Sensory marketing in an outdoor out-store shopping environment - an exploratory study in Japan

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sensory marketing activities in an outdoor out-store shopping environment. Design/methodology/approach - The study synthesizes the existing literature to build up an integrative conceptual framework of sensory marketing from the supply-side perspective. An observational study then follows to demonstrate how sensory marketing has been implemented in an outdoor out-store shopping environment in Japan. Findings - The study has proved that there is an outdoor out-store marketing environment where marketers use sensory cues to provide the information about their shops and products/services to their potential customers. When looking at each shop separately, the dominant sensory cues are the visual ones; however, in the outdoor out-store marketing environment of a shopping street as a whole, the combination of visual, audio, and tactile cues is a popular practice. In addition, it is observed that some outdoor out-store marketing practices are oriented toward the local cultural values. Research limitations/implications - Implications for shopping environments management are discussed. Originality/value - The study extends the theories on shopping environments to an outdoor out-store context, and supports the implementation of experiential marketing and context marketing.