Applying Effective Sensory Marketing to Sustainable Coffee Shop Business Management

Abstract

This study focused on sensory marketing that appeals to the five senses of coffee shop customers (“sight,” “smell,” “sound,” “taste,” and “touch”) to provide a sustainable growth model for the saturated coffee shop market. The study identified the relationships among coffee shops’ sensory marketing factors, the “PAD” emotions (pleasure, arousal, and dominance), flow, and behavioral intentions. It employed an online survey of coffee shop customers aged 20 years and older. A total of 608 surveys were used for the final analysis. The results showed that there are statistically meaningful relationships between “sight” and dominance, “sound” and arousal, “taste” and dominance, “taste” and arousal, “touch” and dominance, and “touch” and arousal. In addition, it was confirmed that there are significant relationships among the PAD emotions; pleasure also has positive effects on flow and behavioral intentions. Finally, this study found significant moderating effects of hedonic and utilitarian usage motivations on the hypothesized relationships. Based on our findings, several important academic and business implications are provided, which can contribute to the sustainability of coffee shops.

1. Introduction

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world, and the coffee industry is considered an important and high value-added business [1]. However, the coffee shop market is highly saturated; businesses are experiencing difficulties owing to a rapid increase in the number of coffee shops, not only those of globally popular franchises but also shops belonging to independent brands [2]. For example, in the United Kingdom (U.K.), there were approximately 10,000 coffee shops in 2007, but that number more than doubled after 10 years to 22,000. Owing to this saturated market, Costa, one of the major coffee shop franchises in the U.K., announced that it does not plan to open a new shop for the next five years; other franchises are making similar decisions [3]. Competition among coffee shops has reached a peak in the United States as well; analysis indicates that the market has reached a saturation point [4]. This situation has been also observed in Asian countries including South Korea. As over 1000 coffee shops in South Korea closed in 2018, its import of coffee bean has declined for the first time since 2012. This implies that South Korea’s coffee shop market has reached the saturation point as well [5]. Companies all over the world and across industries, including the coffee shop industry, are placed in a competitive structure where there is an endless number of new market entries. Therefore, differentiated strategies are required to survive in their respective industries [6]. Over the past few years, such challenges and the need for solutions have led to increasing interest in this developing reality and in the sustainability of business from a long-term perspective. Accordingly, there are numerous studies addressing how to achieve sustainable business performance [7]. The food service industry, which includes the coffee shop business, has also implemented effective sustainable management strategies [8]. Large coffee shop franchises, in particular, have established various operational strategies, and there is a need for new marketing strategies for sustainable growth [6].

Accordingly, scholars have conducted studies on various marketing strategies for coffee shops. They have focused on marketing strategies based on customer relationships [9], brand image improvement [10,11], and corporate social responsibility [12]. These studies were based on the traditional marketing viewpoint that consumers select coffee shops using rational decisions.

Today’s consumers expect a greater variety of purchasing and consumption experiences [13]. Kim and Jung (2018) stated that modern consumers focus on unique and sensory experiences [14]. To support this argument, the focus of recent research has been on the importance of sensory marketing utilizing human senses [14].

Hultén (2015) argued that sensory marketing that stimulates the five senses can positively affect an individual’s consumption activities [15]. Sensory marketing induces positive emotions that ultimately lead to behavioral reactions such as purchases or re-visits [16]. Kuczamer-Kłopotowska (2017) agreed that sensory marketing influences consumer purchasing decision-making [13]. Thus, sensory marketing improves brand and product awareness and leads to more positive consumption behavior by helping build consumer trust. Sensory marketing has been applied to various contexts such as package design [17], clothing stores [18,19], and fast food brand design [20,21]. A major part of the relevant literature has examined how a particular location or environment significantly stimulates individuals’ senses and further impacts their behavioral intentions. However, few studies have applied sensory marketing to the context of coffee shops [22]. Hence, this study investigates sensory marketing strategies by encompassing all five human senses based on the various selection attributes of coffee shops.

Most studies address the effects of marketing on only two types of customers’ emotions, pleasure and arousal. Given the increasing number of customers who visit coffee shops to study or conduct business, the feeling of personal ownership of, or connection to, the coffee shop that the customer chooses, should be addressed in addition to the consumer emotions of arousal and pleasure [23]. Therefore, this study captured the feeling of customer control, or ownership, regarding the space occupied, which represents dominance. A comprehensive model in this study was developed to investigate how coffee shop sensory marketing influences three emotions (pleasure, arousal, dominance; PAD) [24]. In addition, this study sought to verify two conclusions: that coffee shops’ sensory marketing affects customer emotions, and further, that these emotions can lead to a flow derived from their pleasurable emotions and positive behavioral intentions.

Previous studies have identified that the usage motivations of coffee shops are divided into emotional motivations (i.e., drinking coffee, taking a break, hanging out with friends) and utilitarian motivations (i.e., studying, taking care of business, meeting others) [25]. Therefore, this study aims to verify the expectation that customers’ different motivations for usage produce significant differences in the relationships among coffee shop sensory marketing, PAD emotions, flow, and behavioral intentions.

