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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.
Tim Hortons has built a strong reputation around convenience, familiarity and accessible coffee-led food service. As the brand continues expanding across the UK, our observations and suggestions could support a more consistent and distinctive in-store experience across the estate.
Music was present throughout the venue at a comfortable and well-balanced volume. The soundtrack leaned towards mellow, easy-listening pop that worked well as a non-intrusive backdrop for the environment.
There is an opportunity to refine this further through more intentional scheduling and curation - ensuring the soundtrack remains consistent across seating areas, drive-thru-focused locations and busier trading periods.
Digital signage was already integrated effectively into the customer journey, with multiple above-counter screens rotating between menus, promotions and video-led campaign content.
There is an opportunity to build further on this by aligning visual campaigns more closely with atmosphere and daypart - for example using calmer visual pacing during quieter coffee-led periods and more energetic promotional content during peak meal times.
Develop more intentional daypart scheduling that adapts energy and pacing throughout the day - from calmer breakfast periods to busier lunch and evening trade.
Ensure music volume, playlist style and atmosphere remain balanced across seating areas, counter spaces and drive-thru-focused environments.
Coordinate audio and visual campaigns to create a more connected and recognisable customer experience across all locations.
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 Tim Hortons’ warm, approachable and comfort-led atmosphere - blending mellow modern pop, soulful indie and laid-back singer-songwriter tracks to create a soundtrack that feels relaxed, familiar and easy to spend time in.
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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