The impact of store music on customer behaviour and satisfaction

Abstract

In today’s competitive market, managers and marketers need to attach high importance to the creation of high-value customer experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). Therefore, a relatively new discipline called Sensory Marketing has seized the opportunity to integrate the customer senses into the development of powerful marketing strategies (Hulten, 2011). One important factor that should not be neglected in the design of store atmospherics, is the right use of store music (Beckerman & Gray, 2015). Even if the research into the impact of store music has increased in recent years, it has mostly been focused on large store environments and has mainly been limited to the analysis of one single music dimension (such as music tempo) (Allan, 2008). Moreover, a clear model to follow does not yet exist for managers. In order to compensate for this lack of systematic research in the field, this work explored existing studies and developed, based on their findings, an own Store Music Design Model, useful for managers and researchers. By means of a field study, conducted in a small service-based jewellery store, the effects of store music tempo, genre and their interplay on customer behaviour (shopping time and spending) and satisfaction has been explored. Both the store music tempo and the genre have been adjusted to the selected store environment by applying the developed Store Music Design Model. The findings of the experimental design prove that slow tempo music, classical music and especially slow classical music achieved the best results when it comes to increasing customer spending and satisfaction in the jewellery store. However, no significant effects have been found with regard to customer shopping time. The dissertation concludes by stating the key implications for managers and researchers, by acknowledging the limitations encountered in the field study and by making recommendations for further research.