A study on the impact of atmospheric stimuli on store patronage behavior: A case of Tous les Jours bakery in Ho Chi Minh city
Abstract
In recent years, Vietnamese market has witnessed a significant development
of retail sector. Particularly, in baking industry, many local and foreign brands have
helped create a colorful market in several big cities such as Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and
Danang. Moreover, by understanding the fact that young Vietnamese people love to
drink coffee, a new trend has occurred and still been successful: the bakery-café
model which originates from foreign bakery chains. In order to attract target
customers and to survive in this hard battle, local and foreign bakery stores not only
offer fresh products but also improve store images by different techniques. Therefore,
when customer forms good impression of the store image, their patronage behavior
will be influenced.
There are many elements in the store that affect customer shopping
experience and their patronage. The current study, thus, is conducted in order to
explore impact of store atmospherics on consumer patronage in the context of bakery
store, particularly with the Tous Les Jours store chains in Ho Chi Minh City, which
pioneered for the bakery-café model. Also, the study wants to find suggestion to
enhance the store environment of Tous Les Jours to increase customers‟ awareness.
The study was conducted by both quantitative method with 294 respondents
from online survey and paper survey and qualitative method with two in-depth
interviews. For quantitative method, descriptive statistic, reliability test, factor
analysis, multi-regression and one-way ANOVA were applied to analyze variables,
hypothesis and research model. The final result comes up with influence on store
patronage from three cues which are scent, layout and employee. For qualitative
method, answers from two experts help give some insights and are used to make
recommendations.
In spite of some limitations of this study, the findings and recommendations
can be considered in order to understand influence of atmospheric stimuli on store
patronage behavior in bakery-café chain.