The Causal Relationship of Sensory Marketing with Sensory Experience Satisfaction and Loyalty in Sport Consumers

The aim of the present study was to determine the casual relationship of sensory marketing with sensory experience satisfaction and loyalty of consumers of swimming pools in Tehran city. The research method was descriptive-correlation conducted as a survey. The population included all males and females who used swimming pools in Tehran city in 2014, and 385 subjects were selected as the sample by Cochran formula. The researcher-made questionnaire of sensory marketing, the questionnaire of sensory experience satisfaction by Bitner and Hubbert (1994) and the questionnaire of loyalty by Liu (2008) were used to collect data. For data analysis, Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used. Findings showed that among the five senses, sight and hearing senses had significant casual relationships with sensory experience satisfaction and loyalty of swimming pools consumers, but the sense of taste, touch and smell had no significant causal relationship. It was also found out that the sense of sight was the most important and taste was the least important. Therefore, it is essential to involve the senses of taste, touch and smell in order to have higher effect on consumer behavior.