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Hospitality Management 25 (2006) 716–720

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Research note

Styles of background music and consumption in a

bar: An empirical evaluation
Céline Jacob
Center of Research of Economics and Management (CREM), UMR-CNRS 6211, Université de Rennes 1,
Rennes, France

Abstract

The effects of background music have been widely studied in the literature but few studies have
tested effects of music in commercial settings. An experiment was carried out in a bar to test influence
of three different styles of music on patrons. According to a random assignment, patrons were
exposed to Top 40 music, which was usually played in the bar, cartoon music or drinking songs.
Results showed that drinking songs appeared to increase the length of time customers stayed in the
bar and the average amount spent. A congruency hypothesis is used to explain these findings.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Music; Bars; Effects of music on consumption of drinks

1. Introduction

Background music is known to affect consumers’ behavior. Various experimental

studies conducted in natural settings have shown that music styles or structural
components of the music (e.g. sound level, tempo) affect consumers’ behavior. Cain-
Smith and Curnow (1966) varied the sound level in two supermarkets and found that
customers spent significantly less time in markets during the loud session than during the
soft one. Furthermore, no significant difference in sales between the two sessions was
found. In a recent experiment conducted in different bars in France, Guéguen et al. (2004)
found patrons who were exposed to a sound level higher than was usually employed in the
bars, consumed more drinks. Milliman (1982) tested the effects of tempo in a supermarket.
He found that a high tempo increased the in-store traffic flow and decreased sales volumes.

E-mail address: celine.jacob@univ-ubs.fr.

0278-4319/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2006.01.002
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C. Jacob / Hospitality Management 25 (2006) 716–720 717

In the context of restaurant, Milliman (1986) found that slow music led customers to stay
longer time and spend more in bar charges. McElrea and Standing (1992) observed that
fast music significantly decreased drinking time whereas Roballey et al. (1985) found a
significant increase in the number of bites per minute when patrons in a cafeteria were
exposed to fast tempo music, compared to a slow tempo or to a no-music condition.
Besides its structural components, music also influences customers’ behavior by its style.
Areni and Kim (1993), by comparing Classical versus Top 40 background music in a wine
store, found that classical music increased the amount of sales and led customers to select
more expensive merchandise. This effect is consistent with the claims of Yalch and
Spangenberg (1993) who suggested that classical music evokes higher priced store
merchandise. The notion of an association between music and context had been supported
by an empirical evaluation conducted by North et al. (1999). They found that customers’
selection of French or German wines was strongly affected by stereotypic French and
German background music. French music increased sales of French wines compared to
German ones whereas German music led to a reverse effect. In both cases, differences
between the sales of French and German wines were significant.
The purpose of this study, which was modeled after the one conducted by North et al.
(1999), was to examine the effects of congruence of background music on drinking
behavior in a natural setting. In a typical French bar setting, drinking songs (such as ‘‘The
Drunken Sailor Song’’ and others that speak about good food and alcohol and are sung
for festive days) are associated with the context and with the patrons behavior whereas
cartoon music (such as ‘‘Some day my Prince will come’’ or similar songs that are played in
animated films like ‘‘Snow White and the seven Dwarfs’’) are not. Our purpose was to
compare the effect of these styles of music with ‘‘Top 40’’ music which is usually played in
French bars.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

The participants were 93 patrons (76 males and 17 females) who unknowingly
participated in the study and were observed at random in a bar of a middle-size
seaside resort town (70,000 inhabitants) on the West Atlantic coast of France. The bar
had a limited capacity and could accommodate only a total of 40 people seated and
standing.

2.2. Procedure

The observations were made during 14 afternoons of three working weeks with the
consent of the owner of the bar. Two observers were seated in two different locations
in the bar. Before selecting participants, background music was manipulated according
to a randomized scheme. During 30 min, the same music style was played and another
one was played after each period according to a random distribution: A period of 30 min
was selected because the mean length of time spent by the patrons in the bar from 2 to 4
p.m., was approximately 15 min. It was then possible to begin a new music session and
wait until a new patron entered in the bar. This patron was considered as a participant
until he/she left the bar. If this person did not leave the bar after 30 min, the observation
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718 C. Jacob / Hospitality Management 25 (2006) 716–720

was dropped and the data obtained was not used in the analysis. By using this method,
only eight participants were dropped and no patron was exposed to two different music
styles.
In the three conditions, the sound level of the played music was the normal one used in
the bar (70 dB). After selecting a new music session, the observers waited for patrons who
first entered the bar. One observer was instructed to observe the first participant while the
second observer was instructed to observe the second one. After selecting a participant, the
observer discreetly started a chronometer. When the participant left, the observer stopped
the chronometer and reported on a form the length of time and the amount of money spent
by the patron.

