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.

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.

Being a market researcher myself, the conclusion is clear to me: This
market research was financed by the Music industry!

all the best,

s.

DaleW wrote:
[]
> 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)
>

Good Lord yes. The accordion was studied as a "serious" instrument
by generations of French children.

What's more, there's Musette. It is extremely fashionable to detest
Musette among French intellectual circles -- and I expect a couple
to pipe up here! -- musical or otherwise. But among the bad there
is also some very good, and very evocative, original French work.
(I'm no student of it, but no doubt Musette has as many mongrel
influences and origins as any other form.)

I like Musette, although that is a dangerous admission to make.

There are a few very fine accordionists working in France.

> 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.

Yes, seems reasonable, although I thing percentage-wise the English are
drinking less French than that these days.

-E

On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:24:36 +0100, Emery Davis
> wrote:

>> On the other hand 77% French doesn't seem out of realm of possibility,
>> no matter what they played.
>
>Yes, seems reasonable, although I thing percentage-wise the English are
>drinking less French than that these days.

For supermarket sales, as claimed, it doesn't sound plausible at all
to me. I'm trying to get hold of the original article.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher

DaleW > wrote:

> 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)

Interesting. Accordeons are popular in Germany and Austria,
although only for popular music.

I would add Argentina (and tango) as place I'd associate with
an accordeon.

And Emery is spot-on with Musette, of course.

M.

Mike Tommasi > wrote:

[On accordeons]

> Of course Germany, with their Höhner brand,

H_o_hner:

<http://www.hohner.eu/>

<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohner>

> and Austria, where the modern instrument was invented.

Didn't even know that, WWG ("wieder [et]was gelernt").

M.

OK. Here are the article details and abstract....

"Adrian C. North, David J. Hargreaves, and Jennifer McKendrick (1999).
The influence of in-store music on wine selections. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 84, 271-276.

"This field study investigated the extent to which stereotypically
French and German music could influence supermarket customers'
selection of French and German wines. Music with strong national
associations should activate related knowledge, and be linked with
customers buying wine from the country concerned. Over a two week
period, French and German music was played on alternate days from an
in-store display of French and German wines. French music led to
French wines outselling German ones, whereas German music led to the
opposite effect on sales. Responses to a questionnaire suggested that
customers were unaware of these effects of music on their product
choices. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical
implications for research on music and consumer behaviour, and their
ethical implications for the use of in-store music."

And some results...

They put equal numbers of French and German wines of the same
sweetness level (8 types of wine in all) on 4 shelves at the end of a
supermarket aisle. Here are the numbers of wines sold when each type
of music was played:
French music - 40 French bottles - 12 German ones
German music - 8 French bottles - 22 German ones

So the percentge of French bottles bought from that display was 83% in
the case of French music, and 35% in the case of German music. The
claim that 77% of customers bought French wine when French music was
being played is completely wrong, but interestingly enough that
happens to be the proportion of the total number of French bottles
being sold when French music was being played.

Personally I think it is also interesting, and perhaps not surprising,
that less wine in total was sold when Bierstube music was being
played. I bet it did wonders for beer sales at the supermarket though!

The relatively high proportions of German wine being sold are probably
due to it being given equal weight on the display to French wines -
the customers were not selecting from the proportions normally being
offered today. Note also the research is from 1999, when I think
German wines was probably more popular.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher