Article

Restaurants tune in, turn up

Operators keep their ears open to brand reinforcement.

April 23, 2007

Crank it up!

Well, maybe not too loud. For many fast-casual restaurant operators, background music is just as much a part of their brand as the menu or the color scheme.

"Restaurants are really all about experience," said Jon Luther, director of audio architecture for Fort Mill, S.C.-based Muzak Holdings LLC. Since 1934, Muzak has been providing music for restaurants, retail stores and a host of other companies.

"You are trying to create that experience with all the senses," Luther said. "The design of a restaurant is thought out in advance because you are trying to create a certain experience for the customer, and music is just another part of that."

The founders of Baker Bros American Deli, a fast-casual deli chain serving specialty salads, gourmet pizzas and sandwiches on hand-formed breads, worked with Muzak to develop a soft-jazz program to sonically illustrate the Midwest.

"Our music goes to the roots of our whole concept design," said Ralph Kinder, director of franchise development for Baker Bros American Deli.

Kinder said company founders, Ken Reimer and Tom Dahl, founded the concept in 1999 with the premise that Baker Bros' food and its atmosphere exhibit the values of the Midwest, including "hard work, good food, good quality and good value."

Baker Bros has eight company-owned units and more than 20 franchise locations under construction or under contract in Arkansas, California, Las Vegas, South Carolina and Texas.

Picking up the pace

Operators have speculated for years that the choice of background music can influence how quickly customers finish their meals and even how much they spend. Operators have traditionally played more upbeat music during busier times in order to keep the tables turning.

"The energy level is definitely affected by music," Luther said. "You listen to a classical piece of music and then you listen to rock and your energy level and your mood changes because of the tempo and the instrumentation."

story continues below...

This story and all of our great free content is supported by:

Galasource Buy restaurant supplies and commercial wholesale food service supply products from Galasource Supply.

Whether or not that is truly the case has even been the subject of academic research. In a 1986 Journal of Consumer Research article, "The Influence of Background Music on the Behavior of Restaurant Patrons," author Ronald Milliman points to several studies indicating higher spending and increased positive perception as a result of background music.

Milliman found that as music tempo and volume increased, spending increased while the amount of time spent in the restaurant decreased.

Music also can be used to promote a particular theme in an operation.

"If you are a Mexican restaurant you may lean toward Latin-flavored programs to create that experience, if you are a New Orleans restaurant you are going to want that type of music," Luther said. "You can also do in a bar and restaurant different zones, creating a hip lounge atmosphere in one area with one type of music and a little more downbeat in another area.

Many restaurants chains are experimenting with sound systems outside the restaurant's front door and even in the drive-thru, working to create the experience even before people walk in.

How it all works

For a monthly fee, a company like Muzak can provide a variety of predefined or custom content. Contracts can include features like equipment installation and maintenance for additional fees.

Content is delivered to the in-store receiver either by satellite, DVD or by a portable hard drive. Although for years Muzak was the only player in the game, recently companies including XM Radio and Sirius have started to offer audio service geared for businesses.

Wouldn't it be easier for an operator on a budget simply to install a stereo in a restaurant and either play the radio or hook up a CD player?

Not quite, Luther said.

Business owners who play music in their establishments are required to pay licensing fees to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI ), the organizations that collect royalties on behalf of artists and music publishers. Muzak pays the appropriate fees as part of their contract.

"There are people who work hard to write, record and produce records and there is a revenue attached to that work," Luther said. "We want to make sure we do the right thing."

Although the word "Muzak" has become synonymous with bland, easy-listening versions of popular songs, and lumped in with the term "elevator music," that hasn't been Muzak's business model for more than 20 years, Luther said.

"About 99 percent of our programs are all original artists, from Justin Timberlake to Aerosmith," Luther said. "We offer every conceivable genre from jazz to country to rock and roll to reggae to Irish music."

Aside from the legal concerns, the experience that is created by a radio program is markedly different than a program created by Muzak's audio architects.

"You have a host, advertisements, you have much smaller play lists, you have a lot of interruptions and you may hear a competitor's ad on the radio," Luther said. "It's great if you are in your car, but it's just not appropriate for a business environment."