1
Case Study
The Right Song for the Buy: How Music Influences Consumer Decisions
1. What empirical and theoretical evidence suggest that music can affect purchase decision
making, and how is this related to emotion? Include an example of a company using
elements of music to influence consumer emotion.
2
When it comes to the emotional reaction to music there are multiple factors besides the
properties of music. The atmosphere, stimulus selection, consumers’ personality traits, as well as
musical preferences and competencies (Palazzi et al., 2019). How music affects purchase
decisions is also dependent on prior experience with the product, brand or type, the message and
specific musical elements and the atmosphere (Alpert et al., 2005). Wine shops seem to be a
great locale for researchers to observe how music can influence purchase behavior. Playing
western classical music, wine shops saw an increase in the sales of more expensive wine and
when Top 40 hits played cheaper wine was purchased (Susino, 2019). “Music that primes
concepts associated with an upmarket positioning of a product increases the amount consumers
are willing to pay for that product, relative to music that connotes an economic position.” (North
et al., 2016). In essence, customers associated the background music to characteristics in whe
