Music Purchase Behaviors - Essay Example

Music Purchase Behaviors Research Proposal June 24, 2006 Research Proposal The research proposes to define the music purchasing habits of the average consumer in the dimension of types of music purchased and media behaviors. This will help the marketing department to understand the popular trends in music and develop advertising programs towards those behaviors. The implication of this research is specifically related to understanding the best fits of music marketing towards consumer behaviors, and the final result will be recommendations towards final marketing procedures. This will assist marketing departments in the final advertising process. History Music has long been an established mass media business based on consumer trends and preferences. Understanding those preferences will allow the marketing research team to define the empirical culture of music buyers. Hip-hop, for example, holds opportunities for mainstream advertising especially, "Hip hop has become so mainstream that many marketers feel they get it. But, it is those companies that need to "check themselves before they wreck themselves." Hip hop is not static nor is it monolithic. Hip-hop culture is constantly evolving and extremely diverse" (Wells 2006). Furthermore, marketing and advertising based on the previously important and coveted radio-play may not hold all the answers to music marketing "reports of terrestrial radios impending death appear to be exaggerated. Fifty-five percent of those polled said that they still turn to the FM dial to find new music. But that is likely to change as digital music spreads — only thirty-eight percent of downloaders look to radio for new tunes" (Hiatt 2006). While digital downloads (MP3s) are becoming more frequent, Andy Allen of Alternative Distribution Alliance states that "digital sales we are experiencing either are driving physical sales after someone samples songs digitally, or we are seeing a consumer that has been dormant and no longer visits physical retail. Digital has reignited their passion in music and re-energized them to find and consume music" (Christman 2006). The research proposal seeks to identify the nature of music buyers by the types of music and the media they purchase most frequently. This has three dimensions. The first is the genre of music. Secondly, the media (CD, MP3, Radio) music consumers use most frequently. Consumers have many options available in this era of music than previously, and that creates a marketing need to understand and define the genre and methods. The research methodology is a two section questionnaire devoted to the above dimensions and classified by the Likert scale. Justification The rationale and justification of this research is to ultimately develop consumer marketing strategies geared towards actual (vs. perceived) consumer purchasing behaviors in the music industry. This will have the over-all affect of saving time and money in advertising programs that do not reach the target markets in the music industry. For example, if we currently market towards the compact disc purchaser who prefers Hip-hop, but research instead shows Hip-hop listeners prefer digital downloads (or, vice-versa), our advertising and marketing strategy can alter slightly by focusing on the correlations in music styles and media rather than encompassing both matrices simultaneously. This will save effort, time, and money in the marketing and advertising strategies we employ. Nature and Scope The nature of the research proposal is concerned with purchasing behaviors of consumers using inputs from online and physical survey sources. Information will be gathered from surveys from music purchasers. This will allow for evidence to support marketing activities by laying a foundation for advertising decisions. The framework of this research is to specify the main objectives in music consumer behavior and possible medias that have been or may be purchased to identify possible patterns and correlations in music purchases. The researchs scope is to identify patterned behaviors of current consumers as an overall process of analysis and evaluation towards the purpose of developing and identifying priorities in marketing and advertising opportunities. Systematic evaluation and analysis of patterns will use statistical inferences to understand the magnitude of purchasing events that occur. Music behaviors are assessing by their relationship and frequency to determine what efforts are needed at what intervals, and to promote action and advertisement planning. Hypothesis Statement The hypothesis statement is that while consumers do purchase digital music, most still prefer their specific genre to be delivered in a physical method. The secondary hypothesis is that a music buyer of a common genre may have more tendency to purchase MP3s than physical media, specifically that listeners of more classical music tend to buy CDs and listeners of heavier music such as thrash and punk tend to purchase digital media for their music needs. Research Plan The research plan is to survey a minimum of twenty participants via online distribution and twenty participants via physical method. This will give an overall view of both types of music buyer, those who have internet access and those who are at the physical locations. The estimated budget for the survey including formulation, distribution (physical and e-mail) is approximately fifteen hundred dollars. This is based on the time allotted to develop, distribute, and receive the survey as well as the cost of the survey analysis. This is approximately half the cost of average surveys because of the lowered amount of participants required in a students survey. In general the "Email surveys are becoming more popular because their costs are lower - about $3000-$5000," and in person distribution