Creating the multisensory brand experience in coffee shops

Abstract

<p>Coffee shops are one of the most visited third places. People visit coffee shops for multi-purposes, not only for drinking coffee but also for enjoying their social life and experiencing new things. As coffee brands face challenges to survive in the rapidly rising market, they have started to strength their brand identity through various design strategy such as multisensory design. The multisensory design significantly affects consumers' perception, judgment, and behavior (Krishna, 2012). Some research stated the positive effects of the multi-sensory designs: qualities of place (Lupton & Lipps, 2018) and enhanced brand interaction (Wheeler, 2018). This study investigated the influential sensory design elements on consumer behavior and emotion in the coffee shop environment. Using adopted sensory sliders, which were initially created by Malnar and Vodvarka (2004), the research evaluated the physical environment, two Starbucks and three Blue Bottle stores in Seoul, South Korea.The study included three parts: first, an integrative review of the literature revealed the sensory design elements strongly associated with human emotions and behaviors. Second, case studies in Starbucks and Blue Bottle were conducted to observe and examine the successful sensory design elements for empowering their brand experiences. Third, prototypes proposed a multisensory design for coffee shops that enhance the interaction between the brand and consumers. This research discussed the most influential sensory cues on consumer emotions and behaviors in coffee shops through the sculpting review and case studies. The study revealed the effectiveness of using multi-sensory design as brand marketing for the social environments. Further, this study’s prototypes of specific locations in coffee shops (entrance, order, display, and seating area) suggest advanced design solutions for brand experience by maximizing multisensory stimulations.</p>