Multiformat Digital Products: How Design Attributes Interact with Usage Situations to Determine Choice

Technological advances enable companies to offer information products such as books, music, and movies in electronic formats, in addition to the traditional physical formats. Although one format may appear more useful and be preferred, consumers may be enticed to consider the unique attributes of all formats if they deliver equally well on salient attributes. The authors investigate the impact of usage situations, relative attribute quality levels of the formats and their interactions on the perception of the formats as perfect or imperfect substitutes or complements, and the purchase likelihood of the bundle of formats. The study demonstrates that when formats have equivalent quality on a salient attribute, consumers perceive the formats as more complementary and are more likely to buy the bundle. This happens because consumers consider more usage situations for the formats and view the bundle as providing greater flexibility for future usages.