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Music, signage and atmosphere influence how long customers stay, how they feel, and how they perceive a brand.
In coffee shop environments, these elements are especially important. They help create a welcoming atmosphere, influence dwell time, and enhance the experience.
Coffee #1 has built a strong position as a community-focused coffee brand, creating spaces that feel relaxed, approachable and more independent in character than many larger chains. Our observations and suggestions could support and further enhance that positioning.
Music was present throughout the café, but the speaker quality and volume made it difficult to clearly hear or identify what was playing.
The soundtrack itself felt understated and unobtrusive, which suited the relaxed atmosphere of the space, but the low audio clarity meant the music wasn’t contributing meaningfully to the overall environment.
For a hospitality brand like Coffee #1, music can play an important role in reinforcing comfort, warmth and personality - helping create an atmosphere that encourages customers to stay longer, work, socialise and return regularly.
There was no digital signage present within the store.
Given Coffee #1’s traditional and community-led design style, this felt like a deliberate and understandable choice. The absence of screens helps maintain a calmer, more independent café feel that differentiates the brand from more overtly commercial coffee chains.
That said, there may still be opportunities for subtle, carefully integrated digital elements that support operations and communication without disrupting the atmosphere.
Introduce a more intentional soundtrack strategy that reflects the warm, welcoming and community-led nature of the brand.
Enhance speaker quality and volume balance so music contributes positively to the environment across all seating areas.
Explore subtle digital touchpoints that improve communication and operational flexibility while maintaining Coffee#1’s independent café feel.
Based on your brand, audience and environment, here’s an example of how your music could feel with Startle.
This playlist has been designed to reflect Coffee#1’s warm, relaxed and community-focused atmosphere - blending soulful contemporary pop, laid-back grooves and mellow alternative tracks to create a welcoming environment that feels calm, modern and comfortable.
The intention is to:
Choose from our library of over 100 professionally crafted playlists spanning genres, moods and sectors, or opt for curated soundtracks designed just for your brand.
We offer simple, scalable digital signage to promote seasonal ranges, upsells and brand storytelling - helping keep content fresh and visually engaging for regular customers.
With Startle Studio, you’ll have full visibility and control of all your coffee shops’ music and signage schedules from a central platform, ensuring consistency across every location.
We’ve worked with hospitality brands to create more thoughtful, atmosphere-led customer experiences that encourage dwell time and strengthen brand identity.
We partnered with BEAR Coffee to help develop a soundtrack that reflected their warm, community-focused brand while supporting the evolving atmosphere across their cafés.
As BEAR expanded their estate, they wanted music that felt distinctive, human and consistent with the personality of their spaces - helping bridge the gap between daytime coffee culture and more social evening environments.
This approach included:
Finding our brand sound has been an exciting journey, and the support from the Startle team has been incredibly valuable. They nailed it from the start, and we’ve been happily listening to these playlists ever since.
Marketing Manager
Book your discovery call to explore how music and signage could enhance experience, consistency and engagement across your estate.
On this call we’ll:
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