Warm Ambient Scents Nudge Consumers to Favour Premium Brands and Right-Wing Parties

Abstract

Marketing has started exploring ambient scents’ diverse effects and the psychological mechanisms through which they affect consumer behaviour. Recent research focuses on ambient scents’ perceived temperature’s impact on consumer behaviour. In this research, we first replicate prior research by showing that consumers exposed to a warm (vs. cool) ambient scent prefer premium over regular brands – also in an FMCG context. Broadening the perspective, we show that ambient scent’s effect can be generalized to general elections. Specifically, we present initial evidence that the diffusion of a warm (vs. cool) ambient scent nudges potential voters to opt for right-wing instead of moderate political parties. We conjecture that the effect of perceived scent temperature on brand preferences and voting behaviour is a symbolic way of compensating for temperature perceptions.