PurposeThe article seeks to enrich the body of research on store atmospherics by identifying how storefront window design impacts store entry decisions. An innovative multimodal design approach is presented, considering both visual and verbal constituents.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 draws on a corpus of high-end storefront windows to create a categorization regarding different levels of verbo-visual complexity. The survey in Study 2 (n = 234) serves two purposes: first, to confirm these levels of complexity and second, to investigate the relation between the complexity of window design and store entry decisions.FindingsStudy 2 confirms the order of complexity established in Study 1. The results reveal an inverted-U relationship between window complexity and store entry propensity. Windows of medium level of complexity produce shoppers' relatively highest store entry propensity.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that retailers would benefit from adopting verbo-visual window designs of medium complexity, as this combination optimizes the likeliness of consumers to enter stores.Originality/valueResearch on store atmospherics has until recently primarily focused on in-store cues. Studies on store windows remain vastly underrepresented in extant scholarship. The article not only fills this gap but also incorporates an original interdisciplinary angle on multimodality, which offers new methodological perspectives for research in retail and distribution scholarship.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the claim that artworks and corporate art collections contribute a qualitative dimension to corporate identity by satisfying aesthetic, social and cultural standards.
Design/methodology/approach
To explore the qualitative research purpose, the theoretical framework is supplemented with in-depth interview data from five European banks.
Findings
The findings show that corporate art achieves synergies between culture and capital, internal and external communication and thus offers significant opportunities for innovative marketing communication and identity-building strategies.
Practical implications
The paper provides insights into how the arts interface with branding-related innovations, assisting managers in long-term decisions on value-based branding and identity construction.
Social implications
Increased arts engagement by corporations creates new synergies between cultural institutions and corporations through partnerships and philanthropic initiatives.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper is twofold. It thematically explores the under-researched field of art in marketing scholarship. From a methodological point of view, the research design is multidisciplinary and thus delineates new avenues for marketing practice and scholarship.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.