“Multimodal Sensory Marketing” in retailing: the role of intra- and intermodality transductions

ABSTRACT The objective of this article is to show how sensory marketing can benefit from taking a multimodal and social semiotic perspective. For this purpose, the framework of “Multimodal Sensory Marketing” is suggested. Important pillars for the scaffolding of this framework are intra – and intermodality transductions. Based on the understanding of retail environments as spatial texts, this article distinguishes between store exterior texts, store interior texts, and customer texts (movements and interactions). The originality of this article resides in the demonstration of how retailers may choose and combine different sensory modes in their meaning making of theme-based retail texts. Intermodality transductions are of particular importance, since they increase the co-occurrence of sensory modes, the intensity of their interplay, and ultimately, may enhance favorable consumer behavior. Transductive links support such transduction processes. Managerial implications and directions for future research are provided.