Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

their services and goods. The five senses - see, hear, touch, smell and taste conjure powerful memories andemotions. Incorporating such sensory appeals, enhances the flavour of a product, thereby improving customerexperiences and optimistically guaranteeing repeat purchase. Thus, it can be noted that sensory branding providesample opportunities due to its nature of delivering multi-sensory brand experiences and promise to the consumer(Genuario, 2007).However, it‘s true that not all five senses can be leveraged in a brand, but each stimulus prominently holdsimportance and is important element of successful sensory branding campaigns. Out of the five sensory, sense ofsound and sight seems to be greatly emphasised for its basic explicit appeals and effects. However, amongst others,smell is also one of the popular ways to capitalize consumer attentions. According to Lindstrom (2005), smellinfluences 75% of all the emotions experienced by an individual in a day. The sense of smell acts directly on thelimbic system which controls emotions and memories (Bell, 2007). Smell is the most powerful and advanced form ofhuman interaction and should be looked as a potential medium of communication.Literature Review:The effective use of smelling sense undoubtedly provides better opportunities for creating a sale and buildingmemorable and lasting relationships with the consumer (Portas, 2008).However, the relevance of smell must be studied within the context of the marketplace where it is important tounderstand the level of involvement that a consumer has in the purchase decision.Literature review also supported the judgement that measuring the level of Purchase Decision Involvement (PDI) isinstrumental in understanding the impact of smell on consumer Purchase Involvement (PI). This was establishedwith the help of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Cacioppo, 1983). According to the Elaboration LikelihoodModel, there are various processes of attitude formation and these can be classified into two main categories i.e., theCentral Route and the Peripheral Route. The Central route involves those processes that entail cognitive resourcesand considerable effort whereas the Peripheral route involves the other processes where the individual is absorbed inthinking for a shorter period of time. According to Vaidyanathan and Aggarval (2001) when the level ofinvolvement is high, then the consumer takes the central processing route and uses data driven signals for theevaluation of the offer. For example, the consumer would be more likely to consider price and other numerical datafor assessing the product and the associated information. However, low-involvement consumers consider theperipheral route and give more importance to the simple inferences and cues such as the type of brand ownership orthe kind of non-price promotional offers (Kristina Maiksteniene, 2008).H1: There is no linear relationship between consumer PDI and impact of smell on consumer PI.H2: There exists a negative linear relationship between consumer PDI and impact of smell on consumer PI.Research Methodology:The study is empirical in nature and uses survey method for data collection. The sample consisted of respondentsbetween ages of 18-30. All the respondents belonged to SEC A and A+. This segment of consumers was selected asthey are the most brand conscious individuals in India. Shampoo, was identified as an appropriate product categoryas it clearly qualifies as a ―functional product‖ i.e., a product where smell plays an implicit role.Initially data was collected through a pilot study with 25 respondents where the top ten parameters that consumerswere interested in while purchasing a shampoo were identified. In the second stage of the study, Mittal‘s (1995)modified PDI was selected and was adopted to measure the level of consumer PDI during the empirical study.Similarly, for measuring the impact of smell on PI, probabilistic scales were adapted and modified from pastresearch (Ajzen, I. (1985); Fishbein, M., Ajzen, I. (1975); Miniard, P. W., Obermiller, C., Page, T. J. (1982);Miniard, P. W., Obermiller, C., Page, T. J. (1983); Morwitz, V. G., Steckel, J., Gupta, A. (2007); Warshaw, P. R.(1980); Goldsmith et al., 2000). These two scales were used in the final questionnaire. A total of 200 respondentsparticipated in the study. The questionnaire were filled using stratified sampling technique (on the basis of age andgender) to reduce the biasness.The analysis included frequency tabulations and simple bivariate linear regression modelling.Results:There were ten parameters that emerged from the pilot study - packaging, colour of the shampoo, fragrance, price,brand, lathering ability, conditioning, hair fall control, dandruff control, damage repair. The top three parameters that