Emotion and sound

Berlioz, Beatles or Benny Hill?

Make sure your volume is not set too loud, then take a look at this film.
(Click on the white rectangle to change the backing music; try a few different tunes).

Isn't it extraordinary how exactly the same images can become intimidating, uplifting or comic just by changing the music? How some music makes us sit back and observe, and other music makes us want to join in? How some feels timeless, some immediate?

A lot of customer experiences, especially in retail and hospitality, feature music in some way. It is usually chosen to be pleasant, non-intrusive and non-offensive. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with that - until it goes too far into musak - but it rather misses the point.

Your service offering should be designed to stimulate certain emotions in your customers. (Do you know what they are? You really should.)

Ask yourself if the music you are using in your retail location, on your answering machine or in your elevator really fits the emotion you want to create? Or is it just inoffensive pap, like all your competitors?

Gramaphone shot from djking at flickr