Sheehan, Tsao and Pokrywczynski (2012)
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Source Details
Sheehan, Tsao and Pokrywczynski (2012) | |
Title: | Stop the music! How advertising can help stop college students from downloading music illegally |
Author(s): | Sheehan, B., Tsao, J., Pokrywczynski, J. |
Year: | 2012 |
Citation: | Sheehan, B., Tsao, J., & Pokrywczynski, J. (2012). Stop the Music: How Advertising Can Help Stop College Students from Downloading Music Illegally. Journal of Advertising Research, 52, 309-321. |
Link(s): | Definitive |
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About the Data | |
Data Description: | The study was broken into four phases:
Participants were randomly divided into 10 groups: eight experimental groups - each evaluating a separate concept - one generic group, and one control group.
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Data Type: | Primary data |
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Cross Country Study?: | No |
Comparative Study?: | No |
Literature review?: | No |
Government or policy study?: | No |
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Abstract
Digital-music piracy takes a heavy toll on the music industry and the U.S. economy. Losses are measured in the tens of billions of dollars. college students especially are problematic, downloading more than 1 billion illegal songs per year. This paper reports on a four-phase research project. Phases I and II mapped specific motivations for the behavior and attendant reinforcements and costs. Phase III tested a variety of advertising concept statements intended to reverse the behavior. Phase Iv was an in-market survey of advertising campaigns across two college campuses. Two campaigns were significantly effective in reversing music piracy among college students.
Main Results of the Study
The main results reported in this study:
- Research at both universities confirmed a strong correlation between past behavior and anticipated/perceived future behavior.
As a whole, the group that had downloaded music frequently each month would anticipate to continue, in general, to do so despite the advertising campaign messages.
Despite this finding, nonetheless, the two campaigns did show signs of effectiveness:
- Campaign 1 - “Viruses” - showed a somewhat significant correlation between perceptually decreased use of illegal programs and those who found the advertising convincing (this represented 12.8 percent of the sample population).
- Campaign 1 was also found to have a somewhat significant correlation between decreased use of illegal programs and those who found the advertising persuasive (this represented 13.5 percent of respondents based on top three box scores).
- Campaign 1 can be judged to be somewhat successful in changing the anticipated behavior of 12.8 percent of the college population.
- Campaign 2 - “Getting a Good Job” - showed a highly significant correlation between both the perceptually increased use of legal programs and the perceptually decreased use of illegal programs and those who found the advertising convincing (this represented 19.1 percent of the population for increased use of legal programs and 15.3 percent of the sample population for decreased use of illegal programs).
- Campaign 2 was also found to have a significant correlation between both the increased use of legal programs and the decreased use of illegal programs and those who found the advertising persuasive (this represented 12.1 percent of respondents based on top 3 box scores).
- Campaign 2 can be judged to be highly successful in changing the anticipated downloading behavior of at least 15.3 percent to 19.1 percent of the college population.
- Importantly, these numbers are not mutually exclusive; therefore, the total percentage of college students increasing their use of legal programs and/or decreasing their use of illegal programs is higher than 19.1 percent (perhaps significantly so), although the research team was not able to measure it exactly.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
Policy implications reported in the study:
- The authors believe the total percentage of college students increasing their use of legal programs and/or decreasing their use of illegal programs to be significant, with the potential to lead to tens of millions of dollars in recaptured revenue for the music industry and, per- haps, more for the overall U.S. economy.
Coverage of Study
Datasets
Sample size: | 16 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | January 2009 |
Sample size: | 15 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | January 2009 |
Sample size: | 204 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | June 2009 |
Sample size: | 415 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | March 2010 |
Sample size: | 151 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | December 2010 |
Sample size: | 462 |
Level of aggregation: | University students |
Period of material under study: | December 2010 |