Download Atmospherics: Manipulating Consumer Behavior through Space and Senses - Prof. Roger Stahl and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! Atmospherics 3/8/11 Review: Food/Space Food as a symbolic experience McDonald's as a case study ◦ intangibles Food and alienation Fantasies of Lived Space Suburbanization & new urbanization Celebration, FL as case study The mall as extension/controlled environment ◦ no free speech Rushkoff: Atmospherics Rushkoff: Atmospherics study of how to control movements in space how can you use every resource available to get to people from the moment they step into your environment “Coercive environments” ◦ make bodies conform to environment ◦ operate on subconscious level = coercive First the medieval church, now consumer “churches” ◦ stairways that lead to nowhere ◦ puts a sense of fear and awe into people to know that power can only be accessed through the priest ◦ designed to project an physiological response of awe – tall church towers ◦ generate a sense of awe for the institution The “art of consumption” ◦ encoded and embedded within consumer environments Display windows ◦ came when stores had lots of new products ◦ get to gaze at something that you can't touch ▪ creates desire within consumer ◦ too much stuff, not enough bought Theme stores in post-WWII suburbia ◦ experiment with this technique ◦ start from scratch Environments created from ground up Mass scale consumer environment: the mall ◦ perfect consuming environment Fueled by big-budget research Culmination in the mall Study of Atmospherics 1970s – belief in 100% controlled environment Science, behaviorist model, unconscious ◦ stimulus, organism, response ◦ motivating/training people to buy as a science Manufacturing an emotional buying experience Sensory cues to guide behavior Getting lost – hexagonal floor plans, floor surfaces, anchor stores ◦ if you wander more, trying to find your way out, you are likely to buy more ◦ tile floor – women hearing their heels click on the floor makes them feel more powerful, and more likely to buy more ◦ people prefer soft surfaces inside stores ◦ when you go to the mall, you go for something at the anchor store, but then you have to walk the entire mall to get to the other anchor store No time cues: windows, clocks The “Gruen Transfer” ◦ at some point your legs become rubber, and you just walk towards anything shiny or attractive in the stores ◦ transition from someone who knows why they're there & where they're going to someone who is lost, not sure what they want to buy, and is an impulsive buyer Studying and maximizing existing patterns ◦ idea used to be ◦ started approaching problem from another perspective: put up a bunch of ___, study existing patterns in malls, and build a consumer environment that fits around those patterns Atmospherics and the Senses Use of casino techniques Sight: ◦ mannequins ▪ seems like more people are around ◦ revolving doors ▪ we are attracted to them – want to move them ◦ extravagance ◦ colors Mediated but not necessarily symbolic Tensions between control and resistance more pronounced (and mobile)
