Product form bundling: Implications for marketing digital products

The retailing of information media either in a pure digital form or bundled with the conventional form has become increasingly common in product categories such as books, newspapers, music, etc. A general problem with these media is that much of the content that they offer is common to both conventional and digital formats. This makes the media inherently substitutes, and limits the attractiveness to consumers of acquiring both formats. However, the electronic and print formats often have advantages over one another in specific usage situations. For example, a print book may be most suitable for casual reading, while an electronic version might be most suitable for locating specific passages. In this paper we investigate whether increased awareness of advantages that different forms may have over one another in different usage situations can increase demand for buying both items simultaneously. We do this through an experimental manipulation where participants are provided either with communications that emphasize using the different forms in different situations, or using the different forms in the same situations. Employing book and newspaper subscription categories, we find that the “different usage situation” manipulation does significantly increase intent to purchase both print and electronic forms as long as the second item is discounted. In addition, we provide evidence that communicating different usage situations and pricing the forms differentially are likely to be effective strategies in selling information product form bundles.