As you should know, the experience in a restaurant is not only food. Actually, food is 50% of the experience in a restaurant and the atmosphere is the other big part of it. But what is experience in a restaurant? It’s the place, the décor, the waiting staff and … the music. The last element, music, is the main part of the atmosphere of a restaurant.
Thanks to science, we have discovered that in fact, music changes completely our experience in a restaurant and that is the subject of this article.
Music makes us eat in a different way
A lot of factors influence the way we eat. There are the internal factors such as the mood, the hormones and the external factors like TV which is the most famous example of the extern influences on the way we eat.
It turns out that music is also one of the main external factors which change the way we eat. Several studies have shown that listening music while eating is likely to increase our food and drink intake.
Moreover, music also makes our lunch longer. It means that music can keep us more time in a restaurant.
More surprising, the rhythm influences also the rhythm of the chewing. Another experience led by McElera and Standing found that people eat faster when they are exposed with speed tempo and conversely, slower music make us eat slower and drink more.
Music also has an effect on the taste of food
Generally, people think they judge the taste of the food with four senses: The taste, the view, the smell and the touch but the heard is also very important! In fact, chips taste much better when they are crispy! It means that sound changes our perception of the taste of food and logically, it is easy to understand that music has a huge impact on our perception of a dish.
Actually, music and food go hand to hand. Music creates energy, it creates an atmosphere that develops the flavour of food. A good food can become excellent with the appropriate music because music will always make everything we eat better. That’s why there is always music in a successful restaurant, that’s why people eat much more when there is music, and that is why we are willing to pay more in a restaurant.
Music has the power to create emotional links
Music has another great power from which restaurants can benefit: It exists a positive correlation between the fact that one likes a music played in a place and one’s level of affection for this place.
So, the more you like a music you hear in a place, the more you like that place and the more this place will miss you.
As well, the more a restaurant has a good playlist, the more it will be likely to create loyal customers because people will associate this good music with the quality of the restaurant.
How restaurants leverage the benefits from the music effects?
All those characteristics about music explain why more and more restaurants build their own playlist of music thanks to some website like gettaphunter.com.
Some restaurants capitalize even more one music to build a real customer experience by hiring a DJ or working with consulting companies specialized in the music for restaurants and hotels like El Media.
How to create a good playlist?
The playlist is built according to the menu and the level of formality of the restaurant in order to be perfectly appropriate to the expectations of the customers. For instance, a modern menu has to be associated with modern music.
Also, the songs are chosen according to the moment of the meal, which means that music is more and more energetic as the meal goes on, which make your customer happy at the end of their meal and gives energy to the waiting staff.
To conclude this article, remember that the best playlists are the one whose songs move seamlessly to the next song.
Interested in this subject, here is some books and links for you:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666306003849
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~janiwang/thesis/janice_wang_ms_thesis.pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-6712.1996.tb00304.x/pdf
