It is all in the mix: The interactive effect of music tempo and mode on in-store sales

• Published in: Marketing letters Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 325 - 337
• Main Authors: Knoferle, Klemens M., Spangenberg, Eric R., Herrmann, Andreas, Landwehr, Jan R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer Science + Business Media 01.03.2012; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Business and Management; Consumer behavior; Customers; Decision making; Design; Experiments; Heart rate; Marketing; Marketing research; Minor scales; Music; Music cognition; Music instrumentation; Music psychology; Musical forms; Musical modes; Musical styles; Musical tempo; Perceptions; Physiology; Respiration; Retail sales; Retail trade; Sales; Stores; Tempo; Traffic flow; Variables; Linear mixed models; Retail atmospherics; Musical mode; Musical tempo
• ISSN: 0923-0645; 1573-059X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11002-011-9156-z

Though practitioners have relied on tempo as a criterion to design in-store music, scant attention has been devoted to the mode of musical selections, and no consideration has been given to the potential for the interactive effects of low-level structural elements of music on actual retail sales. The current research reports a field experiment wherein the positive main effect of slow tempo on actual sales reported by Milliman (J Marketing 46 (3): 86-91, 1982, J Cons Res 13 (2): 286-289, 1986) is qualified by musical mode. A significant interaction between tempo and mode was evidenced, such that music in a major mode did not vary in effectiveness by tempo while music in a minor mode was significantly more effective when accompanied by a slow tempo. That is, the Milliman effect was eliminated for music in a major mode. Implications of our findings and directions for further research are discussed.