IN CLEAR FOCUS: Jean-Éric Pelet, author of “Consumer Behaviour: Understanding Consumers in a Digital Landscape,” explores technology’s impact on consumer psychology and decision-making. Jean-Éric shares insights on website color psychology, sensory marketing, and China’s advanced digital ecosystem. He also discusses emerging technologies, such as voice commerce and AR, and previews his new biometric hospitality project, which adjusts environments based on guests’ physical and emotional states.

Episode Transcript

Adrian Tennant: Coming up in this episode of IN CLEAR FOCUS:

Jean-Éric Pelet: Technology doesn’t just change what we buy, it also changes how we think, feel, and behave. If you want to connect with consumers today, you need to understand the psychology behind digital choice.

Adrian Tennant: You’re listening to IN CLEAR FOCUS, fresh perspectives on marketing and advertising produced weekly by Bigeye, a strategy-led, full-service creative agency growing brands for clients globally. Hello, I’m your host, Adrian Tennant, Chief Strategy Officer. Thank you for joining us. Over the past three decades, the digital revolution has fundamentally transformed how consumers interact with brands and make purchasing decisions. From the early days of e-commerce in the mid-1990s to today’s immersive technologies like augmented reality and the metaverse, consumer behaviour continues to evolve in response to technological innovation. Understanding these shifts is crucial for businesses aiming to thrive in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. Our guest today is an expert in consumer behaviour and digital marketing. Jean-Éric Pellet is an associate professor at IAE Amiens in France, where he leads master’s level courses on consumer behaviour. He also teaches at several other institutions and has been a visiting professor in countries including England, Poland, Finland, Switzerland, Thailand, and China. His research focuses on mobile commerce, sensory marketing, and the impact of web design elements on consumer behaviour. His new book, published by Kogan Page, is “Consumer Behaviour: Understanding Consumers in a Digital Landscape,” which explores how digital environments influence consumer decision-making processes. To discuss some of the key ideas in his new book, I’m delighted that Jean-Éric is joining us today from Paris, France. Jean-Éric, welcome to IN CLEAR FOCUS. 

Jean-Éric Pelet: Thank you very much, Adrian. 

Adrian Tennant: Well, your new book examines how consumer behaviour has evolved as the world has shifted to digital technologies. So what inspired you to write it?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Basically, I’ve been studying digital behavior for many years, across Europe and Asia mainly, and I saw that consumer habits were changing fast. But many books didn’t reflect the reality of today’s digital world, so I wanted to write something up-to-date, practical, and global in order to help professionals and students really understand how technology changes the way we shop, think, and connect with brands.

Adrian Tennant: In the book, you discuss how technology has transformed the traditional marketing mix. Jean-Éric, could you explain ways digital innovations and social media have changed how brands interact with consumers?

Jean-Éric Pelet: As you have probably noticed it yourself, Adrian, they’ve changed everything. Today, the product is often digital, the place is everywhere, the price can change in real time, and the promotion is personalized for each of us. Also, consumers don’t just receive messages, they create them. That changes how brands need to act. Before, people made decisions more independently. Now, they ask their communities, on TikTok, Instagram, depending on where you are on the planet. Before this, they buy. So social media creates trends, influences identity, and makes people feel part of a group. Brands need to join the conversations instead of just broadcasting messages.

Adrian Tennant: You discuss the rise of voice commerce and AI-powered assistants in the book. I’m curious, how do you see these technologies shaping the future of consumer behaviour?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Simplicity is probably the key word. Voice makes shopping easie, but invisible. When you say, “Alexa, order wine,” you’re not choosing a brand. The assistant does it for you. That changes brand loyalty. So companies need to make sure their products are part of that ecosystem and think about how their brand sounds in a voice-driven world.

Adrian Tennant: And what role do you see emerging technologies like augmented reality and the metaverse playing in shaping future consumer behavior?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Augmented reality brings digital layers into the real world, helping people imagine products, test them, or learn more. In wine, for example, you can scan a label and see a virtual tasting, if I refer to Vivino. In my lectures, I use the metaverse, which is still evolving, but it can offer immersive brand stories and fun ways to connect, whether for e-commerce or e-learning purposes. That’s what I am trying to measure.

