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THE SOUND OF SILENCE:WHY MUSIC IN SUPERMARKETS IS JUST A DISTRACTION

Quick research facts

  • Year: 2016
  • Author(s): Hynes and Manson
  • Coundtry: United Kingdom
  • Location: Supermarket
  • Music type: Planned music and ambient noise
  • Method: Field interviews
  • Data collection: In-depth interviews (staff and customers)
  • Research area: In-store music
  • Category: Affective
  • Sub-category: Mood
  • Area: Cognizant and emotional reactions of sound (noise vs music)
  • Publication: Retailing and Consumer Services

Supermarket customers can deconstruct the soundscape and isolate elements that provoke different emotional reactions. However, the effect of music in supermarkets remains marginal, perhaps only affecting a very small number of consumers, or in fact having no effect at all.

Full article

THE SOUND OF SILENCE:WHY MUSIC IN SUPERMARKETS IS JUST A DISTRACTION

ABSTRACT

Retailers use music in the service environment to try to change consumer behaviour with a view to increasing spend, or improving consumer mood. Previous research has largely focused on music but ignored the effects of other noises within a servicescape: yet all noises can impact consumers’ affective states, and their behaviour.

This study examines the role of both planned and other sounds within the supermarket environment. In particular, this study investigates the cognizant and emotional reactions of supermarket customers, and explores their shopping intentions in the context of shoppers’ understanding of and reaction to the sounds they perceive.

RESULTS

 

Awareness of sound 
Not all respondents were aware of music as a sound within the store. Customers were aware of planned sounds that had a purpose within the soundscape, such as barrier alarms, tills beeping and music. Various machine noises were described, such as till noises: “the voice of the self-service”, heating and security alerts.

Staff were exposed to the same range of sounds as customers in the servicescape and indicated cognizance of these. In addition, staff were more acutely aware of sounds specifically intended to aid their roles, such as oven timer alerts, security barriers, staff announcements and breakages. Staff relied on sounds for task completion.

One manager reported that the music was used to meet customer expectations:“they like to hear something in the background”. The other manager was clear that music was intended to appeal to a particular demographic, and therefore that the use of music was strategic marketing, yet was unaware of the requirements of different demographics or the music being played in store at any one time.

Human sound  = negative reactions.
Music = positive reactions. 

Sound and mood
A minority of respondents appeared to enjoy music as an aspect of the soundscape, but there was no overall perceived impact on mood. Overall, shoppers felt that music within the servicescape made little or no contemporaneous impact on their emotions, and only a small minority of shoppers were even aware of the music at all.

Sound and time spent in store
More customers reported spending longer in the store than intended, than those who spent less time than intended the current research, however most attributed this to factors other than sound.

IMPLICATIONS/LEARNINGS

  • Many if not all, supermarket customers can deconstruct the soundscape and isolate elements that provoke different emotional reactions.
  • Consumers on the whole, are largely unaware of music within the store; a conscious appreciation.
  • In an environment that requires multiple low involvement decisions, and which is regarded as a chore, rather than a positive experience, that music may be a waste of time. It seems likely that music is simply acting as a distraction if and when consumers are aware of it.
  • Consumers are very rarely conscious of any impact of music on their behaviour: awareness and reaction to music is exceptional rather than the norm, yet consumers are very aware of a range of reactions to sounds within the servicescape. Human aleatory sounds are seen with a consistently negative association: the hustle and bustle/renao and other human noises are perceived universally as a negative issue.
  • Consumers are very rarely conscious of any impact of music on their behaviour: awareness and reaction to music is exceptional rather than the norm, yet consumers are very aware of a range of reactions to sounds within the servicescape. Human aleatory sounds are seen with a consistently negative association: the hustle and bustle/renao and other human noises are perceived universally as a negative issue.
  • The ambient noises around certain areas in the supermarket lead to raised voices (Lombard effect), which can increase the overall negative reactions to aleotory noise. This is a significant issue for servicescape designers and not one that can be addressed by simply playing louder music.
  • Within a supermarket setting, consumers make multiple low involvement purchases within a short time period: there are multiple competing stimuli for consumer attention: this includes a focus on price, products and an awareness of time. Indeed, supermarket choices are more likely driven by merchandise range or quality, price and other product centered features rather than paying attention to the music.
  • Given the amount of attention required for a grocery shop not only can music act as a distractor but it actually might limit the cognitive ability and be a source of stress of some shoppers to make decisions.
  • Where consumers showed awareness of their own reaction to music within a supermarket, they strongly denied that this affected their purchasing behaviours. Customers also reported that no element of the soundscape, or indeed the servicescape, influenced their intention of future intention to purchase, stating that external factors such as price and convenience were influential. Additionally, shoppers consistently rejected the idea that any sounds could influence the shopping behaviour, but admitted that sounds were used for that purpose.This may be because music impacts consumers in a sub- conscious manner, affecting their mood. This is also important because stimulating music is expected to increase arousal and improve performance on simple tasks but, if the task is complex, the level of arousal may become too great and performance deteriorate.

