The Influence of Congruent Music Timbre and Aroma on Pleasure, Time Spent-in-Store, and Purchase Intention.

Multi-sensory congruence is an emerging interdisciplinary research stream exploring the conjoint influence of two or more stimulus on the human senses. Music timbre-aroma interaction, however, has received little scholarly attention. Consequently, a 2 (organ versus French horn timbre) x 2 (lavender vs lemon aroma) field experiment, with a between-subjects factorial design, was conducted at an upmarket menswear fashion retailer in Wellington City (New Zealand), to identify the influence of congruent music timbre and aroma on pleasure and, in turn, time spent in-store and purchase intention. At least 30 responses across each of the four treatments were collected, meaning, 121 responses were collected in the main survey.

After controlling the melody and volume of the music timbre, this research found shoppers between the congruent and incongruent treatments to experience a similar level of felt pleasure in response to the music and aroma, spend an approximately equal amount of time in-store, and form a roughly indistinguishable intention to purchase from the store. In other words, the differences between the congruent and incongruent treatments in terms of these outcome variables, were statistically insignificant. The effect of the congruent treatments on these outcome variables, however, in terms of its direction, was relatively positive (favourable), as opposed to negative (unfavourable). An insignificant statistical correlation was discovered between the congruent treatments and pleasure and, in-turn, time spent in-store. A significant correlation was found between the congruent treatments and pleasure and, in-turn, purchase intention.

Scholars are informed that the way in which congruence between-atmospheric elements is established can inherently impact consumers and, therefore, recommended to investigate how the different criteria for establishing congruence can yield different outcomes. The key limitation was that, following the manipulation check, there were not enough participants under each treatment, which is likely the result of the diffuser sporadically powering off. This is estimated to have significantly influenced 41 of the 121 main survey participants to fail the manipulation check, which reduced the amount of statistically analysable data. Future research, therefore, is suggested to utilise a reed (not an electronic) diffuser, because reed diffusers can continuously operate for longer periods.