A Study of Consumer Perception Towards Mobile Services

Transcription

1 The 21 st Century Consumers A Behavioural Perspective Edited by M. Ganesh Babu, G. Vani and Dr. N. Panchanatham Publish by Global Vision Publishing House A Study of Consumer Perception Towards Mobile Services *M. Dhanabhakyam and **Anitha Jayakar Pai Abstract As competition is increasing among the companies, it is necessary for them to know about the consumers perception about the price, promotion, product and the other important factors that are playing a vital role to choose the telecommunication service providers. This study aims to find out what are critical factors those are playing an important role to select the telecommunication service provider. Result provides a comprehensive analysis of the important factors for playing an important role for the customer to select the telecommunication service provider. The analysis confirms the significant positive relationship of price, service quality, product quality and availability, and promotional offer for consumer perception. These factors are expected to have a great role during the time to choose telecommunication service provider. In conclusion, practitioners can be deriving a better understanding of the activities that are being played a vital role for the consumer perception. INTRODUCTION The world economy has undergone a radical transformation in the last two decades. The companies are, emerging at faster level. The technological and advance have permitted companies to widen substantially both the market and supplier sources. Now as companies are emerging with their new products, marketing has become exuberant activity in expanding the market globally. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customers so well, that the product or services fits him and sells it. The customers becomes a prey to the product also acts as an instrument to live up to the standard and life style of the economy with the help of marketing. Marketing has a widest connection which includes in its fold, selling, buying, transportation, warehousing, pricing and packaging all these activities geared up together to each strong preferences for what is known as BRAND AWARENESS. What is Brand? It seems that everyone is talking about brand this and brand that. Brand is becoming one of the most popular words used today but the answer to what a Brand varies widely. Some think a brand is a name or a trademark. Some think it is a product, or even a commitment. Essentially all these could be correct. * Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore. sajet.nayak@in.bosch.com ** Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore.

2 10 M. Dhanabhakyam and Anitha Jayakar Pai With the opening of the market or the post liberalization period has resulted in many companies entering the markets with offering of their goods and services. In the earlier stages of economic revolution consumer had to accept what the manufacturers has produced. But today s consumer are much more educated, demanding expect lot more to suit their ever changing life style. There by their quality expectation have been elevated from time to time in order to rebuild it-self around its customer, the manufacturer should be able to satisfy with the type pf product and services to match the ever-changing customer s requirements. In developing a marketing strategy for products, he sellers have to confront the branding decision. Brand is a major issue in product. Customers have strong preference for particulate version and brands of basic goods and services, the manufacturers eventually learn the market power lies with the brand name. Consumers buying decision are influenced by the brand. In this competitive world, the brand plays an important role and a brand is very prominent assets owned by an organization. Brand is endowed with awareness, perceived quality, associations and brand loyalty. Brand is presented as creative idea. Who is a consumer? The consumer is a focal point of the marketing mix. He is not depending on the seller, in reality the seller is depending upon him. He, is not an interruption of sellers work- he is the purpose of it, Marketing describes a mutually beneficial relationship between a commercial firm and a consumer. Consumer behaviour is at the core of the marketing function, the concept is difficult to understand but it is important for efficient and effective marketing, Consumer behaviour consists of actions, reaction and responses in relation to the products bought and services sought. Factors like personality, perception, attitude and learning on the one hand and the products, price physical attributes, advertising and societal influences on the other shape the behaviour of consumers. Therefore the marketers have to comprehend this element for better understanding of the consumers interestingly consumers reaction to marketing are often low-key and passive. In many instances, the consumer is not prepared get back to the trader or supplier to redress his grievances in relation to a product. Objectives of the Study The following objectives have been framed keeping in view their relevance under the present marketing scenario To study the reason of selecting the particular brand of Mobile Services among the respondents To investigate the role of family and friends in consumer buying decision To study the brand awareness among the consumers To study the effectiveness of advertisement in respect to mobile services. DATA COLLECTION, METHODOLOGY & LIMITATION A Sample of 100 consumers was selected for the present study, the study was mainly focused towards residents of Bangalore who belong to different age group and reside in different localities, in order to find their [reference given to particular brand. The obvious limitation

3 A Study of Consumer Perception Towards Mobile Services 11 is that the response reflects those of a sample picked up from a small geographic region. More importantly, he sample size is rather small and the results are not statistically valid. The findings are nonetheless being considered as indicatory though not conclusive. SURVEY FINDINGS & RESULT Age Profile of the Respondents The age profile of the sample respondents is indicated in Exhibit 1. 50% were under the age of 30. The mobile users are mostly the younger generation. And this is category of people who are more responsive when a new brand is introduced. Table 1: Classification of respondents on the basis of their age group Age Group No. of Respondents Percentage % % % 50 & above 05 5% TOTAL % Data: Primary source Occupational Information The study did not go beyond the segregation of occupation. Importance in this study is given whether the respondents were working or non- working 70% pf the respondents were working and the rest 30 % were not working. Table 2: Classification of respondents on the basis of their occupation Category No. of respondent Working 70 Non-working 30 Source: primary data Educational Qualification The educational qualification do have relevance since mobile users needs to read and understand the different types of plan as well as to know the different advertisement and sales promotional plan. Hence the study shows 86% of the respondents know to read and write whereas 14 % knew only to read the regional language. Income Level It is evident form Exibit 3 that 10% of the respondents fall under the monthly income of Rs % of the respondents earn Rs 5000 Rs % are from the income level Rs Rs and the other 27% are above Rs

