Hear it, Want it, Buy it!
– A study of auditory stimuli as a primer of consumer choice in restaurants
Authors: Fredrik Andersson 880920
Dan Henriksson 880404
Degree of Master of Science in Business and Economics
Tutor: Dr. Martin Amsteus
Examiner: Prof. Mosad Zineldin
Subject: Business and Administration
Level and semester: Master´s thesis spring 2012
Acknowledgements
”Hear it, want it, buy it!” is a master´s thesis in marketing written in the spring of 2012 at the
Faculty of Business, Economics and Design, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus
University in Växjö.
Writing this thesis has been an inspiring, worthwhile and educational process which has given
us a deeper understanding within the fields of consumer behaviour and sensory marketing.
We would like start of by thanking our tutor, Dr. Martin Amsteus for exceptional support and
advice during the semester. We would also like to show our gratitude towards our examiner
Prof. Mosad Zineldin as well as our seminar members for all the good inputs and opinions.
We would also like to thank those who gave us some of their time to answer our survey and to
those who participated in the focus groups. Last but not least we would like to thank the staff at
the restaurant for excellent co-operation and for allowing us to conduct our experiment and
survey on their premises.
Växjö, May 2012
Dan Henriksson Fredrik Andersson
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Abstract
Purpose: To assess the effect of a higher price, consumer age, and consumer gender on the
relationship between music and consumer choice of food in a lunch restaurant.
Methodology: An inductive-deductive approach was used in a three-step study which
consisted of three focus groups, an experiment as well as a survey investigation.
Findings: While not statistically significant at the 0.05 level, conditioned music showed a
small tendency to affect consumer choice of food in a lunch restaurant. The reason for this is
arguably a higher price might disrupt the condition music. Age was found to be statistically
significant on a 0.05 level. Gender however, was not found to be statistically significant at the
0.05 level.
Keywords: Sensory marketing, Consumer behaviour, Perception, Music, Age, price, Gender
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.................................................................................................................1. Introduction 6
.......................................................................................................................1.1 Background 6
...........................................................................................................1.2 Problem discussion 8
............................................................................................................................1.3 Purpose 11
..........................................................................................................1.4 Research questions 11
....................................................................................................................1.5 Delimitation 11
............................................................................................2. Theory and Hypotheses 12
....................................................................................................2.1 Theoretical framework 12
...............................................................................2.1.1 Shannon's model of the communication process 12
...........................................................................................................................................2.1.2 Perception 13
...........................................................................................................................................2.1.3 Sensitivity 15
.......................................................................................................................................2.1.4 Conditioning 16
...............................................2.1.5 The psychological and physiological impact of music on consumers 17
..................................................2.1.6 Important factors when using music in a commercial environment 17
......................................................................................................2.2 Hypothesis 1 - Music 19
..........................................................................................................2.3 Hypothesis 2 - Age 23
.....................................................................................................2.4 Hypothesis 3 - Gender 25
...............................................................................................................3. Methodology 27
...................................................................................................................3.1 Focus groups 27
............................................................................................................................3.1.1 Focus group sample 28
.......................................................................................................................3.1.2 Focus group procedure 29
......................................................................................................................3.2 Experiment 30
...........................................................................................................................3.2.1 Experimental design 30
.............................................................................................................................3.2.2 Experiment sample 31
..................................................................................................................................3.2.3 Implementation 31
......................................................................................................................................3.2.4 Data analysis 32
.............................................................................................................................3.3 Survey 33
...........................................................................................................................3.3.1 Survey development 33
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.......................................................................................................................3.3.2 Implementation survey 33
....................................................................................................................................3.3.3 Sample survey 35
......................................................................................................................................3.3.4 Data analysis 35
...................................................................................................................3.4 Operalization 36
..................................................................................................................................Independent variables 36
....................................................................................................................................Dependent variables 37
........................................................................................................................4. Results 38
...................................................................................................................4.1 Focus groups 38
...............................................................................................................4.1.1 Cultural conditioning music 38
............................................................................................................4.1.2 Cultural conditioning pictures 38
..........................................................................................4.1.3 Cultural conditioning the ocean and food 39
........................................................................................................................4.1.4 Auditory environment 39
...........................................................................................................................................4.1.5 Reflection 40
.............................................................................................................................4.2 Survey 41
.........................................................................................................4.3 Results Experiment 43
....................................................................................................................................Hypothesis 1 - Price 43
......................................................................................................................................Hypothesis 2 - Age 45
...................................................................................................................................Hypothesis 3 Gender 47
...................................................................................................................5. Discussion 49
......................................................................................................5.1 Hypothesis 1 - Music 49
..........................................................................................................5.2 Hypothesis 2 - Age 52
.....................................................................................................5.2 Hypothesis 3 - Gender 53
..................................................................................................................5. Conclusion 54
........................................................................................................6. Further research 55
........................................................................Reference list - Articles and literature 56
............................................................................................Appendix 1 - Methodology 64
...................................................................................Appendix 2 - Restaurant layout 67
............................................................................................Appendix 3 - Sales results 68
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...........................................................................................................Appendix 4 - Age 73
.....................................................................................................Appendix 5 - Gender 76
........................................................Appendix 6 - The survey (English and Swedish) 79
........................Appendix 7 - Focus group questions (Both in English and Swedish 81
.......................................................Appendix 8 - Track list of the conditioned music 85
...................................................................Appendix 9 - Track list of the calm music 86
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1. Introduction
1.1 BackgroundAs the flow of information in society is increasing and companies work harder to influence
their clients, discussions and research regarding consumer behaviour and the perceptual
process related to human senses has widened (North et al, 1999; Sweeney and Weber, 2002;
Wilson, 2003). Companies strive to get their products and services associated with positive
moods. Understanding how humans perceive and interpret information and sensations is
important in order to be able to manage customers' perceived feelings and attitudes. Humans
impressions of its surroundings may therefore be regarded as a fundamental part of sensory
marketing (Raz et al.,2008).
The commercial environment has a strong impact on both consumers and employees,
and is a much discussed topic among companies. The subject has become an important element
in marketing as well as retailing. Companies plan, design, change and constantly check its
organisation's commercial environment in order to influence the behaviour of their visitors. It
may be argued that the traditional mass-market approach is fading and is being replaced by
hyper-fragmented markets were individualisation is a key word. This trend is making firms
rethink their marketing strategies and forces them to find new ways to successfully reach
potential consumers. (Bitner, 1992; Joachimsthaler and Aker, 1997; Gordon, 1998)
One of our the five senses is hearing. Humans has since the dawn of time been
dependent on auditory stimuli to cope with their environments. Sound is used to communicate
and to alert of surrounding threats but also to contribute to peace and relaxation. The mind is
constantly active and sensitive to influences that act on both conscious and subconscious
levels. We are not limited to only recognise sounds and silences, we also provide meaning to
sound by interpreting, communicating and expressing ourselves with it (Radocy and Boyle,
1997)
The use of music within advertising media has been around for a long time. Jingles on
radio and television commercials as well as music playing statically in the background at the
point-of-sale or sales events were the first steps. Music in advertising is an widely used social
engineering technique and a platitude to consumers today. From an advertising perspective, the
benefit of music is that it can be an effective tool to produce memorable messages to target
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groups (Scott, 1990). Sound in the form of music is an especially powerful stimulus for
affecting moods and is not something new as may be exemplified throughout history by poets,
playwrights, composers and, in the last two centuries, researchers (Bruner 1990).
Several studies have found that a correlation between music and consumer behaviour.
For example, Milliman (1982) showed that high-tempo music made customers in a
supermarket move around more quickly, thus spending less time in the store. But slow music
made them stay longer thus spending more money. In a later study, Milliman (1986) showed
that the same principle applies in restaurants. When costumers were exposed to high-tempo
music they tended to eat faster than those who were exposed to low-tempo music. The result of
an experiment by Kellaris and Kent (1992) suggest that music can influence perception of time.
In the experiment, subjects who were exposed to major-key music seemed to have perceived
longer time-duration than subjects exposed to atonal music. According to the study, time
perception should increase with musical tempo or complexity. Another example of the
connection between consumer behaviour and music may be found in a study by Dube, Chebat,
and Morin (1995), were music was found to influence consumers' interactions with commercial
environments. In their experiment, they manipulated the music in a bank and found that
customers were more keen on affiliating with bank employees due to increased pleasure and
arousal from the background music.
Some studies takes this concept even deeper as suggesting differences between men and
women (Yalch and Spangenbergs, 1990; Kellaris and Rice, 1993; Darley and Smith, 1995),
different age categories (Furst et al, 1996; Ares and Gambaro, 2007) as well as price sensitivity
(Rajendran and Tellis, 1994; Janiszewski and Lichtenstein, 1999) considering behaviour in the
commercial environment with regard to music.
One setting in which the atmosphere and the senses are highly cooperating is in the
restaurant industry. Here the senses seem to work in high gear when food and drink should
taste good, smell good and look good. But it does not stop there, the atmosphere around the
meal is also important when creating a connection with what is on your plate and contribute to
the experience of the restaurant visit. (Bitner, 1992; Sweeney and Weber, 2002; North et al.,
1999)
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1.2 Problem discussionInfluencing the senses is beneficial in both branding purposes as well as to inspire the customer
to make a decision, or what decision to make. Further, a big question within the sensory
marketing literature is what type of influence that is aimed to be achieved, subliminal or
conscious.. (Solomon Et al., 2010; Schmitt and Simonson, 1997) Auditory stimuli is indeed
picked up in the periphery and this makes it possible according to Passer and Smith (2011) to
reach the customers and in tern affect the consumer decision process. The strong effect on
consumers could be due to the connection between music and the consumer’s personality.
Needless to say different types of music have different type of result on customer perception
and behavior. In a café, pop music classical music easy listening music and no music had a big
impact on the customer’s perception (North and Hargreaves, 1998). The importance of sensory
cues like music is further stressed by Ballantine et al. (2010) that show a connection between
auditory cues that fit the product and an impact on sales. A body of research stressing the
importance of music selection is present within the literature and stress the different impact on
consumer behaviour. Despite this many managers play music based on no empirical ground
what so ever. (North and Hargreaves, 2006) The question for restaurant managers is what kind
of auditory stimuli to use and in what context as a marketing cue to achieve a preferred
behaviour during the process of purchase.
Price is considered an important extrinsic cue for assessing the quality of a product and
choice of brand. (Lichtenstein et al., 1993; Janiszewski and Lichtenstein, 1999). Further the
price is also one of the most important cues in a market place due to it is something to
consideration in all purchase situations. For at least consumers price represent how much that
have to be sacrificed economically in order to engage in a purchase transaction (Dodds et al.,
1991; Erickson and Johansson, 1985; Grewal, Monroe,and Krishnan, 1998; Lichtenstein et al. ,
1993) Seen in this way the amount of money given up creates a negative effect on the purchase
probabilities (Lichtenstein et al., 1993). In the restaurant business price has also been shown to
have a great effect on the choice of restaurant to actually visit (Okeiyi and Finley, 1994) which
further begs the question if a similar effect could be present during choice of dish within an
already chosen restaurant. Lewis (1990) strengthens this notion by indicating that price is
important when differencing inside of a product category and Kwun and Oh (2004) argue that
price effects due to the influence on consumer choices are important variables that should be
considered when restaurants are developing marketing strategies. Due to that price is one of the
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most important cues for consumers in a market place it might impact a marketing strategy by
cancelling out other stimuli thus making the strategy less effective in terms of reaching goals or
target market. As seen in research by Andersson, Henriksson and Johnson (2011) auditorial
stimuli may have a statistically significant effect on purchase behaviour regarding a low-cost
product at a restaurant.
Research suggest that the impact of music on consumption is dependent on variables as
tempo, varying tempo, rhythm, harmony and dynamics. Many of these studies have measured
the spending in commercial environments in relation to music. Few have measured the choice
between foods in relation to conditioned/fitted music. Instead the majority of research on
musical fit has investigated the relationship between (classical) music and choice of food price
class. (Yeoh and North, 2010) This leaves a gap in the literature regarding the effected of price
on the relationship between conditioned/fitted music and choice of food. Further a study like
this would be directly beneficial for restaurants when designing marketing programs because
of the ability to determine in which context which music should played. (Yeoh and North,
2010)
Pelletier (2004) in his meta analysis found that the results of music on behaviour was
far from unequivocal and rather dependant of the context in which its played. One variable
determining context is age. Yeoh and North (2010) came to a similar conclusion, impact differs
according to the age, thus the context of the listener. Research shown the importance of
accounting for age due the difference in information processing between elderly individuals
and younger adults (Phillips and Sternthal, 1977). Cole and Balasubramanian (1993) later
presented a similar result argued to be an effect of age-related changes in information-
processing ability. Both results suggest an age related change in behaviour while consuming
and a similar effect could occur while possessing marketing cues like music. Age also has the
tendency to create differences in shared experiences and can be different between age groups.
For example, people aged 30 and above shown to be especially receptive to nostalgia compared
to age 30 and below. (Hultén, et al., 2008) Age has clearly shown to have an impact on
consumer behaviour and preference. It ought to be interesting to measure how and if this effect
is present during a restaurant visit and Williams et al. (1998) further states that restaurant not
addressing changes in the psychology of customers due to age, risks loosing a significant
market as well as economic income. Using stimuli without accounting for age might result in
failure reaching an age group or exclude an age group. Age have an over-riding effect on
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auditory stimuli Kämpfe et al. (2011) because of different preferences that might obscure
results of auditory stimuli or undermine a marketing program. If not fitted auditory stimuli
could even have a detrimental behavioural effect Kämpfe et al. (2011) due to the difference in
preference caused by age.
Gender is considered another demographic variable when it comes to restaurant visits.
It’s important to take in account the symbolic dimension and the different effect of marketing
dependant on gender. The symbolic aspect is culturally conditioned and is connected to the
individual culture which determines typical feminine and masculine behaviour. (Moschis,
1985; Douglas, 1987) Gilligan (1982) show similar differences between men and women when
it comes to preferences of food portion size where women tend to eat the smaller portion. Both
of these phenomenons ought to have an effect during food choose during a restaurant visit.
Further, the perception of stimuli in the form of marketing cues for products is not
considered to be the same between the genders. Women had a lower threshold thus made a
greater use of the cues than men when choosing a preferred product (Meyers-Levy and
Sternthal, 1991), making it possible to argue that women will respond different to music cues
in a certain volume than men. According to Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran (1991), males are
in general more influenced by the overall theme while women are more sensitive to more
precise stimuli and undergo a more elaborate processing of the stimuli. This further stress the
importance to account for the differences of gender when developing marketing programs that
should fit both genders.
