Music as a sensory tool in retail marketing

Abstract

Online shopping has progressed rapidly with the continual technological advancements. The recent invention of the smart-phones has exacerbated this trend further by allowing consumers to purchase whenever and wherever they want, as long as there is an Internet connection. Hence, consumers are no longer required to visit brick and mortar retail stores to pick up their purchases or be limited by the tenant offerings in the retail malls. Additionally, social media allows retailers to engage in customer relationship management with the customers whilst continuing their marketing and branding programmes in the meantime. Consequently, the benefits of having a retail store to provide personal consumer experience have been greatly diminished. The most fervent of online-only advocates have even denounced the necessity of a physical store in today’s marketplace. Therefore, this study has been undertaken to investigate the impact of sensory marketing in retail atmospherics and its ability in attracting shoppers to retail stores. New measures has to be taken in order to stem the dwindling number of visits to retail stores and sensory marketing has been proven to be effective in influencing consumers’ perception. The focus will be placed on music as a sensory tool in improving consumer experience, expenditure levels and re-patronage decisions. The study’s findings have shown that satisfaction levels and consumer experience are higher when under the influence of music. Additionally, local consumers prefer slow tempo and soft ambient music to be played in stores. Age and gender differences though do not contribute to significant differences in consumers’ perceptions despite widely held beliefs. These results provide valuable insights for retailing organisations on the use of sensory marketing for their marketing and branding needs. Nonetheless, this study still recommends that each company should customise their own sensory mix to their products in order to achieve the best results.