The goals of this study were to:

• Identify the relationships between the five sensory marketing factors and coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions;
• Identify the relationships among coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions;
• Identify the effects of coffee shop customers’ pleasure on their flow and behavioral intentions;
• Verify significant differences among the relationships previously mentioned, according to coffee shop customer usage motivations (emotional vs. utilitarian).

2. Research Background

2.1. Sensory Marketing Using Five Senses

Sensory marketing, first suggested by Schmitt (1999), is a marketing strategy that stimulates consumer emotions instead of their rational judgment by appealing to the five human senses—“sight,” “smell,” “sound,” “taste,” and “touch” [26]. Later, Krishna (2012) defined sensory marketing as a marketing strategy that can not only affect consumers’ five senses but can also consecutively affect their emotions, perceptions, judgment, and behavior [16]. Erdil (2015) explained the application mechanism of sensory marketing: it creates stimulation based on external environmental factors that can appeal to consumer senses [27]. These external environmental factors affect not only consumer emotions but also product or brand evaluations; therefore, these factors can ultimately affect customer purchase intentions and behavior [27].

According to Lindstrom (2006), external environmental stimuli affect all five human senses [28]. Humans are most affected by sight; the first impression conveyed through sight assists consumers in forming product and brand image [29]. “Sight” is the most effective sense for delivering sensory marketing messages to customers [30]. As smell is connected to breathing, it is the one sense that cannot be ignored [28,31]. “Smell” most directly and most quickly affects memory. Sound varies according to pitch, tempo, and intonation [16]. “Sound” has a long-term effect on the memory, and a vast amount of information is absorbed through sound [32]. “Taste” differentiates among sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (savory) [33]. When humans consume food, the five senses operate in harmony [16], as food is not only related to taste, but also to smell, texture, appearance, and the sound of chewing [16]. Lastly, “touch” is a sensory factor felt by the skin. As touch occurs when a person comes into contact with something or someone, it leads to a rapport between the two, changing human emotions and considerably affecting communication [32].

Although sensory marketing can affect all five human senses, few prior studies consider all five sensory factors. For example, Wade Clarke et al. (2012) found the sensory marketing factors of “sight” and “smell” to have a significant impact on consumer shopping experiences in the fashion industry [18]. The literature adopts four of the five sensory marketing factors (“sight,” “smell,” “sound,” and “touch”). Helmefalk and Hultén (2017) demonstrated the significant effects of these four sensory factors on retail customers’ emotions [34]. In order to fill this gap in the existing literature, this study includes all five sensory factors applied to the context of coffee shop sensory marketing.

Sensory marketing is considered an important marketing strategy because it allows consumers to differentiate a particular product or brand in various decision-making situations related to consumption activities [17]. Considering the importance of this role, past studies have also applied sensory marketing to the food service industry. For example, Iqbal (2016) demonstrated that sensory marketing positively affects brand differentiation and brand loyalty [35]. Randhir et al. (2016) determined that playing music inside stores provides a sense of comfort for customers. They also discovered that smell produces a sense of arousal in customers at one fast-food company, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) [36]. Moreira et al. (2017) found that sensory stimuli in pizza restaurants have positive effects on both brand experience and brand assets [37]. Several studies have identified the significant relationship between sensory marketing factors and a complex variety of human emotions [24,38]. Thus, this study expected to find significant effects of the five sensory marketing factors on coffee shop customers’ various emotions, focusing on “pleasure,” “arousal,” and “dominance.”

2.2. Consumers’ Pleasure–Arousal–Dominance Emotions: PAD

Over the past decades, various studies highlighted the importance of a better understanding of how customer emotions influence their consumption behavior. In doing so, Mehrabian and Russell (1974) proposed the PAD model that explains human feelings using pleasure–arousal–dominance (PAD); this model is one of the most commonly used in the relevant literature [24]. Pleasure is enjoyment, happiness, or satisfaction; arousal is a feeling of excitement from an external stimulus; dominance is the feeling of control from oneself over a given situation [39]. The PAD model is useful for evaluating the effects of external environmental stimuli on the three emotions. PAD emotions are considered relevant to studies on environmental stimuli and consumer emotions [40]. Therefore, this study aims to provide a theoretical foundation in terms of coffee shop sensory marketing using the PAD emotions.

2.3. Consumers’ Experiences: Flow

Miller (1973) defined flow as the immersion in, and concentrated focus on a particular task [41]. Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi (1975) defined flow as the mental and physical commitment that occurs when people are completely immersed in an activity; they considered it a natural behavior that occurs when people identify themselves as one with the activity [42]. Gao and Bai (2014) stated that when people reach the state of flow, they are completely immersed in a particular situation and wish to continue with the activity [43]. Based on these definitions, prior studies have analyzed the major environmental factors that can lead customers to a state of flow. For example, Reid (2004) stated in a paper on virtual reality that user pleasure significantly affects flow [44]. Mun and Lee (2008) concluded that customer pleasure is a significant factor of flow within the context of social networking services (SNSs) [45]. They also stated that customer flow leads to extremely positive behavior in a consumption situation [43]. This finding was supported by an early study by Hoffman and Novak (1996), asserting that those who have experienced flow while shopping are likely to feel higher satisfaction and loyalty than those who have not had that experience [46]. Koufaris (2002), who verified this argument, also concluded that consumers who have experienced flow in a consumption situation are more likely to have impulse-buying behaviors [47]. Ko et al. (2014) stated that flow can improve users’ awareness of a particular fashion brand [48]. Likewise, numerous studies have confirmed flow to have a positive effect on satisfaction, loyalty, and purchase intentions. This discussion led this study to expect that such relationships between pleasure and flow exist in the context of coffee shop sensory marketing.