Adrian Tennant: You’ve researched the effects of website colours on consumer mood and buying intention. Jean-Éric, could you share some insights about how digital design elements influence consumer behaviour?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Yes, color plays a big role in how people feel and behave on e-commerce websites. So in our study, we found that both the hue, which is the actual color, and the brightness, how light or dark it is, can really affect mood, memory, and even the intention to buy. We ran a lab experiment with different versions of a music store website. Some colors made people feel more positive, others less. Surprisingly, we saw that when the colors created a strong contrast in between the foreground color and the background color, especially with darker backgrounds, people remembered the site better. But when people were in a slightly negative mood, they actually remembered more, but they were less likely to want to buy. So the emotional reaction caused by color can either help or hurt the buying decision, depending on the mood it creates. For designers and marketers, this means that color isn’t just about style, it directly impacts user behavior. Using chromatic, which means colourful contrast, but carefully balancing mood can really improve both memorability and sales.

Adrian Tennant: That’s absolutely fascinating. So, Jean-Éric, your work includes teaching consumer behaviour in China, which you visited just recently. How does consumer behaviour in China differ from what we see in Western markets?

Jean-Éric Pelet: In China, people use one app to do everything. To pay, chat, buy, rate, return, and this app is WeChat. Digital is faster, smoother, and more trusted. Live streaming, for example, and gamified shopping are very common over there. Because consumers are very open to new tech, including artificial intelligence and virtual influencers. Compared to the West, we are catching up, but with more concern for privacy, and I am thinking about the GDPR as an example.

Adrian Tennant: Could you share an example of a successful Chinese digital marketing strategy that you’ve encountered?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Yes. For example, I saw a wine brand in China using blockchain during my trip in December to show where each bottle came from, then selling NFTs linked to the vintage. Even if China has taken a strict stance against NFTs, non-fungible tokens, they are still using it by talking about state-controlled digital collectibles. This builds trust in between wine growers and consumers, and it gives something extra to collectors and shows how tradition and innovation can work together.

Adrian Tennant: When we were preparing for this podcast, you mentioned to me that you see China as a kind of prototype for how we might all live in the future. How so? 

Jean-Éric Pelet: First of all, I would like to say that it’s not about the passport giving you medals if you behave properly, and asking you to pay if you are not behaving properly. This is not what is of interest for me regarding China. I was more aware of the way they pay, for example, by using WeChat, using the QR code in order to scan and pay. Even if they don’t know how to calculate or speak, at least they do know how to ask for their money. That’s what I have experienced by visiting villages. So this is the first aspect that I find very interesting. If everyone is able to participate to this market, you are not leaving anyone in the backy of the room. Second, I was visiting the Lost City, for example, in Beijing. Everything was so simple because I had a little app, plus the equivalent of a bank card, that was easy to put in the app. And I used the same headphones I am using today. Each time I was in front of a building, I could listen to, in my language, the definition, the explanation of what I was observing. So at no time did I feel lost. In this beautiful place, that is the Lost City in Beijing. I find that extremely encouraging when anyone can enter, not the market at this time, but the cultural side of a country. That’s something I love, when people can access without reading the Bible or the Torah or the Quran. You don’t need to read anything, but you can access it easily. We used to call that design for all. It’s about accessibility, it’s about cross-culture, and it’s about getting access to anything without paying. Because you are just a human being, you are able to know with no payment.

Adrian Tennant: Of course, China has undergone a period of rapid growth, but it’s not been without its problems.

Jean-Éric Pelet: Basically, China, if you look at their pyramid of age, is getting old. And unfortunately, they will not have enough people to replace the previous generation. So they are building buildings and building, but they already know that nobody is going to live there apart from tourists or people from other countries turning up in China. So when I was leaving Ancho two weeks ago, before the airport, I was looking at the landscape full of very, very high buildings, which will never be leased, apparently, if demographics doesn’t change. Nobody is going to live in these beautiful buildings because there is not enough Chinese to live in nowadays. That’s their main problem.

