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The Consumer Behavior Report is designed to give merchants, media and industry analysts insight into shopping trends, pricing and market share. Each month, a different topic will be the focus of the report.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data Collection
In line with the research purposes of this study, a questionnaire was prepared and then it was spread in the city Hyderabad. With the help of my friends I could spread this questionnaire and collect the data of consumer buying behavior on purchase of laptop. Since this research was focused on the factors influencing laptop purchase decisions of consumers, it was seen appropriate to perform a traditional survey. In addition, a cover letter, which had explained the purpose of the study, with the questionnaire was sent to the customers. During the data collection of this research, most of the electronic shops were selling IBM laptops as well as desktops. Hence, even though IBM no longer exists as a PC brand name, Lenova was included to the questionnaire as IBM launched Lenova logo for its expansion. Another PC brand Compaq was eliminated from the questionnaire, since it was long ago merged with HP. Furthermore, in order to omit the confusion of national or international brand distinction from the minds of consumers, only international brands were examined in this study. The laptop brands examined in this research were limited by the following brands: Acer, Dell, HP, HCL, Lenova, and Sony. A total of 122 responses were collected, but only 48 of the respondents declared that they had a laptop. Furthermore, 4 of the responses were eliminated since they were considered as unusable, so as a consequence, 44 of the responses were covered in this study.
BRANDS
FREQUENCY
PRECENTAGE %
2 8 10 6 3 8 7
PRECENTAGE %
The respondents of this study were also asked whether the current laptop brand that they were using was their first laptop brand or whether they had switched from a previous laptop brand. Furthermore, the participants who declared that they had switched from another brand, were asked to state the reason of why they had switched. The alternatives for switching included (a) overall dissatisfaction from the previous laptop brand, and (b) reasons other than dissatisfaction. Hence, the laptop users were classified into three groups: (a) stayers (those who did not switch), (b) satisfied switchers (those who switched for reasons other than dissatisfaction), and (c) dissatisfied switchers (those who switched because they were dissatisfied from their previous laptop phone brand). Table 2 demonstrated that 62.4% of the respondents were stayers, while 25.7% of them were satisfied switchers and 11.9% of them were dissatisfied switchers.
28
62.38%
11
25.68%
5 44
11.90% 100.00%
PERCETAGE (%)
N
44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44 44
MEAN
3.8 3.66 3.66 3.62 3.58 3.57 3.53 3.44 3.39 3.38 3.37 3.21 3.11 3.07 2.99 2.93 2.65
STANDARD DEVIATION
0.413 0.524 0.522 0.529 0.519 0.612 0.615 0.608 0.742 0.672 0.684 0.819 0.829 0.752 0.865 0.9 0.938
3.5
2.5
0.5
The mean importance scores for three groups of consumers with respect to factors influencing laptop purchase decisions are presented in Table 4. According to this table, dissatisfied switchers gave less importance to price and payment conditions when compared to stayers and satisfied switchers. Furthermore, stayers found price and payment conditions factor more important than satisfied switchers. In addition, it has to be noted that connectivity & mobility feature has the lowest mean score across all groups of consumers. On the other hand, core technical features has the highest mean score for all consumer groups (stayers: 3.68, satisfied switchers: 3.66, and dissatisfied switchers: 3.69) which means that stayers, satisfied switchers, and dissatisfied switchers gave the highest importance to this factor among all factors, and the three consumer groups did not show any difference with respect to core technical features. On the other hand, the second most important factor was found to be post purchase services for all three groups of consumers.
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Table 4. Differences in Three Consumer Groups About Importance of Laptop Purchase Decision Factors
STAYERS
SATISFIED SWITCHERS
DISSATISFIED SWITCHERS
Mean
Mean
Mean
2.7978
28
2.8482
11
2.9551
3.2026
28
3.0694
11
3.1581
3.5993
28
3.5685
11
3.5833
Peripheral Specifications
3.3598
28
3.3167
11
3.4
3.6846
28
3.6627
11
3.6923
Physical Apperarance
3.2328
28
3.1905
11
3.2821
3.4387
28
3.3155
11
3.141
11
CONCLUSIONS
Year by year the number of people who are using and owning personal computers (PC) substantially increases in all over the world. Contrary to the introduction years of computers, today they have been used by almost all age groups, and by both males and females, and the gap between age groups and the gap between males and females with respect to computer usage/ownership decreases. Furthermore, consumers desire for portable and attractively designed PCs forces the companies to produce laptops/notebooks. In addition, extended battery life, price cuts, prevalence of home-offices, and integrated wireless networking also cause to the increased sales of laptops. On the supply side of the market, the companies try to make profit and even survive in a highly competitive environment. Furthermore, the rapid development in technology, particularly in nano-technology, leads companies to make huge amounts of investments in R&D. Moreover, the acquisitions and mergers in the sector and new players in the market also influence the companies operating in IT industry. In such a volatile industry, it becomes extremely important to learn the factors that are influencing consumers purchase decisions. The customer base of a company is comprised of its current customers and those customers who are attracted from competitors. In addition, the customers who are acquired from competitors can be either satisfied switchers or dissatisfied switchers. Hence, it is equally crucial to learn about whether there is a difference among stayers, satisfied switchers and dissatisfied switchers with respect to their laptop purchase decision factors. This issue becomes exceptionally vital when the consumers decide to upgrade/change their laptops. In this study, it has been found that there are seven factors which influence consumers laptop purchase decisions. These factors can be stated as follows: core technical features, post purchase services, price and payment conditions, peripheral specifications, physical appearance, value added features, and connectivity and mobility. On the other hand, stayers, satisfied switchers and dissatisfied switchers demonstrate a significant difference only in one factor: price and payment conditions. The results show that when compared to stayers and satisfied switchers, dissatisfied switchers give less importance to price and payment conditions related factor. From the managerial perspective, the findings of this study imply that when a consumer of a company decides to buy a new laptop or in technical terms to upgrade his laptop, the company should consider which customer base he belongs to. For instance, if the consumer is a stayer, the 12
company can offer price discounts when he decides to upgrade his laptop. Likewise, the company can give special promotions to stayers when they bring their former laptop and exchange it with a recent model of the companys laptops. It is also seen that among all factors, mobility and connectivity factor has received the lowest importance from three groups of consumers. This can be attributed to the fact that due to the nature of laptops, being mobile is an expected feature. Another explanation to this result can be that consumers usually do not like to use technological words such as infrared and Bluetooth, they prefer to say connecting to Internet or mobile phone, sending pictures and documents to printer, and etc. Hence, it will not be sufficient and efficient to merely underlie this feature in advertisements. If this feature has to be mentioned in ads then the tone and the words used should be plain and explanatory. However, since all consumer groups find core technical features and post purchase services extremely important, these features should be emphasized in advertisements. It has to be also noted that post purchase services factor is tremendously important since it is directly related with customers brand loyalty. This study recommends companies to invest in technology through R&D and create differentiation at utmost level. This research has been limited to laptop/notebook sector and the factors influencing consumers purchase decisions in this market, since sectoral differences play a vital role, it is also recommended to replicate this study in distinct sectors.
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REFERENCES
1)http://www.consumermate.com/survey-report-on-consumer-buying-behavior-on-electronicproducts.html 2)http://www.google.co.in/#hl=en&biw=1345&bih=583&q=consumer+buying+behavior+o n+purchase+of+laptop&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=73a526cd30607c24
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