Research suggest a difference in perception with regard to sound and music between
men and women. According to Hultén et al. (2008) a big difference in behaviour is dependent
on what type of stimuli is used during the marketing program and what gender is targeted. This
research shows the importance of music selection and variables such as volume, pitch and
tempo for a successful marketing program. Using an auditory stimulus with low fit with either
genders, situation and product Grewal, Baker, Levy, and Voss (2003) might undermine the
whole marketing program and for a restaurant owner even contribute to a negative behavioural
effect. As for age, different preferences related to consumer gender is a important factor to
consider (Yeoh and North 2010) when determining the right music for right purpose (Hecker
1984)
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1.3 PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to assess the effect of price, consumer age, and consumer gender
on the relationship between music and consumer choice of food in a lunch restaurant.
1.4 Research questions RQ1: Is there a effect of price on the relationship between auditory stimuli and product choice
in a lunch restaurant?
RQ2: Is there an effect of age and gender on the relationship between auditory stimuli and
product choice in a given price category in a lunch restaurant?
1.5 DelimitationThis thesis is delimited to only focus on the sense of hearing and music as stimuli when
conducting the experiment. Further, this thesis does not take hearing defects among
respondents into account. The experiment in question is conducted on a university campus,
thus delimiting itself to respondents operating in the vicinities such as students, university
employees and respondents with other occupation currently or permanently residing in the
vicinities. The statistics is delimited to the food variables fish and meat.
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2. Theory and Hypotheses
2.1 Theoretical framework
2.1.1 Shannon's model of the communication process
Originally developed to explain the transmission of electronic data, the model of the
communication process developed by Shannon (1948) has become a common ground for
human communication within disciplines such as journalism, rhetoric, and speech and hearing
sciences. (Bowman and Targowski, 1987; Fougler, 2004). The model is also considered to be
one of the main seeds out of which communication studies have grown up to date (Ruler 2004;
Fougler, 2004) Although the process of communication is more complex, the model of
Shannon (1948) provides an minimalist abstraction of how communication in reality takes
place from source to destination. Shannon´s model (1948), illustrated below.
Figure 1, The process of communication model, adopted from Shannon (1948) p3.
Shannon (1948) broke down the process presented in the model in the steps bellow, they are
however modified according to Fougler, (2004) in order to give a better understanding of its
appliance to human communication.
1. The Information source. An individual (or machine) who creates a message.
2. The message. Which is sent by the information source and later received by the received.
3. Transmitter. As mentioned earlier, Shannon´s model was originally designed for
transmission of electric data and the transmitter in this case was considered to be a
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telephone instrument. But from a human perspective the transmitter is considered to consist
of two layers, the first one being to the mouth (sound) and the body (gestures) and the
second layer the air (sound) and light (gesture). These layers enable the transmission of a
signal from one person to another.
4. The signal, which flows trough a channel, can be of parallel nature. This is the case in
human communication as sound and gestures may involve several signal systems that
depend on different channels and transmissions. There can be several signals such as sound
and/or gestures that may turn into electronic signals, radio waves, words or pictures.
5. Channel, can be seen in the middle of the model without a label. Channels may include
things like air, electricity, paper, postal systems and radio waves.
6. Noise, is included in the model in the form of signals that confuse or obscure the main
signal carried.
7. Receiver, which according to Shannon (1948), initially, was the receiving telephone
instrument. In human communication (face to face) the receiving end is a set of ears
(sound) and eyes (gestures).
8. Destination which in the human communication perspective is a individual who processes
and consumes the message.
2.1.2 Perception
Our immediate response to stimuli such as sound, lighting and colour in our environment is
called sensations and is absorbed through our sensory organs (eyes, mouth, ears, nose and
fingers). How humans acquire, interpret and select these sensations is viewed as perception.
(Bruner, 1957; Wilson and Moore, 1979; Peck and Childers, 2008). Perception can be
considered a complex concept as it is something we often take for granted (Groome et al.,
2010). Perception can be resembled with a bottleneck, humans have a limited ability as it is
only possible to react to stimuli that stimulates our senses - removing stimuli that do not
interest us (Scholderer, 2010). The process by which the senses handle raw information is
called the perceptual process. During this process sensations are selected, sorted and
interpreted in order for us to ascribe them meaning (Heimbach and Jacoby, 1972). Human
beings add or remove certain factors from the sensations to make them more understandable
and graspable. (Bruner, 1957; Passer and Smith, 2011; Solomon et al., 2010) The picture
below further explain the process of perception.
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Figure 2, The perceptual process adopted from solomon et. al (2010) p 119
1. The first step in the perceptual process is labeled exposure and is the initial phase were the
nervous system receive information from our sensory organs (Solomon et al., 2010).
Groome et al. (2010) labels this as sensory impression, and suggests that this phase is
where the ”raw material” from our senses are collected. The concept of selective exposure
concerns how much of a certain stimuli a person can process is correlated with the persons
past experiences (Solomon et al., 2010). It can be seen as perceptual filters based on
consumers past experiences considering a certain stimuli. Consumers are also more likely
to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs. This needs can be on a both
conscious and unconscious level. Adaptation is another factor affecting exposure, it is the
degree to which a consumer continue to notice a certain stimuli over time and by this no
longer paying attention to it, due to its increased familiarity (Bruner, 1957).
2. The second step in the perceptual process has been labelled attention, which explains to
which level consumers focus on stimuli within the range of exposure. (Solomon et al.,
2010; Davenport and Beck, 2002). Marketers today try to gain attention in having large
advertising boards, loud announcements or something else that will drive attention towards
their product. Or in other words, simply trying to pierce trough the advertising clutter.
Humans rarely focus on only one single stimulus, even though one specific stimulus can be
found stronger and thereby draw the majority of attention (Groome et al., 2010). Attention
14
starts when we screen our surroundings, multiple sensory inputs from the surroundings are
registered and further enable an our awareness (Davenport and Beck, 2002). However, only
a small portion of the stimuli we are exposed to is really perceived by us, and out of these,
even fewer processed and interpreted (Scholderer, 2010). Attention has been labeled as an
important aspect of social psychology and has further been identified as an determinant
factor when consumers are making their purchase decisions (Ajzen, 2008).
3. The final stage in the perceptual process is labeled interpretation, which refers to the
meaning consumers assign to sensory stimuli, the stimuli consumers are exposed to is not
objectively treated, but treatment of stimuli is influenced by the individual's unique biases,
needs and experiences (Heimbach and Jacoby, 1972). A group of customers can give
attention to the same stimuli but interpret it completely different. The meaning and
significance we ascribe to a sensation derived from organised groups of feelings and
values. Humans tend to group objects that we perceive to be of similar characteristics
(Rosch, 1975).
2.1.3 Sensitivity
In the area of psycho-physics two types of sensitivity to stimuli are apparent, the first one is
called the Absolute threshold and describes the lowest level of stimuli that can be perceived by
our brain (Stevens, 1958; Monroe, 1973; Wilson and Moore, 1979; Johansson and Vallbo ,
1979). The lower the Absolute threshold is, the higher the sensitivity to stimuli. An example
can be a text with some kind of offer which can not be interpreted because the text is too small.
Stimuli which fall under Absolute threshold and can not be perceived by the consumer. Our
sensitivity to stimuli, however, is by no means fixed but can vary depending on the sensitivity
of different people to stimuli and may also consider temporary states of mind such as fatigue or
preparation for stimuli (Passer and Smith, 2011).
The second type of sensitivity is the Differential threshold, which refers to the smallest
difference between two stimuli that can be detected, also described as the smallest noticeable
difference (Stevens, 1958; Monroe, 1973; Wilson and Moore, 1979). Humans ability to find
differences between two stimuli is relative and is influenced by the environment. For example,
during a rock concert a phone call be hard to understand, while it may be perceived as loud and
annoying in a quiet library. Here, the difference between the sound level of the call and
environment are decisive for sensitivity to stimuli. The German psycho-physicist Ernst Weber
15
noted that the intensity of stimulus is needed for the perceived difference the first time we are
exposed to it. This means that the larger the stimulus is the first time of exposure, the greater
the difference must be for it to be perceived. This is called Weber's Law. (Monroe, 1973; Passer
and Smith, 2011)
2.1.4 Conditioning
As they go through life, consumers are shaped by the feedback they receive from their
environment. for example, Consumers respond to marketing stimuli based on the learned
connections they have formed in the past. People also learn that their actions will result in a
reward and or punishment, this feedback further influences the way they respond in similar
situations in the future. (Shimp, Stuart and Engle, 1991)
This refers to the concept of conditioning, developed by Ivan Pavlov in 1927
(McSweeney and Bierley, 1984). This concept can be describes as when a stimulus that derive
a certain response is connected with another stimulus that initially does not derive a response at
all. Over time, the second stimulus will start to cause similar responses because it has become
associated with the first stimulus (McSweeney and Bierley, 1984; Rescorla, 1988; Shimp,
Stuart and Engle, 1991). Although Pavlov achieved his results from an experiment with
animals, Ernest Hilgard suggested in 1931 that the concept also applies to humans
(McSweeney and Bierley, 1984).
A development of Pavlov´s findings was made by Burrhus Skinner in 1938 as he
presented the concept of operant conditioning. Also known as instrumental conditioning,
operant conditioning occurs when a individual learns to perform certain behaviours that
generates positive outcomes and avoid those that produce negative outcomes. Skinner made
this discovery when he taught animals do dance and pigeons play ping-pong by systematically
rewarding them for correct behaviours. (McSweeney and Bierley, 1984; Morgan and Hunt
1994)
A number of studies show the connection between conditioning and consumer
behaviour. For example, Gorn (1982) found trough an experiment that an object linked to liked
music became more preferable than one linked to disliked music, although the two objects only
differed i terms of colour. Similarly, Nord and Peter (1980) suggests that many advertisements
are designed so that classical conditioning can occur. for example, many famous sport casters
whose voices have been paired with exiting sport events for years, may be used in advertising
16
in order to evoke the feeling of excitements with consumers. Another concept that supports
Nord and Peter's suggestions can be found with fast food companies were their products often
are associating their company names with the sound and sight of a sizzling hamburger as well
as beverage companies were soft drinks often are associated with some sort of catchy jingle.
Another example is supermarkets, who tend to play music for their customers while they are
shopping (Milliman, 1982). All of this is done in the hope of altering consumer behaviour.
2.1.5 The psychological and physiological impact of music on consumers
Clynes and Nettheim, (1982), suggests that appropriately structured music have tremendous
effect on the nervous system, activating brain processes with corresponding emotional reaction.
Studies by Gorn, Pham, and Sin (2001) and Sweeney and Weber (2002), Wilson (2003)
suggest that music in commercial environments, have an active influence on degree of pleasure
and arousal. Arousal can be defined as a tension within the body, a physiological state which
gives rise to attention in the consumer decision-making process. Music creates emotions and is
therefore an effective tool to manipulate behaviour, for example, to increase the memory of a
particular advertisement and increase affiliation behaviours.
In a study by Gorn, Goldberg and Basu (1993) classical conditioning was used to test
consumers' purchasing behaviour in relation to different forms of auditory stimuli in a
commercial environment. This approach assumes that there is a direct link between mood of
the music and the perceived feeling. Results of this study was consistent with those of Merikle,
Smilek, and Eastwood (2000) and showed that perceived sensation was influenced by the
music when the consumer was not aware of the music, but when the consumer was aware of
the music, the perceived sensation was not affected. Gorn, Goldberg and Basu (1993) further
argue that the cognitive approach explains this by people observe their own feelings and
evaluates them gradually, as they are aware that they are under the influence of stimuli.
2.1.6 Important factors when using music in a commercial environment
When it comes to music, research has been focused on the effects of background music and
how background music affects consumer behaviour. This research has lifted certain elements
and themes which to consider regarding music in commercial environments. They mention the
importance to consider the tempo of the music, its pitch, volume and type (or genre). It also
suggests that people ascribe emotional context to music (Bruner, 1990; Kellaris and Kent,1993;
17
Gorn, Goldberg, and Basu, 1993). For example, Gundlach (1935), Hevner (1937), Rigg (1940),
and Watson (1942) suggest a strong association between level of pitch and happiness. Music
with high pitch was found to be happy and exiting as low-pitched music was found to be more
melancholic and sad. Further, research have suggested that loud music in a commercial
enivornment can make consumers feel uncomfortable and may have a opposite effect on
purchasing behaviour as it turns attention to itself rather than the commercial environment
(MacInnis and Park, 1991; Chebat, and Vaillant, 2001).
Hecker (1984) discuss that music can be of interest to marketers in many different
ways. However, he stresses the importance to consider music carefully, music effectively used
to serve one purpose may be inappropriate for another purpose. In order to explore these
various purposes, marketers may try to match the emotion of music to that expressed in the
verbal and visual part of an add or certain environment. Marketers may also try to intensify,
counteract or change the prevailing mood of consumers (Parrott, 1982; Shatin, 1970; Wheeler,
1985).
Music is an important component in the design of the atmosphere in a commercial
environment. One should then pay particular attention to components of the music (theme or
genre), frequency and volume, all must be adapted to suit the environment as well as the
audience. (Aradhna Krishna, 2010; North et al., 1999) This further suggests what North et al.
(1999), Areni and Kim (1993) and Grewal, Baker, Levy, and Voss (2003) further mentions as
the concept of ”fit” between music and objects. They stress that this derive from human
cognition and suggest the mind as composed of cognitive units connected to each other that
differ in the strength with which they can become activated. Units coding more prototypical
stimuli are activated more frequently and are therefore stronger than those coding atypical
stimuli.
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2.2 Hypothesis 1 - MusicResearch suggest that music has the ability to affect consumers perceived atmosphere in
commercial environments. Traditionally, classical music has showed to have a positive effect
on environments (Yeoh and North, 2010) in a retailing setting, but as music has a strong
connection to lifestyle it should be considered thereafter. Milliman (1986) suggest that musical
tempo can affect the in-store traffic in a retail setting, slow music enables slower traffic and
faster music, higher traffic. Slower traffic were associated with higher sales. A similar effect
can be found in a restaurant setting according to Milliman (1986) who suggest that slower
music makes consumers relax and stay longer, thus spending more money. Further, Yalch and
Spangenberg (2000) argue that consumers tend to shop longer when exposed to unfamiliar
music than familiar music. However, the shorter shopping time induced by familiar music was
related to higher levels of arousal. Similarly, research of Smith and Curnow (1966) suggests
that volume of music played in a retail setting is correlated negatively with shopping time but
not associated with the average sales per person or customers' perceived satisfaction with the
music. The conclusion was that the sales per minute were significantly higher when loud music
was played.
