How multicultural in-store music promoting ethnic products can help integrate a pluralistic society

Abstract

Affirmative actions by the government, media and institutions that give new settlers in Australia greater “face” time in daily proceedings, would help facilitate the integration of a pluralistic society. Retail institutions are particularly well placed to influence the acculturation of new Australians, because in the pursuit of their buying protocol, the more recent arrivals encounter retail experiences that often instruct them on theirmodus vivendi in their adopted country.

As there is no better evidence of Australia’s acceptance of diverse cultural traditions than a demonstrated consumption to the food and drink of others’ cultures, retailers can play a major role in encouraging the dominant community (Anglo-Celtic) to patronize multicultural products. A useful way to help achieve this objective is for stores to play music of a certain culture when promoting specific items of that culture; this study demonstrates that the odds of buying ethnic products when a shopper has listened to multicultural music are more than three times that of a shopper who has never listened to multicultural music.