The influence of the musicscape within service environments

Steve Oakes: Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Department of International Business and Accounting, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The author acknowledges the thoughtful advice of Margaret Hogg and Vincent Mitchell at UMIST.

Introduction

This paper presents the Musicscape (Figure 1) as a visual framework which synthesises current empirical research analysing the effects of manipulating the structural elements of music within a service environment. The individual components which comprise the Musicscape are highlighted and summarised in the literature review which follows.

Musicscape framework

The Musicscape framework is an extension of Bitner's (1992) model of the Servicescape, which highlights music as just one of a range of physical environmental dimensions influencing the behaviour of customers and employees within a service environment context. Bitner's Servicescape model explores the broader domain of non-verbal communication within service environments, and portrays the way in which environmental dimensions can have an effect on the cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses of both customers and employees. This ultimately impacts on behavioural responses such as duration of stay, amount purchased, exploration of the store environment, and likelihood of return. Environmental dimensions include the use of space/function, signs, symbols, artefacts, and ambient conditions. Under the category of ambient conditions are included temperature, air quality, noise, odour, and music.

Detailed focus

The Musicscape provides a detailed focus on the influence of just one of these ambient conditions, the musical variable. While the Servicescape examines both customer and employee response and behaviour, the Musicscape concentrates solely on customer response and behaviour within the service environment. Although both Servicescape and Musicscape demonstrate the way in which physical evidence stimuli can be used to elicit desired responses from consumers, the Musicscape is more finely focused, including only the musical elements which have been explored in service environment empirical studies. The Musicscape provides a visual point of reference, highlighting the significant relationships which previous studies have revealed, as well as indicating areas where no significant relationship has yet been confirmed (e.g. between musical tempo and perceived duration). It also underlines the interdependence of the various compositional elements which make up the musical stimulus.

Individual musical variables

The framework demonstrates the problematic nature of attempts to isolate the effects on service consumers of exposure to individual musical variables (e.g. musical genre)...