"We have more confidence in our sound": Hawaii Poké on brand-owned music

Hawaii Poké runs 23 "sunspots" across Sweden. We sat down with founder and CEO Aaron Colman to talk about atmosphere, growth, and why the music finally fits.

Tell us briefly about Hawaii Poké: how it started and where you are today.

Hawaii Poké started ten years ago, when I saw demand in the market for a healthy fast-casual concept in Stockholm. I had just moved here from New York and London, and I felt the city lacked good healthy food concepts. Today we have 23 sunspots, and we're in the process of signing more locations.

What role does atmosphere play in your restaurants, and how did you handle music before Tonada?

Atmosphere plays a huge part of the customer experience at Hawaii Poké, not just because we want the customer to have a good time but because our brand has a clear concept. The customer expects to feel the Hawaiian and Pacific feeling when they enter one of our sunspots. We tried many music providers in the past, and while we always found good service, we never found a clear brand experience that could connect the sunspot to the sounds.

What was the biggest pain with your old setup: cost, inconsistency, nailing the Hawaii Poké sound, time spent managing it?

The main pain was always trying to find a sound that matched the in-store customer experience we were going for. Cost was also an issue at times, as we tend to have smaller locations, and we found the pricing models of these other companies did not appropriately consider that. Then, of course, the time to set up and manage additional hardware. With the new Tonada Sonos setup, our lives have been made even easier.

What convinced you to try AI-generated, brand-owned music? Were you skeptical?

We were not skeptical at all. In fact, we had been discussing it for a few months when someone on my board mentioned they had met with Tonada in the very early stages of the company. I got Juan's number and contacted them right away. We were up and running just a few days later, and this was over Christmas, too.

Since switching, what differences have you noticed from guests, staff, or the numbers?

The biggest difference has been from the teams in the sunspots. This has been the first time the teams working in our locations have not grown bored of the music or complained about the selection or the direction the music is taking. I'm super grateful for that.

How does sound fit into your plans as you open new locations?

As we open new locations, sound has become a key experience area where we look for improvements. For example, we're now looking at adding more speakers to a sunspot than we ever thought about before, so I guess we have more confidence in our sound since switching to Tonada, too.

What would you tell another restaurant founder still running Spotify playlists off someone's phone?

Remove the stress, remove the risk, and let Tonada better match your brand to the customer experience. There is never enough time in the day for anyone in this industry to do everything they want to do, so the more hats they can take off and the more tasks they can delegate, the better. That leaves more time to engage with the customer, avoids any fines, and prevents team members from taking the playlist in the wrong direction.

Finally, what's ahead for Hawaii Poké?

Hawaii Poké is growing. We're looking to add more sunspots to our Swedish portfolio and, for the first time, actively looking outside Sweden for growth. We're also expanding the concept, what we call Sunrise to Sunset, launching more breakfast and afternoon products to create more moments in the day when we can engage with our customer base. We certainly hope to take Tonada with us on this journey, too.