3. Results

The two dependent variables used in this experiment were length of time and amount of
money spent by the patron in the bar. The results are presented in Table 1 below.
A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze data of the two
dependent variables. Concerning the mean length of time spent by the customer, a main
effect between the three conditions appeared (F ¼ 8.28; po.001; Z2 ¼ .16). Two by two
comparisons revealed that the Drinking Songs condition was statistically significantly
different than the Top 40 musical condition (t ¼ 3.99; po.001) and the Cartoon Music
condition (t ¼ 2.94; po.01). Despite the appearance, difference between the Top 40
musical condition and the Cartoon Music was not statistically significant (t ¼ 0.46; ns).
For the second dependent variable (amount of spent money by the patrons) a general
difference between the three conditions was found (F ¼ 15.61; po.001; Z2 ¼ .30). Two by
two comparisons showed that the difference between the Top 40 musical condition and the
Cartoon Music one was not statistically significant (t ¼ 0.33; ns). Furthermore, like the
length of time spent in the bar by the patrons, it was found that the Drinking songs
condition was statistically significantly different than the Top 40 musical one (t ¼ 4.55;
po.001) and the Cartoon Music (t ¼ 5.18; po.001).
A Bravais–Pearson’s correlation test was used to analyze the relationship between the
two dependant variables. The test with all the data collapsed showed a significant positive
correlation (r ¼ .56, po.001). Furthermore, Bravais–Pearson’s test between the two
dependant variables in the three different conditions revealed no differences between each
coefficient.

Table 1
Means and standard deviations for length of time (min) and the amount of money (h) spent in the bar

Cartoon music Top 40 music Drinking songs

Length of time M ¼ 13.66 M ¼ 12.58 M ¼ 21.32

SD ¼ 10.28 SD ¼ 8.23 SD ¼ 9.54
Amount of money spent (h) M ¼ 3.11 M ¼ 3.27 M ¼ 4.96
SD ¼ 1.25 SD ¼ 1.56 SD ¼ 1.44
Number of tested subjects 27 35 31
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4. Discussion

The results showed that in the bar where this experiment was carried out, the style of
background music had an effect on customers’ behavior. Drinking songs were shown
to increase the length of time and the amount of money spent by patrons. This confirmed
previous studies on the influence of music on customers’ behavior such as the ones
conducted by Drews et al. (1992) that discovered that the presence of music increased
the amount of money spent by the patrons and the one conducted by Guéguen et al.
(2004) that found that patrons would consume more drinks when music was played
at a higher sound level than normal. The combined results of these studies prove
that music influences drinking behavior. The original contribution of our study is
that it shows that the style of music—not just its level—also influences consumer
behavior. In France, background music is continuously played in the bars. Thus the
challenge is to find styles or physical characteristics of music (tempo, sound level, etc.) that
would increase beverage sales. In our study, the length of time and the amount of money
spent in the bar were higher when drinking songs were played than when Top 40 music or
Cartoons Music were played. This finding is consistent with the results found by North et
al. (1999) who observed that in-store customers’ exposed to French music selected more
favorably French wines than German wines whereas the reverse effect was found
when the customers were exposed to German music. In their experiment and in our
study, music produced a priming effect. Drinking songs are traditionally associated with
alcohol consumption and friendliness. These songs could prime positive feelings such
conviviality and festivity that in return, increased the length of time and amount of alcohol
consumed in the bar.
The results of this study may have some practical applications as it suggests that it might
be financially advantageous for bar or café managers to use various styles of music to
increase patrons’ consumption. Nevertheless, the practical aspect of our results must be
used with caution because the sample size was small and the experiment was conducted in a
single bar. The style of played music in this experiment was congruent with the style of the
bar, but drinking songs could not be appropriate in another bar. Thus it would be
interesting to test this aspect of congruency between the style of music and style of bar, in
future studies.

References

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Drews, D.R., Vaughn, D.B., Anfiteatro, A., 1992. Beer consumption as a function of music and the presence of
others. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 65, 134–136.
Guéguen, N., Jacob, C., LeGuellec, H., 2004. Sound level of background music and consumer behavior: an
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McElrea, H., Standing, L., 1992. Fast music causes fast drinking. Perceptual and Motor Skills 75, 362.
Milliman, R., 1982. Using Background music to affect the behavior of supermarket shoppers. Journal of
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Milliman, R., 1986. The influence of Background music on the behavior of restaurant patrons. Journal of
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North, A., Hargreaves, D., McKendrick, J., 1999. The influence of in-store music on wine selections. Journal of
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Roballey, T., McGreevy, C., Rongo, R., Schwantes, M., Steger, P., Winiger, M., Gardner, E., 1985. The effect of
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