Adrian Tennant: There’s also a city-based social classification system. Is that right?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Basically, when you are in China, there are five types of population. The first tier, city, means the four biggest cities with the most dense cities and the richest citizens. And then when you go down until the fifth level, you could find people who don’t speak very well in Chinese. I’m not talking about English at all. They don’t read Chinese or they don’t write Chinese. They are very poor and they live in the countryside. So this is the five tiers. So you have five different levels. First, very rich and very dense cities. They know what wine is, for example. And then second, third, fourth and fifth years where people can become an alphabet in a way.

Adrian Tennant: And you have an example that illustrates this, the generative AI tool DeepSeek.

Jean-Éric Pelet: It got born in Ancho, which is two hours away from Shanghai in the south. This town two years ago was in the second tier. And I just learned recently when I was living here two weeks ago that it became a town from the first tier. So as we can imagine, the artificial intelligence and all the different companies working around this topic are helping the city to get richer in order to attain an higher level, which is the first tier.

Adrian Tennant: But even people who live in the lowest-tier cities are still using mobile devices.

Jean-Éric Pelet: That’s what I have been amazed with. When I was visiting Kun Ming, which is in the southeast, in the Muslim part of China, I have experienced a Muslim first, which means before crossing the road, you need to get rid of your shoes and take your shoes and socks in your hand, because there will be 50 centimeters of water to cross the street. We used a coach to visit the White Mountains, and before attaining the top of these White Mountains, we were able to buy some fruits close to a little shop. The people I was laughing with because we didn’t talk had two QR codes one for Alibaba and one for Tencent which means if you want to buy my fruit just scan these two QR codes with your mobile and with your WeChat account which I did and we didn’t have any word as an exchange only some laugh and these two QR codes. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? That’s the business in China. I prefer to laugh without arguments. The exact price is not calculated neither by him or me, but simply by the apps. And that’s about it. I was pleased to eat these fruits. I was pleased to have this, not conversation, but exchange with these, could we say, and everything was fine.

Adrian Tennant: Let’s take a short break. We’ll be right back after this message.

Jean-Éric Pelet: Hello. I am Jean-Éric Pelet, author of “Consumer Behaviour: Understanding Consumers in a Digital Landscape,” published by Kogan Page.  My book explores how digital environments transform consumer decision-making processes and brand interactions, drawing from my extensive research in how technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and blockchain reshape how we shop and engage with brands.  Whether you are a marketing professional, business student, or brand manager, this book will help you understand the psychological and social dynamics driving consumer behavior in our digital world. You will learn about emerging trends in social commerce, voice technology, and ethical marketing with practical insights and international case studies to guide your strategic decisions.  As an IN CLEAR FOCUS listener, you can save 25 percent on “Consumer Behaviour” when you order directly from Kogan Page. Just enter the exclusive promo code Bigeye25 at checkout. Shipping is always complimentary for customers in the US and the UK.  I hope my book helps you navigate the evolving landscape of digital consumer behavior and create more effective marketing strategies. Thank you!

Adrian Tennant: Welcome back. I’m talking with Jean-Éric Pellet, Associate Professor at IAE Amiens and author of “Consumer Behaviour: Understanding Consumers in a Digital Landscape.” Jean-Éric, your book includes a section about sensory marketing. So how can marketers recreate touch, smell, or taste online?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Thank you for the question, Adrian, because it’s one of my main areas of research nowadays. After understanding when I was working with someone from the WSET, the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, which is the main tool used to become an analogist or sommelier that [the] British have created. And the person I was working with from the e-learning division of the brand explained we have problems with Asian students because they cannot find aromas and fruits in order to create and recreate the recipes that are necessary to learn how to smell the wine, how to taste the wine. As a little example, you need to pour three drops of a lemon into half a glass of water to feel acidity, the same acidity you get when you drink Chardonnay. So how can we reproduce this feeling, this taste? To Asian students if they want to learn the WSET, simply by sending them all the necessary materials, samples of wine, but also le nez du vin, this is how it’s called, which means 24 little, except of taste that students will be able to reproduce. You can also send them the same lemon that the British and French are using when they are learning in front of their screen. And this way you can easily reproduce the smell, the taste, and the touch, which are the three missing scents, over the screen on top of hearing and viewing.

