With Italian music in store, we are more likely to buy Italian rather than French wine. Lüneburg researcher Monika Imschloß explains why.
The faster the music plays, the faster we move: Shopping in Hamburg’s Europapassage Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa
taz: Mrs. Imschloß, buy more pizza to Eros Ramazzotti songs?
Monika Imschloss: Like most people, I’d say: Of course not, I’m too rational to be influenced by it.
It’s correct?
No. It is precisely because we have this strong belief that we are relatively helpless and particularly susceptible to the effects of music and other sensory stimuli while shopping.
Who is particularly “vulnerable”?
If you have a clear intention to buy right from the start, musical or atmospheric stimuli won’t change that much. They are especially effective when we have not yet made a final decision. Or when we don’t have a shopping list but want to be inspired.
Does the handling capacity also depend on the value of the goods?
Also. I would always say that no one buys a car just because good music is on it. Rather, music promotes tendencies that are in us anyway. If you decide to buy a Riesling, don’t buy Italian wine just because Italian music is playing in the wine department. The clearer I know what I want, the less impressionable I am.
What kind of stores are you most impressionable at?
There is no general answer to this. For example, there are retailers whose music is intended to appeal to a specific target group. Others play music to convey a specific brand image. Still others play music they like. With large sales areas, you can also set up several music zones. Regardless of industry, there are obviously generalizable effects – for example, you can go to the store faster with fast music, while lingering longer with slow music and tend to buy more.
What role does the type of music play, for example in the supermarket?
38 years old, he has been a professor of business administration at the Leuphania University of Lüneburg since 2020 and deals with marketing and consumer behavior. His presentation recently won the Science Slam of the German Marketing Day in Frankfurt am Main. the first place.
It depends on what the supermarket wants to achieve. Some want to emphasize certain attributes of the product. If you want to emphasize the “freshness” attribute in a fruit and freshness department, you need different music than if you want to emphasize the “coziness” attribute in the wine department. However, such concepts are not designed by retailers, but rather by solid professional agencies, especially in the case of chains that can afford them. Some of them even create their own infotainment programs with weather and news snippets to create a shopping experience that matches our daily listening habits: we listen sideways and shop sideways.
Why does music influence people so much?
There is physical activation of the heart and circulation. We know the effect of jogging: our heart beats faster to cheerful music, we move faster. Secondly, music conveys moods and thus generates emotions. Some music is melancholy, others put in a good mood. Then there is priming, in which an external stimulus, actually independent of the purchase decision, has an impact because it directs certain contents of the memory and activates associations. Studies show that when you listen to French music, you buy more French wine than Italian. With Spanish music, more paella is ordered at the restaurant. Something “country-specific” is activated there and if I have a preference, this is transferred to my decision. What I find most exciting, however, is “intermodal matching”.
It means?
Sensory impression in one area, such as music, is assumed to have an influence on how I perceive stimuli in another area. When listening to a subtle and elegant soundtrack, I consider a wine that is finer and more elegant in taste. In one study, my team and I demonstrated this transference effect: We showed that listening to soft music causes people to perceive the material as softer than when listening to music that is commonly perceived as “hard.” . The auditory is transferred to tactile perception.
Seems very manipulative.
It depends on how you define manipulation. Of course you have to look at it critically, but you can also call it an inspiration or a decision aid. And there are limits: we don’t find really coarse material to be soft even with soft music, we tested it. The music thus reinforces the perception of the characteristics that are inherent in the product. In most cases, however, we cannot evoke a new perception in this way. This is where the manipulation begins for me.
What about your “High Trust” music for pharmacies?
We had them composed as part of a study. To do this, we first asked people what trust feels like, for example, trusting to receive good advice and making the right decision. Participants were then asked to describe how trust could be expressed musically. It turned out to be a rather slow, more even pace. On the other hand, confidence has often been described as “optimism.” The result was music with a steady beat, incorporating short bursts of rising pitches.
The antithesis would be loud disco music in youth clothing stores that deliberately excludes older people.
I wouldn’t say specifically. It is more a side effect of the atmosphere, adapted to the target group of young people, that their parents usually prefer to be outside.
What does continuous music mean for the employees of these stores?
A very important aspect that we always ask for in our studies. Then we often hear that it is about volume. About being able to change the volume independently. This is often not the case with chains. Or it’s about the fact that you also have quiet phases, such as no music for an hour a day. Or two hours where employees can determine what is being played. Bosses should find out about this in discussions with employees and come up with a good solution. After all, service is an important pillar of physical retail. And for that, sellers need to feel comfortable.
