Utopian Nature and Store Design

Take a look at the following images and ask yourself how do they make you feel?

It seems as if you would enjoy living in some of those cities but not others? If so, why? Can you pin down the specific features that make some of the cities attractive to you? Possibly, you can, and even though many of us share the belief that people’s tastes are unique, varied and, to a great extent, unpredictable, it is likely most of us would end up picking the same cities and providing the same reasons for our choices (by the way, do yourself a favor and go back to the images, or click on the links provided, this time without any questions in mind; the artworks are amazing, appreciate them).

Actually, the first and third cities are dystopian scenarios while the city in the middle is a utopian one. As you can see, all of those works of art were borrowed from DeviantArt, and if you do a search of one of these terms you’ll see that the results you get are similar to the ones here presented. Is there then a recipe to do a utopian or dystopian drawing or painting? Maybe. Something very obvious that characterizes most dystopian cities is the absence of vegetation. Utopian cities, on the other hand, are, almost invariably, well-integrated with nature. Why? The answer to this can be found in something called the Biophilia Hypothesis, according to which “humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life.” (Rogers, 2019). This tendency is the result of our evolution in natural environments that were a direct source of food and shelter for our ancestors for millions of years.

Our attraction to nature goes beyond a mere liking. In The Nature Fix, author Florence Williams expands on the biophilia hypothesis, presenting the latest science on the many benefits of exposure to nature. It turns out that spending time outdoors (something that, unfortunately, we, as a species, do less and less) is good for our health (both, physical and mental), our relationships, or our creativity (among others). As Williams put it “nature […] is good for civilization”. In contemporary society, we have been slowly catching up with the news, as it is reflected in the architecture of countries like Singapore (an approach referred to as “biophilic design”), or in therapeutic practices such as the Japanese shinrin yoku, or “forest bathing”, employed to counter illnesses such as cancer, depression or anxiety.

(Perhaps, there is an inverse relationship between year and time spent outdoors with nature, so that the more we move farther away from the present, the more time people spent with nature. Nature’s appreciation seems to have a long history in the Western world, although this is apparently a debated issue, as literary references are scarce. However, here is the opinion of classical scholar Gilbert Murray: “It is true that there is little description of scenery in the literature of the ancient Greeks. They did not describe forests and mountains; they worshipped them and built temples in them. Their love for nature was that of the mountaineer and seaman, who does not talk much about sea or mountain, but sickens and pines if he is taken away from them. And even the literature, if free from actual descriptions of scenery, is full of flowers and garlands, and shot through by the light of the stars and moon-things that we have superseded and seldom see, but that were familiar if half-divine companions to every Greek.” (Murray in Hyde, 1915, p. 76). The contemporary trends just mentioned (e.g. shinrin yoku or biophilic design) could then be the product of a renewed interest in something we have appreciated for centuries but have been losing in the last decades due to things such as increased urbanization).

Now, what is the relationship between marketing and the biophilia hypothesis? To start with, it is important to remember that consumer behavior is susceptible to environmental cues, even to those we are not aware have an impact on our behavior, as it was mentioned in previous posts. Furthermore, environmental elements we evolve to care about have been found to have an influence in the behavior of consumers. For instance, some studies have found that ads displaying hourglass figures are more effective than similar ads not displaying them, or that the amount of money spent on a gift is directly related to the portion of genes someone else shares with us (i.e. the more related someone is to us, the more money we spend on a gift for her) (Saad, 2017). In fact, there’s a whole new marketing field that tries to apply evolutionary insights to understand and modify consumer behavior: evolutionary consumer behavior. (Saad, 2015). In this sense, it is natural to expect a relationship between our love for nature and consumer behavior. And that’s exactly what research has discovered.

Among other things, the biophilia hypothesis has served to inform “atmospherics”, a term coined by Philip Kotler (1973) to refer to the interior and exterior design of stores “to create specific feelings in shoppers that can have an important cuing or reinforcing effect on purchase” (p. 49) (though in this seminal paper Kotler dismisses the possibility of a design based on the natural environment). Many people have visited a shopping mall such as the one in the picture below, which includes natural features -greenery, water, or sunlight – that research has shown lead to increased sales and higher spending (Wolf, 2005).   

 

Things related to behavior are not simple though. I doubt biophilic design is a one-size-fits-all strategy. For instance, I would be surprised to find out the approach works for a brand such as Harley Davidson; the personality of this brand doesn’t match biophilic design (at least, that’s how I see it). Some recent studies have been done which suggest that biophilic atmospherics should vary depending on things such as the product, the amount of thinking that usually goes into buying it or gender demographics. For instance, according to the prospect refuge/theory, humans prefer landscapes that offer prospect and refuge opportunities, where:

““Prospect” refers to those landscape elements and configurations that enable the (human) individual to overview the environment in an unimpeded manner, allowing it, e.g., to anticipate possible predators and threats from out-group conspecifics or to look out for resource opportunities (e.g., a water hole). “Refuge” refers to places or landscape configurations where one can hide, rest, or find protection from meteorological conditions or predators.” (Joye et al., 2011, p. 291)

Joye et al. (2011) suggest that high involvement decisions (e.g. buying a car) can probably be favored by a store design that includes refuge-like spaces. Similarly, as men follow a more practical approach when buying and do not engage in a lot of comparisons (this probably answers to their role as hunters during human evolution), a prospect design can favor a practical approach to purchasing, as this design would allow men to quickly locate what they’re looking for and minimize their store exploration time (though most marketers might want to stick to the intuitive idea that the more time someone spends in a store, the more likely it is she will buy). Our love of nature and the evolutionary understanding of it can then be a promising ground that marketers can explore to guide them in the test-retest game they are so used to play. By taking much of the guesswork out of the marketing strategizing, it can save companies thousands of dollars and boost their profits. It is crucial, however, to have a critical eye and carefully assess how and to what extent evolutionary insights can be employed.

(A question I am curious about is whether nature can trigger aesthetic experiences of the same kind art does. Probably, it can, as we are regularly overwhelmed by nature’s beauty and it is then likely that emotions such as awe, closely associated with aesthetic experiences, follow. The fact that the subject of many artworks is nature also speaks in favor of this idea. On the other hand, it seems to me that our aesthetic appreciation, in many cases, implies the inference of a skillful, creative and intelligent designer, something that is absent for many of us when we look at nature. However, claiming that we can only enjoy a genuine aesthetic experience if we belief nature has been designed by a godly hand does not sound right to me…)      

References

Hyde, W. (1915) The Ancient Appreciation of Mountain Scenery. The Classical Journal , Nov., 1915, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov., 1915), pp. 70-84.

Joye, Y., Poels, K., & Willems, K. (2011). “Evolutionary store Atmospherics”–Designing with evolution in mind. In Evolutionary psychology in the business sciences (pp. 289-317). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Kotler, P. (1973). Atmospherics as a marketing tool. Journal of retailing, 49(4), 48-64.

Saad, Gad (2015), “Evolutionary Consumer Psychology,” in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, 2nd ed.,DavidM. Buss, ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1143–60.

Saad, G. (2017). On the method of evolutionary psychology and its applicability to consumer research. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(3), 464-477.

Rogers, K. (2019) Biophilia Hypothesis. Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: https://www.britannica.com/science/biophilia-hypothesis

Wolf, K.L. (2005). “Trees in the small city retail business district: comparing resident and visitor perceptions.” Journal of Forestry 103, 390–395.