Customer studies

For a global restaurant chain and international retailers, playing the right music in the right way brought significant increases in sales—for one customer, 37%.

Read on to learn how music made customers stay around and gave them the confidence to purchase more.

Gant

Gant is a well-known clothing retailer founded in the US with over 500 stores around the world. The study examined the difference in sales and the time customers spent in the store when they heard music chosen to fit the brand, random music, and no music at all.

• Customers spent around 42% more time in the store when music was present. So, having some music is clearly necessary.
• Customers spent only 1.6% more time in the store when music was chosen to fit the brand than when it was random—not a huge difference.
• Sales increased by an average of 37% when brand-fit music was played instead of random music. And that is a huge difference.

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to read the full study

Over 600 observations and 200 questionnaire responses revealed that the brand-fit music increased customer’s overall satisfaction with the in-store experience, improved their perception of the physical space, and reinforced positive associations with the Gant brand—all of which translated into higher sales.

Global fast-food giant

What happens when you analyze 1.8 million purchases across 16 fast-food restaurants over five months? You get rock-solid data.

This study analyzed the effects of playing brand-fit music, random hits, and no music in eight high-traffic locations. The study went on to compare sales when brand-fit playlists contained only popular, well-known songs against playlists that contained a mix of hits and lesser-known songs.

• Sales jumped by 9.1% when customers heard a mix of hits and lesser-known songs chosen to fit the brand compared to playlists that contained only random hits
• Sales actually decreased by 4.3% when random hits were played compared to no music at all
• Playlists that mixed popular and lesser-known artists resulted in sales volumes 3.6% higher than just playing brand-fit hits
• Purchases of desserts went up a whopping 15.6% when the playlist fit the brand and mixed popular and obscure songs

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to read the full study

Music that reflected the company’s values reassured diners that they were in the right place—that they knew and appreciated—and gave them confidence to purchase.

Playing random music, even popular songs, without matching the music to the brand created an uncomfortable disconnect between what customers saw and heard, and with previous associations with the restaurant.

Filippa K

Filippa K is a successful Scandinavian clothing retailer with more than 30 stores across Europe. The study examined the effect on sales when employees could change the energy level and volume of songs. It involved eight stores and ran for 56 weeks.

In four stores, the playlists and volume were chosen by Filippa K management, and aligned with its four brand characteristics: exclusive, elegant, innovative, and expressive.

In the other four stores, staff could choose between two playlists that differed only in the intensity of the music. One was the medium-energy playlist that better conveyed the desired elegance, and the other was a high-intensity playlist. Staff were also able to skip songs and change the volume as they pleased.

• The employees tended to select higher-energy playlists, skipped slower songs within those playlists, and played music at a higher volume
• Music that fit the brand in all respects, including intensity and volume, resulted in 6% greater sales revenue than when the intensity and volume were too high
• If the employees had been able to choose even more characteristics of the music, or if the music were random, the difference would likely have been even greater
• The intense music and high volume conflicted with the brand values, the design of the stores, and the nature of the clothes sold

Download the pdf

to read the full study

While employees preferred more-intense music at higher volume, this didn’t fit the brand and situation, and it hurt sales. This argues for centralized control of the music.

Scheduling the right music ahead of time allowed staff to focus on the customers…instead of driving them away.