Audio marketing:
Do you often pay attention to the music playing in the store?

Researchers believe that people are more likely to shop when music is playing.

When visiting a store, every detail counts. Shoppers form their opinions based on visual elements such as interior design, sales floor layout, and assortment. However, we should not forget about the little things: sounds, messages, music, which correct this opinion.

What is audio marketing?

Store audio marketing uses sounds, music, and voice-overs to drive sales, as well as to create a positive experience for customers visiting the store.

Audio marketing is used to manage the feelings and emotions of visitors, as well as to transmit certain information. With the help of music, retailers can set the pace of the customer's movement on the sales floor, and demonstrate the style that corresponds to the company's brand.

It is accepted to identify 3 types of audio marketing:
  • Background music
  • Service messages
  • Video "Digital Signage" - sounds associated with video content displayed on a digital screen placed on the walls in any location

The first time background music in a public place began to use the founder of the American Muzak Holdings company George Owen Squire - he turned on the compositions in the elevators of skyscrapers in New York City to make passengers feel more relaxed. Audio marketing began to be used massively in the 1980s: that's when psychologists found out that music directly affects customer behavior, forms attachment to the brand, increases the time spent in the store, and provokes to make more purchases.

Why is audio marketing important?

Using music as part of your marketing strategy has many benefits. Sounds in the store influence how customers think, act and feel. Music isn't just something we like or dislike. It's something that directly affects our moods, feelings, and thinking.

An article published in Frontiers in Psychology magazine showed that music motivates people:
  • To feel emotions such as happiness, sadness and excitement.
  • To feel removed from or more involved in the world.
  • To feel interested

These results show how music can influence how customers feel when they shop or eat. And that's not all that audio marketing can do. The tempo and volume of music can also influence customer behavior.

Many researches have shown that:
  • Fast-paced music helps shoppers shop faster.
  • Slow music helps customers relax, browse slowly, and spend more time in the store.
  • Loud music encourages younger customers to stay longer.
  • Soft music encourages older shoppers to stay longer.

Music and sounds in the store allow for messaging with shoppers. In addition to identifying brand sentiment, sounds also provide an opportunity to share brand information.

Brand development through music

There is such a profession - a music producer or sound designer, this person solves a complex problem, namely the creation of a sound that causes microstress and stimulates to action on the one hand, and not annoying, so that you want to hear it the next day - on the other. An ideal example of such a sound is the sound of an alarm clock. The main goal is to evoke empathy in the listener.

Sound designers solve two problems: audience response and increase in sales. Everything affects the result: tempo, rhythm, musical instruments involved, processing, whether it is a whole melody or a few looped notes that allow you to remember the brand.

Sound design does not use already existing music, sound for the brand and consists of several stages: first we discuss the terms of reference, then we generate ideas, then we draw up a concept, merging sounds and music into a single form, then we test the concept, and then we can grow new ideas. The whole process of creating a certain sound for a brand can take from two weeks to a year.

Does audio marketing really work?

According to Gallup analysts, about one-third of people are influenced to buy by music. And according to HUI Research, playing music tailored to brand values increases sales by 9%.

93% of bars and pubs believe that the right music creates a comfortable atmosphere for customers, and their sales increase by 44%. Music also helps improve the work environment: according to a Source Vision Critical survey, 65% of companies believe that music in the workplace makes employees more productive.