Game of Clones - the Dark Side of Consumer Behaviour - Literature review Example

Consumer Insight Report: Game of Clones’-The Dark Side of Consumer Behaviour Name Course Name and Code Date Table of Contents 1.0Introduction 3 1.1 Overview of Topic 3 1.2 Target Market 3 1.3 Problem/Opportunity Statement 3 2.0 Literature Review & Framework 3 2.1 Overview of literature on topic 3 2.1 Theory of Planned Behaviour 5 2.0Marketing Strategies 6 3.1 Pricing Marketing Strategy 6 3.2 Availability (Placement) Marketing Strategy 7 4.0 Recommendation & Conclusion 8 References 9 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Overview of Topic Technological advancement has provided numerous methods of developing and sharing content. The content developers have to generate revenues for their respective products and services while also satisfying the requirements of the customers. However, customers have continuously downloaded games such as Game of Clones without considering the impact to the developers. The downloading and engaging in piracy is a consumer behaviour that aims to satisfy individual goals without considering the wider impact of their activities. Hence, analysing content infringement from consumer behavioural perspective is crucial to appreciate the motivating factors to behave in identified manner. 1.2 Target Market The target market is young people between the ages 18 and 25 years who want to enjoy the online content without making purchases. The target market lack access to appropriate funds and resources but through social media engagement are persuaded to engage in activities, which enables watching or enjoying the content. 1.3 Problem/Opportunity Statement The purpose of the report is to analyse reasons why consumers between ages 18 and 25 years pirate and mechanisms, which can be employed to address the behaviour. 2.0 Literature Review & Framework 2.1 Overview of literature on topic Peukert, Claussen & Kretschmer (2017) focused on the effect of the shutdown of Megaupload on revenues. Megaupload was a platform whereby consumers downloaded a variety of pirate products, and the argument was that the platform decreased revenues. The authors wanted to see the impact of the shutdown of Megaupload on revenues of wide release vs. niche movies. Peukert, Claussen & Kretschmer (2017) found out that the closure of Megaupload benefited the wide release movies but the average effect of the closure was negligible. The online copyright enforcement and piracy are associated with information externalities since online piracy contributes to spreading information on product characteristics with different feedback of the consumers. The authors concluded that review should be done on the effectiveness of extensive public anti-piracy policy from both the perspectives of the producer and consumer. Strader et al. (2014) did a similar study but focused on the closure of a popular German video streaming website. The authorities’ argument was that closing the copyright infringing websites contributed to the reduction of consumption of pirated media content while also increasing licensed consumption. The authors found out the closure of the website reduce piracy for the short-term but in the long term, alternative outlets were available meaning the consumers were in a position to continue downloading. The authors concluded the closure of the copyright infringing platforms might not be a solution because of the resultant fragmentation of the online piracy structure, which creates challenges in future interventions. Cesareo & Pastore (2014) analyzed the consumer’s attitudes and behaviors towards online piracy and their motivation towards trying subscription based music services. The focus of the authors was to develop and test a model based on attitude-intention, which incorporates consumers’ decision making process. 505 respondents were required to fill a questionnaire, and the authors found out the variables influencing the consumers to particulate in piracy activities are associated with hedonic and economic benefits while moral judgment reduced the urge to pirate. Cesareo & Pastore (2014) advises that content producers should continuously engage and educate consumers on implications and consequences of online music piracy while encouraging the consumers to try subscription based music services. Phau et al. (2014) interviewed 404 students and employed the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Some of the antecedents identified include self-efficacy, social habit, moral judgment and affect in determining the intentions of individuals to engage in digital piracy of movies. The results of the study indicated that attitude, self-efficacy and social habit encouraged people to participate in digital piracy. Social habits and moral judgments deterred participation in digital piracy of movies. Apart from increasing the literature, the article is appropriate in linking antecedents to the behavior of consumers to engage in online piracy activities. 2.1 Theory of Planned Behaviour The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) assists in predicting an individual’s intention to participate in behaviour at a specific place and time. The intention of the theory is to address all behaviours over which individuals have the capacity to implement self-control (Armitage & Conner, 2001). The integral component of the theory is the behavioural intent that brings together numerous behavioural characteristics. Some of these components include attitudes, behavioural intention, subjective norms, social norms, perceived power and perceived behavioural control (Rivis & Sheeran, 2003). Attitudes refer to the degree to which a person has an unfavourable or favourable evaluation of interested behaviour; behavioural intention addresses the motivational factors to engage in the behaviour, and subjective norms refer to the perception and belief of the society towards the behaviour. Others are social norms refers to the customary connotations of behaviour, perceived power refers to the variables and factors impeding or facilitating performance of a behaviour, and perceived behavioural control presents the difficulty or ease of performing the behaviour of interest. The theory is appropriate to the current study of piracy because an individual can elect to participate or not participate. From a consumer perspective, it is an unavoidable practice since the alternative is acquiring the product (Armitage & Conner, 2001). Factors such as perceived power are associated with the easiness of acquiring the pirated product while perceived behavioural control focuses on the control of the actions e.g. regulatory control and perceived criminality of the piracy process (Rivis & Sheeran, 2003). Furthermore, the social norm identifies with the perception of the society to the entire process, which indicates that some section of the community engages in the activity and is perceived not criminal. The easiness of sharing the pirated copies including the action of accessing the pirated content all illustrates the behavioural aspect of the offender (persons engaged in the criminal vice). 