Digital Euro Music

Digital Euro Music

1. The information in the table that would be most useful to me if I was targeting European countries for MP3 player sells would be the VAT for CDs. The countries with the highest taxes on CDs would be the countries that are more willing to buy MP3 players. Let’s take France for instance; its population is 58.6 million. The VAT on CDs is 21%, but for books the tax is only 6%. This is a very large population with a lot of unhappy music lovers that have to pay high taxes for CDs. I believe France would definitely be a country to target. Germany is another large country with a population of 81.7 million with a 16% VAT on CDs. The highest VAT on CDs (25%) is seen in Denmark and Sweden, but their population is very small compared to the other countries (Churchill & Brown, 2007).

2. I think using an internet based questionnaire would be the best way to reach potential consumers internationally. Because most people who purchase MP3 players and download music online are from the younger generations, and because the younger generation is more Internet savvy, it would be a great way to accurately reach the younger population who would more than likely purchase an MP3 player. To send out mail surveys would be a waste of time in my opinion, because we are trying to target consumers who already have internet access; no better way to do this other than online! I would purchase an e-mail list based on age, income, country, internet access speed, and musical and technology interest.

3. Since European countries are not as familiar with MP3 players as America is, the questions need to be worded differently. On an American survey certain questions may be “do you currently own a portable audio device that compresses audio files, have you ever encountered a situation where the device skips, how many songs have you downloaded from the internet, how many hours do you listen to your MP3 player per day?” On a European survey some questions may be such as “what is your current internet speed, have you ever downloaded music from the Internet, how often do you download online music, are you familiar with MP3 players, would you purchase a portable device that can store and play all your downloaded music, do you still currently purchase CDs, do think CDs are overpriced?”

4. A good way to determine if there is market potential in Australia,