Influencing Costumer Perception in a Restaurant Business through Auditory/Music Marketing Strategies

The feelings that accompany the use of a product often determines people’s continual usage of a particular brand or otherwise. Thus, this study examined the influence of costumer perception in a fast-food Restaurant business through auditory/music marketing strategy. The study area covers all the Crunches fast-food Restaurants in South East, Nigeria. The study was further restricted to the ones in Imo State. The population of the study is made up of all the customers of Crunches fast-food Restaurant in Owerri, Imo State. Sample size of 105 derived through convenience sampling technique was used for the study. Data were collected from a sample size of 105 customers comprising of 80 customers in the restaurant and 10 staff members of the restaurant. Interview was conducted on 15 customers on the basis of availability. The study employed simple frequency statistics, and t-test to test the hypotheses formulated. Content analysis was used for the interview data. The findings of the study show among other things that; music has influence on majority of the customers who found music in the restaurant to be exciting, enjoying and relaxing; this according to the results of the study makes the customers to also spend more time in the restaurants as well as maintain regular consumption or patronage of the restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner.


Statement of the Problem
Nowadays, restaurants and more generally, the food industry has to cope with the obligation of attracting more and more customers, developing loyalty and at the same time keeping their brand image for the customer. The marketing tools used in order to do those obligations are wide-ranging into the general Marketing Mix. Although traditional restaurants do not have the same budget to develop their marketing strategy, they have to find new tools beyond the ones they commonly use such as low-prices strategy or timesaving. There are lots of other common marketing tools used in the food industry such as advertisements and sales promotions. Nevertheless, marketing tools innovations are overriding today, due to the evolution and the characteristics of the food industry. Restaurants have constantly added new tools in their marketing strategy in order to get a real competitive advantage on the market. In the bide to remain competitive and retain customers, the restaurant industry employed the use of sensory marketing specifically sound. Thus, this study was embarked upon with the main objective of ascertaining ways sensory marketing strategy with focus on sound influences costumer's perception in a restaurant business.

Objectives of the Study
Specifically, this study's objectives are to evaluate the; 1. How customers feel when music is played in a fast-food Restaurant 2. What role music plays in time spent in the restaurant by consumers 3. How music impacts customer's consumption

Research Questions
In line with specific objectives of this study, the following research questions are posed. 1. How does customers feel when music is played in a fast-food Restaurant? 2. What role does music play in time spent in the restaurant by consumers? 3. How does music impact Customer's Consumption?

Review of Literature
Under this section, various relevant literature will be reviewed to provide insight regarding the various concepts of the study. Such concepts to be reviewed are Customer, Perception, Restaurants among others.

Concept of Costumer
In the marketing arena, customer is a salient word. This is perhaps due to the central role of the customer to any business venture. According to Simons (2016), a customer is an individual or business that purchases another company's goods or services. Customers are important because they drive revenues; without them, businesses cannot continue to exist. All businesses compete with other companies to attract customers, either by aggressively advertising their products, by lowering prices to expand their customer bases or developing unique products and experiences that customers love. All that firms do in today's business world is centered on or around the customers. As a result, the perception of the customer especially with regards to a company's goods and services is considered very important. Also, a lot of activities are engaged in or carried out by the company to predetermine or influence to their favour, the perceptions of the customer to ensure continued patronage.

Concept of Perception
Perception especially with regards to customers is an important aspect of business. Perception in this regard, is the ability of a customer to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses. Perception is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment (Schacter, 2011). For the author, every perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, which in turn result from physical or chemical stimulation of the sensory system. For example, vision involves light striking the retina of the eye; smell is mediated by odor molecules; and hearing involves pressure waves. Thus, a certain type of perception (positive or negative) of a business venture like the restaurant by customer is usually triggered.
Perception is an attempt to perceive the environment in five senses. Sense organs can be characterized as instruments for gathering information in our environment. Indeed, customers want a commodity before they finally buy the product to be used, touched, heard, smelled or tasted. The root cause of this mechanism is the need to reduce the amount of risk expected by customers and to find the best way to meet needs (Lee & Schwarz, 2015). Because of this feeling, an individual begins to perceive the desires, experiences and motivations in parallel. The stimulants are images, noises, tastes, smells and contact with five senses, as well as human incentives such as perceptions, motivations and previous experiences. The stimulating elements are products, labels, packets, commercials and designs. Consumers are introduced to these stimulants as they come into physical contact with stimulants. Sense organs are the basic factors that mediate the mechanism of being subjected to inputs from the environment (Latasha, Tooraiven, Monishen & Randhir, 2016). The perceptions involved produce sensations, emotions and customer awareness, and thereby show a consumer's mood. (Skandrani, Mouelhi & Malek, 2015) Loudness, rhythm, style and music pattern played in a shop attract listening and interpretation of influence. Faster beats of music make consumers more enthusiastic, which is why shops who expect consumers to circulate faster tend to play this music (Sharma & Stafford, 2015). Sounds are indicative of how to organize experience. Rich sound as you close a car door, and the sound you hear when you touch porcelain with a bar provide external hints to a product's consistency (Barham, 2016).