2.4. Development of Research Hypotheses

The study set up hypotheses to identify the relationships among coffee shops’ five sensory marketing factors, the PAD emotions of customers, flow, and behavioral intentions based on the discussions above. Furthermore, hypotheses were proposed regarding the possible differences among the relationships according to coffee shop usage motivation types (hedonic vs. utilitarian) (see Figure 1).

2.4.1. Effects of Coffee Shops’ Sensory Marketing on PAD Emotions

A sensory marketing paper by Brengman (2002) focusing on “sight” stated that store color increases pleasure and arousal in customers [49]. Ryu and Jang (2007) identified visual factors such as the lighting and layout of restaurants that significantly affect customer dining pleasure [50]. Based on these studies, it can be assumed that “sight” will significantly affect customer emotions.

Krishna et al. (2013) argued that the innate “smell” of a particular location is a factor that has a strong effect on the people who use that location [51]. Studies that support this argument also determined that the sensory marketing factor of smell in restaurants has positive effects on emotions such as pleasure and arousal [50]. Therefore, it can be said that the sensory marketing factor of “smell” can significantly affect coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions.

Ryu and Jang (2007) stated that “sound,” such as music in a restaurant, increases both customer pleasure and arousal [50]. Jung (2015) stated that restaurant sounds have a positive effect on customers’ feelings [52]. “Sound” in this study was expected to be another important sensory marketing factor that positively affects the PAD emotions of coffee shop customers.

Although there have been limited studies on the effects of “taste” on customer emotions, there have been a few that have verified this relationship. For example, Kang and Kim (2016) showed that taste associated with Japanese restaurants increases the feelings of pleasure and dominance [53]. Im (2017) verified a positive effect of the taste associated with dessert cafés on the feeling of dominance [54]. Based on these discussions, “taste” was likely to affect PAD emotions positively in this study’s analysis of sensory marketing for coffee shops.

Hultén et al. (2009) stated that “touch” has a strong effect on human emotions [32]. Kim and Noh (2018) supported this argument with their study on the casino servicescape by verifying that “touch” factors, such as physical comfort, positively affect customers’ feelings [55]. Therefore, for this study, it was purported that “touch” can be an important sensory marketing factor to have a positive effect on the PAD emotions of coffee shop consumers.

Based on these assumptions, to verify the significant effects of the five sensory marketing factors on customers’ PAD emotions in the coffee shop context, the following five hypotheses were proposed:

Hypothesis 1:

The sensory marketing factor of “sight” will have a positive effect on coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions (H1a. Dominance; H1b. Pleasure; H1c. Arousal).

Hypothesis 2:

The sensory marketing factor of “smell” will have a positive effect on coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions (H2a. Dominance; H2b. Pleasure; H2c. Arousal).

Hypothesis 3:

The sensory marketing factor of “sound” will have a positive effect on coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions (H3a. Dominance; H3b. Pleasure; H3c. Arousal).

Hypothesis 4:

The sensory marketing factor of “taste” will have a positive effect on coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions (H4a. Dominance; H4b. Pleasure; H4c. Arousal).

Hypothesis 5:

The sensory marketing factor of “touch” will have a positive effect on coffee shop customers’ PAD emotions (H5a. Dominance; H5b. Pleasure; H5c. Arousal).

2.4.2. Relationships between PAD Emotions

Prior studies on PAD emotions have suggested that human emotions are complexly and intricately related to one another and that each emotion does not act on its own but can only be understood and explained based on interrelationships. For example, Babin and Darden (1995) and Ward and Barnes (2001) concluded that the dominance emotion experienced by a consumer significantly and positively affects the consumer’s feelings of pleasure and arousal in the retail environment [56,57]. Kuppens (2008) and Hanzaee and Khanzadeh (2011) verified the relationship between pleasure and arousal [58,59]. Based on the results of these prior studies, it was expected that the results of this study would also show the relationships among the PAD emotions of coffee shop customers. Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed:

Hypothesis 6:

Coffee shop customer emotions of dominance will have a positive effect on arousal.

Hypothesis 7:

Coffee shop customer emotions of dominance will have a positive effect on pleasure.

Hypothesis 8:

Coffee shop customer emotions of arousal will have a positive effect on pleasure.

2.4.3. Effects of Pleasure on Flow and Behavioral Intentions

An early study by Clarke and Haworth (1994) found that pleasure significantly affects flow [60]. Csikszentmihalyi et al. (2014) studied the intrinsic rewards of people who participate in sports, art, and dance, and identified the strong relationship between pleasure and flow [61]. Kulviwat et al. (2016) asserted that customer pleasure increases flow in their study on shopping behavior [62].