2.0 Marketing Strategies 3.1 Pricing Marketing Strategy Price defines the amount a customer is ready to pay for a product. The aspect of price incorporates numerous variables including customer perceived value and the sacrifice the consumers makes to acquire the product. The price of the games, movies, and series is sometimes high when viewed from the targeted market (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). These individuals would prefer to acquire a product that is cheaply available rather than acquiring the original product (Festa et al. 2016). It is the intention of the consumer to acquire a pirated copy indicating the urge due to the availability of supporting technologies such as technology savvy and quality of connectivity e.g. speed of the internet (Garoufallou et al. 2013). When an individual compares the purchasing price about costs of downloading or pirating the movie or series, the individual is persuaded to engage in piracy. The content developers and distributors should consider the impact of price in persuading the consumers to engage in criminal activities. Favourable and friendly pricing should be encouraged such as through subscription should be availed. The advantage of the process is increased revenues while piracy is reduced but the challenge is meeting the profits goals. The sales goals can be met but the revenues/profits goals may not be achieved (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). For instance, the cost of producing the content may be high and reducing the prices to be favourable to the consumers may lead to losses. Hence, the strategy is appropriate to certain conditions and contexts. 3.2 Availability (Placement) Marketing Strategy Availability or placement refers to providing customer access to the product. It focuses on considering providing convenience for the consumer. Some of the variables include market coverage, distribution channels, and easiness of customers accessing the product. Many consumers who pirate movies and series point to the product in that it is not available in their region, delayed the release, or the version is not supported across different platforms (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). The marketing strategy to address copyright infringement is ensuring the product or service is easily accessible to the customer. The recording of the movies in terms of format should be paramount in that the consumers can use different devices such as DVD and alternative approaches of access (Garoufallou et al. 2013). The distribution strategy should ensure all the customers can access the product easily. However, the scenario whereby it is a challenge to access the product, the consumers embrace alternative approaches such as “stealing” to acquire the product. Providing the content and ensuring the content is applicable to numerous devices is important since it reduces piracy. In addition, the release and availability are important, which contributes to increased revenues and sales. However, the costs of ensuring extensive availability raise costs implications (Festa et al. 2016). Releasing the product in numerous geographic locations is a challenge and also translating the content is a challenge (Garoufallou et al. 2013). Sometimes, weighing the costs of translating to different languages and ensuring wide availability is expensive, and the solution may include contained distribution. All these are associated with antecedents of behavioural behaviours in that there are a motivating variable and satisfaction derived from approach employed. 3.3 Awareness and Perception Marketing Strategy The behaviour of an individual may be associated with lack of information. Marketers have to engage the customers on awareness and perception. For example, the marketers have to indicate the negatives of piracy in content development and significance of attending theatre for release or acquire the content (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). The aim is raising emotion through linking the consumers’ behaviour to negating the overall requirements of the content development and distribution requirements. The awareness is aimed at ensuring the alternative source of the product, the activities employed in developing the content, and the importance of paying to sustain future development (Festa et al. 2016). Whipping emotions and linking emotions to content development and product would affect the social norms, and beliefs can change towards supporting the content developers. The strategy is aligning the promotional strategies with awareness program to create a lasting framework to encourage acquisition of the products. The advantage of the strategy is creating a long lasting understanding of important of buying the product to create a sustainable business environment (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). However, whipping emotions sometimes works against the product while other content providers may take a different approach that does not address the piracy problem (Jackson & Ahuja, 2016). A collective approach that brings together different stakeholders in advancing measures to reduce or eliminate copyright infringement problems. 4.0 Recommendation & Conclusion Pricing is a major problem in content infringement meaning the price should be favourable depending on the targeted audiences/market. For example, games and movies targeting young people (e.g. 18-25 years) should be affordable, and the target market can acquire. The aspect of pricing can be employed in different strategies such as placing the content on a subscription platform, whereby a difference between downloading and watching online exists. An individual can access the content across the world at an affordable price, which increases revenues and profits. References Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: A meta‐analytic review. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40(4), 471-499. Cesareo, L., & Pastore, A. (2014). Consumers’ attitude and behavior towards online music piracy and subscription-based services. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 31(6/7), 515-525. Fan, S., Lau, R. Y., & Zhao, J. L. (2015). Demystifying big data analytics for business intelligence through the lens of the marketing mix. Big Data Research, 2(1), 28-32. Festa, G., Cuomo, M. T., Metallo, G., & Festa, A. (2016). The (r) evolution of wine marketing mix: From the 4Ps to the 4Es. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), 1550-1555. Garoufallou, E., Siatri, R., Zafeiriou, G., & Balampanidou, E. (2013). The use of marketing concepts in library services: a literature review. Library Review, 62(4/5), 312-334. Jackson, G., & Ahuja, V. (2016). Dawn of the digital age and the evolution of the marketing mix. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17(3), 170-186. Peukert, C., Claussen, J., & Kretschmer, T. (2017). Piracy and box office movie revenues: Evidence from megaupload. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 52, 188-215. Phau, I., Lim, A., Liang, J., & Lwin, M. (2014). Engaging in digital piracy of movies: a theory of planned behaviour approach. Internet Research, 24(2), 246-266. Rivis, A., & Sheeran, P. (2003). Descriptive norms as an additional predictor in the theory of planned behaviour: A meta-analysis. Current Psychology, 22(3), 218-233. Strader, T. J., Fichtner, J. R., Bartlett, G. D., & Simpson, L. A. (2014). Online and offline content piracy activities: Characteristics and ethical perceptions. International Journal of Technoethics (IJT), 5(2), 22-36. Read More