In my first episode Nudge podcast, I interviewed conceptual psychologist Dr. Adrian North, who conducted a seminal study on the psychology of music.
In 1997, researchers stocked an English supermarket with four types of French and German wines, similarly matched in cost, dryness and sweetness. For two weeks, the store speakers played either German oom-peh music or French accordion music. North and his colleagues changed the music daily and measured the effect on sales.
Turns out, 83% of wine shoppers bought French wine when accordion music was playing, while 65% of shoppers picked up German bottles when Bavarian music was playing.
North interviewed shoppers as they left the store, but none claimed that the music had an effect on their purchase — yet it clearly did.
Is the relationship between music and buying behavior still relevant?
North’s study had some important findings, but it’s worth noting that the study is nearly three decades old and had a relatively small sample size of only 82 people.
So, are the results still relevant today?
Well, in 2017, researchers at Montclair State University found that playing Italian music in the university cafeteria increased sales of their Italian dish (Chicken Parmesan). When playing Spanish flamenco tunes, they increased sales of paella.
It is clear that it seems that the music we buy. And maybe what do we want to eat?
In fact, during a recent trip to Paris, I couldn’t help but stop at the local boulangerie every morning for coffee and croissants. Thinking back, I realized they played the usual French cafe style music. Maybe that’s what drew me in.
What other effects can music have? Turns out, a lot…
In his book Pre-acousticRobert B. Cialdini writes that music made children more likely to help their peers. Likewise, I Get it doneAyelet Fischbach shared that music can increase reps at the gym by 50%. And the work of Nick Kolenda Imagine reading this book Shows that sad music makes the signs of interesting life feel more distant.
Still, studies about music that are most influential involve (mostly) supermarket shoppers.
In Ronald E. Milliman’s study (aptly titled “Using background music to influence supermarket shopper behavior”), he monitored the flow of shoppers as they navigated a supermarket in South America over a nine-week period, finding that consumers spent 38 percent more when slow music (60 bpm) was played than when fast music (108 bpm) was played.
Milliman and his team concluded that the tempo of the music affected the pace of the shoppers. In other words, a slower tempo slowed down the pace of shopping, giving consumers more time to buy. Forced, right?
In his wonderful book Sense HackingCharles Spence desperately tried to find companies that had applied this insight to music and tempo (and were willing to talk about it).
One of the few public examples is Chipotle.
According to Spence, Chipotle carefully controls the tempo of the music in all of its 3,500+ stores. They deliberately play fast music during busy times of the day to speed up their customers and shorten long lines.
Chipotle’s in-house DJ is quoted as saying, “The lunch and dinner rush have high BPM songs because we need to keep the customers moving.”
During quiet periods, the store plays slow tunes to keep customers lingering and the store busy.
So, the next time you find yourself munching on your lunchtime burrito or reaching for that bottle of German wine, take a minute and ask yourself: “What music is playing right now?”
