The Power Of Music in Retailing

Music goes straight to the emotions. In our shop, we like to make an emotional connection with our customers, so we play music that we know most of them like. We play jazz swing, sixties and modern ballads- melodic songs that are familiar and appealing to the older women who form the bulk of our customers. Recently we've been playing Abba, because of the popularity of Mamma Mia!, and that's gone down well.

Music that's relaxing without being soporific helps customers think this is the shop for them and gets them in the mood for purchasing. The same applies to music-on-hold.

No doubt sounding like the middle-aged fuddy duddy that I am, I'm at a loss as to why some sports shops play very loud, drum'n'bass rap music. They may want to appeal to a niche part of a younger crowd but the alienating effect on everyone else must be huge. I suspect this is the mistake of allowing staff to play their own favourite music. Equally bad is the kind of bland musak that used to be very common in lifts and department stores but fortunately seems to be less fashionable these days.

You still have to be careful in the choice of music. Not long ago, I was standing in an inexorably long line, listening to golden oldies, when The Kinks' So Tired Of Waiting came on. Quite.

The Old Ways Are Sometimes The Best When It Comes To Marketing

A story in the Southampton Daily Echo shows the importance of choosing the right medium for your target audience-even if that medium isn't the latest trend and doesn't come recommended by advertising agencies.
A company planned to spend £10,000 on advertising their marine storage, using an email campaign and all the usual paraphenalia of modern marketing. They also decided to put a postcard in the local post office next to the marina. The result was all £250,000 of space was let for a cost of a mere 50p.

Plus ca change... the old media and new media aren't that different

People often say that the internet has created a new way of doing business and in some respects they're right. But what strikes me are the similarities wtih what has gone before.

It seems to be true that Websites have to please customers whereas earlier media needed to put advertisers first. Then again, subscription only magazines and subsidised or subscriber-based Public Service Broadcasting always put customers first. And when you think about it, many websites won't survive unless they attract the visitors advertisers want to reach.

As someone in the retailing business, I notice how alike a successful website and a successful shop are. Both need to decide which market segment or 'tribe' they're aiming at. For both, customers come first (or they should). Both need to have an attractive window to lure their target in. Both need to lead their visitors around their site with clear signage. Neither can afford to overwhelm their visitors with too much information or too many choices in one go. They both have to be user friendly. Both need to provide a straightforward buying process (if we're talking about an e-shop). The internet is great at one-to-one marketing but this is what the best shops do, with their regular customers at least.

Of course there are important differences. An e-shop can reach niche markets with a 'long tail' of products that even the biggest mail order catalogue could not previously have served. A website needs to make its sale through its copy and images, whereas a bricks'n'mortar store has staff who can help a customer to the product that's right for them. An e-shop has a much better opportunity to get to 'know' its customers by tracking their movements and purchases.

Speed and scale have changed and every medium has its quirks, but I believe that the basics of good marketing are the same whether the channel is old or new.