Why You Should Design A Custom In-Store Background Music Strategy!

If you run a business, it is highly likely that you work incredibly hard to increase sales. Almost everything you do will be geared up to ensuring you make as much money as possible. When prospects and customers walk into your business, what do they hear?

Have you thought about the atmosphere at your store, restaurant or retail establishment? Are you playing a radio, which can advertise a competitor? Or even one of your staff members’ favorite mixes on their iPod? Or, even worse perhaps, nothing at all?

Most businesses underestimate the value of using music to influence their guests’ experience, and even fewer understand how to use in-store background music strategically, or the best practices for doing so. The right in-store music will not only create the perfect atmosphere for your customers, but it can set the tone for their shopping experience.

When you match music that has the proper feel and fabric of your business, in-store music offers a rich, enjoyable experience for customers and guests. It changes the way people feel, keeps them in your store longer and even creates impulse buying decisions. There is a lot of research available about why businesses should play music.

Some examples:

• Customers feel more relaxed while shopping and spend more time browsing in retail stores that play music.

• Customers see a shop that plays good in-store music as trendy and more inviting.

• Dental and medical patients feel more comfortable and less nervous when music is played. Plus, music makes the waiting time go faster.

• Restaurant owners say music helps increase staff morale and helps create a better experience.

One study looking at the effect of music on consumer behavior in a restaurant found that when restaurants play slow music, customers spend significantly more time, and more time wasn’t the only thing they were spending. In fact, they found customers also spent more money in the restaurant. In a Psychology Today article, Emily Anthes writes “Shoppers make more impulsive purchases when they’re overstimulated.

You can also go beyond just background music and speak directly to your customers with in-store music & messaging! In-store music and audio marketing messages can play a pivotal role in overall sales and service. Custom branded marketing messages that can be inserted into your music will entertain, engage, inform and connect with your customers and drives more sales. The facts don’t lie:

In store marketing and messages are highly effective as a proven revenue producer.

Did you know:

• 69% of shoppers spend 30 minutes or more in a retail store

• 18% recall hearing retail audio commercial’s/promotional announcements

• 54% recall hearing both Music and Commercials/promotional announcements in one visit

• 67% of retail audio listeners heard music programmed specifically

Whether it’s for your retail store, restaurant, hotel, treatment rooms or waiting rooms, in-store business music is all part of the experience for your customers, shaping your brand by acting as a powerful component to creating the perfect atmosphere, and an opportunity to connect with your customers to set the stage for a positive and memorable interaction.

Another thing to consider is, music repetition. How long should an in-store music playlist be? Some argue that it does not have to be any longer than the longest visit you expect from your customers. So let’s say your customers spend a maximum of fifteen minutes in your shop. A playlist of about fifteen to twenty minutes would suffice.

There have been a number of studies which link the music played in your business with the customer’s perception of price and quality of goods, as well as playing a key role in customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is something that any business needs to take seriously.

Ultimately, you want to have a custom designed in-store business music solution. Not only will it be free of competing advertisers content, but the fact is, no two businesses are exactly alike, so why play the same ordinary music that gets played in cars, offices, or discount stores? Distinguish your brand with a distinctive music mix.