The influence of music tempo and musical preference on restaurant patrons' behavior

Abstract

The article reports research into the effect of music tempo and musical preference on consumer behavior in a restaurant. The research investigates the extent to which these two variables influence actual and perceived time spent dining, the amount of money spent, and outcomes in terms of enjoyment of the experience and future behavioral intentions. The results show that music preference provided a better explanation of actual time spent dining than tempo, although neither variable had a significant effect on perceived time. Time spent in the restaurant was the most powerful predictor of money spent in the restaurant. Finally, the outcomes of the restaurant encounter were found to be significantly related to musical preference, but the effects of music tempo were nonsignificant. ᭧ 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.There is growing interest amongst service providers in the use of atmospherics as a means of enhancing the appeal of service environments and influencing consumer behavior in service settings. Academic interest in this area has grown following Kotler's (1973) article emphasizing the importance of atmospherics in the field of marketing, and more so since the Donovan and Rossiter (1982) application of the Mehrabian and Russell (1974) model of environmental psychology to the retail context.

Let the music play or not: The influence of background music on consumer behavior

“…Results from this investigation clearly show that music positively affects one of the most important parts of approach behavior, namely purchase. This result is in line with several other studies that have shown that music influences sales (Eroglu et al, 2005: Caldwell andHibbert, 2002;Milliman, 1986).Studies I and II both found that music affected the arousal level, but that it was moderated by gender.…”

“…Milliman (1986) found significant differences for slow tempo music and fast tempo music regarding time customer spent in a restaurant, purchase and service, were slow tempo music increased time spent, money spent and service time. In sum, music seems to be mediated by music tempo (Eroglu et al, 2005;Caldwell and Hibbert, 2002) and by gender (Kellaris and Altsech, 1992).…”

Waiting Experience in Railway Environments

“…Music has been shown to be an effective means of influencing mood, behavior, and perception (Bruner, 1990). It is not only relatively easy to deploy and easy to control, but music has also been shown to positively impact a wide range of consumer responses in service settings (e.g., Garlin & Owen, 2006), and more specifically in restaurants (Caldwell & Hibbert, 2002;Milliman, 1986;North, Shilcock & Hargreaves, 2003), banks (Dubé, Chebat & Morin, 1995;North, Hargreaves & McKendrick, 2000), wine stores (Areni & Kim, 1993) and travel agencies (Bitner, 1990). However, in a simulated laboratory experiment, Cameron et al (2013) showed that background music (in high and low volume levels) elicited a negative impact on service evaluation and had no impact on perceived wait duration.…”

Unravelling the language of eating

“…Meals can be weighed before and after a meal when one is interested in the amount of intake [4,6,9], diaries can be kept by the consumers [4], questionnaires can be filled in [3,5]. These methods are indirect, since the eating persons are not observed during their meal, only the effect of eating is measured or a report of the activity is made afterwards.…”

“…These methods are indirect, since the eating persons are not observed during their meal, only the effect of eating is measured or a report of the activity is made afterwards. Sometimes researchers manually annotate the actions of consumers [1,5] during an intervention study. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been reported in which the gestures of people during their meal are systematically charted.…”