In-Store Music & Messaging

Music and in-store messaging are powerful marketing tools, music specifically spans generations and can even segment would-be-buyers with just a few notes of a particular tune.

Music and in-store messaging are powerful marketing tools, music specifically spans generations and can even segment would-be-buyers with just a few notes of a particular tune. However, this all depends on the degree to which a shopper likes the music, because its emotionality can evoke the strongest reaction and strengthen (or not) the relationship between brand and shopper.

According to Complete Audio GmbH, a Hamburg, Germany based music-consultancy firm, music stimulates a shopper’s readiness to absorb information as well as creating the necessary preconditions for a successful advertisement. Their studies show that music played in minor key gives rise to a sense of melancholy, sadness, or mystery. Major keys and fast tempos provoke positive and uplifting emotions.

In an exclusive SupermarketGuru quick poll, The Lempert Report set out to understand if consumers even noticed the music playing in the grocery store, and if they thought in-store messaging was helpful. Just 20 percent said they didn’t notice the music or messaging in their grocery store. But of the 80 percent who did notice the music or messaging, only 20 percent found in-store messaging to be useful. And a whopping 84 percent say supermarket loud speaker messages have never influenced purchasing decisions.

Do note most retailers’ music is programmed similar to a radio station and depending on the time of day and expected clientele, plays different genres of music.