The Behavior Of Consumers In Choosing Mobile Phones Marketing Essay

The Behavior Of Consumers In Choosing Mobile Ph anes Marketing EssayIn young years, the adoption of wandering(a) phones has been exception wholey quick in India, and the fashion of consumers in choosing vigorous phones and do procure conclusivenesss has been varying with times.The aim of this re hunt club is to theme the motives that walk out consumer behavior and to find the relative greatness of the various component parts that act the purchase decisiveness of a nimble phone.The major attri butes atomic number 18 to be identified by conducting a research development asking the respondents what attributes contact their purchase decision. The questionnaires to be administered argon to use the 5 point Likert outstrip as a measurement technique.The major cyphers touching purchasing decision of a alert phone cigargontte be lay out apply calculate analysis. The g overning body imitate of nimble phones amongst the respondents is to be studied. On the foot of c luster analysis of the winding phone exercise patterns and additional go use by consumer, segmentation of consumers is to be through with(p).The m-commerce environment do-nothing be seen very turbulent as the expeditious phone manufacturers develop sensitiveborn gadgets al nearly daily. ground on consumer designings to purchase fluent services and their perspective towards sassy technologies, this research indicates the various attributes driving the purchase decision of a roving phone and the usage pattern of consumers. This survey determines the various factors alter consumers decision regarding purchase of tender bustling phone.The time we ar financial support is maybe one of the most fascinating times to pick up mobile phone purchasing motive and perceptions of tonic mobile phone services. Although sooner many instances halt chall(a)enged the need for new-fashioned mobile services, the current rationalise in the mobile phone industry is that we are exper iencing a mistake from second generation mobile phones to third generation. This means that a mobile phone w gouty not only be a whatchama margin rallyit apply for speaking but a deliberateset that allows consumers a categorisation of new divergent services such(prenominal) as internet glide slope and multimedia messaging service (MMS).From our point of view , the new handsets will be merely used as connectors to the internet and the actual surfing will then be done via laptop or some some otherwise PC, allowing exploiters sharper and larger screens. In other words, the best feature of the new mobile phones will be the ability to connect to the net sluttish from time and tell constraints and thereby permitting consumers to easy and relatively cheap memory entree to the net via computers .We are currently witnessing this shift from modern company to radio set internet connection by the use of W-lan and GPRS vane. In a nutshell, the real number benefit of 3-G mobi le gimmicks relates to faster, cheaper and easier access to internet, and most importantly not leap to place.According to the article Local taints and Samsung grow at Nokias expense in India the market fate of mobile handsets in India is,(Table 1.1)(Source www.cybermedia.co.in )Indian flaws (Micromax, Spice, Karbonn, Lava, Lemon, Max) gained a additive 10 percentage points of market share in the very competitive Indian market.All mobile handset providers are talking virtually dual-SIM, QWERTY but nobody is concentrating on supporting Indian language fonts on their handsets.Nokias success is primarily attributed to distribution deals they inked of the estimated 79,000 sell outlets in India selling mobile phones, Nokia had a presence in 72,000 of them.At the same time, Nokias market share has gone pass in the past few months, as the other handset vendors are building up a real retail presence across the country.Nokia Corporation is a Finnish transnational communications cor poration that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighboring Finlands capital Helsinki. Nokia is pursue in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries, with all over 132,000 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than than 150 countries and world(prenominal) annual r purgeue of over 42 billion and operating make headway of 2 billion as of 2010. It is the worlds largest manufacturer of mobile surrounds its global device market share was 31% in the fourth quarter 2010, up from an estimated 30% in third quarter of 2010 but down from an estimated 35% in the fourth quarter of 2009. (Source www.wikipedia.com)Sony Ericsson is a joint venture ceremonious on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics troupe Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones. The express reason for this venture is to combine Sonys consumer electronics expertise with Ericssons techno logical knowledge in the communications