Findings by North et al. (1999), Alpert and Alpert (1990) and Areni and Kim (1993)
also indicated that music can be used to influence customers product selections. Research by
North et al. (1999) showed that French music, played in a supermarket, led to higher sales of
French wine, and German music led to higher sales of German wine. Similarly, Areni and Kim
(1993) and Wilson (2003) found that classical music were associated with higher sales of more
expensive wine.
Findings from studies by Alpert and Alpert (1988) suggest that happy music was found
to produce happier moods in subjects, but sad music showed to produce the highest purchase
intentions. The authors concluded that the structure and expressiveness of the background
music can evoke different moods and purchase intentions toward certain advertised products.
Gorn (1982) used the classical conditioning approach and examined the influence of
music inn advertising on product choice. It was found that the simple association between a
picture of a pen (the conditioned stimulus) and liked music (the unconditioned stimulus) could
significantly affect a pen selection decision, particularly for subjects not aware that they would
be asked to make a decision. Research shows that people’s selection of drink and food, as well
as their general shopping behaviour, can be altered by the auditory attributes of the
19
environment (Rozin and Tuorila, 1993).
Areni and Kim's (1993) tells us about the potential effects of music on consumer
behaviour in terms of more widely researched theories of other types of responses to music. If
in-store music leads to the activation of relevant related knowledge structures, it is not
unreasonable to suspect that this same process might influence product choice and explain the
results obtained by Alpert and Alpert (1990), Areni and Kim (1993), North et al. (1999),
Wilson (2003) concerning musical fit.
Price has been widely studied as an important extrinsic cue for assessing the quality of
a product. Some research shows that choice indeed are affected by the differences in expected
price and the observed price during the point of purchase. (Lichtenstein et al., 1993) In cases
where the price is lower than internal reference price it’s likely that a purchase is made. If the
price is above the internal reference price a purchase is less likely to be made. Janiszewski and
Lichtenstein (1999) Price is further one of the most important cues in the marketplace due to
that the price cue is something to consider in all purchase situations. For consumer’s price
represent how much that have to be sacrificed economically in order to engage in a purchase
transaction. Seen in this way the amount of money given up creates a negative effect on the
purchase probabilities.
Janiszewski and Lichtenstein (1999) explain how consumer purchase intentions are
sensitive to their perception of lowest and highest prices. Rajendran and Tellis (1994) have
earlier showed a variance in purchase behaviour that is explained by the range of prices
presented in the store.( Janiszewski and Lichtenstein, 1999)
Tellis and Gaeth (1990) conducted an experiment where they manipulated the amount
and importance of product quality and at the same time price-quality correlation of a product
class. Measures where then taken of product choice across 135 respondents during the time and
this resulted in three different strategies customers use while evaluating price and in turn these
strategies express three different manifestations,” value consciousness”, “price-quality
schema”, and “price consciousness” which all of them are price related cues.
The perception of price cue for customers could have both a negative role and a positive
role. The negative role can be characterised by the concern of quality received relative to the
paid price during the purchase. According to Lichtenstein et al. (1993) the concept of value is
defined by numerous researchers who holds the same perspective. (e.g., Lichtenstein,
Netemeyer, and Burton, 1990; Tellis and Gaeth, 1990; Thaler, 1985; Zeithaml, 1988) Value
20
consciousness is conceptualised here as reflecting a consideration between paid price and value
received. The positive role of price is that for some consumers the cue that price have can be
seen positive because of the positive relation to product quality (cf. Erickson and Johansson,
1985). In the case f a positive connection of price and quality consumers’ se a higher priced
product as more favourable (cf. Lichtenstein, Bloch, and Black, 1988). Because some
customers tend to se price in this way and prefer paying a higher price they are by Tellis and
Gaeth (1990) called “price seeking” customers.
Lewis (1990) indicates that price is important when differencing inside of a product
class but gets difficult when differencing between product classes. In a restaurant environment
price effects are important variables that should be considered when restaurants are developing
marketing strategies because the impact is has on customers. (Kwun and Oh, 2004) Price has
also been shown to have a great effect and make a difference for customers while choosing the
restaurant it self restaurant (Okeiyi and Finley, 1994).
According to Choffee and McLeod (1973) and Laurent and Kapferer’s (1985) risk can
be seen as an antecedent of involvement which Mitchell (1999) says is particularly present
when the price is higher and the consumer risk is perceived as higher. This makes the purchase
and through that the importance of the product class salient for the customer. Further
involvement and risk are seen to be closely related constructs. (Dholakia, 2001) Both
involvement and perceived risk have shown to asses the depth, complexity and extensiveness
of cognitive and behavioural processes during customers choice processes. (Celsi and Olson,
1988; Gemunden, 1985; Laurent and Kapferer, 1985)
Level of involvement during the purchase experience has shown to have an impact on
consumers’ cognitive and behavioural responses to marketing stimuli (Dholakia, 2001). When
situational involvement occurs which is temporary involvement and emotional feelings of a
consumer in a particular situation of a specific product, it may cause a more detailed evaluation
of objective stimuli such as cost or performance of the product and also social and
psychological environment during purchase and consumption. (Dholakia, 2001).
Music is likely to be most effective when consumers are high affective and/or low
cognitive involvement with the product during purchase decision (Bruner, 1990). Which can be
seen in research by Andersson, Henriksson and Johnson (2011), where a significant
relationship between conditioned music (musical stimuli connected to the sea) and choice of a
seafood dish was found in a experiment conducted at a café with lower prices. The effect is
21
opposite when consumers experience higher involvement for products that might be more
expensive or complex. (Bruner, 1990) Involvement is the key to activating consumer
motivation and also to create an understanding about the relationship between consumer and
seller. On a more individual level it could be seen as a key to growth, satisfaction, motivation
and goal directed behaviour. By increasing involvement it is possible to increase the
effectiveness of the marketing by engaging the customer more completely.
According to the theories presented above it is suggested that auditorial stimuli has a
sensory impact and are perceived by our brain given that the stimuli acts on the appropriate
level. However, only a small amount of stimuli is given attention to and even less interpreted.
The theories claim that this attention and interpretation is not executed objectively but are
dependent on individuals unique preferences and past experiences. The theories further state
that music and sound can affect consumer behaviour and purchase intentions in commercial
environments. However, price is considered to be an important cue in the scenario of product
choice and also choice of restaurant as well as when restaurants develop marketing strategies.
A higher price also contributes to a higher involvement thus making the effect of auditory
stimuli in the form of music less effective. This leads us to the first hypothesis:
H1 In the price category for complete lunch menus, conditioned music has an effect
on consumer choice of food in a lunch restaurant
22
2.3 Hypothesis 2 - AgeHearing impairments is common with elder people and it starts as early as middle age and
when a person reaches an age around 60 the rate of hearing loss increases even more. This
could result in the inability to hear certain high and low frequencies and the high frequencies
are the first to disappear (Williams et al., 1998), this in turn might effect a persons absolute
threshold (Stevens, 1958; Monroe, 1973; Wilson and Moore, 1979; Johansson and Vallbo,
1979).
People in the same age often share many of the same experiences and therefore
interpret the world in similar ways. Vice verse, people in different ages tend to have less shared
experiences and the gap widens with the amount of years difference. People aged 30 and up
have shown to be more receptive of nostalgia than younger people. However all age groups has
been shown to be susceptible to nostalgia at some level. This knowledge have been
successfully used in marketing programs in practice by selecting a specific artist somehow
connected to the age group targeted and by doing this yield more sales. (Hultén et al., 2008)
According to Yalch and Spangenberg, (1990) and Holbrook et al. (1989) age is strongly
associated to preference differences in musical preference. These differences can be studied in
shopping environments where stores niche themselves to different age groups by playing
different music. Yalch and Spangenberg, (1990) continue to show that background music (often
instrumental music with no text) and foreground music (which could be top radio music),
attract different target groups from both age and gender. Age 50 and over spent more money
while background music was played, further age 25-49 shopped more during foreground music
than background music. Schellenberg et al, (2007) conclude that music have different
stimulating effect dependent on age. The findings indicate that a younger audience gets more
stimulated by familiar music appropriate music for the age might be more stimulating. They
continue to argue that fast tempo classical music might be more stimulating compared to slow
or no music as researched before.
On a more basic level some research shows that there is a difference in the perceptual
process between elder individuals and younger adults. The age differences results in changes in
the individual’s source of information, ability to learn and susceptibility to social influence.
(Phillips and Sternthal (1977) Cole and Balasubramanian (1993) strengthen this by adding
findings about the perceptual process by showing a difference between ages when they where
asked to choose a specific cereal. In this case the test was conducted in a regular shopping
23
environment and showed that elder people search for information less intensely and was less
likely to find a cereal with the requested nutrition. This is argued to be an effect of age-related
changes in perceptual processing ability form cues relevant to the product.
When it comes to food there is also a measurable effects of preference patterns pending
between the ages. Ares and Ga´mbaro (2007) research showed that age where one of the
variables affecting choice of functional food. Their survey of 300 participants also showed that
the carrier and type of enrichment in the food played a big role in choice of food. The findings
then conclude that functional food might be designed for specific groups and not for the whole
market place. (Ares and Ga´mbaro, 2007) Dagevos (2005) is of another opinion and states that
these types of consumer behaviours can not be understood with only segmentation and further
argue that food choice is a more complex process that should be investigated with consumer
image in mind. Furst et al, (1996) also argued for a more complex explanation than only
demographic segmentation. They created a food choice model with variables on different
levels in the patch of food choice and in this model age play an important role. From this
research they conclude that age groups or generations affect how people regard and use food.
Other important “personal factors” except age which determine choice of food could be
individual food style, health and sensory performance. (Furst et al, 1996)
According to the theory there are a wide variety of differences between age groups that
can be connected to marketing through auditory stimuli. Foreground music will theoretically
impact a wide age of 25 – 49 more when it comes to consumption. Adding the effect of
nostalgia as explained from age 30 narrows the age group down to 30-50. For elderly people its
shown that perceptual processing in a commercial environment is less effective than younger
adults, which point even more towards that the 31- 50 segment is more susceptible to auditory
stimuli. Some findings also show that younger audiences tend to be more stimulated by
familiar music.
H1 In the price category for complete lunch-menus, consumer age is related to the effect of
conditioned music on consumer choice of food in a lunch restaurant.
24
2.4 Hypothesis 3 - GenderSeveral studies suggest that there are significant differences in the perceptual process between
women and men, as well as how they behave and parse judgement (Meyers-Levy and
Maheswaran, 1991; Meyers-Levy and Sternthal, 1991; Darley and Smith, 1995). These
differences have its roots in both cultural and biological factors and are reinforced through
socialisation. It is further suggested that the socialisation process is more likely to enhance
rather then diminish these differences (Putrevu, 2001). Women are found to process
information in detail, making them more sensitive to environmental factors (Meyers-Levy and
Maheswaran, 1991; Meyers-Levy and Sternthal, 1991; Darley and Smith, 1995). Since women
are suggested to be more detailed in their perceptual process, they are likely to be more
affected by negative information than men (Dube ́ and Morgan, 1996; D’Astous, 2000).
Gilligan (1982), Deux and Kite (1987) and Meyers-Levy (1989) Suggest that, in terms
of intellect, men are considered more analytical and logical in their perceptual processing as
well as more superior in the quantitate aspects of learning skills. Women tend to be more
subjective and intuitive as well as more superior in communication, literature and speech than
men. The female brain is considered to be more symmetrically organised which seems to get
women memory advantages considering verbal as well as visual stimuli in commercial
environments compared to men whose cerebral hemispheres are more specialised. This
specialisation suggest that men might require non-verbal reinforcement such as music, graphs
and pictures to the verbal information. (Edens and McCormick, 2000).
Findings by Meyers-Levy and Sternthal (1991) further explain this by suggesting a
different threshold for men and women regarding message cues when judging products.
Women have a lower threshold thus made a greater use of the cues than men when choosing a
product. Men and women interpret marketing stimuli differently. Men tend to be more
influenced by the overall theme while women are more sensitive to certain parts of all the
stimuli and undergo a more elaborate processing. (Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran, 1991)
A number of studies further suggests that men and women behave and think differently
due to the alternative roles they play in society. These differences are governed by the
individual’s level of gender identification and interaction with social agents such as parents,
peers and mass media (Moschis, 1985, Douglas, 1987).
”There is sufficient evidence to suggest that both biology and socialisation contribute to
25
the differences commonly observed between the sexes and that these differences influence how
marketing communications are processed and evaluated.” (Putrevu, 2001, p5)
Kellaris and Rice, (1993) and Darley and Smith (1995) suggests that, when it comes to
music, it is evident that significant different effects occur on perception of the music and
behavioural intention between men and women. Gender is shown to be a type of moderator of
the loudness of the type where females respond more positive to lower volume music. Further,
Corso (1963) found in a experiment that female collage students have more accurate hearing,
particularly in higher frequencies, 4000 Hz and above, than male collage students.
Yalch and Spangenbergs (1990) suggest that women could spend up to the double when
background music was played in a store, compared to foreground music. For men the effect
was the opposite, they spent more when foreground music was played. Other effects shown in
this study was that men, during foreground music, perceived the store as more price worthy
and spacious. For women the background music created a feeling of hospitable, sophisticated
and exclusive.
As mentioned, there are certain assumptions made in a society about men and women
and their behaviour. One of these behaviours connected to gender is the size of the food
portions, which tend to be smaller for women (Gilligan, 1982). Further, in a study by Wardle et
al. (2004), including patrons from 23 countries, it was found that men and women differ in
terms of preferred foods as women tend to avoid high-fat foods, eating more fruits and fiber
and limiting their intake of salt, compered to men. Women are also more likely to be dieting
and attached greater importance to healthy eating. These finding are also consistent with those
of Douglas (1987).
The theories presented above suggests that men and women differ in terms of the
perceptual process as well as their behaviour in the commercial environment. The reason for
these differences is rooted in biological, cultural and socialisation factors. Women are
suggested to be more sensitive to auditory stimuli, they interpret the information more in detail
as well as more subjectively and intuitively than their male counterparts. Men tend to interpret
information more objectively and analytically.
