The Power of Music in a Retail Environment

Though it’s far from conclusive because of the category and sample size, a study done at the University of Leicester showed that the music played in a supermarket could dramatically affect the country of origin of the wine a substantial majority of consumers purchased. 77% of the wine purchased on days they played French music was French. 73% of the wine purchased on days they  played German music was German. See the full story here.

Clearly, what’s going on in a retail environment can have a massive influence on consumer behavior, and most agencies don’t pay nearly enough attention to it. But what’s even more interesting to me is that consumers are responding to something–in this case background music–that they hardly report noticing. This seems to connect with my theories about the power of a whole category of advertising that doesn’t ask consumers to use what neurologists call “executive judgment.” You can read more about this in my previously posted essay, “Between Reflex and Reason: Advertising and the Regions of the Brain.”