University students: buying behavior of books and illegal copy market

• Autor(a) principal: Abreu, Sofia Rodrigues Brito
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/4945
• topic: Book; College students; Illegal copy; E-books; Livros; Estudantes do ensino superior; Cópia ilegal

This Thesis, with the aim to obtain a Master’s degree in Marketing, pretend to characterize the sector of publishing and selling books and understand their importance to Portuguese economic and social context. The book market can be characterized as been a market in a concentration process:  On the one hand, in the Book Edition, the acquisition of companies and constitution of big groups like Leya, Babel and Porto Editora groups.  On the other hand, in the Book Retail, the growth of the chain FNAC, the reinforcement of Sonae, with the beginning of the book sales in the Worten stores and the acquisition of Bertrand by the Porto Editora group. However, the Retail is still fragmented because exists a big diversity of point of sales, such as bookstores, hypermarkets and large specialized surfaces, post services and so on. The data collected from Banco de Portugal and INE have a problem that difficult the real analysis of the sector. This difficulty comes from the sales between edition companies, the incorrect classification of the enterprises in CAE (Classificação das Actividades Económicas), no inclusion of big chains (e.g. FNAC) and large surfaces in CAE, being classifying as no specialized retail. So, the GfK panel seems more adequate. In this context, at the GfK sales are added the INE sales and are obtain a sales value of 260 million Euros of bookstores and large surfaces, which should be added a value between 50 and 80 million Euros, from other ways of sales such as sites, direct sales to colleges, companies or libraries and to other stores that sell books (e.g. pet shops). In the last years, were a growth of point of sales, due to, mostly, the entrance of Worten in book market, that in 2009 accounted 880 point of sales. Regarding the technical books, the categories of books associated to this market registered a turnover of 14,7 million Euros, in 2011, which represents a fall of 5,5% when compared with 2010. Were realized a questionnaire to University Education students, that allow to notice that books appear as been the 3rd source of global information, after the greasy/slides and own notes. Besides, in the academic year 2010-2011, the students purchased 2,1 books, photocopied 2,9 books and downloaded illegally 0,7 books. A clusters analysis of students behavior shows clearly the existence of 4 distinct segments, here designed by:  “Originals” (21%): students that prefer original books, but they also use photocopied books  “Sliders” (20%): students that use preferentially greasy/slides. Is also the group that most use originals and less the photocopied.  “Photocopiers” (45%): students that use a lot photocopies and given little use to the originals.  “Mixed” (14%): students that are in an mixed position. Use different types of materials. Only 3% of the students state the copyrights law is unknown, while near 90% of the sample said that the reasons to photocopy are the low price (68%) or to be indifferent to the copyrights law (22%). Each student will have photocopied, in average, books in the amount of 105,9€,being this value much more superior in Lisbon and Porto (125€) when compared with other cities (95,4€), in the academic year 2010-2011. The illegal copy, in the supply side is made in two different ways: the “copy centers” that allow illicit copies, that already achieve 510 point of sales; and the availability of the book contents in Internet sites, that have proliferated in the last years. With the identification of the number of photocopied books and illegal downloads done by the higher education students, is actually possible to estimate the turnover amputated to the sector due to the illegal practices and the consequently loss of revenues for State. Therefore, exists an amputated value of sales and among the different agents in the chain estimated in 115,9 million Euros and a loss of revenues from taxes for State in 11,35 million Euros. As happened in other countries, like Spain and France, is imperative that Portugal adopt, and specially, apply a strong legislation against the illegal copy, with the closing of that kind of “copy centers” and block the access to downloads sites. The popularization of e-books and e-readers put some challenges and difficulties to the sector, but also some opportunities when well explored the potentialities of the multimedia and the power of the Portuguese language around the world. The companies of the books sector should bet in new strategic options, such as:  Customer re-orientation, leaving totally the traditional strategy of “produce” books and sell it.  Adopt a posture of pedagogy and sensitivity in relation with client, namely against illegal copy (photocopies or downloads)  The Editors should develop the real format of e-books, in a global way, in order to get all the space of Portuguese speakers, developing multimedia functions.  Bet in a blended communication, to take advantages from the digital communication and the physical one