Ryu and Jang (2008) and Tantanatewin and Inkarojrit (2018) concluded that consumer pleasure has a positive effect on consumers’ behavioral intentions [63,64]. Ali (2016) and Liu et al. (2016) discovered that customer flow in an online environment has a positive effect on behavioral intentions [65,66]. Based on these findings, it was expected that coffee shop customers’ pleasure has a positive effect on both flow and behavioral intentions. Therefore, the following additional hypotheses were proposed:

Hypothesis 9:

Coffee shop customers’ pleasure will have a positive effect on flow.

Hypothesis 10:

Coffee shop customers’ pleasure will have a positive effect on behavioral intention.

Hypothesis 11:

Coffee shop customers’ flow will have a positive effect on behavioral intention.

2.4.4. Moderating Effects of Coffee Shop Usage Motivations (Hedonic vs. Utilitarian)

Lunardo and Mbengue (2009) categorized usage motivations in shopping behavior as hedonic motivation and utilitarian motivation, and then identified different shopping behavior according to these motivations [67]. Jin, Lee, and Huffman (2012) showed that there is a significant difference in usage experience and brand image awareness, depending on usage motivations in their study of usage experiences at restaurant customer experiences [68].

Doucé and Janssens (2013) identified the moderating effect of customer usage motivation on the relationship between the sensory marketing factor of “smell” and emotions [19]. It has been shown that the unique smell of stores leads to greater pleasure for consumers with hedonic shopping motivation than it does for consumers with utilitarian shopping motivation [19]. Focused on the attractiveness of shopping centers, Margarita, Rialp, and González (2017) analyzed the moderating effects of usage motivation (hedonic and utilitarian) and studied the relationship between attractiveness and customer satisfaction [69]. Their results showed that customers with hedonic shopping motivations felt greater pleasure from the attractiveness of shopping centers compared to customers with utilitarian shopping motivations [69]. Hyun and Kang (2014) categorized usage motivations into utilitarian and hedonic motivations in their study of luxury restaurants. They analyzed the moderating effect on the relationship between physical environmental factors and customer emotions. Results showed that consumers with recreational motivations felt greater pleasure from arousal compared to those with task-oriented motivations [70]. Consistent with these two types of usage motivation, the following hypothesis was proposed:

Hypothesis 12:

Coffee shop usage motivations (hedonic and utilitarian) will have moderating effects on the relationships among the five sensory marketing factors, PAD emotions, flow, and behavioral intentions.

3. Methods

3.1. Data Collection and Sampling

This study chose samples from the following six brands of coffee shop franchises in Korea: Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Pascucci, Twosome Place, Angel-in-us, and Hollys. The subjects of this study were consumers aged 18 and older who had been customers of at least one franchise within the past three months. The choice of coffee shop franchises was based on brand awareness, shop size, coffee prices, and the focus on sensory marketing. Based on the results of the Korean Big Data Institute analyzing consumer coffee shop brand awareness, we selected six top brands for our study. There are 1262 Starbucks, 296 Coffee Bean, 408 Pascucci, 1001 Twosome Place, 554 Angel-in-us, and 405 Hollys outlets in South Korea. The average coffee price of all six brands ranges from $3.5 to $5.8. In addition, theses six franchises have been commonly recognized as places where customers can experience the five factors of sensory marketing within the premises of the coffee shops. Furthermore, all six brands focus on sensory marketing by creating a space filled with their own philosophies and stories, and offering a variety of coffee, baking fragrances, background music, elaborate menus, and comfortable furniture. The data were collected through an online survey company for approximately one week, between 2 July and 8 July 2019. Of the 635 collected surveys, 608 were used for analysis, as some surveys were considered incomplete. Convenience sampling was employed and the survey was self-administered.

3.2. Measurements for Testing Hypotheses

To analyze how the relationships among coffee shops’ five sensory marketing factors, customer PAD emotions, flow, and behavioral intentions were influenced by usage motivations, this study employed frequency analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis of SPSS, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model analysis, and multi-group analysis of the AMOS program.

Coffee shops’ five sensory marketing factors were measured based on the measurement index of Kotler (1973) and Zhao et al. (2019). The index contained three items each related to sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch [71,72]. Customers’ PAD emotions were measured by adapting the measurement index of Mehrabian and Russell (1974) and Babin and Darden (1995). The index contained three items each related to dominance, pleasure, and arousal [24,56]. Flow was measured by editing and improving the measurement index of Trevino and Webster (1992). This index also contained three items [73]. Behavioral intention was measured by adapting the measurement index of Oliver (1993), Söderlund and Rosengren (2007), and Ryu et al. (2010); the index contained three items each related to re-visit intention and recommendation intention [74,75,76]. Here, behavioral intention was a second-order construct and re-visit intention and recommendation intention were first-order constructs. All the items were measured using a five-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = highly disagree to 5 = highly agree). Usage motivations were categorized as hedonic or utilitarian, in accordance with the study by Oh et al. (2017) [25].

4. Results

Table 1. Respondent characteristics (N = 608).