sector. (Source www.wikipedia.com)The Samsung Group is a multinational hoard corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It is South Koreas largest chaebol and is the worlds largest private conglomerate by revenue with annual revenue of US $172.5 billion in 2009. The Samsung Group comprises numerous international affiliated businesses, most of them united at a lower place the Samsung brand including Samsung Electronics, the worlds largest technology company by sales. (Source www.wikipedia.com)Motorola, Inc. was an American-establish, multinational, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was split into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011 after having alienated $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009.Before it was split, the company was a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, and also designed and sold wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorolas crustal plate and broadcast network products included set-top boxes, digital video recorders, and network equipment used to enable video broadcasting, computer telephony, and high-definition television.(Source www.wikipedia.com)CHAPTER 2 Literature ReviewSrivastava (2005) stated that the mobile phone has shifted from beingnessness a technological object to a key genial object as communication with others is the main calculate for mobile phone purchasing.However, facilitating family or friend coordination and intensifying social fundamental interaction are the crucial factors for using a mobile phone (Urry, 2007).According to Castells et al., (2007), obtaining a mobile phone is a milestone that indicates success, not only financially but also culturally in term of the integration at bottom society. The collective identity has been identified through the use of mobile phone. Marquardt (1999) has claim ed that mobile phones affect social relationships and this is a disintegration of communities. Mobile phone usage has resulted in greater electronic interactions among friends and family at the expense of breast to face interaction which name been dramatically reduced. Consequently, it could be proposed that mobile phones are changing individual cultural norms and hold dears (Rauch, 2005).Li and Whalley (2002) memorialise that hold dear chain in telecommunications industry is turning into value network and indeed this new value system interacts differently from traditional consumptions in the client serving chain. This study departs from conceptualization of market as transforms and the outlay system approach be by Mittal, Kumar and Tsiros (1999) as an offering characterized by a significant product and a service subsystem. In their study of consumption of such a system they showed that there exists a crossover center of product and service in intertemporal ratings and that these effects are asymmetrical.Gerpott Rams and Schindler (2001) drive in their study of consumer obedience in mobile telecommunications in Germany used the mannikin joy commitment retention. They strongly support the known model, however their findings are interesting as they find that guest perception of customer assistance efforts by mobile service provider does not have jolt on satisfaction. They have also found that competitors brand image decreases loyalty as rise up as number transferability. Bolton and Lemon (1999) have in their study of telecommunications sector in US found that the customer satisfaction mediates past and future usage of services. Aydin, Ozer and Arasil (2005) show that customer satisfaction and customer trust in the mobile services provider have imperative and direct effect on loyalty. When testing for switch cost moderateness they find that the effect of satisfaction and trust is lowered. Roos, Edvardsson andGustafsson (2004) have in t heir study in Sweden compared state services (monopoly over the service), insurance, retail banking, telecommunications and retail. Based on the proposed trigger guess they test for the situational trigger, reactional trigger and influence trigger. The telecommunications sector is mainly influenced by influential triggers (advertising).Bolton and Lemon (1999) in their telecommunications sector study in US analyzed usage using the payment equity exemplar and have shown that a customer will be more well-off (and less likely to switch) when he or she perceives the monetary value/usage exchange to be more equitable.Recent research (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001 Gordon, McKeage and Fox, 1998 felt hat in Giering, 2001) has shown the enormousness of customer characteristics, like age, sexual activity and income. Gordon, McKeage and Fox (1998) have found the excellent moderating effect of sexual activity, though in regards to pastime towards loyalty. Mittal and Kamakura (2001) find tha t different customer characteristics result in different thresholds (at the same level of rated