The first-of-its-kind mobile application developed to assist shoppers on the toughest decision of “What to eat?”
Kuala Lumpur, 07 February 2018 – With its recent redevelopment, IPC Shopping Centre is now proud to reveal its latest mobile application solution to ease every shopper’s shopping experience and daily dilemmas. The IPC Shopping Centre mobile application is the first shopping centre app in the world that is developed in collaboration with music streaming giant, Spotify, to provide shoppers with suggestions on places to dine or drink at IPC through its ground-breaking food and mood-matching tool.
Together with Spotify’s rich user data, IPC Shopping Centre worked alongside world-renowned taste psychologist Professor Robin Dando of Cornell University to create ‘The Mood Menu’ – a food-and-mood matching tool based on a complex proprietary algorithm of human emotions and the effect on their sense of taste. According to Professor Dando’s landmark 2015 study published in the scientific journal Appetite, human moods have the ability to inhibit or accentuate sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or umami (savoury) flavours.
Professor Dando explained, “Our taste perception can be modulated by a variety of factors, and this includes our emotional response to pleasant or unpleasant real-life events. For instance, we were able to show that positive emotions go along with an enhancement of our sweet tooth, while negative emotions occur alongside heightened perception of sour tastes. This might be the reason why some of us go through emotional eating.”
Andrew Yeoh, Head of Marketing – Shopping Centre, IKEA Southeast Asia said, “We saw this as an opportunity to solve every Malaysian’s favourite question—“What to eat?”. It is a common question we ask our friends, family, and colleagues almost every day. We hope that this solution provides our shoppers with a more pleasant and delightful shopping and dining experience. After all, it is part of our vision to create a better everyday life for our shoppers and visitors.”
He continued, “A lot of science, data, and technology have been put behind this mobile application, and we are excited to be the first shopping centre in the world to collaborate with Spotify and Professor Dando to roll out this unique app for our shoppers. While the mobile application is tailored to match shoppers’ moods and help them discover IPC’s extensive range of dining choices, it also creates business opportunities for our tenants and empowers them with data to explore more exciting flavours and menu items.”
The Mood Menu analyses users’ recent Spotify playback history to track their current mood. The users’ moods are then matched with suitable flavours offered by the diverse range of dining delights at IPC Shopping Centre, via the proprietary Mood Menu algorithm based on taste psychology insights from Professor Dando. Other than that, the IPC mobile application also contains informative details such as Store Guide, parking information, latest promotions, as well as members-only promotions for those who sign up for a profile within the application.
The mobile application is now available for download via Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Google Play Store: http://bdj.bz/IPCappAndroid
Apple App Store: http://bdj.bz/IPCappIOS
About IPC Shopping Centre
Malaysia’s first shopping centre anchored by IKEA, and the first of many shopping centres in IKEA Southeast Asia’s portfolio in the region. A sub regional Shopping Centre strategically located in the heart of a mixed development of offices, hotel, commercial centres & residential, it serves as the neighbourhood shopping destination for the community, complementing the shopping hub in the district known as Mutiara Damansara Commercial Centre. We opened our doors in December 2003 and today we welcome an average visitation of 15 million visitors per year to our Centre.
