Background music
Once the holidays roll around, you’ll find stores playing Christmas music over the loud speakers and inevitably, you’ll end up either singing along or humming. You may find that hearing the background music puts you in a good mood and you slow down your shopping mission just a tad. That background music, while showing the store’s festive side, has an underlying purpose. Sure, the store owners love to see their customers walking around their stores singing, but they also like the fact that the customers will linger in their store longer than they normally would. When customers tend to spend more time in a store, they tend to spend more money in the store as well. That’s what store owners hope happens.
It has been proven time and time again, that background music is very effective in a variety of different activities. It has been proven that having soothing background music playing in fancy restaurants relaxes the patrons more and they tend to spend more money. That might sound a bit strange, but it makes perfect sense. Classical background music has such a soothing effect, that it somehow encourages people to drink a glass of wine or two, which costs more money than a soda or water does. It also tends to make people want to take their time and enjoy their evening out. This might mean getting an appetizer before their meal, which also costs more money than just skipping to the main course. Happy customers also tip better as well.
You may notice that it you’re in a popular steakhouse that tends to have patrons waiting for hours in order to get a table; just might have upbeat background music playing. This type of background music tends to keep people moving. They won’t be as relaxed and tend to not spend as much time eating their dinners. They may not be encouraged to spend more money but they may be subconsciously encouraged to eat and relinquish their table to the next waiting family much quicker than if soothing background music was playing.
These proven tactics are something to keep in mind when contemplating whether or not your business, restaurant or event should have background music. Do you want to encourage people to be relaxed and stay longer or would you rather have an upbeat atmosphere that keeps people moving and happy? Depending on what kind of business or event you’re involved with, background music can set the entire mood and just might affect how people will behave. Choose wisely.
Related Music Articles