Characteristics	n (%)	Characteristics	n (%)
Age		Marital status
10s	16 (2.6%)	Single	338 (55.6%)
20s	267 (43.9%)	Married	270 (44.4%)
30s	208 (34.2%)	Occupation
40s	91 (15.0%)	Student	77 (12.7%)
50s	20 (3.3%)	Office job	317 (52.1%)
Over 60	6 (1.0%)	Self-employed	23 (3.8%)
Gender		Professional job	76 (12.5%)
Male	250 (41.1%)	Homemaker	82 (13.5%)
Female	358 (58.9%)	Other	33 (5.4%)

displays the demographic characteristics of the collected samples. A high proportion of respondents were in their twenties (43.9%) and thirties (34.2%), and there were more female respondents (58.9%) than male. In terms of marital status, there were more single respondents (55.6%) than married respondents. The most common respondent occupations were, in order, office jobs (52.1%), homemakers (13.5%), students (12.7%), professional jobs (12.5%), other (5.4%), and self-employed (3.8%).

4.1. Validity and Reliability of Measurements

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to verify the reliability and validity of the measured items. After analyzing a total of 33 items, three items per construct, GFI (goodness-of-fit index) = 0.909, TLI (Tucker–Lewis index) = 0.956, CFI (comparative fit index) = 0.963, IFI (incremental fit index) = 0.963; RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) = 0.046, all results that were consistent with standards [77].

The composite reliability of all construct items was 0.7 or above. Convergent validity was verified, as the average variance extracted (AVE) was also 0.5 or above [77]. There was no reliability problem, as the distribution of Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.793 to 0.946 (see

Table 2. Validity and reliability of measures.

Construct	Standardized Loadings	t-Value	CCRa	AVEb	Cronbach’s Alpha
Sight			0.807	0.582	0.944
The colors of the coffee shop are pleasing to the eye.	0.791
The interior of the coffee shop is balanced.	0.772	17.667***
The interior decor of the coffee shop is appealing.	0.724	16.774***
Smell			0.840	0.636	0.946
The smell of the coffee shop fits the overall atmosphere of the coffee shop.	0.849
I like the smell of the coffee shop.	0.781	20.404***
The smell of the coffee shop soothes me.	0.760	19.822***
Sound			0.865	0.681	0.864
I like the music in the coffee shop.	0.847
The music playing at the coffee shop gives me pleasure.	0.836	22.475***
The volume of music in the coffee shop is appropriate.	0.792	21.324***
Taste			0.948	0.859	0.804
The food and drinks are delicious.	0.962
There are several types of food and drinks.	0.878	37.728***
The ingredients in the food and drinks are fresh.	0.938	46.839***
Touch			0.949	0.862	0.835
The coffee shop is clean.	0.955
The heating or air conditioning in the coffee shop is appropriate.	0.912	41.745***
The furniture in the coffee shop is comfortable.	0.917	42.564***
Pleasure			0.913	0.778	0.793
I feel satisfied by my visit to the coffee shop.	0.932
I feel happy when I visit the coffee shop.	0.923	35.628***
I feel pleasure when I visit the coffee shop.	0.783	26.006***
Arousal			0.853	0.660	0.853
I feel energetic when I visit the coffee shop.	0.837
I feel excited when I visit the coffee shop.	0.802	20.977***
I feel a sense of arousal when I visit the coffee shop.	0.797	20.848***
Dominance			0.804	0.577	0.802
I feel confident in the coffee shop.	0.726
I can act as I wish in the coffee shop.	0.783	16.025***
I am intimated by the atmosphere of the coffee shop.	0.769	15.912***
Flow			0.949	0.860	0.945
I forget about the outside world when I am in the coffee shop.	0.954
It feels as if time flies when I am in the coffee shop.	0.885	38.009***
I feel oblivious to the flow of time when I am in the coffee shop.	0.942	46.241***
Behavioral Intention
I will continue to visit the coffee shop.	0.879		0.884	0.718	0.881
I am inclined to visit the coffee shop repeatedly.	0.770	22.490***
I will revisit the coffee shop.	0.888	26.936***
I will recommend the coffee shop to my acquaintances.	0.921		0.927	0.809	0.925
I will actively talk about the positive features of the coffee shop to my acquaintances.	0.841	30.093***
I will share the positive features of the coffee shop to my acquaintances.	0.933	37.456***

Notes: χ²/df = 2.261, p < 0.001; goodness-of-fit (GFI) = 0.909; Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.956; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.963; incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.963; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.046; composite construct reliability (^aCCR); average variance extracted (^bAVE); *** p < 0.001.

).

The means, correlation coefficients, AVEs, and the square of the correlations of the 11 constructs used in this study are shown in

Table 3. Correlations and discriminant validity.