generally ranges about forty dollars per survey, which in this case would be 800$ (BuyerZone Survey Costs 2006). These costs are based on two hundred replies and do not include analysis. Research Methodology The questionnaire development has taken into consideration possible defects in the question distribution and has made all attempts to use common language and word organization that is not technical or industry based with the hopes to remove the larger concerns in relation to comprehension and cognition, however, it is important to note that in any research methodology that is dealing with human responses to qualitative or quantitative questions, there remains the possibility of language bias. The questions in the questionnaire are designed for specific quantitative data using the Likert Scale. The Likert Scale is used to identify consumer responses to the above questionnaire. This is done in the common format of a numerical five point scale where one shows a strong disagreement (never); two is a disagreement (rarely); three is a neutral response (sometimes); four is an agreement (frequently); five is a strong agreement (always) to the statements in the questionnaire. The benefit of this scaled method is that it allows for easy quantitative analysis to be made from qualitative questions because it defines respondents opinions with numerical responses. The disadvantage of the Likert scale is that it boxes the consumer opinions into specific categories, thus it does not allow for explanation or definition of the responses made. The questionnaire allows for specific measurements of objective data where the researcher does not control the environment and so the results are suspected to be more reliable than the interview method. In general, questionnaires are better suited to gathering reliable subjective measures, such as risk management usage and strategy deployment and effectiveness. The survey questionnaire was chosen-as noted above-for its cost effectiveness. The limitations of the survey questionnaire are that it does not allow for subjective or empirical data to be examined and it will not define the consumers perceptions of the music or purchasing methods. Te questionnaire is to define the consumers purchasing habits. The questionnaire satisfies both objectives by first examining the frequency of genre purchased and secondly defining the frequency of the media used to purchase or listen to the music. This composition follows the nature and scope of the study as noted above. The questionnaire is simply with no dichotomous questions that allow for vague or interpretive replies. The wording is simply and the layout follows the Likert scale in regards to the specific topics of (1) genre and (2) media as follows: I purchase the following types of music: Never Rarely Sometimes Frequently Always Techno           Punk, Thrash, Ska           Comedy Recordings           80s           Dance/Trance           Emo (emotional hardcore           Cultural/World Beat           Dance/Trance           Inspirational           Hip-Hop           Metal           Cultural/World Beat           Christian           Garage           Folk           Indie Rock           Goth           Christian           Soul           Classic Rock           Soft Rock           Folk           Instrumental           I use the following media for my music Never Rarely Sometimes Frequently Always CD           Radio           Mini Discs           Cassette Tapes           MP3           Records (LP)           Online           Radio           Other           Final Document Proposal The data will be gathered and analyzed using statistical information, correlations and noting possible linear regression models to define if one genre has a tendency to a specific media. The research study and statistical implications will then be developed for the final research document arrangement. The outline for the final research document arrangement is as follows: 1. Chapter 1—Introduction a. Nature and scope b. Literature Review/History c. Methodology and Activities 2. Chapter 2—Problem Statement a. Objective of the Study b. Justification c. Implications 3. Chapter 3—Review of Literature a. History (Who has done this before, what were their results?) b. Statistical documentation c. Elative to the music habits of consumers. 4. Chapter 4—Methodologies and Procedures Used in the Study a. Questionnaire process and development b. Procedure of deployment c. Based on the research proposal. 5. Chapter 5—Results a. Factual and objective results of the study and statistical analysis. b. Tables and figures. c. Correlations, Hypothesis proof or disproof. d. Statistical inferences: Who, What, Why 6. Chapter 6—Discussion, Conclusions, Recommendations a. Recommendations for Action based on the study and marketing capability. b. Recommendations for Dissemination assign the actions to be implemented by and methods of implementations. c. Recommendation for Additional Research and Study Conclusion In conclusion, the research proposal hopes to define music purchasing patterns, correlations and consumer behaviors through the questionnaire method and using participants through the internet as well as through the retail music store to allow for both types of consumer to be examined with the final goal to develop marketing and advertising procedures accordingly. This research proposal is feasible because of the low cost associated with the development and deployment of the survey as well as the metrics the questionnaire is geared towards defining. References Christman, Ed (2006) Moving Music. Billboard; 6/17/2006, Vol. 118 Issue 24, p44-45, 2p, 1c Davis, Wells (2006) Hip-hop nation. Marketing Magazine; 2/20/2006, Vol. 111 Issue 7, p23-23, 2/3p, 2c Hiatt, Brian (2006) Music Fans Want Lower CD Prices. Rolling Stone; 2/23/2006 Issue 994, p12-12, 1/3p Read More