New Research
More green in shopping malls means less green in your pocket
Archived article from Apr 24, 2006
By Michael Sepanic
Think about those trees and flowers decorating the communal areas at most malls you visit. In addition to providing pleasing eye candy to shoppers walking between stores, it’s all part of a strategy whereby retailers seek to use the green of interior decor to get more green – money – from their customers.
Retailers should beware the lure of green, though: Cultural differences among customers may lead to different reactions to specific color schemes. Recent research by marketing scholars at Rutgers-Camden and HEC-Montreal suggests that decor at a mall, especially involving color schemes, plays a critical role in determining shoppers’ perceptions of quality, not only of the mall itself, but also of the products sold there.
A study by Maureen Morrin, an associate professor of marketing at the School of Business-Camden, and Jean-Charles Chebat, professor of marketing and chair of retailing at HEC-Montreal, also finds that different subcultures do not perceive quality in the same way. For instance, French-Canadians had higher perceptions of product quality when the mall decor consisted of a warm color scheme; Anglo-Canadians found higher quality when the decor consisted of a cool color scheme.
“There has been surprisingly little research conducted on cross-cultural issues in atmospherics,” Morrin says. “We were very fortunate to work with a cooperative mall owner who allowed us to systematically manipulate their interior color schemes.”
Thanks to the support of the Canadian mall, the researchers were able to control the shopping center’s environment. While drastic changes such as painting the walls or replacing floor tiles would not have been feasible, the researchers were able to alter the decor primarily using plants and flowers that were easily placed and removed in the mall setting.
For the cool color decor – traditionally defined as blues and greens – a large number of scentless green trees and plants were brought into the communal areas of the mall. For the warm color decor, the plants and trees were removed and replaced with scentless yellow and red flowers and drapes.
The study involved 587 shoppers at a large shopping center in the province of Quebec, which allowed the researchers to assess the impact of decor on both French and Anglo-Canadian mall patrons.
Return to the Apr 24, 2006 issue
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