Target didn’t always play music, and Georganne Bender remembers the day that changed at her local store when it reopened following a remodel.
When the music came on, “it was night and day. It was a more comfortable feeling. … It changed the atmosphere,” she said.
A retail store without music is like a scary movie with the music turned off, said Bender, who is a retail consultant: “It doesn’t feel as good or as scary or as impactful.”
Music might be in the background in grocery stores, but it’s far from an afterthought. The music and messaging customers hear are part of how groceries establish and solidify their brands and encourage sales, sources said. With increasing interest in retail media, grocers are figuring out how to add in-store messaging to the mix.
Customers have high expectations for in-store audio. The best playlists are even getting attention on social media, where influencers say grocery stores are the hottest club in town, with only a hint of irony. Or show up on Spotify or YouTube, where customers upload playlists from local supermarkets.
Sources weighed in on how grocers can select the right music for customers and determine the appropriate mix of marketing and music.
The perfect playlist
Music can help set the tone for a shopping experience, grocers say, and the playlist should change based on who your audience is and the vibe of the store.
Customers at Heritage Grocers Group stores hear music based on what’s popular in that region and with the grocers’ mainly Hispanic customers. The group’s store banners include Tony’s Fresh Market and Cardenas Markets.
“Although we’re 115 locations, we do believe in that whole local approach,” said Adam Salgado, Heritage’s CMO. “Our customers, although mostly Hispanic, they vary by location and region. So perhaps in Nevada, where there’s more of a Central American and Caribbean presence, there’s a little more salsa and more Merengue playlists.”
“If you look at the heart of NorCal, where there’s the farm growers and the pickers, et cetera, that’s more regional Mexican music, so you may go in, and you may be hearing Mariachi music,” Salgado continued. “Tony’s in Illinois is a little bit more English-speaking forward. So, probably a little bit of top 40 hits.”
In general, grocers can’t go wrong with classic music from a few decades back, Bender said. And don’t discount disco. “We like to say disco is the sound of money,” she said.
Albertsons considers dayparts when creating store playlists, said Angela Moore, the grocer’s director of sales, planning, and business integration. “Music during the day tends to be more mellow, whereas music at night is modified to be more upbeat,” she said.
When SiriusXM starts working with a brand, Radhika Giri, SVP of emerging business, begins with a survey to understand the environment a retailer wants to provide for their customers.
“Could a high-tempo audio increase the speed at which people shop in the store when there is a lot of traffic in the store?” she said. “Or are there certain times of the day they want to have folks meander around and walk the aisles of the store?” That might call for mellower music.
When creating a brand’s playlist, SiriusXM, which works with retailers like ShopRite, considers the weather, time of day and what’s on display. For example, Giri said Christmas music should “align” with when a store sets up its holiday displays.
Some grocers have also begun to recognize that some customers react negatively to music and other in-store noises and have implemented sensory-friendly hours. At New Seasons Market, a chain in the Pacific Northwest, stores refrain from making announcements and playing music during sensory-friendly hours, and they reduce the volume of walkie-talkies. At Walmart, in-store TVs are turned off, and when available, lights are lowered during sensory-friendly hours.
While music tastes differ and there are plenty of companies to work with to create playlists and other audio options for grocers, grocers and industry experts agreed on one thing — the importance of licensing music. Because of laws that protect artists, retailers can be fined for playing copyrighted music without permission.
Mixing messaging with music
As retail media becomes increasingly important to grocers’ bottom lines, in-store audio has become another way to communicate ads.
RockBot, which works with retailers like Walmart, aims to provide in-store audio that combines music with marketing.
“We have a full production team that can both advise on the scripting and create the scripting of messaging and do end-to-end audio production, such that we would work with that grocers marketing team,” said Jon Cassell, COO of RockBot.
Cassell views audio as part of a larger in-store retail media solution from grocers, which includes digital signage and in-store TV screens, which RockBot also offers retailers.
Albertsons also offers in-store audio marketing options to vendors and brands as part of their omnichannel promotional packages. The grocer is part of Stingray’s Audio Advertising Network, which “enables us to secure incremental support from national brands,” Moore said.
Stingray also helps schedule audio messaging for Albertsons. “We strive to have two to three songs play before an ad and try not to have two ads running back-to-back if possible. On average, we have 50 minutes of music and 10 minutes of messages per hour,” Moore said.
Audio can reach employees, too
Music and messaging can also be an important way to build company culture. Employees are an “often overlooked audience for in-store media, music included,” Cassell said.
At New Season, each store’s operations team chooses the music. “This musical independence is very much a part of the New Seasons Market culture,” said Amy Wolf, the company’s director of operations.
Consider how often songs are replayed, and give employees the ability to increase the volume of music when the store is closed and employees are restocking. These are great ways to use audio to benefit employees, Cassell said. Audio announcements, like highlighting an employee’s great work over the loudspeaker, can foster comradery.
“Employees are working eight hours — whereas a shopper might be there for a 15-minute, 30-minute or 45-minute experience. They’re sort of living their life in this environment. And the employees play a huge role in the impact on the customer,” Cassell said. “And so even incrementally changing how your entire in-store workforce feels on a day-to-day basis makes a huge difference.”