H1 In the price category for complete lunch-menus, consumer gender is related to the effect of
conditioned music on consumer choice of food in a lunch restaurant.
26
3. Methodology The study was performed in three steps; first three focus groups were conducted to further
validate an assumption made by the authors about what kind of music was related to the sea
and fish food.. The second step was a experiment conducted on a lunch restaurant on a
University campus lunch restaurant to test the difference in consumer behaviour dependant on
what music was playing.. Finally, to be able to test the differences of gender and age a survey
was conducted while the experiment was running containing questions concerning age, gender,
food choice and if the auditory stimuli were picked up on a conscious level. For epistemology,
theoretical perspectives and quantitative and qualitative method se appendix 1.
3.1 Focus groupsThe three Semi-structured focus groups were designed to simulate the clientele of the
restaurant chosen for the experiment. Semi-structured focus groups means that a less structured
query template is followed in which participants are allowed to deviate from the discussion and
the observers’ role is to steer the interview towards what is relevant to the investigation.
(Bryman and Bell, 2005).
Focus groups are designed so that a given number of people can interact with each
other regarding one or more questions. In a semi structured interview the questions are
provided by the researchers. The amount of participants are not strictly regulated and a increase
in number of participants do not necessary generate more ideas. With other words when you
double the number of participants there is not duplication in different ideas. The purpose of a
focus group is to get participants to interact so that the observer can then use this information
to substantiate other sources or introduce completely new information. (Morgan and Spanish,
1984)
The decision to use focus groups to provide support for the experiment was done
because it is considered to be an effective way to examine people's thoughts and ideas around a
specific topic. Since the exchange of ideas between the participants is important, three focus
groups of 6 participants each was compiled. The number of participants was determined based
on the goal of a breadth of ideas to be generated. For this the number of participants should not
be too many thus leading to some ideas to be excluded (Hughes and DuMont, 1993).
27
3.1.1 Focus group sample
Choosing participants for the three focus groups where done by convenience sampling, which
means that the participants selected from among people in vicinity. A snowball effect was also
used, meaning that the already selected participants were asked to contact other potential
participants considered to be a knowledge source. (Davenport and Prusak, 2000; Bryman and
Bell, 2005; Gray, 2009)
Comfort sample was judged advantageous in view of the desire to create a dynamic
group that can generate a fruitful discussion and also an effective way to find willing
participants in all of the three age groups. Certain homogeneity of the group can be seen as
something positive, and then the participants can develop and clarify each other's ideas
(Hughes and DuMont, 1993)
The three focus groups was formed to validate the associations regarding the link
between seafood and music for the three age groups. Six people were chosen to participate in
each focus group which is considered a good number of participants to get a vast amount of
information. (Hughes and DuMont, 1993)
Criticism can be directed at towards the method of convenience samples, which can
cause a lack of generalizability of the results. The risk is that the chosen groups does not
represent the population and therefore in this case the quantified music might not have the
hypothesized effect during the experiment. Focus groups with less structured questions also
raise the risk that the author's own values and thoughts influence the work (Bryman and Bell,
2005).
28
3.1.2 Focus group procedure
The first semi structured focus groups were conducted 09/02/13 in a classroom environment
with six persons, many in the lower age group. To keep a good atmosphere coffee and cookies
was served. The participants were not informed in advance about the purpose of the focus
groups to reassure that their first thought would surface during exposure of the different songs
played. At all the occasions one interviewer asked the questions and gave the interviewees time
to discuss and respond. The response was directly transcribed on to a laptop. The same laptop
was used for the playback of music and viewing of pictures.
In the first part of the focus group songs were played to make it possible for the
participants to associate. The musical part was conduced in the beginning because it also
revealed much about what was researched. In the second part pictures of food instead was
shown and the participants was asked to relate music to them. First a meat dish was shown,
second a fish dish and last a vegetarian dish. Part three of the focus group was introduced after
about 30 minutes and contained questions about the cultural bias of sea and music. Questions
treat what kind sounds and music that could be connected to the sea and what sound can be
connected to certain food. In part 4 the daily effect of sound and sounds cape was discussed
and known changes in behaviour due to sound/music. Part five was an open general discussion
about the thoughts of how sound could change consumer behaviour.
Both focus group two and three was conducted in a similar manner as possible to focus
group one. For focus group two conducted the 09/02/17 a major difference was that the age
groups were significantly represented by ages in the middle age group (30-50). Another
difference was the setting (home setting) in which the focus group where conducted.
Participants of focus group three were mainly represented by people in the top age group (50+)
and were conducted 09/02/18 in a home setting but as focus group two a script was followed.
All of the focus groups were constructed with three men and three women due to represent the
customers of the restaurant. (For an overview of the questions used in the focus groups, see
appendix 7)
29
3.2 Experiment
3.2.1 Experimental design
Experimental design was used in as a method to rule out alternative explanations for the
measurement of various phenomena. This is done by using at least two groups, where one or
several of the groups are subjected to manipulation of an independent variable. The group in
which the manipulation of the variable has been is later compared with the control group,
where no manipulation has occurred. There is no on size-fits-all solution when experimental
design is used; rather it is up to the shape of the design and the criteria needed to be fulfilled.
(Bryman and Bell, 2005)
Experimental design has been chosen because it increases reliability by reducing the
sources of errors that can otherwise my obscure the results. This is done when the design of the
study is based on a control group which is compared with the test group. Examples of error
could be that the personnel have been affected by the experiment by knowing about it, the
customers could become accustomed to the music, or that the test might not be performed in
the same way every day.
The test group where the music played is then compared with the control group, where
no music is played, in order to determine the cause of the possible change. The control group is
important because the environment of the selected experiment is not controllable in any great
way. (Bryman and Bell, 2005)
Experimental design cannot account for sources of errors beyond what the
experimental design was meant to control. In this case, errors can occur due to certain days of
the month may be different attractive to restaurant visits, were also to seasonal and weather
affect the customer. Participant economy is also a factor that may influence the outcome of the
experiment.
The sources of error is tried to be held at a minimum when the experiment is held
during 3 weeks with different music and no music every third day. Had the experiment been
part of a more longitudinal study the effect would be a more valid result. Sources of error,
however, would also become more and more difficult to account for. (Perude and Summers,
1986)
30
3.2.2 Experiment sample
The sample for the experiment is somewhat difficult to quantify as it was not a possibility to
select restaurant clientele, due to that the experiment was conducted on a restaurant. Those
participating in the experiment were the restaurant's customers. Since the sample automatically
will be the people who happen visit the restaurant and no statistical basis for the sample will be
used it should be considered a convenience sample according to Bryman and Bell (2005). The
sample wasn’t based on any statistical sample process and might not be representative of the
whole population (Bryman and bell, 2005; Gray, 2009). Convenience sampling though is seen
as legitimate sample for indicating trends but should be used with caution. (Gray, 2009)
During this experiment the sampling frame was the residents or people currently residing in the
city of Växjö. Convenience sample have been used because of the impossibility to control the
guests of a real restaurant where the observations and experiment was done.
3.2.3 Implementation
The experiment started the fifth of Mars on the restaurant who served lunch between 11:00 and
14:00 o clock Monday to Friday. The experiment ran for three weeks and surveys where
collected during the same time. During the three weeks two different types of music were
played as well as no music certain days. The sequence of the two music types and no music
was decided to be changed every day making the experiment three weeks to be able to play the
music five days each. (For the music tracks, see appendix 8 and 9) Dividing up the music
differently every week guaranteed that day to day differences could be avoided as much as
possible. Examples of this scenario could be if people eat out more on a Fridays than a
Mondays in general.
Sound volume was adjusted by the researchers according Bruner (1990), Kellaris and
Kent (1993), Gorn, Goldberg, and Basu (1993) and spot-checks where dine to ashore that the
music was in accordance with the theory for volume. Some songs were recorded louder than
others but the difference it made during the experiment were trivial due to the small
differences. The layout of the restaurant made it easy to set a good volume from the beginning
and was not severely affected by the buzz from the guests eating. What volume to use was
derived from the theory and was calibrated by ear. The restaurant layout with regards to the
experiment can be seen in appendix 2.
31
3.2.4 Data analysis
A statistical analysis was done of the collected data from the results of the sales. For a medium-
constraint study like this, a two type of statistics will be used; descriptive statistics which aim
is to simplify the data and inferential statistics which aim to interpret the data. (Graziano and
Raulin, 2008; Gray 2009), First the descriptive statistics is presented in a scheme, meaning that
total sales and individual sales, as well as the percentage of fish dishes against the total sales is
shown. Here data from meat sales are divided with fish sales for the same day create a
Fishquota. Secondly inferential statistics which is based on descriptive statistics (Fishquota and
type of music played) is presented in an ANOVA test. The aim is to examine the relationship
between fishquota and music to determine differences, also if its possible to disregard the null
hypothesis for a statistical significant difference.
ANOVA tests were used for testing differences of the mean values of the dependant
variable associated with the effect of the manipulated independent variables while also
accounting for the uncontrolled independent variable. It uses both within-group variance
(average variability within the groups) and between-group variance (variability of group
means). (Graziano and Raulin, 2008; Malhotra, 2010) The purpose is to test two populations
and determine the differences thus the null hypothesis typically is that all is equal. By
determine if it’s possible to reject the null hypothesis it’s possible to argue for differences
between the groups. (Malhotra 2010) For this a one-way analysis of variance method is used,
which is an ANOVA test with only one categorical variable or a single independent variable.
(Malhotra 2010 The differences of choices made by music, gender and age will be examined in
this way.
32
3.3 Survey
3.3.1 Survey development
Bryman and Bell (2005) provide some guidelines when conducting a survey. The survey
should not be hard read and it should be easy to separate the questions from each other. This
was done with the survey as far as possible yet presenting sufficient questions on one page to
make it easy to answer. Bryman and Bell (2005) continues to suggest that there should be a
clear pattern of answering horizontal or vertical and that the questions and answers should be
on the same page. This was also accounted for during the survey development as well as a
clear short instruction of how to answer.
According to Converse and Presser (1976) there is an importance in keeping it simple and the
language as simple as possible. They also warn that academics and experts tend to take help of
other academics or experts and therefore use a language that could be hard for other people to
interpret.
This was kept in mind while creating the questions so they were easy to understand
with an easy language. Secondly the survey was tested before the experiment to straighten out
bugs, hard to understand questions due to too academic language.
Deciding of the length of the questions where mostly done with the time in mind to answer the
survey. Survey questions where kept short to make it as easy and fast as possible to answer.
According to Converse and Presser (1976) there is positive effect with both short and longer
survey questions as long as the questions is understandable and measure the right variable the
question is sufficient.
3.3.2 Implementation survey
A post-study have been done to supplement the result from the experiment. The study is in
form of a survey that was offered to the participants while consuming the food. A survey was
used because of the ability collecting information about participants and their experiences,
attitudes or knowledge according to Graziano and Raulin (2010). Further he states that surveys
could also be used in any type of research design including experimental design which was
used in this case.
First a small pre-test in a form of an evaluation was done by letting a few members
from each age group answer the survey under development and then modifications where done
33
to the survey with the critique in mind critique. The evaluation participants told to keep in
mind that the survey was going to be handed out during lunchtime on a restaurant and that the
critique also should account for this. Converse and Presser (1976) claim that pre-tests should at
least be done two times and this was done by letting the survey being evaluated a second time
after modification from the first evaluation.
The reason to do a pre-test for the study was manly to test the perceived meaning of the
questions was the same for the researchers as the same as for the attendants. This is also the
most important pre-test purpose according to Converse and Presser (1976).
Secondly the pre-test was conducted to test the difficulty of the questions. Some questions
could be hard or almost impossible to answer (Converse and Presser, 1976) therefore this was
also accounted for while conducting the pre-test and hard to answer questions where rephrased.
Flaws that were corrected were the span of age groups from 18-30, 30-50 and 51+ to 18-30,
31-50 and 50+. Further some academic word where changed to word more often used out of
academia, like atmosphere of the restaurant. All of the sentences were tweaked to be easier and
more direct.
Implementation of the survey was made after the pre-test and correction had been
agreed upon. On the final survey the informational area that was most important for the
research was age, gender and the effect on the choice of food. The survey was also designed to
take in account if the participants paid themselves and if they were actively aware of the music.
It is important to determine the informational area and what population to be surveyed to be
able to construct sufficient survey (Graziano and Raulin, 2010). The population in this case
was the guests of the restaurant who ate one of the four foods offered at lunchtime. The survey
instrument that fitted the purpose was a questionnaire with self-administered questions where
the participants crossed the right answer or if necessary wrote their answer.
The decision to use surveys was done for its many pros against interviews. According to
Bryman and Bell (2005) its easier and faster to administrate, doesn’t bare the risk for the
interviewer to affect the participant, no variation in the questions asked and easier to adapt to
the situation. The point made about adapting to the situation was particularly important for a
survey in a restaurant during lunchtime. Both because of criteria to gain access which was to
not disturb the guest. So a small and simple questionnaire was design with 6 questions not
counting the age and gender questions to keep it fast and simple.
34
3.3.3 Sample survey
Here convenience sample were also used in the form that Gray (2009) call volunteer sampling
which have much of the positive and negative effects as convenience sampling. This type of
sampling was used within the restaurant because of the request from the restaurants side to not
disturb the guests. The surveys were both handed out to guests and placed on tables where
guests could choose to answer if preferred. The purpose of the survey was to collect additional
information about the behaviour of the actual customers.
3.3.4 Data analysis
In the thesis the questions of gender, age and food are presented through inferential statistics by
comparing the relationships between them and what music was played (not a question on the
survey). The relationships will be quantified with SPSS through a chi-square test a because of
the ability in a chi-square test to determine if there is a real relationship between variables or
not. This is done by doing calculation of the expected value of the variables if chance was the
explanation or not. The expected value is then cross-referenced with the measured value to see
how strong the trend is. If the real value differ and show a statistic significance chance can be
discarded as the only explanation. If the null hypothesis can’t be discarded chance cant not be
ruled out as an explanation. The other questions 1-2 and 4-6 will be presented with descriptive
statistics and analysed in a more qualitative manner against the other results to quantify the
possibility of measurement errors during the analysis.
