The role of sensory marketing and brand experience in building emotional attachment and brand loyalty in luxury retail stores

Abstract Prior studies on the in‐store experience focus on the impact of store atmosphere. Sensory marketing and brand experience, on the other hand, have been found to be significant in providing a better consumer experience in recent studies. Thus, the goal of this paper is to broaden the scope of this study by examining the causal effect of sensory marketing cues and brand experience on emotional attachment, and subsequent brand loyalty in a luxury retail store setting. We also studied the moderating role of store image in the relationships. To this end, the three separate but related studies (Study 1, N = 409, Study 2, N = 294, Study 3, N = 139) were conducted. Study 1 shows that sensory marketing cues positively contribute to enhancing the luxury retail brand experiences. Both sensory marketing and brand experiences appeared promising in increasing emotional attachment and subsequent brand loyalty. Study 2 findings further suggest that sensory marketing cues and brand experience interact significantly with store image to improve consumers' emotional attachment with luxury brands. Study 3 replicated the pattern observed in Studies 1 and 2 and further suggested that consumers in the luxury store setting expressed stronger emotional attachment and brand loyalty than consumers in the nonluxury store environment.