Search this site »

Green streets and green landscapes and consumer reponse in retail environments (5)

Posted by Southern Botanical, Inc. in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on Nov 10, 2008

There is a surprisingly consistent relationship between green streets and green landscapes and consumer response in retail environments.

Article Reference: Green Plants for Green Buildings

Submitted for the 2002 People/Plant Symposium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

By Kathleen L. Wolf, Ph.D., Center for Urban Horticulture

University of Washington

Discussion

Marketing studies have evaluated the role of "atmospherics" on consumer intentions and behavior, finding that indoor environmental elements such as music, product layout and lighting all contribute to a store image (Zimmer and Golden 1988) or retail environment. In turn, store image influences consumers' perceptions (Dodds et al. 1991). This combination of studies was an initial effort to understand atmospherics of the pedestrian-oriented retail streetscape and learn more about the indoors/outdoors interface and consumer response. The results reveal a surprisingly consistent relationship between green streets and green landscapes and consumer response in retail environments.

In terms of preferences, shoppers favor green trees and accessory vegetation that is well kept and orderly. The public appears not to distinguish different tree canopy configurations in their preference for green trees (though more study is needed, as this may be an instrument artifact). The presence of green trees has been favored in visual assessment studies of sites throughout the urban to wildland landscape gradient. An interesting outcome of this study is that inferences about many aspects of the shopping environment are made based on vegetation character.

Respondents interpret traits of the district beyond that revealed in the test images, including interaction with merchants, probable service levels and product quality. The array of judgments made about a setting may be explained by a concept derived from social psychology, “attribution theory.” Social perceivers assemble various bits of information, and mediated by perceiver dispositions, form impressions of other people they encounter. Leyens and Fiske, (1994) note that, "people continuously build impression theories and use them in their commerce with other people."

Diverse information about a person is integrated to form a coherent impression and guide decisions about how to interact with a person (Wyer and Lambert 1994). Observed traits are the indirect cues used to interpret feelings, personality, character and likely behaviors. Consequent information and experience will be used by the observer to confirm or modify the impression.

Rapid cognitive assessment of others provides a basis for inference and evaluation of new acquaintances. Built settings appear to evoke similar evaluative responses. Respondents’ open-ended descriptors of retail settings go beyond physical traits and include inferences about social and psychological interactions. Social psychological concepts of "social attribution" and "impression formation" readily translate to consumer/environment interactions.

Prior research on nature and city streets supports the finding that both evaluative appraisals (Nasar 1987) and affective response (Sheets and Manzer 1991) are enhanced by the presence of trees. Economists once proposed that purchase choices are driven by rational considerations such as the utility function of one product over another. Research of indoor settings has shown that shopping environments can evoke emotional responses in consumers and that such emotions, in turn, influence shopping behaviors and outcomes (Machleit and Eroglu 2000).

Another study examined how various characteristics of retail environments influence green consumer' emotional responses in the shopping environment, and how these emotions, in turn, influence consumers' store attitudes. Store characteristics have a pronounced effect on consumers' in-store emotions, and these emotional experiences serve as critical mediators in the store characteristics-store attitudes relationship (Yoo et al. 1998). Perceptual responses appear to be related to patronage behaviors and price acceptance thus having implications for business revenue. The patronage variables specify consumer behaviors that can potentially enlarge a customer base for districts having trees, thus generating additional revenues. For instance, greater travel distances were reported for the with-trees districts; an expanded trade area radius within dense urban populations suggests a larger customer pool. Also, higher reported prices for goods in business districts with trees (12% or more) is a substantial amenity margin given that retailers operate on a 1-2% profit margin.