What’s Your Pitch?

How sound and music can influence your marketing

Co-posted with Lisa Lococo, consumer behavior analyst

Everything you do in marketing sends a message. Do you pay attention to the sound of your business? Studies have shown the importance of sound, especially music, and how it subconsciously influences consumer behavior.

Music can help your business in two ways. First, the right music enhances your brand, giving it an added dimension and broader appeal. Second, understanding how music affects the mind can help marketing and sales.

Most marketers think about sound. Almost any store or restaurant you go into is playing (mostly pleasant) background music. But some businesses are marketing with music better than others.

Merely creating a “pleasant” environment isn’t enough; music must be the right speed and type to enhance your brand. Scientists have been studying the effects of specific beats and tempos for some time. One study by Ronald E. Milliman showed that playing slow music in a supermarket decreased the speed at which customers shopped, increased the number of impulse purchases, and boosted sales volume. A recent study by Leo J. Shapiro and Associates shows that almost 20 percent of consumers say the right music encourages them to spend more time in a store. More than 40 percent say that the wrong music encourages them to leave.

Michael Morrison of Monash University compiled some salient case studies. Borders Books maximizes customer in-store time with slow-tempo music that literally slows down shopper’s movements. NikeTown’s music is as energetic and inviting as the rest of the Nike brand, playing a big part in shoppers’ multi-sensory store experience. Victoria’s Secret stores play classical music in an effort to enhance their image of being high quality, prestigious, and luxurious. (Please, no comments about tunes in double D major, or avoiding A flat).

And it must be noted that neuroscience has proven that music and memory are closely related. “What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head,” said Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at University of California–Davis. “It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye.”

Or you might see the store you were in the last time you heard that tune.

So while other marketers are focusing on displays and headlines, spend more time focusing on how you pitch your business. You might like what you hear.