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Drawing on information processing theory, this paper aims to study how consumers’ liking of background music in advertising affects their purchase intention and explore the roles of positive brand attitudes, music mode and music tempo within such a relationship.

We created several radio advertisements that promote two fictitious products: an electric car (EcoCar) and a reusable coffee mug (EcoMug). We study the role of music in these advertisements and examine how it affects purchase intention across multiple experiments.

We confirm the prediction that positive brand attitudes mediate the relationship between music liking and purchase intention. We also show that music moderates such an indirect relationship because major mode music strengthens the effect of positive brand attitudes on purchase intention. Additionally, we find that major mode music with a fast tempo can further strengthen the effect of positive brand attitudes on purchase intention. As a result, the indirect effect of music liking upon purchase intention via positive brand attitudes will be moderated jointly by the music mode and the music tempo.

Limited scholarship explores how the subjective characteristics of music affect consumer buying behaviour in conjunction with the objective characteristics of music. The current research addresses this gap by investigating how music liking (a subjective characteristic of music) and music mode and tempo (objective characteristics of music) affect consumer buying behaviour.

This study extends the Mehrabian‐Russell environmental psychology model to include both emotional states and cognitive processing as mediators of the music‐intended behavior relationship. Our model specifically suggests that music affects customers’ perceptions of service quality and merchandise quality as well as feelings of arousal and pleasure, in the context of a women’s fashion store. The effect of music on service quality has not previously received much attention. In addition, it has been suggested that previous results of studies examining the effect of music on consumer responses may have been largely the result of individual music tastes. In the present study, therefore, the effect of music tastes is also examined. Findings indicated that liking of music has a major effect on consumers’ evaluations (pleasure, arousal, service quality and merchandise quality), while the music characteristics (specifically slow pop or fast classical) have an additional effect on pleasure and service quality. Further, pleasure, service quality and merchandise quality affected intended approach behaviors, and arousal contributed to these behaviors when the store environment was considered pleasant. Affiliation behaviors similarly resulted from service quality, pleasure and arousal, but not merchandise quality. Overall results indicate the importance of understanding the effect of music on both consumers’ internal evaluations as well as intended behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review that highlights significant findings from empirical research examining the impact of music within various real and simulated service environments.

The paper examines the results of studies that have manipulated specific musical variables (genre, tempo, volume, and liking), and attempts to identify consistent patterns of findings to guide managers and researchers. The studies focus upon a range of dependent variables including evaluation of the environment, perceived wait and stay duration, consumption speed, affective response, and spending. Possible explanations for apparently inconsistent findings are discussed.

A variety of studies reveal the positive influence of musical congruity upon desired outcomes. Future research proposals identify the need to examine defining‐attribute and prototype theories of musical congruity.

The review highlights a range of implications drawn from the studies that will be of value to service organization managers who use music as a key component of their servicescape in order to enhance desired cognitive and affective responses.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which two dimensions of music, happy/sad or liked/disliked, have significant effects on shopping intentions, thereby providing guidance for decision‐makers in service environments.

Subjects viewed videotapes of an unfamiliar store in an experimental research design. Subjects were exposed to one of several musical treatments while viewing and were asked to speak their thoughts about the store aloud. Happy/sad musical treatments were determined through pretests while subjects' unprompted comments were used to assess like/dislike for the music. Subjects also reported intentions to shop in the stimulus store. The hypothesized model was then tested.

Happy/sad music had a significant direct effect on shopping intentions while the direct effect of liked/disliked music was marginally significant. However, the combination of the two music dimensions investigated is perhaps most noteworthy. Shopping intentions were greatest when subjects were exposed to happy music that was liked.

Only a women's clothing store service setting with a limited target market was utilized. Care should be taken when generalizing beyond this setting and subject group.

Happy music that is liked by the target market can significantly increase intentions to shop in a retail service environment.

Little research has been done investigating the effects of the affective, or happy/sad, component of music in service settings. This study helps fill that gap in the literature. In addition, studies investigating music's effects in retail environments often examine only one dimension of music. The value of assessing effects of multiple dimensions of music is demonstrated.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a model of consumer response to music in broadcast commercials outlining four variables (listening situation, musical stimulus, listener characteristics, and advertising processing strategy) that affect a consumer's attitude toward the advertising music (A_am).

The paper takes the form of an integrative review of the relevant literatures from the psychology of music, marketing, and advertising.

A_am can be positively but also negatively influenced by many factors. Only some of these variables are employed in any typical study on consumer response to music, which may account for some conflicting findings.

The paper discusses factors for effectively using commercial music to affect A_am, with special focus on advertising processing strategy. Advertisers are urged to exercise extreme caution in using music and to always pretest its use considering factors identified in this paper. The paper suggests ways in which the model can guide future research.

The paper integrates diverse literatures and outlines the major variables comprising our model of consumer response to advertising music. Advertisers can use these variables as a checklist for factors to consider in selecting ad music.

In many food marketing contexts products are sampled while music is played in the background. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether changing the pleasantness of background music while tasting two identical products in succession may influence the experience of taste and preference.

Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, 60 participants were asked to taste two identical cookies, one with pleasant and one with unpleasant background music, in differing orders. In Study 2, 60 participants tasted two cookies with two unpleasant musical pieces and 60 participants tasted two cookies with pleasant background music. Participants were asked to evaluate each cookie and indicate which cookie they preferred.

