On Jan 12, 1:31�pm, DaleW > wrote:
> I have a very good mother-in-law. I like her a lot, but not as much as
> the USPS. She's the postal service's best friend, sending us 3-5
> envelopes a week with newspaper clippings she finds interesting. One
> was just a couple of paragraphs, but intrigued me enough to search it
> out on Google News. A search for "accordion wine" found this:http://www.parade.com/news/2009/01/how-... works.html
>
> The following portion was the clipping she sent:
> "Music also can direct us to certain products. For example, it can
> determine what kind of wine we pick up from the shelves. In one
> experiment over a two-week period, British researchers played either
> accordion-heavy French music or a German brass band over the speakers
> of the wine section inside a large supermarket. On French music days,
> 77% of consumers bought French wine, whereas on German music days, the
> vast majority of consumers picked up a German selection. Intriguingly,
> only one out of the 44 customers who agreed to answer a few questions
> at the checkout counter mentioned the music as among the reasons they
> bought the wine they did."
>
> OK, so I have a couple questions about this.
>
> 1) First of all, is accordion really considered a particularly French
> instrument? My only accordio-centric CD is Polish (though of a French
> composer), a friend gave me because he knew I liked Erik Satie, didn't
> realize it was accordion till it was already purchased.
> If I had to put accordion is a national category, it would be Central
> European (polkas and such)
>
> 2) I guess it's possible that buyers could distinguish German music
> (if beer garden oompah style). But is it really possible that the vast
> majority of buyers would then buy German wines? In UK? I know that in
> the old days they drank plenty of hock, but my impression now is that
> German wines are about as popular in UK as here. I find it hard to
> believe at any market outside Germany or its neighbors that a majority
> of wine purchased was German, no matter what the music.
> On the other hand 77% French doesn't seem out of realm of possibility,
> no matter what they played.

By the way, I understand that this isn't really subliminal
advertising, but used in title as that was what article called it.