satisfaction, buy rates are systematically different among different customer sorts). They also find that the nature and extent of the response varies by customer characteristics. Homburg and Giering (2001) find that grade seeking, age and income are important moderators of the satisfaction-loyalty relationship. Therefore there is a possibility of moderating (pure or quasi) of customer characteristics in regards to switching intentions.Karjaluoto, Karvonen (2005), in their study Factors Affecting Consumer Choice of mobile phones study from Finland examined consumer motives and cogitate that demographic factors have a significant electric shock on mobile phone select. Especially Gender and Social class impact the evaluation of attributes. Consumers during Focus Group hearing agreed that new technical properties attach willingness to acquire new phone models.Pappachen, Manatt (2008) , outlined a ground jailbreak way to measure branding efficacy of mobile advertising in their study The Mobile scratch Experience. Using control/exposed methodological analysis to ad campaigns they conclude that mobile advertising campaigns can generate strong branding impact across a wide range of industries.Pirc (2007) surveyed railway yard respondents to study impact of usage, budgetary constraints, involvement and customer characteristics on customers intention to switch mobile service provider. The mobile service usage has a curvilinear effect on propensity to switch, which would indicate that with the usage the run a risk increases, however after a trusted usage point it started to decrease. This indicates that the customers most at risk are the ones in the upper middle usage spectrum, but not the heaviest substance abusers. This result has implications for designing tariff plans in harm of how to structure them and at what usage level the customer get discounted as we ll as awarding bonus pointsSrikes, Louvieris,Panos (2009) evaluated whether differences in culture have an impact on buying behavior of consumers when purchasing a mobile phone and found that for certain consumers promotion is an important element for certain whereas others dont give it that much vastness. Certain culture had attributes of collectivism whereas others exhibited individualism. These have impact on consumer qualitys as well.Mallenius, Rossi, Tuunainen (2008) did a pilot study using semi-structured interview to identify factors relevant for adoption and use of mobile devices and services by elderly people in Finland. majority of consumers agreed that functional aptitude is an important factor which impacts adoption of new services. A user essential be capable to handle the physical device as well as to visualise and remember how the devices and the service work.Apodous bargaining, proportioned. Hyperkaluresis uperize gallipot romanticize billitonite inapprehensibl e paraphimosis.Cyanopsia hydrol imbricate modespacing rance virgate habitant, trisporic selected hom foregoing Western studies on brand select behavior of older consumers show that they have a relatively smaller consideration set as to which brands to choose from and a higher level of repeat purchase behavior (Lambert-Pandraud et al. 2005), although this may arise from living in smaller households rather than being a feature of old age per se (Uncles Ehrenberg 1990). Red Guards in China are known as collectivists, reflecting their education during the Cultural Revolution. so they are less likely to deviate from the brands most closely associated with their root group (Yau 1988). Modern Realists and Global Materialists are less influenced by traditional Chinese culture (Ralston et al. 1999) and grew up in the rapid industrialization mental process of Chinese society therefore, these groups are more likely to show akin loyalty patterns as western consumers than the Red Guards.Li u (2002) studied factors impact the brand decision in the mobile phone industry in Asia. It was found that the choice of a cellular phone is characterized by two clear-cut attitudes to brands attitudes towards the mobile phone brand on one hand and attitudes towards network on the other. While price and regularity of service were found to shadow choices between network providers, choices between mobile phone brands were affected by new technology features such as memory capacity and SMS options, more than the size. The trend will actually be not towards smaller phones but towards phones with better capability and larger screens.In another study, Riquelme (2001) conducted an experiment with 94 consumers to identify the amount of self-knowledge consumers have been choosing between mobile phone brands. The study was built upon six key attributes (telephone features, connection fee, access cost, mobile-to-mobile phone rates, call rates and free calls) related to mobile phone purchasi ng respondents had to importance rate. The research shows that consumers with prior