35
3.4 Operalization
Independent variables
Hypothesis 1 - Music: In order to define the conditioned music best suited for the
experiment as well as the calm music as a control variable three
focus groups were made (See 3.1 Focus groups). The music was
determined by giving the respondents pictures, music and
questions to discuss associations to seafood, seafood and music
(music 1), as well music not associated with seafood (music 2).
The music determined by the focus groups and further used in the
experiment can be seen in appendix 8 and 9.
Hypothesis 2 - Age: The age groups variable was given by respondents to the survey.
The respondents were guests in the restaurant used in the
experiment. Age was measured by respondents marking which of
the three age categories they belong to. The age categories in
turn, were defined according to Yalch and Spangenberg, (1990)
and Williams et al. (1998)
Hypothesis 3 - Gender: Similar to hypothesis 2, consumer gender was also given by the
respondents to the survey as they marked their gender belonging
on question 2.
36
Dependent variables
Hypothesis 1 - Music: All total dishes sold in all food categories during three weeks
were given by the restaurant staff as they noted the total sales as
well as sales in the four different food categories daily during
these three weeks. These numbers collected was actual sales and
independent from the survey. The variable ”Fishquota” was
measured by the number of sold meat dishes divided by the
amount of sold seafood dishes on a daily basis. In order to further
compare two types of food with one variable, dependent on what
kind of music played.
Hypothesis 2 - Age: The variable ”Foodandmusic” was measured by the number of
chosen meals of a given food category in relation to the total
number of meals sold when music 1, music 2 or no music was
playing. To make it possible to combine foodsales and music to a
single variable to be compared with age.
Hypothesis 3 - Gender: The variable ”Foodandmusic” was measured by the number of
chosen meals of a given food category in relation to the total
number of meals sold when music 1, music 2 or no music was
playing. To make it possible to combine foodsales and music to a
single variable to be compared with gender.
37
4. Results
4.1 Focus groups
4.1.1 Cultural conditioning music
Initially, the respondents were asked to listen to six musical pieces, where they afterwards had
to reflect on what they associated these with. The musical pieces were of different genre and
were chosen due to its textural or melodic connection to the ocean.
Among the musical pieces played, it was evident that classical Swedish roundelays by
famous Swedish troubadours gave strong associations to the ocean. Further, this music was
also associated with consumption of food and beverages as well as reviving feelings and
memories of summer and activities by the ocean. Within the three different age categories, all
of the respondents were found to associate the music alike.
4.1.2 Cultural conditioning pictures
The respondents were asked to look at three pictures of different dishes where they afterwords
had to reflect on what kind of music they associated the dishes with. The pictures were chosen
due to its distinctiveness and high cognisance, and consist of a fish dish (salmon), a vegetarian
dish (sallad) and a meat dish (entrecôte).
The fish dish was considered more sophisticated and elegant than the other two. The
dish was associated with Swedish artists such as Cornelis Vreesvijk, Evert Taube, Håkan
Hellström, Sven-Bertil Taube, Michael Wiehe and troubadours. Further, the respondents
associated the dish to summer nights by the beach, sunsets and vacation.
The vegetarian dish was considered more alternative and artistic. Words like new age,
hippie, environmental friendly, intellectual and troubadour were mentioned. Ballads,
alternative rock and jazz, as well as experimental music were associated with this dish from
artists like Björk, Laleh, Caroline af Ugglas.
The meat dish was found to be associated with music from artist such as Magnus
Uggla, Per Gessle, Tomas Ledin, Kenny and the knutters, swedish dance-band and country.
Further, the dish gave associations to friday nights at home with the family.
38
4.1.3 Cultural conditioning the ocean and food
The respondents were found to associate Swedish artists to the ocean, particularly troubadours
and singer-song writers. Instrumentally, the songs associated with the ocean were considered
to include guitars and accordions. The respondents found that songs that have been popular
during the summer often gave associations to the ocean and situations typically related to the
summer. Further, they concluded that certain music can give associations to the ocean and
food. Certain artists, by name, were also associated with the ocean. Artists mentioned were
Tomas Ledin, Per Gessle, Lasse Berghagen, Evert Taube and Sven-Bertil Taube. Further, the
respondents found that it was hard to find a clear connection with certain music and food, it
was found easier do distinguish what was wrong than what was right.
The respondents were also asked to answer to what kind of calm and easy-going music
that was not associated with the ocean. Classical music, opera and ballads were mentioned, as
well as music from artists such as Laleh, James Morrison, Frank Sinatra and Adele. When
asked why this music did not make them think of the ocean, the respondents mentioned the
lack of cues related to the ocean. The respondents also implied that this music was not
conditioned with the ocean and were therefore not able to be associated with the ocean.
4.1.4 Auditory environment
The respondent felt that sound has a great impact on their everyday-life. Sound that were found
to affect them negatively were sounds from mobile phones, children screaming, sounds from
construction sites, people screaming, squeeky doors and dogs barking. The respondents
claimed that it was the negative sounds that affected them the most in their everyday-life, and
that they tried to avoid unpleasant sound-environments.
Further, the respondents mentioned that they often find themselves humming or sining a
song heard in a store, on TV or elsewhere. They often have no memory of hearing the song or
sound, but realise at a later time when humming or singing.
The respondents also claimed that some auditory environments could have an active
affect on their decision making. All of the respondents claimed that a, for them, favourable
auditory environment could make them stay longer in a commercial environment and even
inspire them to make purchases. When asked to give examples of particular sounds/music in
commercial environments the respondents gave examples of JD-sports, Carlings, Abercrombie
and Fitch, Monki, store-music during Christmas and supermarket music and announcements.
39
These experiences were found to be of more a negative nature than positive. Loud music made
the respondents feel stressed an did not make them comfortable when shopping, ”I do not want
to be in the middle of a night-club when i am shopping for clothes” one respondent said. And
continuous announcements in supermarkets made some respondents irritated more than
inspired.
Sound/music were found to be positive in commercial environments when it was found
to have a pleasant volume, contributed to create a pleasant ambiance and had a fit with the
profile of the environment. One respondent said ”I don’t want to hear punk rock when in a
drugstore”.
4.1.5 Reflection
All of the respondents claimed that music and sound can affect their buying behaviour.
However, they claimed they were probably unaware of this affecting them. They stated the
importance for music in commercial environments to be in symbiosis with the profile of the
store or the products i offers.
When asked to reflect on music and sound in restaurants, they found that music in such
environments was important. The respondents stated that as they are staying longer in a
restaurant and often is in a state of relaxation, it is important for the music to be pleasant and
suit the environment. Further, they claimed that, in restaurants, they preferred a music-free
environment rather than hearing music that did not fit with the restaurants environment or
created a unpleasant ambiance.
The respondents were sceptical to whether music in restaurants could affect them as in a
store setting; they simply could not recall any music in restaurants unless it was unpleasant.
However, they later stated that the music probably affect them in some way.
40
4.2 SurveyFor an overview of the the survey see appendix 6
Age Three age categories were given 18-30, 31-50 and 50+. Among the respondents 42% were in
the first age category, 28% in the second and 30% in the third.
GenderAmong the respondents 52% were men and not surprisingly 48% were women.
Question 1
On the first question of the survey the respondents were asked to fill in their current occupation. As the restaurant is located on a university campus the question seeks to show
how the population is divided regarding occupation. Three alternatives were given, namely university employee, university student and other occupation.
Among the respondents answering to the survey about 48% were university students, 35% university employees and 23% had other occupation. Among the university employees, women
in the age category 50+ was represented, among university students men in the age category 18-30 and of those who had other occupation women age 18-30 was most represented.
Question 2
In the second question, the respondents were asked whether they paid for the lunch themselves and the alternatives was simply yes or no. Among the respondents 91% paid for the lunch
themselves. Among the 9% that did not men between 31 and 50 were the most represented.
Question 3The third question concerns what kind of dish the respondents choose. The alternatives were
Fish, Meat, Vegetarian and the Weekly special. Of the total amount of respondents 32% had fish, 47% meat, 8% vegetarian and 13% had the weekly special. Among the respondents who
had the fish dish women 50+ was the most represented, the meat dish were men between 18 and 30, the vegetarian dish was most common in women 18 to 30 as well as 50+. finally the
weekly special was most common among men between 18 and 30.
41
Question 4
Question four continues on question three by asking the respondents when they made their
choice of dish. The alternatives were Before arrival, At arrival or did not choose by myself. Of
the total amount of respondents, 25% answered that they made their choice before arriving to
the restaurant, 73% said that they chose at the restaurant and 2% said that they did not choose
by themselves.
Question 5
In question five the respondents were asked what influenced them to make their choice of dish.
The alternatives were the atmosphere, Friends/Colleagues, I just felt for that dish today, Don't
now and Other. Of the total amount of respondents 1% answered atmosphere, 6% Friends/
Colleagues. 77% I just felt for that dish today, 3% Don´t know and 13% Other. Those who
chose other were asked to specify what could be and among the most represented were that the
respondents were allergic, vegetarians or on a diet.
Question 6
The final question was whether or not the respondent had answered this survey before and 92%
claimed that they had not.
42
4.3 Results Experiment
Hypothesis 1 - Price
Table 1 shows the total sales of dishes for each kind of music played not accounting for the
day, in the bottom the total sales are presented. The numbers show that fish dishes sold the best
during “Fish Music” and further that meat dishes sold the least during this time. Meat instead
sold best during no music. Vegetarian dishes were the most stable and didn’t vary much
between the types of music played. W.S. dishes varies allot and sold the least during calm
music and the most during no music. (For complete statistical analysis see appendix 3)
Table 1 Total amount of dishes sold during specific type of music
MusicFish Dishes
Meat Dishes
Veg. Dishes
W.S. Dishes
Fish 347 403 114 163Calm 318 496 112 138None 319 554 123 183
total 984 1453 349 484
Table 2 shows how many of meat and fish dishes were sold during the 15 days of experiment.
The “fishquota” is each day’s sales of fish divided to each day’s sales of meat. This has been
done to effectively show the ratio between fish dishes and meat dishes for the ANOVA-test.
Note that “Fishquota” only treat fish dishes and meat dishes.
Table 2
Meat FishFishquota(Maet/Fish)
90 45 0,50120 52 0,43152 63 0,41135 91 0,67126 35 0,28
90 69 0,7768 46 0,6880 61 0,76
120 80 0,6765 45 0,69
110 45 0,41112 47 0,4245 120 2,6760 125 2,0880 60 0,75
43
ANOVA Test
The collected data from the survey was analysed in the program SPSS using an ANOVA-test to
measure the differences in variables for the dependant variable. The “fishquota” (dependant)
was tested in relation to fish music (1), calm music (2) and no music (0) (independent).
ANOVAANOVAANOVAANOVAANOVAANOVA
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaSum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups ,483 2 ,241 ,512 ,612
Within Groups 5,661 12 ,472
Total 6,144 14
The ANOVA-test turned out not to be statistically significant (0.612) which is presented in the
ANOVA table under “Sig.”. A significant result would have a significance of 0.05.
Descriptives1Descriptives1Descriptives1Descriptives1Descriptives1Descriptives1Descriptives1
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaMusic N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean95% Confidence Interval for MeanMusic N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error
Lower Bound Upper Bound
0 5 ,6040 ,17658 ,07897 ,3847 ,8233
1 5 1,0420 ,91344 ,40850 -,0922 2,1762
2 5 ,7920 ,74146 ,33159 -,1287 1,7127Total 15 ,8127 ,66247 ,17105 ,4458 1,1795
In the descriptives1 table the type of music played (0, 1 and 2) are presented to the left. The
mean value is the mean of the “fishquota” during each type of music. The results for chosen
food during no music gave an mean value of 0.6040 which mean that while no music played
customers choose fish 60 % of the of the amount of meat dishes. While fish music (1) was
playing the mean value raised to 1,0420 which show a small change in preference during fish
music where fish was bought as many times as meat. Calm music (2) show a result where the
mean value reduces to the “fishquota” of 0.7920. These results show a tendency towards
choosing fish dishes more often while fish music (1) is played compared to calm music (2) or
no music (0).
As mentioned above the ANOVA test did not show a statistical significant relationship between
conditioned music and food sales. It is therefore not possible to reject H0 in hypothesis 1.
44
Hypothesis 2 - Age
A chi-square test was conducted on the data determining age and the choice of food during a
certain type of music. This relationship was found to be statistically significant on a 0.05 level.
Pearson Chi-square gave a significance of 0.039 where 0.05 would be an acceptable
significance. (For the complete statistical analysis see appendix 4)
Chi-Square TestsChi-Square TestsChi-Square TestsChi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)Pearson Chi-Square 19,066a 10 ,039
Likelihood Ratio 19,697 10 ,032
Linear-by-Linear Association 5,576 1 ,018
N of Valid Cases 268
A crosstabulation was conducted between age groups (1= 18 - 30, 2= 30 – 50 and 3= 50+) and
Foodandmusic which is combinations of food dishes and types of music (1 = fish dishes with
fish music, 2 = fish dishes with no music, 3 = fish dishes with calm music, 4 = meat dishes
with fish music, 5 = meat dishes with no music, 6 = meat dishes with calm music) All though
the test showed to be significant the cross tabulation indicate that a relationship between fish
music and fish dishes might not be so strong. In “Foodandmusic” 1 the measured amount was
17, 12 and 15 for age group 1, 2, and 3. The expected count determined by chance is 18, 11, 14
which mean that “Foodandmusic” 1 results are more or less expected due to chance. The trend
is in fact that age group 1 (18-30) tend to eat more in general, and this could be seen in
Foodandmusic 1, 4,5 and 6 where their expected and counted value differ more than the other
age groups (2 and 3 independent of what music was played).
