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Purple Tuesday

This month we welcomed Purple Tuesday – a key date in the shopping centre and OnBrand calendar. But, although that day has now passed, it doesn’t mean this initiative shouldn’t be on your radar all year long. And here’s why….

Ever heard of the Purple Pound? No, it’s not a currency you can use to buy Prince merchandise; it’s the amount of money that businesses lose out on each year because they are reluctant to engage with disabled consumers. It’s estimated at a staggering £249 billion and is on the rise.

So if disabled people in the UK have this much spending power, why aren’t businesses catering to their demands better?

Why indeed. This is exactly the question that the charity Purple, are asking. They are the ones behind the Purple Pound and Purple Tuesday and campaign for accessibility in malls. Their research puts this reluctance for businesses to engage with the disabled community down to fear: “fear of causing offence, of being politically incorrect or of being misunderstood”. So to combat this, Purple set aside the second Tuesday of every November as a day when businesses can show their true colours and tackle their shortcomings by making themselves as accessible as possible for people with disabilities.

What You Can Do

But what does being ‘accessible’ mean? Luckily for you, we’ve compiled a list to give you some ideas on how to make your business more disability-friendly.

One of the ways which you can make a commitment to improving the accessibility of your business is by “Formalising Quiet Hours”. We know many of our clients are already doing a great job of this by setting aside #SEN hours or days, but for those of you who aren’t in the know when it comes to setting aside some quiet time, here’s a quick explanation as to what it involves and why it’s so important:

Many people, especially those on the autistic spectrum, suffer from Sensory Processing Disorder (sometimes called ‘Sensory Integration Disorder’), a condition where the body can struggle to interpret the information that the senses signal to the brain about its surroundings.

One of the ways SPD manifests is a hypersensitivity to the kind of ambient sounds that other people are able to tune out and ignore, things like cars revving, dogs barking, or in-store music.

Now, as much as we love our music at OnBrand, inclusivity always comes first. That’s why we’re encouraging our clients as a part of Purple Tuesday to make it a #SEN day and hit pause on your playlists.

Quietly Confident

As it turns out, aside from being a super simple way to show support for SPD sufferers, we could all do with a bit of peace and quiet from time to time. The World Health Organisation has gone as far as calling noise pollution a “modern plague”, estimating that the 340 million citizens of Western Europe annually lose a million years off their life because the stress it puts us under. And as if that wasn’t scary enough, they also reckon that noise pollution is the root cause of around 3,000 heart disease deaths per year.

We might think of silence as an absence rather than anything else. But the absence of sound has been shown time and time again to be extremely beneficial for us. Whilst testing how different kinds of music affect us, Bernardi (2006) had expected the silent intermissions to act as a control for his test subjects. But he was surprised to discover that silence had a more relaxing effect on the brain than the ‘relaxing’ music he had been playing.

Studies done on mice done by Wehr (2010) and Kirste (2013) have even more exciting implications though. In both cases, silence had a unique effect in mice brains; it not only provoked brain activity unique from processing sound, but the results of Kirste’s experiments suggested that silence provoked the growth of new neurons. These are still preliminary findings, but it could mean that silence therapy might be used in future to treat sufferers of dementia and depression, states in which the production of new cells in the brain decreases. Talk about making something out of nothing, eh?

Don’t shoot us for mentioning the C word… we’re really on your side.

Because, love it or loathe it, Christmas comes around early when you’re in the retail business.

In fact, we’ll let you into a little secret, we know some companies that hold Christmas days in July just to make sure they’re on top of journo’s press lists…

And while we’re all good and happy to do this for our clients, we’re digressing.

Today we want to talk about Christmas music in your centre. With 10 weeks until the big festive day, when is the right time to start those Christmas music playlists?

Lucky for you, we’re following the trends closely…

We’ve found that every year, Christmas creeps up earlier and earlier. This is prompted mainly by brands competing to be the ‘memorable’ campaign of Christmas.

That’s right, the big brands like M&S, John Lewis, Argos etc. have been looking to claim their No.1 Christmas spot, probably from February, to align your festive shopping experience to their brand values.

In fact, we bet there’s the key Christmas ad debut scheduled for those X Factor breaks… watch out guys, we foresee John Lewis sneaking in there with its festive offering.

It’s going to be somewhat mingled with Halloween and Guy Fawkes night because of course, we can’t forget these are also big dates for retailers, but, mark our words, as soon as that last firework pops on 5th November, Christmas will be making a huge bang!

Normally the first prompting from TV or radio leads many other businesses to consider when they should put live their Christmas theme and music. And it’s a huge topic in the office at the moment as we work with clients to get Christmas events ready… so it’s got us thinking…

Why?

Why should we advise our clients to put on Christmas music and when? We mean, who really benefits from hearing Jingle Bells and Silent Night?

In our opinion it’s everyone. It’s all about creating an experience for your customers. That magical sound, that one song that gives your customers ALL the festive feels and evokes a memory. You know, the one that plays on the heartstrings and then, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. THAT ONE.

And with that, comes the feeling to make the day as special as they remember, pulling on the purse strings and in turn helping your tills sing a positive tune.

In fact, even if you don’t have a full-on winter wonderland or grotto, the music is enough to get all those Christmas feelings straight into play.

Don’t believe it any more than you believe in Santa? Here’s a challenge. To see how important music is to your environment, simply remove it, and observe it with, and without, its music. There’s no better example than in a mall. This Christmas when you’re shopping, stop and notice what is being played, and what the ambience would be without it?

Oh, and let’s not forget your staff. With busy Christmas periods, they’re going to need to be in the mood. That means making sure they aren’t listening to the same songs on repeat over and over… an idea? Why not ask them to pick a tune they like? Send them to us and we’ll put a bespoke list into play… #justsaying

Convinced you? Ok now comes the other Christmas conundrum…

When?

The trick to effective delivery of Christmas music is to slowly introduce the theme and the music – don’t rush to put 100% Christmas music on the 1st of November or for that matter even the 1st December – slowly introduce your music into the mix of the other music playing up till Christmas Day.

Or, take an example from us and our current shopping centre clients…

For the many we work with, festive music begins on, or around, the Christmas Light Switch on, a defining day in the launch of the Christmas shopping season. Most malls will begin their Christmas music at this point, which usually starts around 15th November. From here on in, the music plays right up till the 25th and for some onto the New Year.

And when it ends? Well, there may be the age old tradition of everything coming to an end on the 6^th January, but, we dare you to start the New Year with that Christmas playlist… New Year, New Music is our motto, and we can always give you a helping hand as to what your shoppers will be delighted to hear on a depressing January…

So, there’s the toughie out of the way… we’ll leave picking what to buy your fussy Aunt Mabel for Christmas down to you… #sorrynotsorry.