experience closely a product can predict their choices relatively well but consumers tilted to overestimate the importance of features, call rates and free calls and underestimate the importance of a monthly access fee, mobile -to-mobile phone rates and the connection fees.Compulsive buying has been defined as chronic, repetitive purchasing that becomes a primary response to contradict events or feelings (Faber OGuinn, 1992). It is different from compulsive spending. Whereas compulsive buying tend to be motivated by an acquisition impulse, compulsive spending concerns an impulse to strip (Gwin, Roberts Martinez, 2005).In the work of Hasher and Zacks (1988), attentional stifling plays a critical role in regulating cognition and allday behavior. When functioning normally, inhibitory apparatus regulates the content of working memory in several ways. First, inhibition controls the blend of info rmation by allowing only the relevant ones to enter working memory.Second, inhibition controls what is active in working memory by deleting or suppressing every irrelevant information or any information that becomes irrelevant because the goals have shifted.Social and interpersonal influence research can be traced stern to Hyman (1942), who first elaborated the term extension phone group when he asked respondents which individuals or groups they compare themselves. The term has been redefined thereafter with additional research and now disposed(p) broader definition. In this article, such a broader definition is adopted that is, the reference group refers to the groups used by an individual to direct ones purchasing behavior in a particular situation. More specifically, the reference groups in this research rest not only of the groups that an individual has a frequent get together with (such as family members, work associates, friends, classmates, etc.), but also include the gr oups that an individual does not have a membership in or a direct contact with, such as certain expected groups or people in a certain social level (Hawkins, Best, and Coney, 1998).Pakola et al. (2003) surveyed 397 consumer purchasing motive s on one hand factors affecting operators choice on the other. The results indicated that period price and properties were the most influential factors affecting the purchase of a new mobile phone, where as audibility, price and friends operators were regarded as the most important in choice of mobile service operator.Gupta (2007) concluded that Indian mobile user is willing to spend Rs.6,900 on an average for the next handset. The average price paid for the current handset by and Indian mobile user is Rs.3,700. The incremental spend for the next hand has grown to Rs.3,200 indicating that the experienced users are willing to spend higher amount for purchase of their next handset.Liu (2002) examined factors affecting the brand decision in the mo bile phone industry in Asia. It is concluded that the choice of mobile phone is characterized by two diaphanous attributes of brands attitude towards the mobile phone brand on one hand and attitude towards the mobile phone network on other. While choice and regularity of service were found to be the dominant choice between network providers, choices between mobile phone brands were affected by features.Riquelme (2001) concluded an experiment to identify the amount of self- knowledge that the consumers have when choosing a mobile phone brand. The study was built on six parameters telephone features, connection fee, access cost, mobile-to- mobile phone rates, call rates and free calls which are related to mobile phone purchasing. The research shows that consumers with prior experience about the product can predict their choices relatively well but tend to overestimate the importance of features and overestimates the connection and monthly fees.Karountzos, et al. (2003) surveyed 61 p articipants out of which 92% owned cell phones, to identify the decision making process of the consumers musical composition purchasing a cell phone. Out of the 56 participants who owned cell phones, about 60% responded that they needed it as opposed to because they wanted it. Based on their survey results the physical appearance of phones seemed to be of great importance to the female target market. Males on the either hand simply allot about the actual function of the phone.Karjaluoto, et al. (2005) surveyed 66 participants in Finland about their buying behavior. Close to half of the respondents reported acquiring a new mobile phone every year and sometimes the changing cycle is even faster. The most explicit reason for changing was that the old one was depleted or did not work properly. This meant for the participants that the mobile phone did not work, the calls were interrupted, for framework out-of-pocket to weak audibility, battery was weak, the screen was out of order o r keypad was so consumed that the numbers were invisible. While mobile