	Construct	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Mean	SD
1	Sight	0.58a	0.41c	0.18	0.17	0.20	0.10	0.07	0.05	0.02	0.11	0.03	3.55	0.64
2	Smell	0.64b**	0.63	0.29	0.16	0.23	0.07	0.07	0.05	0.02	0.09	0.08	3.50	0.64
3	Sound	0.42**	0.54**	0.68	0.08	0.16	0.04	0.07	0.08	0.02	0.08	0.07	3.33	0.65
4	Taste	0.41**	0.40**	0.29**	0.85	0.20	0.10	0.06	0.07	0.03	0.11	0.07	3.48	0.64
5	Touch	0.44**	0.48**	0.40**	0.44**	0.86	0.10	0.09	0.04	0.04	0.08	0.04	3.62	0.65
6	Dominance	0.31**	0.28**	0.22**	0.31**	0.31**	0.57	0.16	0.06	0.01	0.18	0.05	3.67	0.57
7	Pleasure	0.28**	0.28**	0.27**	0.26**	0.31**	0.40**	0.77	0.22	0.17	0.10	0.30	3.83	0.52
8	Arousal	0.24**	0.24**	0.29**	0.27**	0.20**	0.25**	0.47**	0.66	0.07	0.17	0.10	3.11	0.74
9	Flow	0.16**	0.16**	0.17**	0.18**	0.22**	0.13**	0.41**	0.27**	0.86	0.08	0.13	3.26	0.78
10	Re-visit	0.34**	0.31**	0.28**	0.33**	0.29**	0.42**	0.32**	0.42**	0.29**	0.71	0.23	4.06	0.60
11	Recommen-dation	0.18**	0.29**	0.26**	0.27**	0.20**	0.24**	0.55**	0.38**	0.37**	0.48**	0.80	3.34	0.83

Notes: ^aDiagonal elements (in bold) are the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE); ^boff-diagonal elements are the correlations among constructs, **p < 0.01; ^c off-diagonal elements are the square of correlations.

[77]. The results of the analysis confirmed the validity of the study’s hypotheses, as all values of the AVE were greater than all values of the square of the correlations.

4.2. Hypotheses Testing

This study used a structural equation model analysis (SEM) to verify its hypotheses. The results showed that there is satisfactory model fit, with χ²/df = 2.329, p < 0.001; GFI = 0.901; TLI = 0.953; CFI = 0.959; RMSEA = 0.047. Figure 2 shows the standardized coefficients and denotes the verification of the hypotheses.

It was shown that “sight” had a positive effect on dominance (β = 0.145, p < 0.05), but had insignificant effect on pleasure and arousal. Thus, Hypothesis 1 was only partially verified. As “smell” did not have significant effects on any of the three PAD emotions, Hypothesis 2 was not supported. “Sound” had a positive effect on arousal (β = 0.164, p < 0.01) but did not have significant effects on pleasure and dominance. Thus, Hypothesis 3 was partially verified. As “taste” had positive effects on dominance (β = 0.164, p < 0.01) and arousal (β = 0.106, p < 0.05), it did not have a significant effect on pleasure. Hence, Hypothesis 4 was also partially verified. As “touch” had positive effects on dominance (β = 0.159, p < 0.01) and pleasure (β = 0.113, p < 0.05), it did not have significant effects on arousal. Hypothesis 5 was partially verified.

Dominance had a positive effect on arousal (β = 0.136, p < 0.01); dominance had a positive effect on pleasure (β = 0.268, p < 0.001); arousal had a positive effect on pleasure (β = 0.350, p < 0.001). Thus, Hypotheses 6, 7 and 8 were verified.

Pleasure had a positive effect on flow (β = 0.276, p < 0.001); pleasure had a positive effect on behavioral intentions (β = 0.474, p < 0.001). Therefore, Hypotheses 9 and 10 were verified. Finally, flow had a positive effect on behavioral intentions (β = 0.298, p < 0.001), hypothesis 11 was also verified.

The results of the moderating effects of usage motivations are shown in

Table 4. Moderating effects of usage motivations.

Structural Relationship		Hedonic (N = 415)		Utilitarian (N = 193)		Free	Constrained	△χ2	Results
		$\mathsf{\beta }$	t-value	$\mathsf{\beta }$	t-value	χ2(df=916)	χ2(df=917)
H1a	Sight→Dominance	0.223	2.451*	0.044	0.388	1694.402	1696.225	1.823	Rejected
H1b	Sight→Pleasure	−0.028	−0.364	0.072	0.782	1694.402	1695.068	0.666	Rejected
H1c	Sight→Arousal	0.106	1.235	0.094	0.973	1694.402	1694.413	0.011	Rejected
H2a	Smell→Dominance	0.071	0.767	−0.077	−0.593	1694.402	1695.245	0.843	Rejected
H2b	Smell→Pleasure	0.065	0.830	−0.032	−0.294	1694.402	1694.943	0.541	Rejected
H2c	Smell→Arousal	0.020	0.230	−0.243	−2.168*	1694.402	1697.450	3.048	Rejected
H3a	Sound→Dominance	0.026	0.384	0.029	0.278	1694.402	1694.402	0	Rejected
H3b	Sound→Pleasure	0.068	1.153	0.023	0.261	1694.402	1694.595	0.193	Rejected
H3c	Sound→Arousal	0.146	2.248*	0.277	3.008**	1694.402	1695.796	1.394	Rejected
H4a	Taste→Dominance	0.111	1.761	0.205	2.263*	1694.402	1695.176	0.774	Rejected
H4b	Taste→Pleasure	0.053	0.980	−0.069	−0.924	1694.402	1696.090	1.688	Rejected
H4c	Taste→Arousal	0.130	2.175*	0.117	1.498	1694.402	1694.404	0.002	Rejected
H5a	Touch→Dominance	0.154	2.463*	0.229	2.196*	1694.402	1694.730	0.328	Rejected
H5b	Touch→Pleasure	0.015	0.278	0.289	3.348***	1694.402	1701.987	7.585	Supported
H5c	Touch→Arousal	−0.025	−0.425	0.174	1.922	1694.402	1697.852	3.45	Rejected
H6	Dominance→Arousal	0.165	2.611**	0.012	0.151	1694.402	1696.370	1.968	Rejected
H7	Dominance→Pleasure	0.329	5.476***	0.182	2.473*	1694.402	1696.244	1.842	Rejected
H8	Arousal→Pleasure	0.310	5.722***	0.396	5.412***	1694.402	1695.006	0.604	Rejected
H9	Pleasure→Flow	0.192	3.730***	0.431	6.124***	1694.402	1701.560	7.158	Supported
H10	Pleasure→Behavioral Intention	0.480	7.108***	0.473	5.004***	1694.402	1694.707	0.305	Rejected
H11	Flow→Behavioral Intention	0.321	5.090***	0.266	3.011**	1694.402	1694.403	0.001	Rejected

