experiences, social roles, and behaviors; self-related attitudes and affect (Sirgy, 1982; Markus &
Wurf, 1987). Chebat et al. (2006) found that upscale shopping mall environments elicit upscale self-relevant attributes.
Since people are likely to view themselves as more upscale than they actually are, consumers feel higher self-congruity
with upscale shopping malls and evaluate the stores located in such malls more positively (Chebat et al., 2006).
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