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THE EFFECT OF (CLASSICAL) MUSIC ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR. A CASE STUDY OF CLOTHES SHOP
Abstract
Nowadays music has become an inseparable element of modern audiomarketing strategies. It is intentionally introduced into commercial spaces to influence consumer behaviour by triggering appropriate physiological, affective and cognitive responses. In order to determine the possible selected dependencies, experimental studies were carried out in natural conditions in one of the chain clothing stores located in a shopping mall in Warsaw, where an audiomarketing strategy is implemented on a daily basis. Three situations were examined: without music, with instrumental classical music and with vocal-instrumental popular music. The research was conducted for three days, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., in a system of floating modules, so as to take into account the different traffic of customers at specific times. Due to the specificity of the brand perceived as a family store with an assortment intended for children, women and men of all ages, the obtained results were analysed together (N = 246). The following aspects were measured: the number of people who entered the store in a given module, the number of people who made purchases, the structure of purchases and the value of purchases (total and average). The results showed that the largest percentage of consumers decided to buy during the condition with popular music (day I – 58%, day II – 67%, day III – 68%). However, in total, the store achieved the highest profits when classical music sounded. At that time, consumers decided to choose higher-priced and "high-end" items. The obtained results are discussed in the context of the psychological knowledge activation effect, the psychobiological theory of musical preference and the hierarchical model of musical semantics. The overall discourse leads to the ethical doubts regarding the deliberate introduction of peripheral auditory stimuli into commercial spaces.
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