Notes: ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05.

. The multi-group analysis revealed significant moderating effects on the relationships between the sensory marketing factor of “touch” and pleasure and also between pleasure and flow, both according to the hedonic usage motivation (drinking coffee, hanging out, and taking a break) and the utilitarian usage motivation (studying, meetings, and taking care of business). Although “touch” did not have a significant effect on pleasure (β = 0.015, p > 0.05) with hedonic usage motivation, the effect was significant with utilitarian usage motivation (β = 0.289, p < 0.001). In addition, it was shown that pleasure had a positive effect on flow for both hedonic and utilitarian motivations, the comparison of the standardized coefficients showed that utilitarian usage motivation (β = 0.432, p < 0.001) had a significantly greater moderating effect on the relationship between pleasure and flow pleasure compared to hedonic usage motivation (β = 0.192, p < 0.001). Therefore, Hypothesis 12 was partially verified.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

Many scholars have paid much attention to identifying effective and efficient marketing strategies to improve customers’ behavioral intentions because consumers’ satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions can be critical resources in achieving business sustainability [78,79]. Accordingly, researchers began to focus on sensory marketing because the five sensory factors are considered the basic components in the formation of customers’ shopping-related feelings and experiences, which further determine their future consumption behaviors [15,17]. This present study verified whether coffee shops’ sensory marketing factors could possibly enhance customers’ behavioral intentions through more positive emotions. The findings of this study indicate that although the coffee shop industry is currently facing a saturated market situation, effective sensory marketing could be used as a strategy to attract more customers. For the sustainability of the coffee shop industry, customers’ positive intentions to revisit and recommend coffee shops could be the most important factor. Based on the present findings, this study provides several important theoretical and practical implications to support future studies in examining more effective sensory marketing strategies to make the coffee shop industry sustainable. These implications are as follows.

5.1. Theoretical Implications

This study investigated the relationships among coffee shops’ five sensory marketing factors, the PAD emotions of customers, flow, and behavioral intentions to assist in ensuring sustainability of the coffee shop market in Korea. The moderating effects of usage motivations were also analyzed. The results suggest the following theoretical implications.

First, this study identified the relative importance of the five sensory factors in coffee shop marketing. “Taste,” “sight,” and “touch” had significant effects on customers’ emotions, dominance, and only “touch” had a significant effect on pleasure, and “sound” and “taste” had significant effects on arousal. “Smell” did not have a significant effect on any of the PAD emotions. Although the importance and effects of each of the senses may vary depending on the location or industry, this study provided a new theoretical base related to the five sensory factors that coffee shops should emphasize in sensory marketing.

Second, prior studies regarding the impact of customer emotions on the food service industry focused only on pleasure and not on the other two PAD emotions, or they focused only on positive or negative emotions in general. However, this study focused more intensely on the recent increase in the number of consumers who visit coffee shops to study or take care of business. Therefore, this study considered the three PAD emotions as well as flow, something that had been rarely studied in the context of coffee shop consumers. This approach can provide a new theoretical basis for related future studies by analyzing the relationship between the emotions of customers in modern society and flow.

Third, this study, by verifying the relationships among the PAD emotions, provided a new model that focuses on the theory that the complex emotions of humans are not independent, but can only be understood through their relationships. While the existing literature has analyzed only one or two types of consumer emotions (pleasure or pleasure and arousal), this study examined the complete range of the PAD emotions, including dominance. The results confirmed the importance of dominance in sensory marketing: feelings of dominance by coffee shop customers had positive effects on pleasure and arousal. This study’s new suggested approach is expected to be useful for future in-depth investigations for relevant issues.

Lastly, this study identified significant differences in the verified relationships among sensory factors according to usage motivation types (hedonic vs. utilitarian usage). Although the relationship between the sensory marketing factor of “touch” and pleasure was not significant for the hedonic usage motivation, it was shown that touch was significantly more positive and led to an increase in pleasure among study respondents with the utilitarian usage motivation. Significant effects of pleasure and flow were observed in respondents with both hedonic and utilitarian usage motivation; respondents with utilitarian usage motivation had a stronger connection to flow from pleasure than those with hedonic usage motivation. These results are in line with the prior literature that suggests significant differences in consumption behavior and future behavioral intention based on usage motivations. This study verified significant differences in customers’ experiential factors related to the senses, emotions, and flow depending on their usage motivations. Based on the study’ findings, a fundamental and more complete basis of knowledge about sensory marketing for related studies in the future has been provided.

