The Examination of Psychophysiological Effects of Multisensory Imagery Marketing Strategy. A Triangulation in 3 Studies

Multisensory imagery marketing strategy has been extensively suggested to be one of the advertising strategies that can generate long-term brand awareness, brand image, and authentic experience in a highly competitive market condition. This dissertation explored the psychophysiological effects of multisensory imagery marketing strategy on consumers\u27 attitudes. Results from study 1 suggested that consumers’ masculine-feminine self-concept played an important role when evaluating multisensory imagery marketing messages. Specifically, consumers who exhibited a lower degree of masculine self-concept and those with feminine self-concept were likely to evaluate multisensory imagery marketing messages more positively than their higher masculine self-concept counterparts. We also found that multisensory imagery marketing cues offered consumers a greater ability to remember brand information since it facilitated consumers’ ability to create self-generated mental images and experiences. The results from study 2 offered new insight into the effects of multisensory imagery marketing strategy at the physiological level. By examining the electroencephalography power spectral analysis of theta, alpha, and beta frequency bands activated particularly in the prefrontal cortex, consumers tend to evaluate multisensory imagery marketing messages less cognitively than non- multisensory imagery marketing messages, leading to less prejudice, skepticism, and higher positive attitudes toward such messages. In the last study, we incorporated a laboratory animal research model (i.e., Monodelphis domestica) and the concept of environmental enrichment, which is an experimental animal model that enhances an animal’s opportunity to interact with sensory, motor, and social stimuli, compared to standard laboratory housing condition. The results demonstrate that the multisensory imagery marketing strategy affects the proliferation of postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95) expressions in the hippocampus area. Since PSD-95 plays an important role in synapse development and function and improves learning, cognition, memory, and decision-making, the increase of PSD-95 provides a neurological insight and explanation as to why consumers tend to remember brand information and exhibit a more positive attitude toward multisensory imagery marketing messages. Taken together, this dissertation is the first marketing research that expands upon the previous work on sensory and multisensory imagery marketing strategy and provides psychophysiological evidence supporting the effects of multisensory imagery marketing strategy on consumers’ attitudes