Atmospheric Marketing and Why Retail Profits May Depend On It

With all the sites and tools available on the web, why don’t we all just find the lowest price on every product and go buy it? While many consumers or businesses do just that, most people don’t. I’ve shared online that a few years ago, I switched from driving a Ford to a Cadillac. A Ford dealership once annoyed me when they charged me a tiny fee to fix a recall issue.

I paid the fee, then I drove to the Cadillac lot a few weeks later. I wound up leaving in a new vehicle that night. The salesperson jumped through hoops to get me the vehicle I wanted at an affordable price. When I returned to add mud flaps and a bike rack, they installed them at no charge. When it’s my birthday, they call and wish me a Happy Birthday. When I come in for an oil change, they provide me with an office with Wi-fi or a top-of-the-line loaner vehicle at no cost. (Yes, I know they want me to buy it).

The truth is, I like the car, but I love the brand. The experience that my sales representative, the dealership, and the brand provide creates an experience beyond the vehicle’s four doors. I feel special, and I’m willing to pay extra for that.

In the world of architecture, they call the experience of the space around you Atmospherics, written with a focus on architects and the retail experiences they were designing.

Definition of Atmospherics

In 1973, the Journal of Retailing described the impact of the retail space on purchase behavior.

The effort to design buying environments to produce specific emotional effects in the buyer that enhance purchase probability. Influencing the probability is the sensory quality of the space surrounding the purchase object, the buyer’s perception of those sensory qualities, the effect of the perceived sensory qualities and the impact of the buyer’s affective state.

Philip Kotler

Beyond Retail

After 20 years of working on PCs, the company I worked for purchased a MacBook Pro for me. The box was beautiful. It had a handle and was designed on par with their advertising. When you opened it, the laptop was cradled in soft black foam. It was an experience pulling it from the box and putting it on the desk. It wasn’t the typical styrofoam mess with plastic bags that were impossible to open.

Apple is designing and executing a unique, consistent experience for its prospects and customers, from the store to the product packaging, the product, the operating system, and the software. There’s an atmosphere around Apple that makes it unique. Not surprisingly, the experience is also highly profitable.

Atmospheric marketing involves displaying the product, the colors, the smell, the sounds, the audience, the promotions, and the buying experience. As Mr. Kotler writes:

One of the most important recent advances in business thinking is the recognition that people, in their purchase decision-making, respond to more than simply the tangible product or service being offered. The tangible product – a pair of shoes, a refrigerator, a haircut, or a meal – is only a small part of the total consumption package. Buyers respond to the total product. It includes the services, warranties, packaging, advertising, financing, pleasantries, images, and other features that accompany the product.

Fifty years ago, the quote still stands. In my first example, the dealer damaged the buying experience—the atmosphere was polluted. In the Apple example, it’s consistently high. Even if you purchase an iPad at Best Buy, it’s carefully designed to differentiate itself from competitors.

Online Atmospheric = User Experience (UX)

Your online brand, sales experience, onboarding, platform, account management, and billing all impact your company’s ability to acquire, retain, and create more valuable relationships with your prospects and customers. In fact, over time, I believe they have the largest long-term impact on your ability to compete. As companies move online, it’s becoming imperative that the experience and consistency online support the purchase decision.

I’m a reasonably practical person when it comes to the tools, products, and services that we do business with. I’ll be honest I gravitate faster to a purchase decision when I’m attracted to a brand. Sometimes, it’s the videos they post, the writing, the site experience, and the branding. If it’s all consistent – site, social, email, videos, etc. – you might even find me entering my credit card data for an online purchase right then and there. Even if it costs more money.

Anyone can compete for cheap. But when you’re trying to increase profits and accelerate your sales cycle, the effectiveness of your atmospheric marketing and user experience are crucial.