Content area
Abstract
This thesis investigates the consumer online music decision-making process and factors driving purchase intention of legitimate digital music services that currently exist in the marketplace. In particular, examination is focused on areas under management control including product bundling, price promotion and price presentation framing. Utilizing an online questionnaire, a conceptual model was tested specifying key relationships among factors that influence consumer beliefs, attitudes and purchase intentions toward different products offered by à-la-carte digital music service providers.
In the online study, 346 respondents were assigned randomly to one of seven experimental conditions and presented with a hypothetical purchase scenario consisting of two options: (i) an Album price and (ii) price per Individual Song. Since à-la-carte services have traditionally marketed complete Albums at a discounted rate (i.e., $9.99 for a 12-song Album) and Individual Songs at a premium (i.e., $0.99 per song), the proposed research tests the effectiveness of price-discounted, 'consumer-selected' song bundles. Specifically, applying a discount to either Albums and/or Individual Songs, and framing the promotion as dollar or percentage savings generated interactive effects influencing consumer beliefs, attitudes and purchase intentions toward both options. Results reveal insight into the importance of digital music bundling and the price premiums consumers are willing to accept when creating their own individual song compilations.