The genre of classical music, with its enduring, rarely intrusive, instrumentals, is often associated with sophistication and ideas of luxury, more so than a regular chart hit by a pop artist.

The type of ambient music being played in a store, regardless of whether or not customers recognise the tracks, can also influence consumers' behavior. Bach vs Bieber: How classical music make you spend more Researchers explain this by the level of arousal which recognisable music generates: when paying more attention to the music, time may have seemed to pass slower, leading to the customers hurrying their shop. Of the participants given no time limit, those who heard recognisable tracks spent nearly 8% less time shopping, whilst people who heard unfamiliar music perceived time to pass quicker. The effect of familiarity with the background music on shoppers' behavior was surprising. As they shopped, either obscure or easily recognised tracks were played as background music. In the study, shoppers were given either a fixed length of time to shop or a less restrictive time allocation.

Yalch and Spangenberg (2000) looked at the effect of playing well-known music compared to music which customers would likely not be familiar with in a shop. Therefore, you might assume that a shop playing a person's favorite music would make them feel at home and at ease throughout their experience. Unpleasant experiences, such as overcrowded aisles, can deter people from returning to a shop. Shopping habits, including the shops that we choose to visit over others, depend on our past experiences in a store. Conversely, slow-tempo music had the opposite effect - it slowed customers down as they shopped and people purchased more during their visit.Īs a result, significantly higher daily profits were earned by the supermarket simply by playing slower background music in the shop. This gave them less time to make impulsive purchases and to absorb the range of items for sale on the shelves. Milliman found that when fast-paced music was played, shoppers walked more quickly through the shop. Meanwhile, he tracked the speed of customers as they shopped, and recorded the supermarket's total daily profits. supermarket, Milliman (1982) played various pieces of background music with varying tempos each day - some fast, others slow. Specifically, it is the pace, or tempo, of ambient music that can have the most significant effect on shoppers. The mood and atmosphere of a shop that music contributes to are essential in influencing customers. Let's look at some other factors which affect the influence music has on customers: Shopping to the Beat: Track Tempo 1īecause we don't pay attention to in-store music, it has been the subject of extensive research in an effort to discover which types of music make us spend more time and money in shops. Similarly, customers could be coerced into purchasing more German wine by playing German music.ĭisconcertingly, when shoppers were asked about their experiences in the wine shop, they said that they were unaware of the music and the effect that it was having on their purchases ( North, Hargreaves and McKendrick, 1999). They found that on days when French-style music was played, shoppers would be more likely to purchase French wine from the shop. In one study, researchers played tunes which would be typically regarded as either French or German on alternate days around the shelves of products in a wine shop. North, Hargreaves and McKendrick (1999) found that themed music influenced wine purchases. But just because customers aren't paying attention to music, that doesn't mean that retailers don't take advantage of the subtleties of musical choices as a tactic to make customers spend more.

Subliminal music