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I had recently written about how carefully managed audio enhancements can improve retail sales. Well, it was pointed out to me that carefully managed audio enhancements can do a whole lot more as well.
Per previous discussion, there is ample evidence that to suggest that manipulating people’s acoustic environment influences their behavior. In addition to previous examples, a classic study in 1982 showed that supermarket shoppers stayed longer and spent 38% more money when slow background music was on than when faster tunes were played. Studies since then have confirmed similar effects in restaurants and bars. Even the number of bites per minute taken by diners in a university cafeteria. All in all, the evidence seems to indicate that background music has merit from a retailer’s perspective. In 2006, Francine Garlin and Katherine Owen of the University of Technology in Sydney , Australia, conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies investigating its effects on consumer behavior. The concluded that background music had “small-to-moderate, yet quite robust effects . . . [on] value returns, behavior duration and affective response” (Journal of Business Research, vol 59, p 755).
Associate Creative Director at bloomfield knoble