Sensory Marketing - Does music influence customers? : Effects of music on customer behaviour, emotions and perceived atmosphere towards a specific product category

Title: Sensory Marketing - Does music influence customers? Effects of music on customer behaviour, emotion and perceived atmosphere towards a specific product category Background A new area of research within the field of marketing have grown since the 2010’s. This type of marketing is called Sensory Marketing and it can be used to trigger subconscious emotions within consumers by using the human senses: sight, hearing, smell, feeling and taste. In order to make products more attractive for the customers. Purpose The object of this study is to conduct an experiment where music is added to a specific product category located in specific part of the service environment. The goal of the experiment is to find out if the music changes the customers perceived atmosphere, emotions and actual behaviour when they are being exposed to music near a specific product category. The study aims to increase the understanding of customers emotions, perceived atmosphere, quantity of products bought and how long customers stay in a area of a service environment that is being targeted with music. Method and theory Through reviews of relevant literature within Sensory Marketing twelve hypotheses was created, which either got confirmed or rejected after 4 days of observations and questionnaires done on a sample consisting of 300 customers in a service environment. Results Most of the hypotheses were confirmed and the results shows that there is a significant correlation between music and customers emotions, behaviour and perceived atmosphere of a specific section in a service environment.