Music makes part of everyday life of 9 out of 10 French respondents, reveals the study by Mood Media and Sacem. While 71 percent of stores claim to play music for their customers , nearly 33 percent still show some reticence in that regard. This reluctance seems quite surprising, given the fact that in-store music improves the brand’s image in the eyes of an impressive 70 percent of consumers!

Mood Media and Sacem did not spare efforts to get an in-depth insight into the role of in-store music in an overall shopping experience. Specialized in banking, ophthalmology, pharmacies, fuel distribution and sports, five brands which so far had never played in-store music took part in a ten-week long qualitative and quantitative study commissioned by Infopro Digital. Its results leave little doubt as to the music’s significance in shaping customer’s experience.

Music to a shopper’s ears

A tune well played can differentiate the brand from others for 65 percent of the study’s respondents. 93 percent of employees prefer to work with music in the background. Nearly 8 in 10 clients of these otherwise music-free retail outlets would love to shop to a dulcet soundtrack. Importantly, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) went up by as much as 30 percent when clients could listen to the music in-store. 76 percent of clients believe that the time they need to spend waiting passes much quicker if the music is on. “Premium” perception grows by 20 percent in stores playing music for shoppers, which again proves that a good soundtrack can do wonders for the retailer’s image.

Fine-tuning consumer’s experience

The same study shows that playing a personalized playlist helped increase the store recommendations by 14 percent among 66 percent of those surveyed who declared willingness to recommend the place to others. As much as 72 percent of visitors intended to return to the music-filled store, compared to just 51 percent in the category of music-free retail outlets.
While 29 percent of establishments do not play music at all, the study’s findings demonstrate that all retail outlets, regardless of the industry, are in fact conducive to playing music. After the experiment, 76 percent of clients of so-called silent industries claimed that music was compatible with the seriousness of these sectors (notably, the banking sector), a considerable increase from just 33 percent prior to the experiment.

Source: https://societe.sacem.fr/ressources-presse/par-publication/communiques/marketing-sonore--la-musique-la-ou-on-ne-lattend-pas