When it comes to the music in your business, the one question you should regularly ask yourself is, “does my music sound like my brand?”
We’ll save all of the reasons why your music should sound like your brand for a future blog, but the bottom line is this: music that actually sounds and feels like your brand will strengthen the customer experience at your business, helping you drive more sales now and in the future.
Of course, answering whether or not your music sounds like your brand can be downright subjective, which is why we’ve listed 5 telltale signs to look for.
#1: Your customers show that they like it. It doesn’t take much to notice if your customers like your music. If they do, you’ll see them nodding their heads, tapping their feet, singing along…you know the drill. In fact, we’ve even heard stories from our clients about their customers dancing on the sales floor to the music playing overhead.
But sometimes the signs that customers like the music in your business aren’t all that obvious. Sometimes you need to cue in on other behaviors, such as how long they actually stay in your business. A 2011 survey by Heartbeats International showed that music makes about 40% of customers stay longer in a business, and 31% of customers are more likely to return to that business in the future.
So in other words, dwell time (or lack thereof) is a great indicator of whether or not your customers are digging your tunes – which has an immediate impact on the end goal: getting customers to buy.
So what does this have to do with your brand? It’s simple. Every brand has an ideal customer, and playing appealing music in your business is an important part of creating an experience they’ll want to repeat.
#2: Employees who get your brand also like the music. In the real world, there will always be some employees who dislike the music you play, and some who really enjoy it. After all, everyone has different musical preferences, which really is a beautiful thing.
But take a moment to think about the employees who truly understand what your brand is all about. These are the people who buy into the experience you’re trying to create. You know the ones – the few and far between employees who make you wish you had 10 more of them. Do they look like they’re generally enjoying the tunes playing overhead?
Here at Mood, we have access to hundreds of professionally-designed programs, and we like to play them on a rotating schedule in our corporate offices. Not every employee likes every program, but if you walked into any of our offices at any given moment, I can personally guarantee that you’d find someone singing and dancing to the music playing overhead. Or you could walk by my desk on 70’s Hits day and find me playing air guitar. Yeah, guilty as charged.
After all, music is at the heart of our brand here at Mood. And so when James Brown comes on, we sing and dance. Or Led Zeppelin comes on and we play air guitar. As people who really love music, that’s just what we do.
So try to take notice of those employees who truly “get” your brand. They don’t have to be singing and dancing to the music at your business, but if the vibe feels dull and you can sense that dullness in those special employees, then you might want to take a good hard look at your business music programming and make some changes.
#3: The music is a soundtrack to your brand story. When you get right down to it, songs are meant to tell stories. Whether they’re tales of challenges, love, victory, etc., all songs portray a meaningful series of events.
And by the same measure, all brands have a story, and we’re not just talking about how your business came to be. In your brand story, the customer is the hero, and your offerings bring the resolution your customer needs.
So picture your customer in a movie. What is the soundtrack playing in the background? Or better yet, just think of the types of genres you’d hear on this soundtrack. That’s when you’ll start to get a clearer vision of what your brand actually sounds like. The goal is to ensure that the tone, lyrics, and style of music all reinforce and support the experience you are striving to create.
#4: The music is consistent with the experience. While this may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how many businesses miss this important element. And we’ve all been there, like the Mexican restaurant playing Sinatra, or the high-end women’s retailer, where some young employee sabotages the music with her favorite rap or bubble gum pop.
Trust us, your customers will be able to tell when the music doesn’t match the experience you’re trying to create. So ask yourself: is the experience fast and exciting, or is it slow and thoughtful? Is the energy motivating or relaxing? Always consider the energy, tempo, and of course, the mood that you’re aiming for with your customer experience.
#5: Your music is constantly evolving. Though your brand should never get away from its core values, it will definitely evolve ever so slightly as your customers and your business adapt to changing consumer needs over time.
For example, let’s say you run a sandwich shop, and for years your best seller was the Italian hoagie. But nowadays your target customer has become more health-conscious. They’ve swapped out the salami for low-sodium turkey and want a wheat roll instead of the white bread. And in all likelihood, their music preferences are different from the customer of ten years ago, too.
Consumer needs and desires are constantly shifting – and customers expect the brands they love to follow suit. So if your business music is missing any of the elements we mentioned in this blog, then it’s definitely time to rethink how you do music and reach out to an expert.
When it comes to music for business expertise, nobody does it better than Mood. We’ve got the world’s most talented team of Music Designers who have a keen sense for making businesses sound like their brands. We’ve been at this thing for more than 80 years, so it’s safe to say that we know a thing or two about creating music programs that drive results.
Between our Core Programs, Custom Music Solutions and streaming music for business with Mood Mix Pro, we have a variety of affordable, fully licensed options designed just for business.
So make your brand sound the way it should. Give us a call today or drop us an email using this easy form and we’ll reach out to you. We may even sing and dance with you. Or challenge you to an air guitar contest.
– Submitted by Jeff Sheerin, Marketing