The influence of thematic product displays on consumers : An elaboration-based account

Marketers commonly adopt a theme to unify their design of an environment in which their products are displayed. A thematic display environment can be congruent with or unrelated to the concept of a product on display. The elaboration likelihood model and the knowledge activation literature suggest that conceptual congruence between the thematic display context and the product could affect product evaluation by a cue-based mechanism and an elaboration-based mechanism. First, the positive feeling associated with conceptual congruence serves as a peripheral cue, making product evaluation favorable. Second, the congruence provokes thoughts about the product’s attributes, and these attribute-related thoughts affect product evaluation. Whether the evaluation is dominated by the affective cue or attribute thoughts depends on the consumer’s shop-ping motivation (planned purchase vs. browsing), because the motivation affects the consumer’s elaboration likelihood. The results of three experiments support these propositions. The results indicated that under planned purchase motivation, the congruence effect on purchase intention through attribute-related thoughts was observed. In contrast, under browsing, the congruence effect on purchase intention was dominated by a direct positive effect that reflected the influence of the affective cue. Implications of the findings for visual merchandising are discussed.