In Study 1, a main effect of music was found, with cookies tasted with pleasant background music evaluated as better than those tasted with unpleasant background music. In addition, an interaction between presentation order and music was found, with a stronger difference in evaluation between the cookies when the first is tasted with pleasant background music. In Study 2, no main effect of music was found. A primacy effect was found, with higher evaluations for the first tasted cookie.

The studies considered only one type of product, which in itself is pleasant-tasting. Further studies, using other products, are thus needed to allow generalization.

A discerning use of background music in consumer settings involving sampling of a sequence of products may aid marketers in maximizing music’s effect on product evaluation and choice.

Although the effect of music on taste has been previously studied, this is the first research to examine presentation order effects of music pleasantness on the experience of taste. The pleasantness of background music is integrated into the experience of taste, and food marketing strategies should take into account how the order in which different musical pieces are heard may influence consumers’ evaluation and preference for sampled products.

A literature review of relevant empirical research examining the influence of background music within the context of service environments is presented. Studies revealing significant relationships between specific musical variables and desired consumer behavioural outcomes are displayed in a visual framework entitled the Musicscape. This framework draws on Bitner’s model of the Servicescape, which highlights music as just one of a range of ambient conditions influencing behaviour. The Musicscape provides an extended version of Bitner’s Servicescape model by focusing in detail on just one of these elements, the musical variable. Additional figures demonstrate an even more focused breakdown of Musicscape interactions by including arrows which identify the direction of significant relationships revealed in empirical studies. The framework portrays in visual terms the inherent complexity of attempts to influence response and subsequent behaviour by using music within a service environment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what factors influence the gap between caller's perception of how long they think they waited and how long they actually waited on hold and to determine what call managers can do to reduce this gap called estimation error.

A field experiment was conducted with a corporation's call center.

The findings were: the higher the estimation error of callers, the less satisfied they are; music increases estimation error, unless callers can choose the music; waiting information reduces estimation error; callers with urgent issues have more estimation error and they overestimate more; and females have higher estimation error and they overestimate more than males.

Limitations are one call center in one context. Implications are identification of antecedents of overestimation.

The paper provides guidelines for call center managers for reducing estimation error and increasing caller satisfaction. It discusses the need for understanding callers and measuring items that are important to them.

The study investigates an under researched variable called estimation error. Study also provides information about some of the causes for why consumers overestimate or underestimate their waiting time. Study provides guidelines from an actual call center and discusses variables that managers can easily use to decrease estimation error and overestimation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes and implications of potential negative consumer response to music in broadcast commercials. It aims to accomplish this by introducing a new consumer response variable, attitude toward the advertising music (A_am) and relating A_am's components to advertising goals. It also aims to propose that A_am is a significant component of attitude toward the ad (A_ad).

The paper takes the form of an integrative review of the relevant literatures in the psychology of music, consumer marketing, and advertising to formulate A_am.

Favorable A_am is a necessary but insufficient condition for favorable A_ad in ads employing music. Furthermore, a negative A_am might cause a negative A_ad. Given the numerous possible negative responses to music in a TV or radio commercial, achieving a favorable A_am among most target audience members is very challenging, especially when music‐message fit is lacking.

The paper offers cautionary advice for advertisers using music and directions for future research.

The paper provides a novel integration of literatures in psychology and marketing/advertising. Whereas most scholars and practitioners assume that music adds value to commercials, the authors demonstrate key ways in which music can cause adverse listener reactions.

This paper studied the effects of music plus fragrance or music alone on consumer purchase behaviour, footfalls and repeat visits to retail stores in the context of the mall.

A primary research was conducted through a structured questionnaire. A field study was conducted in two malls that attract the maximum crowd. The data from 250 respondents were analysed in total.

As per the present study, the combination of playing music with fragrance is more effective compared to playing music or fragrance alone on shopping behaviour, footfalls and repeat visits in retail stores in emerging markets like India.

The study is more confined to a comparative study of the effectiveness of music with or without fragrance on consumer purchase behaviour and footfalls in retail stores located in malls. In view of research design, this could be a limitation of the study as types of music and other ambiance factors are not considered. The present study can be extended to religion as the religiosity of respondents may give a different response. The urban respondents may vary when compared to rural consumers. Therefore, the study can be extended by adding the rural or A-city mall or smaller malls in big cities. Research can be extended in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era to see if there is a change in consumer behaviour. It can also be extended to consumer's preference for different music and different fragrances.

This paper provides marketing managers and retail owners with valuable insights on the importance of using music with fragrance in retail stores to create unique consumer experiences in emerging markets that are different from developed countries. Managers should try to create both music, and fragrance in the store to improve purchase intention, and stay longer. To ensure that the planned music and fragrance approach creates the ambiance for consumers, marketing managers are advised to conduct market research. Special care should be taken for younger visitors to the store by creating the right ambiance. The present research will help many offline retailers' managers to strive for new competitive advantages through creating favourable shopping environments by understanding cultural differences.

The research gives direction to use music with a fragrance in the retail ambiance in the malls which will lead to improved consumer purchase, more footfalls, repeat visits and staying longer in emerging markets like India, which is a destination for global brands. Integration of three models of impulse buying (Rook and Fisher, 1995), individualism and collectivism (Triandis, 1995) and stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) model of Mehrabian and Russell (1974) is used to explain the complex behaviour of consumers towards more purchases and repeat visits. The study will shed light on the quandary that retailers in the organised sector face in emerging markets such as India regarding the use of music and fragrance, as well as the impact on purchase behaviour, footfalls and repeat visits.