Concept of Restaurant
A restaurant is a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises. Situated within the commercial hospitality industry, the restaurant sector provides food and beverages to customers (Ninemeier, 2010). Restaurants are generally defined in the literature as organizations providing food, beverages and services at a specific location in return for monetary gain (Ottenbacher, Robert, & Harringtong, 2007). Similarly, Schmidgall, Hayes & Ninemejer (2002) define a restaurant as a 'for-profit foodservice operation whose primary business involves the sale of food/beverage products to individuals and small groups of guests. In other words, a restaurant or more informally an eatery, is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Notably, meals are generally served and eaten on the premises of the restaurant. But many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models ranging from inexpensive fast-food restaurants and cafeterias, to mid-priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments (Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2016).

Music, Time Duration and Customer Attention
Many scientific experiments have shown that the structural components of different kinds of background music, including sonic level, tempo, style/gender, and sophistication influence a restaurant's time for consumers. Nwulu and Asiegbu (2015) find that the longer the time appears to extend as consumers love playing the song. In addition, Sanjeev and Kanika (2015) showed that time appeared longer for the respondents when they heard familiar rather than unfamiliar music in a department store and supermarket respectively as regards the tempo of music which affected their expectations of time.
The results of scholars' conflict with each other when it comes to the impact that music has on the customer's interest show that while some see it that the greater the excitement, the stronger the focus, others see it that the extremely exciting music is will interfere with knowledge management (Simons, 2016). Indeed, the writers found that cognitive activity is generated through soothing music and this seems to be the best level of excitement, thus capable of attracting attention, music's cognitive effects. Music is also therefore necessary to match in with the world and the goods available because non-congruence will adversely influence consumers (Jayakrishnan, 2014). The assessment of music can, however, vary greatly from one community to another, because music has an evocative ability.

Auditory Factors (Hearing/Music)
Hearing also plays a vital part in our everyday lives out of the five senses. We can diagnose our ears at least 16 to 2800 cycles per second (Barham, 2016). Sound is often used as a strategy to boost the identity of the brand in branding and promotion. Sound can build a distinctive brand name when implemented properly (Rossing, Moore & Wheeler, 2014). Sound can affect our decisions and our comments on goods and services; (Laimona & Jeremy, 2017) sound can influence our buying behaviour. Sound also influences our buying habits. Music naturally lifts our spirits. Likewise, sound helps us to improve our mood, and in marketing it is considered as important for consumer behavior as well. (Karla, 2016). It has been revealed by Adiele et al, (2015) through their studies that Consumers have different kind of needs, and in marketing, sound has been used very effectively to communicate with the unconscious needs of the consumer.
Sound use is known in publicity; it's a good way to make the consumer remember that you associate music with a message. However, for sensory marketers, music is also important because research has shown, for instance, the impact of music on behaviour. The efficiency of a sales community depends on the capacity of the potential customer to manage the subjectivity (Karla, 2016). Music is in every selling or restaurant and is an integral part of the atmosphere, lightning and design also play a role in customer perceptions, regardless of their place of use (discrete speakers or video clips on big flats). Background music is the cheapest and easiest atmosphere to manage, but definitely not the least powerful (one button and it is off or one track is missed, another and it sounds louder. The power of music can contextualize the various articles and promote emotional conditions and positions (Karla, 2016). The aim of music is to place the customer in a state of mind that corresponds to the articles that are sold: to play rock music in a guitar shop.
Music can then be a way of acting on the purchasing behavior of the client when connected to the product. The high-volume music in a bar is also shown to increase customer consumption (North & Hargreaves, 1996). Studies have been carried out to find the best song for various sites: For example, the quality of classical music in the cellar or the tea house increases (Laimona & Jeremy, 2017). But music can also influence "crowd administration" by influencing the customers' time. For instance, a quick-tempo music will push the customer to leave early (Karla, 2016) In contrast, low-volume music increases the amount of time and money spent on it. The same studies also show that customers eat faster and eat less with high volume and fast pace music. Another study by (Rossing, Moore & Wheeler, 2014) has revealed that customers adopt their traveling speed at a point of sale based on the tempo of the music. Music offers marketers a wide range of possibilities to influence the behavior of customers and to complete a coherent selling environment.

