Consumers often touch products before reaching purchase decisions, and indeed touch improves evaluations of the given product. The present research investigates how touching a given product influences perception and choice of other seen products. We show that grasping a source product increases the visual fluency of a haptically similar product, thereby increasing the likelihood of choosing that product, but not the willingness to pay for it (Study 1). We also show that visually crowded rather than sparse product displays increase the effect of touch on choosing other haptically similar products, and that individuals’ instrumental need for touch further modulates this effect (Study 2). Our results suggest that by manipulating or mimicking the haptic features (e.g., shape and size) of objects that consumers grasp while shopping, marketers can develop packaging that facilitates consumers’ visual processing of their products, thereby increasing choice of those products.

Consumption often requires flexing arms toward the body and merely inducing such activities has been shown to influence consumption. In three studies we show that the consumption effects from lateral arm movements arise from the fit between cognitions and motor activity. When a shopping situation conceptualizes product acquisition as movement away from the body the effects from priming arm flexion and extension are reversed. The findings prefer an ideomotor compatibility account rather than suggesting hardwired and unmalleable association between arm posture and consumption. The implications of these results for ideomotor research and management practice are discussed.

Consumers often touch products, and such haptic exploration can improve consumers' evaluations of the product. We tested whether cross-modal priming might contribute to this effect. Under the guise of a weight judgment task, which served as a haptic prime, we had blindfolded participants grasp familiar products (e.g., a Coca Cola bottle). We then had participants visually identify the brand name as quickly as possible (Experiments 1 and 2), list the first beverage brands that come to mind (Experiment 3), or choose between beverage brands as reward for participation (Experiment 4). Haptic exposure facilitated visual recognition of the given brand and increased participants' consideration and choice of that brand. Moreover, this haptic priming was brand specific and occurred even among participants who did not consciously identify the prime brand. These results demonstrate that haptic brand identities can facilitate recognition, consideration, and brand choice, regardless of consumers' conscious awareness of this haptic priming.