The gratification niches of personal e-mail and the telephone - Competition, displacement, and complementarity

The theory of the niche predicts that a new medium will compete with establ ished media for consumer satisfaction, consumer time, and/or consumer adver tising dollars. Competition between e-mail and telephone use was measured i n this study at the level of gratifications derived by consumers. Gratifica tions and gratification opportunities (consumers' beliefs that a medium all ows them to obtain greater opportunities for satisfaction) were derived fro m an analysis of open-ended questions. A second sample was interviewed by t elephone and rated both mediums on gratification and gratification-opportun ity scales. Forty-eight percent of respondents reported using the phone les s since they adopted e-mail. Results indicate that a wider spectrum of need s is being served by the telephone, whereas e-mail provides greater gratifi cation opportunities. The results indicate competition, but also indicate t hat the two mediums are not close substitutes.