The Buzz: Next Wave of In-Store Marketing? DJ'ing

Have you ever been shopping, heard a song come over the store’s speakers and thought to yourself, “Who the heck chose this?” Well, now it can be you.

While it’s usually local retail staff that choose which songs play within regional storefronts, Mood Media is flipping the script and putting the power in consumers’ hands. Mood Media, a company that combines sight, sound, scent, and social-mobile technology and systems to create emotional connections between brands and consumers, recently launched Social Mix, which essentially transforms participating storefronts into consumers’ own personal jukeboxes. With Social Mix, shoppers can see which songs are lined up in the playlist queue and then vote on which ones they would most like to hear.

Shoppers are encouraged to vote on the music being played by scanning a QR code on in-store signage. Doing so will take them to a mobile landing page, which features the music playlist specific to the store they’re in (the phone’s GPS function enables the playlist to be targeted down to the individual store level). No app download is required to vote; just enough cell service to start DJ’ing.

A Potential Loyalty Driver
While Social Mix may sound like another gimmick to get consumers into brick-and-mortar stores, it could have a deeper impact on the shopping experience than you may think. By giving consumers already in-store the power to control the music playlist (or at least vote on it), the retailer stands a better chance of creating a relationship with them as well as providing a shareable in-store experience.

Furthermore, just like waiting for the songs you picked to play on the jukebox at a bar, shoppers may have to wait for their songs to play in-store. And the longer they wait, the more time they will have to shop — and spend.

According to Mood Media’s Global Chief Product Officer, David Van Epps, more than 700 retail brands are now using the Social Mix platform, including The North Face, The Body Shop, Primark and Karl Lagerfeld, among others.

Giving in-store shoppers access to the music playlist is another attempt by retailers to get more traffic into their stores — along with technology integrations, restaurants and bars in some cases. Creating an environment that’s comfortable for the consumer will only aid in that pursuit, and that’s music to the ears of retailers.