IMPLICATIONS

  • Test and evaluate the relation between the noise and the chosen music in your store as it evoked different kind of emotional reactions.
  • Realise the need to reduce potentially distracting aleatory sounds. A better-managed soundscape is likely to offer more benefits than changing the music or trying to examine the effect of music on other consumer behaviours. Whilst the effect of noise is largely seen holistically, then managing the unwanted noises is far more important than simply playing music over a range of other noise.
  • A quiet times with no music, better acoustics, child- free times to control at least some of the human aleatory and better insulated machinery are likely to have a much larger effect than playing different music.
  • Shoppers queue for longer at checkouts because of multiple tasks being completed and because self-service areas are replacing manned checkouts. If this results in rising impatience, conversation will reflect more tension. Shoppers are were aware of raised voices, resulting in a negative reaction.
  • A better acoustics and targeted music zones would likely affect mood more: if consumers perceptions of waiting times around checkouts can be improved by music then zoned music will be preferable. You need to be more cognisant of gestalt effects and design a servicescape suited to all sensory inputs.
  • Servicescape designers should pay careful attention to the flow of noise within certain areas of the store: changing the design of the shop around checkouts or in entry areas, both with lighting and sound effects would impact significantly on the mood and potentially the spending of consumers.

How to conduct similar music research for your brand

STEP 1

HYPOTHESES 

 Is music in supermarkets just a distraction for the loud noises? 

  • 2 big supermarkets in two different suburban areas in Birmingham, UK. 
  • Respondents included 37 customers, 7 staff and 2 store managers.
  • Qualitative data such as semi-structured interviews.
  • Respondents were interviewed in the checkout area after their shopping. 
  • Wide range of participants including different ethnicities, income brackets, cultural identities and genders.
  • Random approach and pick of respondents. 
  • Identification and recording of ambient noises such as aleatory sounds such as doors closing, cupboards/ freezer compartments etc. Categories based on location in store, sound level and soundscape elements. 

STEP 2

METHODOLOGY

STEP 3

Survey/
Measurement

  • Customers

    • What different sounds are/were you aware of in the store?
    • Can you remember any one particular noise?- explain? 
    • How long do you think you spent in the store? 
    • Did you spend more, less or the same as you intended?  will you shop here again?- Reasons?
    • How did you feel before you entered the store? 
    • How did you feel once you had completed your shopping? 
    • If there was music playing, was it music you liked? 
    • If there was music playing, did it put you off your task?
    • Any other sounds that you liked/disliked 
    • Any other sounds put you off your task? 
    • Any other sounds put you off your task? 
    • Ease of communication/speech intelligibility – conversation with companion- conversation with staff?

    Staff

    • What different sounds are/were you aware of in the store?
    • Can you remember any particular noise or sound?  how did you feel before you entered the store?
    • How did you feel once you had left the store floor? 
    • If there was music playing, was it music you liked? 
    • If there was music playing, did it put you off your task?
    • Any other sounds that you liked/disliked ?
    • Any other sounds put you off your task? 
    • Conversation with colleague/Conversation with customer?

    Managers

    • What different sounds are you aware of in the store? 
    • Can you aware of any particular noise or sound? 
    • What sounds have you got any degree of control over?-
    • Describe elements-What control, and what degree of control? 
    • Are there any sounds you would like to control?– Describe elements-What control, and what degree of control? 
    • Are you aware of any impact of sound on consumers’ emotions? 
    • Does sound affect consumer behaviour, including repeat pur- chase intentions? 
    • Does sound, including planned sound such as music or staff announcements have any effect on task completion by staff and customers? 
    • Conversation with colleague/Conversation with customer?
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