A study of software product sampling

摘要

Product sampling is an important marketing strategy in the software industry. In this work, we propose a dynamic model to study consumer behaviour in software product sampling. The model shows that the demand for dynamic sample is in two equilibrium states. The result of the comparative static analysis indicates that factors such as sampling effectiveness and network externality effect can result in converting samplers into software buyers. Other factors, however, have the opposite impact. These factors include attrition (forgetting) rate, software price, and learning cost. Managerial implications of our findings are provided to the software vendors. We recommend that the software vendor should design an effective and user-friendly sampling mechanism and provide good learning tutorials, courses and demos for the samplers. The software vendor can increase the network effect of software product sampling through increasing of sampler base and knowledge sharing with social media. The vendor should carefully plan the pricing policy so that the effective sampling and maximum total revenue can be achieved.