45
Foodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationAgeAgeAge Total
1 2 3Total
Foodandmusic
1
Count 17 12 15 44
Foodandmusic
1Expected Count 18,4 11,5 14,1 44,0
Foodandmusic
1 % within Foodandmusic 38,6% 27,3% 34,1% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
1% within Age 15,2% 17,1% 17,4% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
1
% of Total 6,3% 4,5% 5,6% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
2
Count 6 9 14 29
Foodandmusic
2Expected Count 12,1 7,6 9,3 29,0
Foodandmusic
2 % within Foodandmusic 20,7% 31,0% 48,3% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
2% within Age 5,4% 12,9% 16,3% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
2
% of Total 2,2% 3,4% 5,2% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
3
Count 9 15 15 39
Foodandmusic
3Expected Count 16,3 10,2 12,5 39,0
Foodandmusic
3 % within Foodandmusic 23,1% 38,5% 38,5% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
3% within Age 8,0% 21,4% 17,4% 14,6%
Foodandmusic
3
% of Total 3,4% 5,6% 5,6% 14,6%Foodandmusic
4
Count 28 13 15 56Foodandmusic
4Expected Count 23,4 14,6 18,0 56,0
Foodandmusic
4 % within Foodandmusic 50,0% 23,2% 26,8% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
4% within Age 25,0% 18,6% 17,4% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
4
% of Total 10,4% 4,9% 5,6% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
5
Count 30 11 12 53
Foodandmusic
5Expected Count 22,1 13,8 17,0 53,0
Foodandmusic
5 % within Foodandmusic 56,6% 20,8% 22,6% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
5% within Age 26,8% 15,7% 14,0% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
5
% of Total 11,2% 4,1% 4,5% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
6
Count 22 10 15 47
Foodandmusic
6Expected Count 19,6 12,3 15,1 47,0
Foodandmusic
6 % within Foodandmusic 46,8% 21,3% 31,9% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
6% within Age 19,6% 14,3% 17,4% 17,5%
Foodandmusic
6
% of Total 8,2% 3,7% 5,6% 17,5%
TotalTotal
Count 112 70 86 268
TotalTotalExpected Count 112,0 70,0 86,0 268,0
TotalTotal % within Foodandmusic 41,8% 26,1% 32,1% 100,0%TotalTotal% within Age 100,0% 100,0% 100,0% 100,0%
TotalTotal
% of Total 41,8% 26,1% 32,1% 100,0%
As seen above a statistical significant relationship was found in the table according to the p-
value 0,039. The effect of conditioned music is therefore suggested to differ according to age. It
is therefore possible to reject H0 and retain H1 in hypothesis 2.
46
Hypothesis 3 Gender
A chi-square test was conducted on the data determining gender and the choice of food during
the conditioned music and no music. Pearson Chi-square gave a significance of 0.398 where
0.05 would be an acceptable significance. (For the complete statistical analysis see appendix
5)
Chi-Square Tests GenderChi-Square Tests GenderChi-Square Tests GenderChi-Square Tests Gender
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)Pearson Chi-Square 5,147a 5 ,398
Likelihood Ratio 5,184 5 ,394
Linear-by-Linear Association 1,330 1 ,249
N of Valid Cases 268
A crosstabulation was conducted between gender (1 male, 2 female) and Foodandmusic which
is combinations of dishes and conditioned music (1 = fish dishes with fish music, 2 = fish
dishes with no music, 3 = fish dishes with calm music, 4 = meat dishes with fish music, 5 =
meat dishes with no music, 6 = meat dishes with calm music) There are no major trends
indicating that music would have an effect on the relationship between auditory stimuli and
choice of food. Comparing expected and counted values for each “Foodandmusic” could not
show any tendency for gender to impact this relationship.
47
Foodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationSexSex Total
1 2Total
Foodandmusic
1
Count 23 21 44
Foodandmusic
1Expected Count 22,0 22,0 44,0
Foodandmusic
1 % within Foodandmusic 52,3% 47,7% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
1% within Sex 17,2% 15,7% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
1
% of Total 8,6% 7,8% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
2
Count 11 18 29
Foodandmusic
2Expected Count 14,5 14,5 29,0
Foodandmusic
2 % within Foodandmusic 37,9% 62,1% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
2% within Sex 8,2% 13,4% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
2
% of Total 4,1% 6,7% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
3
Count 15 24 39
Foodandmusic
3Expected Count 19,5 19,5 39,0
Foodandmusic
3 % within Foodandmusic 38,5% 61,5% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
3% within Sex 11,2% 17,9% 14,6%
Foodandmusic
3
% of Total 5,6% 9,0% 14,6%Foodandmusic
4
Count 30 26 56Foodandmusic
4Expected Count 28,0 28,0 56,0
Foodandmusic
4 % within Foodandmusic 53,6% 46,4% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
4% within Sex 22,4% 19,4% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
4
% of Total 11,2% 9,7% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
5
Count 29 24 53
Foodandmusic
5Expected Count 26,5 26,5 53,0
Foodandmusic
5 % within Foodandmusic 54,7% 45,3% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
5% within Sex 21,6% 17,9% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
5
% of Total 10,8% 9,0% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
6
Count 26 21 47
Foodandmusic
6Expected Count 23,5 23,5 47,0
Foodandmusic
6 % within Foodandmusic 55,3% 44,7% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
6% within Sex 19,4% 15,7% 17,5%
Foodandmusic
6
% of Total 9,7% 7,8% 17,5%
TotalTotal
Count 134 134 268
TotalTotalExpected Count 134,0 134,0 268,0
TotalTotal % within Foodandmusic 50,0% 50,0% 100,0%TotalTotal% within Sex 100,0% 100,0% 100,0%
TotalTotal
% of Total 50,0% 50,0% 100,0%
In the tables presented above, no significant relationship between age and choice of food
during conditioned music was found. It is therefore not possible to reject H0 in Hypothesis 3.
48
5. Discussion
5.1 Hypothesis 1 - MusicAs presented in the theoretical framework, research suggests that music can function as a
primer of consumer choice in commercial environments. The experiment conducted in this
thesis did not show a statistical significant table with music played and higher sales of seafood
dishes. However, a small tendency was distinguished in the table that the music had some
effect on consumer choice.
The theories mentions the concept of adaptation which can be used to explain the weak
correlation found in the results. There is a possibility that many of guests eating at the
restaurant during the three weeks of testing were recurring costumers and by this becoming
adapted to the stimuli, thus not noticing it. Although the survey indicated that the vast majority
of the respondents had not before answered the survey, it could still be possible that there was a
lot of recurring customers. They may have been reluctant to answer the survey again or just
checked that they had not answered the survey before.
Another factor explaining the results could be found in the area of attention, as
mentioned in the theories. During the most busy periods in the restaurant there was a large flow
of people, both in the restaurant and cueing into the restaurant. There is a possibility that the
level of sound became so high due to s many people talking to each other that the sound level
on the premises exceeded that of the stimuli. This can be related to step six (noise) in the model
of the communication process presented in the theories as the high level of sound confused and
obscured the main message in the process, namely the musical stimuli. It also, similarly, relates
to the sensitivity of stimuli as mentioned in the theoretical framework namely, the absolute
threshold which concerns the lowest level of stimuli that can be detected by our brain. The
increased level of sound affects the absolute threshold as the stimuli was unable to pierce
trough the high volume in the restaurant and be noticed by the customers. Another reason with
regards to the concept of attention is that the restaurant guests in a vast majority of the cases,
came in groups. Thus, giving attention and cognitive efforts on the group, as they engage in
conversations etc. According to the theories, this may turn attention away from the stimuli and
help explain the results obtained. Further, as mentioned in the theories, consumers are more
likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs. Findings in the survey indicate
49
that a majority marked ”Just felt like that dish today” on the question regarding why they made
their choice of food. There is therefore a possibility that customers urge for a certain dish might
have an overriding effect on the auditory stimuli.
The last step in the perceptual process is that of interpretation, were consumers apply
meaning to sensory stimuli. These is not treated objectively however but influenced by an
individuals past references and unique biases. This can also refer to the concept of conditioning
which in the theoretical framework claims that consumers respond marketing stimuli based on
what connections they have formed in the past. Simply put, the concept suggest that stimuli
that derive a certain response can be connected to with another stimuli that does not derive any
response at all. This is further connected to the concept of ”fit” between music and objects as
mentioned in the theories. The experiment in this thesis considered the theories above as
conditioned music was used in order to see if it was able to affect consumer behaviour in the
restaurant. During the focus groups the respondents were asked to describe their connections
between music, food and sea to create a picture of how conditioning looks like regarding the
sea and food. As found in the results, traditional swedish songs were associated with summer,
the ocean and the archipelago. This proved that these songs had the strongest connection to the
sea and food for the respondents in each focus group. This music was, as already known, later
used in the experiment. Although the respondents in the focus groups were in three different
age categories and that the same connection between music and seafood was made in all of
them, one can assume that the ”fit” between the dish and the stimulus in the experiment were
inadequate. This, in turn, did not exert enough of a cognitive connection between the music
and seafood dishes in order to make a conditioned response by buying the seafood dish.
According to the theories presented regarding price, it can be argued that the higher
price out-manoeuvred the effect of the auditory stimuli on the patrons in the restaurant, thus
giving a weak correlation between conditioned musical stimuli and consumer food choice. One
reason for this result could be that the internal and external price was similar and did not
persuade the customer to make a purchase decision. Due to its location, a majority of the guests
are are well informed of the prices at the restaurant used in the experiment, as well as the
surrounding restaurants on campus. In this case, the role of price might have been perceived as
negative as a majority of the respondents to the survey were students who generally have a
limited amount of money and thereby had to do a more involved purchase. If this was the case,
the results point to a bigger focus on value consciousness and price consciousness than on
50
other stimuli in the commercial surroundings, making the conditioned music less effective.
Combining this effect with answers from the survey which says that about how 77% of the
respondents chose their dish on arrival at the restaurant, further suggests this as a plausible
explanation to that the results did not show a statistical significant table with music played and
higher sales of seafood dishes.
Further, perceived risk is closely connected to price and involvement. It’s also related
directly to the choice process which in the context of that 91 % of the respondents to the survey
paid them selves makes it possible that many of the choices were taken after what dish seemed
the best and tastiest on display as people was entering the restaurant arguing for that the visual
stimuli contributed more to the choice process than the auditory stimuli. This could be the
alternate explanation to the price effect explanation between the two restaurants.
According to the results there where tendency to buy seafood dishes while the
conditioned music was playing which suggests that consumers might have been involved in the
decision and actual feelings where evoked from the music. The theories suggest that just
temporary involvement or emotional feelings may in some particular situations cause more
detailed evaluation like cost or performance. It might be possible that behavioural effects from
the music is also evoking a more detailed evaluation of the price, thus making the price effect
even stronger and in turn making the perception of risk greater and resulting in make a low-risk
choice. The results may hint that customers in the price category chose according to low-risk
and a dish they know they would like. This is further argued by the fact that the restaurant used
in the experiment did not serve the same seafood dish everyday, but instead offered a different
kinds of seafood dish daily.
51
5.2 Hypothesis 2 - AgeAlthough the table regarding age was significant in the results, the cross-tabulation primarily
indicated a tendency for age group 1 (age 18-30) to consume more meat dishes than expected
when no music was played.
However, the cross-tab did showed that age had an impact on the choice of food during
the playback of conditioned music. The cross-tabulation indicate a small tendency for age
group 1 (18-30) to buy less seafood dishes than expected when no music was played. While the
conditioned music was played however, the observed count was higher but also closer to the
expected count. According to the theory differences between ages should occur regarding the
effect of musical stimuli on consumer choice which is also pointed to by the small tendency
found.
An important part of the theory treating age showed difference between the effect of
background music which had a larger effect on the age category 50+ and foreground music
which was most effective in the age category 25 – 49. The conditioned music used during the
experiment is arguably foreground music which in turn could explain the tendency above. This
might be countered with theory of familiarity of the music played and how this affect
customers. Further according to the results of the focus groups the conditioned music was
familiar by all age groups due to the same choice of music and this might totally reduce the
differences in behaviour between the age groups. According to theory 30+ people should be
more susceptible to nostalgia and this is not seen in the results nor indicated by the focus group
which might indicate that nostalgia, when used in this context, has a weak effect on consumers.
The results also indicate that there is less variations in choices of food the older the
consumers are. Age group three showed very little variation in their choice of food regardless
of music played. The second age group was also relatively stable but with more variations in
choice accounting for the different auditory stimuli. Age group one, however, showed a high
variation in choice of food. This variation between the age categories could, according to the
theories, be explained by that the sense of hearing becomes less sensitive the older a person
gets as well as different preferences to certain food between different ages.
52
5.2 Hypothesis 3 - GenderNo statistical significant differences was observed with regard to gender and choice of food
under the three different music conditions. However, when comparing the conditioned seafood
music and sales of seafood dishes with no music and sales of seafood dishes a difference is
found as men seem to consume more fish when the conditioned music was played.
As for age, differences in perceptual processing are also present between the genders.
According to the theories women often interpret information or marketing cues in detail
making them more sensitive, arguing for a possible bigger effect of conditioned music on
women than men who might make their decision on a more logical basis. This effect could not,
as mentioned above, be seen for women through their choices of food but a trend was found for
men. According to the theories men use less cues in the commercial environment to make
purchase decisions this might explain the small trend found with men. This is because men
might have observed less cues in the restaurant compared to women, thus giving the observed
cues more room as less cognitive activity was inflicting with men. This could also be argued
with the concept of noise mentioned in the theories. The high flow of consumers on the
premises might have contributed to a higher sound environment which might have obscured
the effect of the musical stimuli. This disruption should therefore, according to the theories, be
larger with women as they process more cues at the point of purchase than men, giving more
cognitive effort to the noise. Men who use less cues, might have been less sensitive to the noise
thus explaining the trend.
Preference of different food due to gender roles argued for in the theory has not shown
to have any significant difference where women should tend to choose healthier food over any
other. Healthier food might be speculated to be fish many of the days during the experiment
according to the custom answers on the survey which mentions fish as more healthy choice
with the vegetarian dish.
53
5. ConclusionTheories presented in this thesis suggest that auditorial stimuli can affect consumers in
commercial environments given that the stimuli has a good fit with the consumers, the product
as well as the environment. Although theories regarding price suggest that a high price might
disrupt the effect of auditory stimuli. Theories further suggest that age would impact to which
degree a consumer can perceive and interpret stimuli. They also suggest similar differences
between men and women. With this in mind we aim to answer our research questions, which
are:
Is there a effect of price on the relationship between auditory stimuli and product choice in a
lunch restaurant?
Our findings suggest that price could be related to the effect on the relationship between
product choice and auditorial stimuli as found in the results of the experiment. In this case, the
theories regarding price might be correct as it could out-manoeuvre the stimuli. However, this
is given that no disruptions in the perceptual process or in the communications model was
apparent.
Is there an effect of age and gender on the relationship between auditory stimuli and product
choice in a given price category in a lunch restaurant?