Methodology
This study was carried out in June, 2021 and the study area covered was Crunches Fast Food Restaurants in South-East, Nigeria. Crunches is a fast-food restaurant currently spread across the South-South and South-East Cities of Nigeria, with over thirteen years of existence. Crunches fast food have carved a niche of excellence in the fastfood delivery market with a service per excellence acquired from our daily interaction from valued Customers. The study was further restricted to Crunches located in Imo State. This is because Crunches restaurants in Imo State are among the best hands when it comes to intercontinental dishes in Imo State who also put to consideration international standards (A home away from Home). Crunches Restaurant provides both indoor service and also sells in take-away. The population of the study is made up of selected customers of Crunches Fast Food Restaurant in Owerri, Imo State that visited the Restaurant for a period of five days. Sample size of 105 comprising of 95 customers and 10 staff members of the restaurant derived through convenience sampling method was used for the study. The sample size is in accordance with the views of Hill, Brierley and MacDougall (2003) who reported that a sample size of 100 and above is sufficient to represent good research. Data was collected using researcher developed questionnaire. The study employed simple frequency statistics. Data gotten was analyzed using content analysis.
All constructs in the model were measured with multiple-item scales. Each of these variables was measured by a simple frequency table and most of the items were derived from the literature. The questionnaire is said to be reliable if the Cronbach's Alpha score is above 60 % and the pilot study revealed the Cronbach Alpha coefficient of .929 i.e., 92.9 % which indicates a high level of internal consistency and implies that the questionnaires is reliable. The simple frequency and the Structural Equation modeling (SEM) were employed. SEM is a multivariate statistical technique that combines the methods of factor analysis and multiple regressions to simultaneously estimate a series of interrelated causal relationships, such as those in the proposed structural equation model (Hair, Anderson, Tatham & Black, 1995).
The measurement model describes the relationship between the measured variables or indicators (i.e., specific items) and latent variables (i.e., dimension or sub-dimensions). The results of the measurement model test determine how well the indicators capture their specified constructs. In this study, a measurement was developed and tested for the primary dimension namely: sensory experience SE (i.e., Sound Sensory) and the three outcome variables (i.e., Customer Attention, Customer Consumption and Customer Time Duration) to examine the full model. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied in the format of Structural Equation Modeling by letting all the constructs correlate freely and applying the same goodness of fit indices used in SEM to determine the model fit. The model fit was determined by examining goodness of fit indices. The main focus of this stage testing the proposed hypotheses to investigate the causal relationship among Sensory experiences. The main issue of the structural model analysis in this stage focused on whether the restaurant customer perceptions about their multiple sensory experience will have an impact on Customer Attention, Customer Consumption and Customer Time Duration which will in turn affect the perception of the consumers.  Table 1, it can be deduced that 33.3% found the music in the restaurant to be exciting, 23.8% found it to be enjoying, 38.1 found it to be relaxing while 4.8% said that it has no impact on them. The outcome of the study indicates that music triggers various feelings in customers. As the result of the study shows, the feeling of excitement, enjoyment and relaxation is seen to be triggered in the majority of customers who visits the restaurant as a result of the music played. In other words, a customer actual has a special kind of feeling as a result of the music played in a given restaurant. This again shows that just as Batema (2014) posits, music is an important tool for influencing customer behaviour, retaining and building customer base of any business venture.  Table 1.  Table 2, it can be deducted that 42.9% found that they spend 30 mins in the restaurant, 23.8 spend one hour, 23.8% spent one hour thirty mins, 4.8% spent two hours and over two hours respectively. Also, figure 2 below shows that most of the participants spend 30 minutes in the restaurant. The outcome of the study here shows music played in the restaurants plays persuasive role of ensuring that customers spend an amount of time in the restaurant. This outcome is in line with the submission of Mehrnaz, Houshang & Kambi (2014) that the use of sound i.e., music in restaurants acts as a persuading signal is an atmosphere which then affects the experience and behaviour of customers. As shown by the outcome of the study, when costumers enjoy the background music, they feel they have spent less time relative to the actual amount of time they have spent in the restaurant; if they dislike it, despite the short amount of time they have actually spent in the restaurant, they claim to have been there for much longer.  Table 3, it can be deduced that with music played in the restaurant 28.6% consumes only lunch, 14.3% consumes breakfast and dinner, 38.1% consumes lunch and dinner while 9.5% each consumes either dinner or breakfast respectively. The findings of the study indicate that the type of music played in a restaurant impacts customer consumption. As indicated by the result of the study, when consumers enjoy the background music, they feel they have spent less time relative to the actual amount of time they have spent in the restaurant. Also, when they dislike the music played, they feel to have spent much time despite the short amount of time they have actually spent in the restaurant. With this, music depending on the preferences of the customers could either negatively or positively impact customers' consumption of meals at restaurants.

Conclusions
Auditory/Music marketing is a strategy that is believed to give a new route for embracing how human sense create an individual's experience. Likewise, it recommends tactics on how a business identifies and develops its own identity and distinct products and branding via the involvement of the human sense of sound. Unlike normal marketing studies, Auditory/ music marketing strategy is at the front and center, highlighting the necessity of appealing such sensation while marketing to clients. From the study, it was discovered that customer's attention,