Daniel is listening to the music

Following on from a previous posting - "Halfords are listening to Josh Cooper" - another of my final year undergraduates on my Retail Marketing elective, Daniel Badzire-Smith, has shared this recent experience with me. His observations beg the question if there are optimum music types and genres for different settings:

"Last night I went to Pizza Express in the centre of Manchester, with two of my friends from my local cricket club. Throughout the meal we were surprised by the choice in music the restaurant played, it seemed like it was Motown Gold - all classics by the Jackson 5, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross and many others. The songs were all catchy, things we've heard before and so we developed a game as to who could guess the song first.

When paying the bill at the end of the meal, alleviating from the socially awkward situation were you're waiting for seemingly a life time for PDQ card machines to work, one of my friends asked the waiter what the CD was because "it was cracking". The waiter responded by saying that it was something they had made themselves as the manager didn't like the "pretentious jazz music" that all restaurants are given by HQ and feel playing something customers "know and could sing along to (I'm not sure who sings along to background music in restaurants?) makes them feel more at ease."

Looking at this from a marketing perspective, making a comfortable environment for customers could generate repeat custom as they enjoyed their experience. It could also lead to customers staying in the restaurant for longer, whilst this may impact customer turn over, meaning there is the opportunity to sell more drinks, desserts and coffees which generally have high margins in restaurants. Furthermore this is the impact of perceived service which could lead to better tips for waiters and the opportunity for more relaxed customers to develop relationships with the service staff, again which can lead to repeat custom.

This is important given the large degree of competition, not just from other restaurants but I think there are 5 Pizza Express restaurants just in Manchester City Center. I probably should add this is the third Thursday in a row I've been to that Pizza Express, sitting in exactly the same seats."