The theories suggests that a difference should be found in age and gender regarding the
perception of auditory stimuli. A difference in response to the stimuli used in the experiment is
therefore expected. This response is measured in the form of sales data collected. The results
indicate, although not statistically significant, a small tendency towards that age group 1
(18-30) was more susceptible to the conditioned music than age group 2 and 3. Further,
Although not statistically significant, gender did show a small tendency towards that men
might be more susceptible than women to conditioned music in the context of this study.
54
6. Further researchFurther research is needed due to the complexity of the subject and in order to further
determine the effect of auditory stimuli on consumer choice. Therefore, would a similar
experiment conducted for a longer period at several restaurants be beneficial. This would
generate more data and might enable a deeper investigation of the variables and the possibility
to find more and interesting connections between them. It would also be possible to use the
data collected to statistically find other trends and relationships between other variables a part
from those tested in this thesis. The subject of this thesis is still relatively unexplored. By
conducting a similar experiment and test the same variables used in this thesis in a other
context than in restaurants could make it possible to see differences between products and
industries. This could further contribute to the field of consumer behaviour and sensory
marketing.
55
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Appendix 1 - MethodologyObjectivism
The aim of the research is to discover an objective reality steering the research in an
objectivistic direction, meaning that the phenomenon studied will be considered to be reality
and not dependant on the observer and a consciousness. (Bryman and Bell, 2005; Gray, 2009)
The meaning of the research is to portray an objective truth. Further social phenomena and
how to categorize the results are not dependant on the actors involved and the actors are seen
as objective units.(Bryman and Bell 2005) The opposite view called constructionism is when
the social phenomena is actively pared to the meaning created by the social actors (Bryman and
Bell 2005). This last approach is not the basis because of the constant revision of the results
and the aim of the research is to discover objective truths as possible in reality (within sensory
marketing).
Positivism
According to Gray (2009) objectivism is connected to positivism and further states that reality
consists of what is available to the senses. Positivism is also about how inquiry should be
based upon scientific observation and therefore empirical inquiry. Finally a point is made about
how the natural and human science shares common logical and methodological principles
dealing with facts.
Further Gray (2009) states that to achieve this type scientific inquiry the need is to
accumulate brute data. He also states that positivists se both natural and social worlds as
operated by strict laws put forward by inquiry. A positivistic view of this research is
implemented to contribute to basis of objectivism and further mirror the work process where a
sociological experiment is done and measured in a deductive way.
Induction-deduction
A mix of induction and deduction what Graziano and Raulin (2010) calls inductive-deductive
reasoning have been used. Both Gray (2009) and Graziano and Raulin (2010) stress the
legitimacy and the logic behind as the natural process of a researcher who begins with
empirical observations and then infers constructs is engaged in inductive reasoning. Using a
construct as a basis of making predictions about new specific observation is deductive
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reasoning. A inductive-deductive approach have been used in this paper due to the importance
of the pre-study to be able to specify what kind of music is conditioned to the sea and seafood.
This empirical result was then used to create a playlist to test already existing theory about the
effect of music on consumer behaviour and the impact of gender, age and price. The last is a
more deductive way of reasoning that also get strengthen by an after study through surveys.
According to Graziano and Raulin (2010) both inductive and deductive processes should be
used to build and validate a model.
Experimental design combined with focus groups is regarded as an inductive approach,
where the empirical data is used to test the hypothesis. Some parts have followed a more
deductive approach since the theory will be used to explain how music effects people’s choice
dependent on price, gender and age. Applying both induction and deduction is considered
feasible and scientifically sound. (Graziano and Raulin, 2010)
Quantitative and qualitative method
During the research a mixed method was used in the data collection phase due to the collection
of both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data was in the beginning used to collect
information to get a deeper understanding of the perception involving food and music.
Quantitative data was then used to collect numerical sales data that was statistically tested and
helped answering the research questions. This is a genuine method to use in research according
to Gray (2010)
Even though quantitative method was used, one typical qualitative method that was
implemented where focus groups in order to determine non numerical variables. Qualitative
methodology focuses on explaining the social environment through observation based on
people’s perception of reality in an every day setting (Graziano and Raulin, 2010). According
to Gray (2010) qualitative researches claim that research and meaning does not exist in the
same world which in this research is accounted for by using focus groups to investigate the
meaning of certain music, thus the qualitative method. Further the data generated from the
focus groups were texts which could be seen as deeper information than numbers which is a
qualitative approach. (Gray, 2010; Bryman and Bell, 2005)
Quantitative methodology refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena
as investigated in this research. The relationship between the researcher and the subject is often
characterised by a distance where the researcher is an outsider. (Gray, 2010) By employing
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statistics or develop and test hypothesis with measured data it is possible to determine
quantitative relationships of empirical observations. During the research numerical data was
collected from total sales of food in a restaurant and from a survey as is typical for quantitative
research (Gray, 2010). Therefore it is important that the data collected is easy to code and
categorize as objectively as possible and narrow questions were used in the survey. (Bryman
and Bell, 2005) Further statistics are used to test the numerical data collected from both the
survey and the sales results. This is a quantitative approach where data is compared and
hypothesises are tested (Bryman and Bell, 2005). Quantitative method was also used as a
compliment to the positivistic view which is connected to quantitative method through its
central thesis. (Bryman and Bell, 2005)
66
Appendix 2 - Restaurant layoutThe music was not played in the whole restaurant, but in the short little corridor while entering
the restaurant. In this corridor there also where a display of the food served that particular day
and behind that inside of the restaurant the desk where orders were taken by the personnel. The
layout of the little corridor created a relative sterile environment where only the food was
displayed and the music played or not played. Leaving the corridor and entering the restaurant,
customers were forced to give their decision to the personnel about what food that wood were
preferred.
The picture above gives an overview of the chosen restaurant were the experiment was
operated. The blue line indicates the movement of customers from entrance to dining room.
and the large blue dots indicates customer stops. As seen in point A the customer stops to
consider the daily dishes displayed on a shelf (food display) and right beside this shelf is a
menu board which contains the name of the dishes as well as a description of its contents.
Behind the food display was the place were the musical stimuli was located as indicated with
red. The music devices was hidden behind the food display, out of sight for the customer. This
place is considered ideal for the stimuli as a vast majority of customers stop here in order to
make a decision regarding what dish they would like to have and further because all the dishes
are displayed here, leaving room for possible enhancement of the stimuli. The customer moves
to point B were the customer makes their choice between the four dishes available and pays the
cashier. In point C the chosen dish is picked up and the customer moves to the dining area,
(point D) to eat their meal.
67
Appendix 3 - Sales resultsTable 1 shows the sales of meat dish, fish dish, a vegetarian dish or a weakly special dish for
every day the experiment was running. What kind of music is also presented under “Music
Played” and the quantified music was either for fish or other calm music as well as no music.
Under “Total Dishes” the added value of all the sales for each day is presented and likewise in
the bottom the total sales of the 15 days are presented.
Table 1
Day Meat Dishes Fish Dishes Veg. Dishes W.S. Dishes Tot. DishesMusic Played
1 90 45 33 25 193Fish2 120 52 25 18 215Calm3 152 63 18 21 254None4 135 91 31 27 284Fish5 126 35 15 15 191Calm6 90 69 15 25 199None7 68 46 20 36 170Fish8 80 61 18 20 179Calm9 120 80 36 20 256None
10 65 45 20 30 160Fish11 110 45 24 40 219Calm12 112 47 29 62 250none13 45 120 10 45 220Fish14 60 125 30 45 260Calm15 80 60 25 55 220None
total total total total total1453 984 349 484 3270
Veg. Dishes = Vegetarian Dishes, W.S. Dishes = Weakly Special Dish, Tot. Dishes = Total dishes sold per day
Table 1 gives an overview of how many dishes were sold during each type of music against the
total sales during the 15 days of experiment. From this data it’s possible to scent a vague trend
when played “Fish Music”. The fish dish sales are a bit higher when playing “Fish Music”
against the otherwise stable sales during other music and further when the fish music was
played the amount of meat dishes went down suggesting a switch for customers from Meat to
Fish. The vegetarian dish were the most stable dish and held a fairly constant ratio of sales
while the W.S. Dish varied a bit and sold best during no music. To note is also the slightly
higher price of the W.S. dish.
68
Table 2
MusicFish Dishes/Tot.
Meat Dishes/Tot
Veg. Dishes/Tot
W.S. Dishes/Tot
Fish 10,612% 12,324% 3,486% 4,985%Calm 9,725% 15,168% 3,425% 4,220%None 9,755% 16,942% 3,761% 5,596%
Oneway ANOVA-test Fishquota
DescriptivesDescriptivesDescriptivesDescriptivesDescriptivesDescriptivesDescriptives
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaN Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean95% Confidence Interval for MeanN Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error
Lower Bound Upper Bound
0 5 ,6040 ,17658 ,07897 ,3847 ,8233
1 5 1,0420 ,91344 ,40850 -,0922 2,1762
2 5 ,7920 ,74146 ,33159 -,1287 1,7127Total 15 ,8127 ,66247 ,17105 ,4458 1,1795
DescriptivesDescriptivesDescriptives
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaMinimum Maximum
0 ,41 ,77
1 ,50 2,67
2 ,28 2,08Total ,28 2,67
Discriptives show the minimum and maximum values of the “fishquota” for each type of music
played. These ranges are used in ANOVA test to make mean values to show trends connected
to for example play music.
Test of Homogeneity of VariancesTest of Homogeneity of VariancesTest of Homogeneity of VariancesTest of Homogeneity of Variances
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaLevene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
1,910 2 12 ,190
69
Test of homogeneity of variances the significance of Levenes test determine if the two
variances are approximately equal or not. No results for each variable food, gender and age
were significant (Sig. smaller than 0.05) and thus the assumption is that the variances are
approximately equal.
ANOVAANOVAANOVAANOVAANOVAANOVA
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaSum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups ,483 2 ,241 ,512 ,612
Within Groups 5,661 12 ,472
Total 6,144 14
Robust Tests of Equality of MeansRobust Tests of Equality of MeansRobust Tests of Equality of MeansRobust Tests of Equality of MeansRobust Tests of Equality of Means
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqotaStatistica df1 df2 Sig.
Welch ,612 2 5,799 ,574
a. Asymptotically F distributed.
Post Hoc Tests
Multiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: Fishqota(I) Musik (J) Musik Mean Difference
(I-J)
Std. Error Sig. 95%
Confidence
Interval
(I) Musik (J) Musik Mean Difference
(I-J)
Std. Error Sig.
Lower Bound
Tukey HSD
01 -,43800 ,43441 ,586 -1,5969
Tukey HSD
02 -,18800 ,43441 ,903 -1,3469
Tukey HSD 10 ,43800 ,43441 ,586 -,7209
Tukey HSD 12 ,25000 ,43441 ,835 -,9089
Tukey HSD
20 ,18800 ,43441 ,903 -,9709
Tukey HSD
21 -,25000 ,43441 ,835 -1,4089
Games-Howell
01 -,43800 ,41606 ,585 -1,8742
Games-Howell
02 -,18800 ,34087 ,851 -1,3475
Games-Howell 10 ,43800 ,41606 ,585 -,9982
Games-Howell 12 ,25000 ,52614 ,885 -1,2669
Games-Howell
20 ,18800 ,34087 ,851 -,9715
Games-Howell
21 -,25000 ,52614 ,885 -1,7669
70
Multiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple ComparisonsMultiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: FishqotaDependent Variable: Fishqota(I) Musik (J) Musik
95% Confidence Interval(I) Musik (J) Musik
Upper Bound
Tukey HSD
01 ,7209
Tukey HSD
02 ,9709
Tukey HSD 10 1,5969
Tukey HSD 12 1,4089
Tukey HSD
20 1,3469
Tukey HSD
21 ,9089
Games-Howell
01 ,9982
Games-Howell
02 ,9715
Games-Howell 10 1,8742
Games-Howell 12 1,7669
Games-Howell
20 1,3475
Games-Howell
21 1,2669
Homogeneous Subsets
FishqotaFishqotaFishqotaFishqota
Musik N Subset for alpha
= 0.05
Musik N
1
Tukey HSDa
0 5 ,6040
Tukey HSDa2 5 ,7920
Tukey HSDa1 5 1,0420
Tukey HSDa
Sig. ,586
Means for groups in homogeneous subsets are
displayed.a. Uses Harmonic Mean Sample Size = 5,000.
71
Means Plots
72
Appendix 4 - AgeCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing Summary
CasesCasesCasesCasesCasesCasesValidValid MissingMissing TotalTotal
N Percent N Percent N PercentFoodandmusic * Age 268 100,0% 0 0,0% 268 100,0%
Foodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Age Crosstabulation
AgeAgeAge Total1 2 3
Total
Foodandmusic
1
Count 17 12 15 44
Foodandmusic
1
Expected Count 18,4 11,5 14,1 44,0
Foodandmusic
1 % within Foodandmusic 38,6% 27,3% 34,1% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
1
% within Age 15,2% 17,1% 17,4% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
1
% of Total 6,3% 4,5% 5,6% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
2
Count 6 9 14 29
Foodandmusic
2
Expected Count 12,1 7,6 9,3 29,0
Foodandmusic
2 % within Foodandmusic 20,7% 31,0% 48,3% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
2
% within Age 5,4% 12,9% 16,3% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
2
% of Total 2,2% 3,4% 5,2% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
3
Count 9 15 15 39
Foodandmusic
3
Expected Count 16,3 10,2 12,5 39,0
Foodandmusic
3 % within Foodandmusic 23,1% 38,5% 38,5% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
3
% within Age 8,0% 21,4% 17,4% 14,6%
Foodandmusic
3
% of Total 3,4% 5,6% 5,6% 14,6%Foodandmusic
4
Count 28 13 15 56Foodandmusic
4
Expected Count 23,4 14,6 18,0 56,0
Foodandmusic
4 % within Foodandmusic 50,0% 23,2% 26,8% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
4
% within Age 25,0% 18,6% 17,4% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
4
% of Total 10,4% 4,9% 5,6% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
5
Count 30 11 12 53
Foodandmusic
5
Expected Count 22,1 13,8 17,0 53,0
Foodandmusic
5 % within Foodandmusic 56,6% 20,8% 22,6% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
5
% within Age 26,8% 15,7% 14,0% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
5
% of Total 11,2% 4,1% 4,5% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
6
Count 22 10 15 47
Foodandmusic
6
Expected Count 19,6 12,3 15,1 47,0
Foodandmusic
6 % within Foodandmusic 46,8% 21,3% 31,9% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
6
% within Age 19,6% 14,3% 17,4% 17,5%
Foodandmusic
6
% of Total 8,2% 3,7% 5,6% 17,5%
TotalTotal
Count 112 70 86 268
TotalTotalExpected Count 112,0 70,0 86,0 268,0
TotalTotal % within Foodandmusic 41,8% 26,1% 32,1% 100,0%TotalTotal
% within Age 100,0% 100,0% 100,0% 100,0%
TotalTotal
% of Total 41,8% 26,1% 32,1% 100,0%
73
Chi-Square TestsChi-Square TestsChi-Square TestsChi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)Pearson Chi-Square 19,066a 10 ,039
Likelihood Ratio 19,697 10 ,032
Linear-by-Linear Association 5,576 1 ,018
N of Valid Cases 268
a. 0 cells (,0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected
count is 7,57.