5.2. Practical Implications

This study was designed to examine effective sensory marketing strategies for the coffee shop industry. Based on the findings, practical implications that can help establish strategies for sustainable growth in the saturated coffee shop industry are provided.

Music as a sensory marketing factor of “sound” played in coffee shops was shown to increase the emotion of arousal, filling customers with energy and spirit. Although it is known that coffee shops play music according to the season, the results of this study demonstrated the need for professional selection of music that considers the brand concept, recent trends, season, weather, and the time period. For example, Starbucks acquired a record label company in 1999 in order to provide music streaming services; the company’s U.S. headquarters produces CDs of songs that are selected according to the season and the time period and distributes them to Starbucks outlets all over the world [80]. There has been an increase in the number of loyal fans who listen to Starbucks music in their own offices or homes as a result of this professional music selection.

Based on evidence that the sensory marketing factor of “taste” increases feelings of dominance and pleasure in customers, efforts should be made to develop various food and drink options, maintain the freshness of ingredients, and ensure that food and drinks are delicious. As coffee shops are part of the food service industry, the taste factor cannot be overlooked; there should be concerted efforts to accommodate rapidly changing consumer preferences. Implementing policies that provide performance-related pay or creating education programs or evaluation measures to improve the techniques or skills of baristas and chefs may provide a positive stimulus for coffee shops.

Similarly, based on the result that the sensory marketing factor of “sight” positively affects customers’ feelings of dominance, coffee shop managers should focus on creating interior decor that promotes a harmonious atmosphere within the shop space. The interior atmosphere should match the brand concept, and coffee shops should strive to become a multi-purpose resting area. As today’s consumers are extremely sensitive to new trends and are influenced by sensory factors, coffee shop managers should endeavor to provide a new and comfortable atmosphere by focusing on freshening up or renovating the coffee shop space seasonally or at regular intervals.

There should always be an appropriate degree of heating or air conditioning in a coffee shop, based on evidence that “touch” as a sensory marketing factor positively affects the feelings of dominance and pleasure. As there are an increasing number of consumers who experience physical effects and discomfort due to the murky air from fine dust, coffee shop managers should equip coffee shops with air-purification systems. Providing comfortable furniture and tableware will also appeal to customers’ sense of touch.

This study verified the relationships among the PAD emotions. The feeling of dominance that can be achieved through a sense of “my own place,” “my table,” and “my space,” despite a coffee shop’s small size, can positively affect feelings of arousal and pleasure; the results of this study demonstrate the importance of the feeling of dominance, in particular. Therefore, coffee shop managers should provide individual seats, increasing the number of tables or seats for solo customers, so that customers feel a sense of dominance within their private spaces; expand the space between tables or seats; and/or reshuffle seating configurations in order to satisfy as many of the various customer preferences as possible.

It was shown that coffee shop customers experience flow through a feeling of pleasure. They create pleasure via various sensory stimuli experienced while visiting coffee shops, such as interior decor, music, delicious food and drinks, cool and comfortable atmosphere, and comfortable furniture. These feelings ultimately lead to flow, which makes customers feel indifferent about passing time. As flow leads to positive behavioral intentions, coffee shop managers should continuously develop new and varied sustainable sensory stimuli so that customers can always feel pleasure when visiting coffee shops.

Finally, a moderating effect was observed according to whether usage motivations were hedonic or utilitarian. In regard to the relationship between “touch” and pleasure, although there was no statistically significant relationship with the hedonic usage motivation, “touch” had a positive effect on pleasure for study participants with the utilitarian usage motivation. This result suggests that coffee shop customers with the utilitarian usage motivation react more sensitively to the sensory marketing factor of “touch.” Coffee shop managers should concentrate on providing pleasant and comfortable seating configurations to customers with a high level of utilitarian motivations (i.e., taking care of business, studying, or having meetings). This study found another significant moderating effect on the relationship between pleasure and flow. Although it was shown that pleasure increases flow for both types of usage motivation, it had a slightly stronger effect on flow for coffee shop consumers with utilitarian usage motivations. Therefore, developing sensory stimulating factors so that all customers feel pleasure visiting coffee shops is key, as customer pleasure can increase behavioral intentions.

6. Limitations and Future Research

This study has various academic and practical implications. However, there are limitations to the study, and some underexplored areas remain for future research.

First, this study was based on customers of six coffee shop franchises in Korea. For more reliable and generalized results, an analysis of data from customers from a wider variety of coffee shop franchises and from different regions is needed.

Second, this study was based on an online survey completed by people living in Korea aged 20 and older. They were asked to respond to the survey based on their memories of coffee shop experiences over the past three months. These surveys relying on memory are useful, as coffee shops are locations people visit frequently, even on a daily basis. However, it may be a limitation of this study that the on-site interview survey was not conducted and completed within coffee shops. Future studies should address this concern.

Lastly, sensory marketing, which stimulates the human senses, is related to everyday activities and connects to all consumption activities. However, this study limited its scope to coffee shops. As there will be different results from sensory stimulus and different marketing implications depending on the field or subject of the study, future studies should expand the research on sensory marketing by applying more various strategies across different industries or fields.