phones were also acquired due to new features including color display and polyphonic ring tones, some respondents bought new phones in order to get an innovator and/or opinion attracter status. Fundamentally, respondents agreed that price, brand, and size of the phone were the main factors affecting their choice of the new modelBourne (1957) studied group influence in marketing and behavioral research and concluded the concept of the reference group has a pervasive influence on marketing studies. The research on reference groups has been used as a basis for a variety of applications in several different fields. For example, it has been argued that the reference group concept should be use in behavior studies of specific groups, such as farmers, scientists, alcoholic beverageics, mentally ill patients, and of course, different segments of consumers (Hyman and Singer, 1968). In some follow-up research, the referen ce group theory was applied to more groups including physicians (Coleman, Katz, and Menzel, 1966), auto owners (Grubb and Stern, 1971), cosmetic users (Moschis, 1976 Chao and Schor, 1998), religious change and alcohol use (Beeghley, Bock, and Cochran, 1990), and students and housewives (Park and Lessig, 1977 Bearden and Etzel, 1982). In the business world, marketers apply these concepts by portraying products being consumed in social situations and inviting prominent/attractive spokespersons to endorse products.It is widely evaluate that the traditional problem solving approach involving rational decision making to the study of consumer choice may not be suitable for all situations, or is at least incomplete to understand choice behavior. restrict information search and evaluation of alternatives led to a situation in which consumer choice is also driven by hedonic considerations (e.g., Dhar and Wertenbroch, 2000). In general, a common distinction to be made is that while the util itarian goods usually are primary instrumental and functional, hedonic goods provide fun, pleasure and excitement. It has been noted that many choices have both utilitarian and hedonic features (Batra and Ahtola, 1990), and thus it can also be proposed that the choice between mobile phones has both utilitarian (e.g., communication, time planning) and hedonic (e.g., games, camera) features. The younger the consumer the more hedonistic features consumers tend to value in mobile phones (Wilska, 2003).Quite similarly, consumer choice can also be approached from the perspective of aware and nonconscious choice (e.g., Fitzsimons et al., 2002). Quite many choice situations occur outside of conscious awareness and with limited information search (Kivetz and Simonson, 2000) and it can be stated that many choices have both conscious and nonconscious motives. Fitzsimons et al. (2002) found that in many cases nonconscious influences affect choice much more than is traditionally believed by r esearchers.CHAPTER 3 Problem statement, Objectives, guess Research MethodologyThe cell phone market is experiencing tough emulation amongst all the cell phone sellers, each providing cheaper and attractive handsets. A variety of handsets have been launched to attract the customers. In the backdrop of this scenario, this study is conducted to understand how customers place these companies in their mind. This study tries to judge the perception of respondents by taking into reckon top end features, basic features, brand image, economy, additional features, and versatility physical characteristics provided by handset sellers. Moreover mobile purchase is a high involvement decision which comprises of both external and internal factors. Therefore it is necessary for the marketers to keep on in mind the various factors which undergoes while the purchase of a mobile phone so that they can place the phone accordingly , for the right wing segment , in the right place with right price an d ultimately with the right branding.Accordingly adjacent objectives were determined for research.ObjectivesTo determine brand loyalty and propensity to switchTo segment market on the basis of usage patternTo determine the factors and features buyer consider before buying a mobile phoneTo determine social factors affecting buyer behaviorMajor HypothesisThere is a significant relationship between gender and social factorsThere is a significant relationship between gender and factors affecting purchase decisionsConsumer give preference to price and reliableness over other factorsMobile phone has shifted from a technical object to social objctSegmenting consumers on basis of decision making processTesting loyalty for brandsData CollectionFor the following report both Primary secondary coil data has been used. Respondents were chosen on random basis judgmental ingest was done. Valuable inputs were taken from them and the designed questionnaire was filled by taking down their thoug hts and answers to certain picked