Orchestrate Purchase Intentions

Want your diners to accept relatively unconventional, higher-priced Indian food at the restaurant? Play relatively unconventional Indian music, but melodies easily identifiable as Indian in nature. Want to overcome reluctance in your store shoppers to buy personal hygiene products? You’ll do better playing country music instead of classical music in the background. But if it’s appearance enhancement items you’re aiming to sell today, the classical music is the orchestration of choice.
     The Australian researchers, at Curtin University and Macquarie University, whose studies are behind these recommendations view the music as providing a nudge more than a shove. The desire to purchase the product or service must already be there. The melodies reduce the resistances. But once having done that, the effect is to increase not only the probability of choosing the item, but also the willingness to pay a higher price for it.
     When it’s items with an ethnic identity you want to sell, the corresponding ethnic music sets the right mood. For all selling, say the researchers, a major distinction is between what music will work with pragmatic items like tools, appliances, and personal hygiene products and what will work with sophisticated items like jewelry, wine, formal attire, and luxury cars.
     Other studies find that an additional distinction when using music in retail is the degree of intrusiveness. If you want the shopper to carefully analyze the purchase decision, use music that is barely noticeable. Researchers at Columbia University and Northwestern University determined that when a customer listens to the music in the store, attention is diverted from analyzing the purchase decision. If you’re wanting shoppers to try new brands or new products, minimize intrusive music.
     Based on those same research findings, use noticeable music—such as music with lyrics—if you both expect and want the shopper to select items from habit without much thought. Noticeable music helps head off arguments the shopper might make to themselves about the purchase.
     A while back, a business professor from University of Virginia and the executive director of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra found that frequent changes in the harmonies, texture, or tempo amplify the intrusiveness of music both in-store and in ads. As part of an ancient survival mechanism, our human brains are wired to put top importance on processing unanticipated background sound changes. Our prehistoric ancestors found this skill valuable for sensing danger and homing in on high-protein meals.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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Use Music to Motivate, Not Disrupt
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