4 12 M. Dhanabhakyam and Anitha Jayakar Pai DATA ANALYSIS RELATING TO THE OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY Generally at the time of availing mobile services consumers take into consideration the Brand or popularity of a Brand, the quality of service, the network, connectivity, price which is the most important, offers and schemes or plans as it is popularly known as, ease of adopting the service. Respondents across the age group have given almost similar reasons for using a particular brand. Its and the Brand Image (25%), the service (32%) stand out as the most important reason for the preference of the mobile services. Only 13% of the respondents were concerned about the price and another 13 % about different offers and schemes and plans. 12 % of the respondents were particular about the ease with which a mobile service can be availed and other reasons include 5%. Table 3: Classification of the respondent on the basis of reasons for selecting a particular brand of mobile services Reason No of respondent percentage Brand image Service Price Offers & Scheme Easy to purchase Others Total Source: primary data Influence of Family & Friends in Decision Making The study reveals the influence of parents (for college goers), spouse, friends as well as dealers on the respondents while purchasing a mobile services. Friends are found to be the most important influential factor on the purchasing decision. Surprisingly make took decision on their own according to their understanding of various brand and plans and offers which are suitable to them. 29% of the respondents are not influenced by others and took their own decision to select the brand of services providers.21% of the respondents were influenced by dealers i.e., at the point of purchase. So dealers play vital role in decision-making. Table 4. Classification of the respondents on the basis of their reference to purchase Reference No. of respondents Percentage Family dealers Friends Self Others Total Source: Primary data

5 A Study of Consumer Perception Towards Mobile Services 13 Brands Awareness among the Consumers Strong brand awareness means easy acceptance of new products. Brand with strong awareness can be brought and sold to create brand name with enduring strength. Of late markets are flooded with different brands of Mobile service providers. There are about four or five service providers who entered the Indian markets with a span of two to three years. Some existing brand is most popular brands. Different plans of this brand are available to suit the need of the customers. Hence an attempt was made to examine as to how many brands were considered by prospective buyer before a purchase decision is made. The level of awareness can range from mere recognition to recall on top of mind it was observed that almost 100% of the respondents considered at least three to four brands before making final choice. 100% respondents were aware of all the popular brands in the market like BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Spice, and Reliance. Therefore there is a good awareness of the brand among the consumers and each company will have to keep in mind to conquer the mind of every potential buyer either through advertisement or through sales promotion. Impact of Advertisement on the Users of Mobile Services The sale of the any product depends on the media that is used by the companies to provide product information and create brand image. All the mobile services providers use Television as their major means of advertising. But this industry makes use of almost all forms of advertising. An attempt was made to find which form of advertisement influenced the purchasers the most and what factor of the advertisement was most attractive to them. Television advertisement was most popular among the respondent 47%. Found that TV ad influenced then to take a purchase decision. Radio ad contributed to 21 % whereas print i.e., newspaper and hoarding was influential enough for 14 % and other were 14%. When asked to specify what the other factors were, the consumers recalled it as idea through Kaun Banega Crorepathi, Airtel Cup, Airtel super singers, Vodafone in cricket stadium etc. Table 5: Impact of different forms of advertising on purchasing decision Media No. of respondents Percentage TV ads Radio Print Hoarding Total Source: primary data Most of the respondents were able to recall the theme of advertisement. So these of advertisement of every company were liked by 35% of the respondents. Music and Punch line were liked by 25% and 27% respectively. Brand ambassador though considered very important by the company did not influence much on the respondents. Only 13 % felt that Brand ambassadors were influential in making the purchase decision. Respondent even mentioned other factors like animation in DOCOMO, Aam Janata Advt in Uninor and comedy theme in Virgin mobiles.

6 14 M. Dhanabhakyam and Anitha Jayakar Pai SUGGESTIONS Interaction with users and the data collected were individual opinion and therefore perception of every individual and their attitudes and interest were highlighted in the study. Marketing team of every company would aim at finding from the consumer their satisfaction level so as to retain the customers and from every potential customer their expectation level. From the study these are the suggestion put forth 1. Different schemes or plan need to be planned by the company. Easy to understand plans and knowledge of these plans should be clear to the customers. 2. Ease of purchase would bring in more customers. Too long time for documentation would not encourage the customers 3. Most of the customers seem to have taken self decision their attracting each and individual customer is very important. 4. New and lucrative strategies should be designed for different types of consumer like heavy users like corporate; professional whereas senior people should be given a separate scheme and so are college students. 5. Dealer influences a lot in purchasing therefore dealers should be updated with new scheme time to time. 6. Influence of different media is high and so are other factors like ambush marketing and company s can divert a proportional budget towards such activities also. 7. From the study brand ambassadors do not form highly influential in decision making and hence the budget can be diverted to make new and economical plans. CONCLUSION Network quality is the most important consideration for Indians when it comes to selecting a Service Provider. But the fact is Indians don t really know which Service Provider has the best Network in their circle, all they know or to be more precise are told by the Service Providers is how much lower their prices are when compared to the competition. The number of mobile phone subscriber in India reached crores by end January Indian population in general and residents of Bangalore in particular is our group of consumers in this study, generally expects some information about the mobile telecommunication service providers. Thus, it is important that a company recognize the need, want and also the perception of their consumers. As competition is increasing among the companies, it is necessary for them to know about the consumers perception about the price, promotion, product, service quality and the other important factors that are playing a vital role to choose the telecommunication service providers. The fast-changing information system and high-tech technological products have affected the business activities of the country.