Adrian Tennant: I believe you’re working on a sensory marketing project now. Could you tell us about that?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Yes, I am working on in two different areas. First, by preparing an application regarding wine sensory evaluation. How do you help people to learn the pleasure of drinking wine in a digital setting? Accompanying them by sending them what I have talked about regarding the sample of aromas in order to learn phonology or a little bit about the history of wine or regarding the pairing of wine and food. This is one topic that I am very excited to work on. And the second one is more about the Internet of Things and objects. You will be able to use in a suite of a palace or four- five-star hotel, where I would like to accompany the guests by using a wrist on his little wrist that will help us to measure the temperature, humidity, and the beat per minute of the guest that will help us to create signals in order to enhance and reach the atmosphere of the hotel and of the suite he is living in. By modifying the color, the fragrance in the atmosphere, but also maybe the carpet, making it more strong or more smooth, the different fragrances in the bathroom will be modified according to your emotion and mood that we will measure from the initial time you spend on the application when you make your registration for this hotel, where we will ask you, “Do you prefer glass or wood? Do you prefer rose or jasmine? Are you more red or green?” And based on these answers, we will create an algorithm and link these answers to the proper fragrances, taste, and the aspect that you will have to touch during your staying in the palace. I don’t know if I’m clear, but this is one of the topics I am working on in parallel to the apps related to wine sensory evaluation.

Adrian Tennant: Do you have a hotel group that you’re working with on this?

Jean-Éric Pelet: After looking at Equipe Hotel, which is a big event in Porte de Versailles at Paris, I have a few contacts where I have the hotel industry players. But what is more important is the little electronic thing that will take the signal from your wrist and transform this signal into an emotion that will be linked to color and fragrance. So I know the people, and I now have to explain and write the storytelling in order to create everything and make it work during June in a hotel, probably in Paris for facility purposes.

Adrian Tennant: So you’re using biometrics not just to understand the user, but actually then to make changes to the environment based on those data points. Jean-Éric, when did you start thinking about this potential application of biometric data?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Honestly, five years ago I was in Switzerland and in this place you have a five-star hotel, absolutely magnificent, with a spa in the underground. And I was thinking that if I wanted to feel even better, and in this case there is a word, which is not hedonism, when you are more than expecting something, we talk about not hedonism but eudemonism, which is spelled E-U-D-E-M-O-N-I-S-M in a sense where you don’t expect something, it comes before you think about it, such as someone who knows you so well that they will bring you a tea before you feel cold. They will make you feel better because they see that something is not very good today for you. So I was thinking in this type of hotel that things could be even better with such a surrounding, these types of help coming from your emotion. So I am differentiating emotion, high intensity, short time. With moods, low intensity, longer time. So how can you play with these affective states to increase the atmosphere and make you feel even better? To memorize, to share, to come back, to buy, to become loyal in a way.

Adrian Tennant: So are you going to need to manufacture a custom wristband?

Jean-Éric Pelet: You have whoop, W-H-O-O-P dot com. This is not a watch such as Apple watch. This is a wrist [band]. enabling you to detect even more information. And if you remember, I was talking about what we say, Sudation in French, but it’s the hygrometry, which means the quantity of water coming from the stress that you have on your skin. And this information is not necessarily used, at least not by Apple Watch. Reason why I need something a bit more detailed. So I would like to know if Whoop could work with us to transform the feelings into colours, taste, fragrances, and so on.