Symmetric MeasuresSymmetric MeasuresSymmetric MeasuresSymmetric Measures
Value Approx. Sig.
Nominal by NominalPhi ,267 ,039
Nominal by NominalCramer's V ,189 ,039
N of Valid CasesN of Valid Cases 268
a. Not assuming the null hypothesis.
b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null
hypothesis.
74
(1 = fish dishes with fish music, 2 = fish dishes with no music, 3 = fish dishes with calm music,
4 = meat dishes with fish music, 5 = meat dishes with no music, 6 = meat dishes with calm
music)
75
Appendix 5 - GenderCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing SummaryCase Processing Summary
CasesCasesCasesCasesCasesCasesValidValid MissingMissing TotalTotal
N Percent N Percent N PercentFoodandmusic * Sex 268 100,0% 0 0,0% 268 100,0%
Foodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex CrosstabulationFoodandmusic * Sex Crosstabulation
SexSex Total1 2
Total
Foodandmusic
1
Count 23 21 44
Foodandmusic
1
Expected Count 22,0 22,0 44,0
Foodandmusic
1 % within Foodandmusic 52,3% 47,7% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
1
% within Sex 17,2% 15,7% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
1
% of Total 8,6% 7,8% 16,4%
Foodandmusic
2
Count 11 18 29
Foodandmusic
2
Expected Count 14,5 14,5 29,0
Foodandmusic
2 % within Foodandmusic 37,9% 62,1% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
2
% within Sex 8,2% 13,4% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
2
% of Total 4,1% 6,7% 10,8%
Foodandmusic
3
Count 15 24 39
Foodandmusic
3
Expected Count 19,5 19,5 39,0
Foodandmusic
3 % within Foodandmusic 38,5% 61,5% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
3
% within Sex 11,2% 17,9% 14,6%
Foodandmusic
3
% of Total 5,6% 9,0% 14,6%Foodandmusic
4
Count 30 26 56Foodandmusic
4
Expected Count 28,0 28,0 56,0
Foodandmusic
4 % within Foodandmusic 53,6% 46,4% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
4
% within Sex 22,4% 19,4% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
4
% of Total 11,2% 9,7% 20,9%
Foodandmusic
5
Count 29 24 53
Foodandmusic
5
Expected Count 26,5 26,5 53,0
Foodandmusic
5 % within Foodandmusic 54,7% 45,3% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
5
% within Sex 21,6% 17,9% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
5
% of Total 10,8% 9,0% 19,8%
Foodandmusic
6
Count 26 21 47
Foodandmusic
6
Expected Count 23,5 23,5 47,0
Foodandmusic
6 % within Foodandmusic 55,3% 44,7% 100,0%
Foodandmusic
6
% within Sex 19,4% 15,7% 17,5%
Foodandmusic
6
% of Total 9,7% 7,8% 17,5%
TotalTotal
Count 134 134 268
TotalTotalExpected Count 134,0 134,0 268,0
TotalTotal % within Foodandmusic 50,0% 50,0% 100,0%TotalTotal
% within Sex 100,0% 100,0% 100,0%
TotalTotal
% of Total 50,0% 50,0% 100,0%
76
Chi-Square TestsChi-Square TestsChi-Square TestsChi-Square Tests
Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-
sided)Pearson Chi-Square 5,147a 5 ,398
Likelihood Ratio 5,184 5 ,394
Linear-by-Linear Association 1,330 1 ,249
N of Valid Cases 268
a. 0 cells (,0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected
count is 14,50.
Symmetric MeasuresSymmetric MeasuresSymmetric MeasuresSymmetric Measures
Value Approx. Sig.
Nominal by NominalPhi ,139 ,398
Nominal by NominalCramer's V ,139 ,398
N of Valid CasesN of Valid Cases 268
a. Not assuming the null hypothesis.
b. Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null
hypothesis.
77
(1 = fish dishes with fish music, 2 = fish dishes with no music, 3 = fish dishes with calm music,
4 = meat dishes with fish music, 5 = meat dishes with no music, 6 = meat dishes with calm
music
78
Appendix 6 - The survey (English and Swedish)Survey (Eng)This survey is designed by two students at Ekonomihögskolan, Linnéuniversitetet in Växjö. The survey is a part of their master thesis in the civil economics program. Further the survey aim to research consumer behaviour in a restaurant environment. It’s allowed to be answered more than once and the survey is of course anonymous.
Fill inAge: ! ! 18-30! ! 31-50! ! 51+ !!
Gender:! Man! ! Woman
Please mark the alternative best suited:1. Occupation?
I am employed by the Linnéuniversitetet
I am a student at Linnéuniversitetet
Other
2. Did you pay for your food yourself?
Yes! ! ! No
3. Which dish did you order today?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Fish! ! Meat! ! ! Vegetarian! ! Weakly special
4. When did you make up your mind of what dish to order?
! ! ! ! ! ! !Before arrival! ! At arrival! ! Someone else decided
5. What made you choose this dish?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !The atmosphere! Friends/colleagues! Felt for it today ! ! I don’t know!
Other
6. Have you participated in the survey before?
Yes! ! ! No!! ! ! ! ! ! Thank you!
79
Undersökning (Swe)Denna enkät är utformad av två studenter vid Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö. Enkäten är en del utav deras examensarbete på Civilekonomprogrammet. Enkäten ämnar undersöka konsumentbeteende i restaurangmiljöer. Enkäten får fyllas i fler gånger och är givetvis anonym.
Fyll i rättÅlder: !! 18-30! ! 31-50! ! 51+ !!
Kön: !! Man! ! Kvinna
Vänligen fyll i det alternativ som passar bäst på följande frågor:
1. Vad är din sysselsättning?
Jag är anställd vid Linnéuniversitetet
Jag är student vid Linnéuniversitetet
Annan
2. Betalade du för maten själv?
Ja! ! ! Nej
3. Vilken maträtt valde du idag?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Fisk! ! ! Kött! ! ! Vegetariskt! ! Veckans Rask
4. När bestämde du dig för detta val av maträtt?
! ! ! ! ! ! !Innan ankomst! ! På plats! ! Valde inte själv
5. Vad fick dig att göra detta val av maträtt?
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !Atmosfären! ! Vänner/kollegor! Föll mig i smaken idag! Vet ej!!
Annat
6. Har du fyllt i enkäten tidigare?
Ja! ! ! Nej!! ! ! ! ! Tack för er medverkan!
80
Appendix 7 - Focus group questions (Both in English and
Swedish
Fokusgrupper (SWE)Del 1. Kulturellt bias musik
När dessa musikstycken spelas, vilka tre ord förknippar ni dem med?
Låt 1, Ta mig till havet:
Låt 2, Donegal Danny:
Låt 3, Brännö brygga:
Låt 4, Vågorna:
Låt 5, En sjömans älskar havets våg:
Låt 6, Att göra en brygga:
Låt 7, Änglamark:
Del 2. Kulturellt bias bilder
När dessa bilder visas (mat/restaurang), vilken musik skulle ni förknippa dem med?
Bild 1 musselsoppa:
Bild 2 kötträtt:
Bild 3, Fiskrätt:
Bild 4, Vegetariskt:
Del 3. Kulturellt bias hav & mat
Vilka ljud kopplar ni till havet?
Upplever ni att viss musik associeras med havet?
Vilken musik associerar ni med havet i så fall?
Upplever ni att viss musik associeras med mat?
Vilken musik associerar ni med havet i så fall?
Lugn musik som inte associeras till havet?
Varför associeras inte denna musik till havet?
Är det möjligt att skilja på havsmusik och annan lugn musik?
81
Vad har ni för associationer till havet?
Upplever ni att vissa artister kan associeras med havet?
Vilka artister associerar ni med havet i så fall?
Del 4. Upplevd ljudmiljö
Upplever ni att ljud har någon särskild effekt på er vardag
Upplever ni att vissa beslut ni fattar baserad på effekten av vissa ljudmiljöer?
Upplever ni att ljud/musik har någon särskild påverkan på er vardag?
Kan ni erinra er något särskild ljud/ musik i en kommersiell miljö?
Vad är er inställning/upplevelse av ljud och musik i kommersiella miljöer?
Del 5. Reflektioner
- Upplever ni att ljud/musik kan ha en särskild inverkan på ert köpbeteende?
- Tror ni att ljud/musik kan påverka ert beslutsfattande?
- Upplever ni en skillnad i påverkan av musik/ljud på restaurang jämfört med butik?
- Hur mycket anser du dig påverkad av ljudnivå i kommersiella miljöer?
82
Focus groups (ENG)
Part 1. Cultural bias music
What three words would you associate each of the following songs with? (Each song is played for the respondents)
Song nr. 1, Peter lundblad, Ta mig till havet:
Song nr. 2, The Dubliners, Donegal danny:
Song nr. 3, Lars Dahlquist, Dans på brännö brygga:
Song nr. 4, Uno Svenningsson, Vågorna:
Song nr. 5, Harry Brandelius, En sjöman älskar havets våg:
Song nr. 6, The real group, Att angöra en brygga:
Part two. Cultural bias pictures
When you see the following pictures, what kind of music do you associate them with? (The pictures are shown one at a time for the respondents)
Picture number one, Entrecôte:
Picture number two, Seafood dish:
Picute number three, Vegetarian:
Part three. Questions regarding the sea & food
What sound do you associate with the sea?
Do you feel that certain music be associated with the sea?
What kind of music then?
Do you feel that certain music can be associated to food?
Can you give some examples of calm music that is not associated with the sea?
Why is this music not associated with the sea?
Is it possible do separate ”sea-music” from other calm music?
What kind of associations do you have to the sea?
Do you feel that certain artists can be associated with the sea?
Can you give some examples of such artists?
83
Part four. Perceived sound environment
Do you feel that sound has an certain impact in your every-day life?
Do you feel that you make certain decisions based on certain sound environments?
Do you feel that music has a certain impact in your every-day life?
How are your feelings/experience towards sound and music in commercial environments?
Part five. Reflections
Do you feel that sound or music has a certain impact on your buying behavior?
Do you feel that sound and music can affect your decision making in commercial
environments?
Do you sense a difference in the impact of the music or sounds when in a retail store compared
to a restaurant?
To what extent do feel effected by the level of sound in commercial environments?
84
Appendix 8 - Track list of the conditioned musicRadions Underhallningsorkester – Sommar, Sommar, SommarEvert Taube – Så länge skutan kan gåEvert Taube – Solig morgonEvert Taube – Sjösala valsEvert Taube – Flickan i HavannaEvert Taube – Ellinor Dansar (feat. Ellinor Taube)Brita Borg – Mary StrandEvert Taube – Calle Schewens ValsLasse Dahlquist – Dans på Brännö bryggaThe Real Group – Att angöra en bryggaRadions Underhallningsorkester – Sommar, Sommar, SommarLars Berghagen – Hav och sandAnita Lindblom – Kring de små husen i gränderna vid hamnenStig Olin – En gång jag seglar i hamnHarry Brandelius – En Sjöman Älskar Havets Våg (Ålandsvisan)Harry Brandelius – NordsjönAndrew Walter – ÖckerövalsenSven-Bertil Taube – Så Länge Skutan Kan GåRoland Cedermark – Sjösala ValsCarl Anton – Om Maskros Och TjärdoftÅke Grönberg – KostervalsenEvert Taube – Vals I FurusundBertil Dahlin – HavsörnsvalsSmall Town Singers – Dansen på SunnanöLasse Berghagen – Till Stockholms SkärgårdAlf Robertson – StuvarevalsenHarry Brandelius – NordsjönStig Olin – En gång jag seglar i hamnSone Banger – Fiskarvals från BohuslänOlle Adolphson – Sjösala vårAnita Lindblom – SkärgårdsflirtSven-Bertil Taube – I Roslagens Famn (Calle Schewens Vals)Walter Eriksson – En Sjöman Så Glittrande GladSigge Fürst – Dansen Går På Svinnsta SkärRoland Cedermark – Så Skimrande Var Aldrig havetBröderna Färm – Dans på SunnanöLars Berghagen – Hav och sand
85
Appendix 9 - Track list of the calm musicLaleh – Some Die YoungLaleh – In The CometLaleh – Better LifeLaleh – Who Started ItJames Morrison – You Make It RealJames Morrison – This BoyJames Morrison – Broken StringsJames Morrison – I Won't Let You GoFrank Sinatra – My Way [The Frank Sinatra Collection]Paul Potts – Nessun DormaPaul Potts – Ognuno Soffre - (Italian Verson of 'Everybody Hurts')Paul Potts – AmapolaPaul Potts – CarusoWolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Rondo Alla TurcaWolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Rondo Alla TurcaCarmen Piazzini – Concerto No. 26 in D Major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 537, "Coronation": II. Romanza: (Larghetto con moto)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Symphony No.40 K550 - 1st MovementBeethoven – Für EliseBeethoven – Symphony No. 5 In C Minor Op. 67 Part 1Beethoven – Claro De LunaLaleh – Mysteries
86
Linnaeus University – a firm focus on quality and competence
On 1 January 2010 Växjö University and the University of Kalmar merged to form Linnaeus University. This new university is the product of a will to improve the quality, enhance the appeal and boost the development potential of teaching and research, at the same time as it plays a prominent role in working closely together with local society. Linnaeus University offers an attractive knowledge environment characterised by high quality and a competitive portfolio of skills.
Linnaeus University is a modern, international university with the emphasis on the desire for knowledge, creative thinking and practical innovations. For us, the focus is on proximity to our students, but also on the world around us and the future ahead.
Linnæus UniversitySE-391 82 Kalmar/SE-351 95 VäxjöTelephone +46 772-28 80 00
