Abstract
With competition ever increasing, today's professionals are more and more concerned about the atmosphere of their stores. Interest is now being placed on the store's olfactory dimension.The objective of our study was to verify the importance of this factor and to determine the influence of the use of fragrances on the emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses of participating female clients in a women's ready-to-wear store. The first step of our study was to write a reveiw which allowed us to reflect in greater detail on the concept of place. Having done so, we were able to differentiate three types of places as well as three types of atmospheres. Next, we looked to the contributions of environmental psychology and its aspects regarding individual environment relations. Lastly, we applied scientific data concerning the influence of odors and their perception to the myths generally associated with the aforementioned. The second step of our work was to test the actual use of fragrance diffusers in a women's ready-to-wear store by adopting a positive approach based on the SOR paradigm. 253 women participated in a preliminary study which allowed us to select two different fragrances. Next, we studied the effects of the fragrances on a sample of 230 women. Through variance analysis as well as advanced methods (structural equations and nonparametric test). We were able to verify the fragrances' influences on the affective (pleasure factor), cognitive (evaluation of elapsed time...) and behavioral (elapsed presence) responses of the participants. Finally, we analyzed the mediation of affective responses and then the moderation of the variables of age and smoker (structural equation). Different managerial recommendations were made.