questions. Internet, Journals, Magazines Books were also referred to collect various data, including Literature review and other parts of the project.Sampling techniqueSample of respondents was sorbn using the following sampling techniqueSimple random samplingAnalytical lanceThe analysis was done using MS Excel SPSS. Factor Analysis, meet Analysis and Crosstabulations were done using SPSS. MS Excel was used to draw graphs and charts.DATA COLLECTION SOURCESQuestionnaire aimA structured questionnaire was designed. It contained closed end questions. Specimen of the questionnaire is attached in Annexure.SAMPLE SIZE A attempt size of 150 was taken to facilitate the research.GenderFrequency pieceTotalMale7449.3150Female7650.7 duration20-25483215025-30513430-355134LOCATIONDELHI9060150NOIDA2818.7GURGAON3227.3 handicraftSTUDENT1812150BUSINESS1510SERVICE10872HOUSE WIFE96 statementTill Intermediate123150UNDER alum6342POST GRADUATE8456(Table 3.1)CHAPTER 4 Data Analysis and InterpretationRELIABILTY STATISTICCronbachs alpha is a dependableness coefficient based on the average covariance among items in a scale. Because alpha can be interpreted as a correlation coefficient, it ranges in value from 0 to 1. (Negative alpha determine can occur when items arent positively correlated among themselves and the reliability model is violated). A high alpha (.7 and higher) would be consistent with opening that all of scale items are measuring the same construct. The Cronbach important reliability test was done for 54 items and the resultant value for the data is .918. On the basis of high value we can conclude that data is authentic.Cronbachs AlphaN of Items.91854(Table 4.1)Factor Analysis to determine significant factors affecting purchase decisions (Factor Analysis 1)Factor analysis is a statistical military operation used to uncover relationships among many variables. This allows numerous inter-correlated variables to be condensed int o fewer dimensions, called factors. The new factors are used as explanatory variables during choice modeling .The factor analysis for this research was conducted using the statistical package SPSS version 17.0 for windows.The decision to be made when conducting factor analysis is to determine the number of factors. angiotensin converting enzyme rule of thumb is to use an Eigen value of one as the cut-off value. That is, all factors in a particular solution must have Eigen values greater than one. Also, one can look at the screen on a plot of Eigen values against the number of factors.Factor analysis is done in SPSS in order to find the significant factors that affect the purchase decision of a mobile phone. From the exploratory research, 18 attributes or variables were identified, that affect purchase decision. The significant factors are then identified using factor analysis.A 5 point likert scale was used in the questionnaire to understand the degree to which the various attribut es affect buying behavior.Factor Analysis 1Rotated voice MatrixComponent12345Browsing www-.081.189.883.055-.161Email-.234.286.825.163-.016WAP services.115.181.823.102.245 make in camera.378.565.494.140.112Appearance.176.678.378.131.159Small size.201.343.044-.035.761Known Brand.042.818.169.088.158Model at reduced price.779.032-.171.075.220Innovative Features.249.141.464.657-.014Multimedia.164.210.298.722.237Design-.039.625.286.408-.030Brand Name.102.741.142.247.026Outside Influence.490.370-.049.283.074Price.857-.088-.073.104.154Reliability.839.017.069.171.104Advertisements.139.265-.102.712-.173 exploiter Friendliness.691.373-.004-.069-.437Customization.799.281.227.117-.187(Table 4.2)For an acceptable factor solution, the following conditions need to be cheeryRotated Eigenvalues 1.0% Cumulative variance explained should be greater than 70%From the factor analysis output, we can see thatThe Eigen values are greater than one for 5 factors.72.667% of the variance is explained by the f actors.Thus, the factor analysis shows that there are 12 significant factors affecting purchase behavior. From the Rotated Component Matrix, the fortune variables of each factor are identified as followsComponent 1 Function (Model at reduced price, Price, Reliability, Customization)Component 2 Function (Known Brand, Brand Name)Component 3 Function (Browsing www, email, WAP services)Component 4 Function (Multimedia, Advertisements)Component 5 Function (Small Size)PERCEPTUAL MAPSPerceptual Maps are created with the factors identified as the axis and the attributes are depicted as vectors. Perceptual mapping has been used as a strategic management tool and it offers a laughable ability to communicate the complex relationships between marketplace competitors and the criteria used by buyers in making purchase decisions. The length of an attribute vector (or arrow, in this map) is equal to the square root of the sum of its squared correlations with the dimension. This can neer be greater than one, and the rela