Adrian Tennant: I’m curious, how does one currently measure scent digitally? Is there a special sensor for that?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Honestly, I don’t know. I just know that I hate the airport’s flavors when you go to the toilets. And when I was in China, in a very high-level hotel called Amnor, in the Ningxia province, I went to the toilets and then talked to the landlord because he was helping me to visit his place. And I said, “Your toilets smell very good. There is something different. than in any other place I have visited.” And he said, “We have a fragrance architect who has dedicated each toilet, each bathroom, according to the place before.” There’s a little scenery and a room before entering to the toilets, which means they are already aware of the effect of the fragrance on our behavior. And I was sure they have played with that – by using proper flowers, proper tannins, proper I don’t know what, but that’s what I am trying to decipher gently nowadays.

Adrian Tennant: It’s fascinating. Jean-Éric, what advice would you give to brands trying to build meaningful connections with consumers in today’s digital landscape?

Jean-Éric Pelet: I would say be human, be honest, and be helpful. In a crowded digital space, consumers are looking for brands they can trust and relate to. So transparency, ethical behavior, and a clear purpose go a long way. Personalization also matters. But not just algorithmic personalization. Brands need to show that they understand their audience’s values and needs. That might mean supporting a social cause, creating inclusive content, or just being where your audience is, with the right tone and message. Finally, storytelling is powerful. If a brand can tell a story that people connect with emotionally, that’s when loyalty happens. It’s no longer just about selling a product. It’s about becoming part of someone’s life story.

Adrian Tennant: What’s one key insight you hope readers will take away from your book?

Jean-Éric Pelet: Maybe the technology doesn’t just change what we buy, it also changes how we think, feel, and behave. If you want to connect with consumers today, you need to understand the psychology behind digital choice. It’s not only a question of money, it’s also a question of feeling and psychology.

Adrian Tennant: Jean-Éric, if listeners would like to learn more about your work or your book, “Consumer Behaviour,” what’s the best way to do so?

Jean-Éric Pelet: First of all, the book is available on the internet on KoganPage.com, but you can also follow me on LinkedIn. I’m also happy to share a link related to the company and website I have built about the book which is JEPELET4.wordpress.com where students react to the chapters of the book and to the different exercises I have shared with them around the topic of the book.

Adrian Tennant: A reminder that as an IN CLEAR FOCUS listener, you can save 25 percent on “Consumer Behaviour” when you order directly from KoganPage.com using the promo code BIGEYE25 at checkout. Jean-Éric, thank you very much for being our guest this week on IN CLEAR FOCUS.

Jean-Éric Pelet: Thank you very much, Adrian, for this nice conversation with you.

Adrian Tennant: Thanks again to my guest this week, Jean-Éric Pellet, author of “Consumer Behaviour: Understanding Consumers in a Digital Landscape.” As always, you’ll find a complete transcript of our conversation with timestamps and links to the resources we discussed on the IN CLEAR FOCUS page at Bigeyeagency.com. Just select Insights from the menu. Thank you for listening to IN CLEAR FOCUS, produced by Bigeye. I’ve been your host, Adrian Tennant. Until next week, goodbye.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00: Introduction to Digital Consumer Behavior

02:10: The Evolution of Consumer Habits

03:10: Transformations in the Marketing Mix

04:11: The Impact of Voice Commerce and AI

04:47: Emerging Technologies: AR and the Metaverse

05:34: The Influence of Website Design on Consumer Behavior

07:14: Consumer Behavior in China vs. the West

08:01: Innovative Digital Marketing in China

08:52: China as a Prototype for Future Living

11:12: Challenges Facing China’s Demographic Shift

12:09: Social Classification in China

13:05: The Rise of AI in Chinese Cities

13:44: Mobile Device Usage Across Tiers

15:17: Break and Book Promotion

16:42: Sensory Marketing: Engaging the Senses Online

19:01: Current Projects in Sensory Marketing

21:27: Biometric Data in Hospitality

22:23: The Concept of Eudemonism in Hospitality

24:03: Custom Technology for Enhanced Experiences

25:00: Measuring Scent Digitally

26:19: Building Meaningful Brand Connections

27:22: Key Insights from Consumer Behavior

27:54: Where to Learn More About Jean-Éric’s Work

28:51: Conclusion and Farewell