May 28, 2008 Edition 1
Wendy Knowler
Have you ever left a shop because you can’t stand the music they’re playing?
Me too.
A UK retail study titled “Store Atmospherics” found that 40% of respondents had left a store because of “wrong” music.
Shoppers aged “40 and above” are much more likely to walk out as a result of in-store music, apparently.
Quite a sobering finding, when you consider the buying power of this group.
On the up side, almost 20% of the respondents in the study said music had encouraged them to spend more time in a store, and in the case of respondents between 21 and 39 this result increased to 27%.
Some years ago when I was a judge in a major shopping centre’s customer-service awards, requiring me to visit each of several hundred stores twice in the space of a couple of months, I came to conclusion that store music, especially in the smaller stores, is chosen by the 20-something shop assistants for their benefit, and not necessarily for that of their clientele.
In a way you can’t blame them, given that they’re forced to listen to the music hour after hour, but it’s hardly a brilliant retail strategy.
“It’s a big no-no, alright,” says Craig Cesman, CEO of DMX Music, a company which provides tailor-made in-store music for a number of retail giants. “But yes, it happens, a lot.
“We’ve had dealings with the local franchise of a huge US brand to which we supply exactly the same in-store music, to their stores worldwide. But in South Africa one store plays dance, and another plays a totally different sound.
“They’re all doing their own thing, which goes against the first rule of branding, consistency.”
One sector which is experiencing anything but consistency of late is the motor industry, particularly at dealer level.
Having enjoyed several years of boom time, the National Credit Act, coupled with soaring interest rates and fuel prices, has put the brakes on sales to the point that many dealerships have closed down.
With a shrinking market, motor dealerships, like all other retailers, have to up their game, Cesman says, and naturally, he’s of the view that they can do this by playing the right music in their showrooms.
But how is this possible, when one brand sells various vehicle models aimed at very different markets?
Ah, says Cesman, it’s about projecting an overall “brand value” to their customers.
Which may explain why Mercedes’ radio adverts use classical music.
Classical works for certain brands, Cesman says, but some music should just never be used. Opera for instance. “Some people find it very offensive.”
And stores which play radio stations are crazy, he says. “The retailers have got absolutely no control over content, and in many cases, they’re allowing their competitors to advertise directly to their customers!”
Speaking of radio stations, one trend that intrigues me is that of chain stores setting up their own in-house radio stations.
At every store, along with pop-chart music, their jocks convey personal messages between staffers at the various branches.
The effect is that customers are made to feel as if they’re eavesdropping on private, cosy interactions and in-jokes between staff members.
Great as a team- building exercise, but where does the customer fit in?
Getting back to classical music, while it appeals to the classy, cultured wannabe Mercedes owner, it has the opposite effect on rowdy youths, apparently.
For some years now, a number of UK retailers have used Mozart and Beethoven – played really loud, from speakers mounted outside their stores – to keep groups of drunk, intimidating youths from loitering outside their stores with ill intent.
And it works, well, like a charm. They can’t bear the sound of it.
I know just how they feel. Dish-dish-boom music, played at minibus-taxi volume in a small store, as the assistant sings along, has precisely the same effect on me.
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