Effects of visual servicescape aesthetics comprehension and appreciation on consumer experience

Among the many studies relating to servicescapes, the emphasis has mainly been on the effect of specific environmental attributes on customer perceptions, emotions and behaviors. Many servicescape studies have not included visual servicescape aesthetics and the overall significance that visual aesthetics hold for a particular consumer in his or her relationship with the servicescape. Yet, servicescape appearance represents the central channel for the formation of consumer product (e.g. servicescape) relationships. Limited studies have examined consumers' visual servicescape aesthetics comprehension and appreciation (VSACA) or consumers' relationship with a specific servicescape and how consumers evaluate a servicescape from a visual aesthetics perspective. This study aims to operationalize and measure VSACA and to examine the validity of a proposed comprehensive model that encompasses the direct effects of VSACA on perceived perceptual experience quality (PPEQ) pleasure and arousal; PPEQ, pleasure and arousal on satisfaction; satisfaction on willingness to pay more; and the mediation effects of PPEQ, pleasure and arousal on the relationship between VSACA and satisfaction.  This is an experimental design study with two treatments. Fictitious boutique hotel lobby and classic hotel lobby video clips were created with the appropriate manipulation of visual aesthetics attributes. A random sample of 600 individuals over the age of 18 was drawn from a nationwide (USA) list purchased from a third party commercial list service. After preliminary analysis, about 12 per cent were eliminated because of unusable responses or missing data. The data from 550 participants were used in the final analyses 218 males and 332 females. Participants were asked to view a video clip of a hotel lobby online. After viewing the video clip, subjects completed an online survey instrument. The hypothesized model was then tested using structural equation modeling.  Results of this study suggest that individuals' VSACA directly influences their PPEQ, pleasure and arousal. PPEQ and pleasure also directly influence satisfaction and indirectly mediate the relationship between VSACA and satisfaction. Finally, satisfaction directly affects willingness to pay more. Additional new findings are also discussed in the paper.  This study is limited by focusing primarily on the individuals' VSACA of a hotel lobby; non visual components were not considered as part of the VSACA construct. Results should, therefore, be generalized to other similar settings with caution. Future research can integrate both visual and non visual servicescape aesthetics comprehension and develop a new scale to measure them. Future research can also build on the support of the current proposed theoretical model by testing it in different service contexts and across different groups of participants.  This research provides evidence to hotel service providers that VSACA plays an important role in influencing consumers' emotions, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The results imply that understanding customers' simultaneous cognitive emotional processing of servicescape aesthetics is crucial. Hotel developers and managers can engage potential customers in the designing and planning of a servicescape by conducting focus group research prior to the actual implementation of the servicescape attributes and construction.  This study represents the first research to extend and investigate the concept of visual aesthetics comprehension in the context of the hotel lobby servicescape beyond just product goods. This study contributes to the services marketing literature by confirming the importance and powerful direct effects of VSACA on individuals' PPEQ, pleasure, arousal and willingness to pay more. Moreover, PPEQ and pleasure mediate the relationship between VSACA and overall satisfaction.