Retailers are well aware of the social uses of interior architecture, of course, but also fragrance and music in creating this dream space that makes us spend beyond reason. Research has found that sweet smells and pleasant or familiar background music significantly increase the chances of an unplanned purchase. Interestingly, however, both scent and music together decrease spending, which is an indication of what a subtle art this whole manipulation business is.
Very few brands, however, use this knowledge proactively, but you might expect it to be an increasingly popular approach for the future, as retail competition grows sharp in luxury circles.
Renowned Viennese composer and conductor Emanuel Schulz has addressed this complex side of luxury marketing with a bespoke service: Corporate Archetype Music. He offers the opportunity for brands to create a bespoke, made-to-measure composition that reflects the very archetypes that define the brand, and that make it so very irresistible.
Schulz assigns archetypes (such as The Intellectual, The Earth Mother, The Wise Man or The Trickster), based on the psychological cognitions of C.G. Jung, to tonalities in Western music. He characterizes his approach as, “eternal qualities for the communication of the future”.
Archetypes are considered to be an ancient and universal element of the human mind. As a human race, and more specifically as a unique psychological entity or personality, we understand ourselves through these timeless ideals, and seek to express and understand ourselves more thoroughly by our attraction to certain ones as opposed to others. While there are an unlimited number of archetypes, the pre-eminent 20th century psychiatrist and Freud-collaborator C.G. Jung identified the essential ones that Schulz interprets. These building blocks are perhaps not far from those used by professionals working in brand management and brand asset analysis, and what is used to describe “the personality” of a brand.
To claim that brands (particularly luxury brands that are attached to high price tags) are expressions of psychological archetypes is another topic altogether but to link the two by something so ubiquitous, innocent and essential as music is a potentially powerfully manipulative tool, in any case a point for reflection – and a reason to take note if you happen to particularly like the song playing as your credit card gets swiped.
