PROJECT REPORT ON:CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS SMARTPHONES

Submitted in partial fulfilment of MBA program

2013-15

Submitted To:

Mr. Surjit Kumar Kar

Submitted By:
ASHMEET SINGH KHANUJA

Assistant Professor
Marketing & Strategy

Certificate by Guide

This is to certify that major research project work done on

CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS CONSUMER DURABLE
BRANDS (SMARTPHONES) submitted to IBS Hyderabad, IFHE
University

by

ASHMEET

SINGH

CHANDRA & GAYATRI PATRA

KHANUJA,,

KEERTHI

in partial fulfilment of the

requirement for the Non-Class Participation - 2. This is a work carried

out by all of them under my supervision and guidance. This work has
not been submitted anywhere else for any other degree/diploma. The
original work was carried at ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad.

Date: 05

January 2014
Assistant Professor
Marketing & Strategy
IBS Hyderabad

IFHE University
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

DECLARATION

We hereby declare that the research project work entitled

CONSUMER PERCEPTION TOWARDS CONSUMER DURABLE
BRANDS (SMARTPHONES)

is submitted to IBS Hyderabad,

IFHE University, Andhra Pradesh is a record of original work done by

us under the guidance of Mr. Kumar Kar, Assistant Professor,
Marketing & Strategy, .. Business School, Andhra Pradesh and
this research project work has not been performed for the award of
any other degree or diploma and similar project if any.

ASHMEET SINGH KHANUA

KEERTHI CHANDRA
GAYATRI PATRA
MBA SEM -II 2013-15

ACKNOWLEGEMENT

We would like to express our deep gratitude to Mr. Kumar

Kar Assistant Professor (Marketing & Strategy), ICFAI Business
School, IFHE University for his constant support, guidance and
motivation which helped us immensely in completing this project. The
insistence on taking up a relatively new topic helped us to understand
the prospects how the consumer perceived about the consumer durable
brands. We also would like to thank our respondents for giving us their
valuable time and providing us with the information needed to carry
out the research successfully.

ASHMEET SINGH KHANUJA

KEERTHI CHANDRA
GAYATRI PATRA
MBA SEM-II 2013-15

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SR
N
O.
1

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

LITERATURE REVIEW

3
4

OBJECTIVES AND HYPOTHESIS OF

THE STUDY
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

LIMITATIONS

REFFERENCES

ANNEXURE

INTRODUCTION

A Smartphone is a mobile phone built on mobile operating system with enhanced and more
advanced computing capability and connectivity than a normal mobile phone. The first
Smartphone combine the function of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with mobile phone.
Later, models added the functionality of media players, digital cameras, video cameras &
GPS navigation system to form one multi tasking device. Many modern Smartphone also
include high resolution camera with touch screen pad and web browser that display standard
web pages. For high speed data accesses the Smartphone include WiFi function and mobile
broadband. In recent years the rapid of development of mobile applications & of mobile
commerce has been drivers of smart phone adaption.

The mobile operating system use by modern Smartphone includes Googles android, Apples
iOS, Nokia Symbian, Rims Blackberry OS, Samsung BADA, Microsoft Windows phone,
and Hewlett-Packards web OS. Such operating system can be installed on different mobile
phones and each device can receive multiple OS Software update over its life time. I n this
project we discussed the importance of analysing the consumer perception towards durable
brands with the help of Smartphone. Local and foreign brand choice affected by various
factors such as brand image, country of origin, brand awareness, brand quality and so on.
In this era of globalisation consumer have become much more aware and the perceptions
regarding durable brands are changing at a rapid pace. It has been seen that price & quality of
the durable goods are considered to be major factors of making their brand choice. Consumer
prefer low brand product because of lower price, similarly in case of Smartphones the
increasing demand of low brand Smartphones are because of consumers affordable prices in
India, As Indian consumer are more price sensitive. But consumers who want better quality
and durability and for the status enhancement reasons prefer foreign brands, like in case of
Smartphones the consumer who wants better quality, durability and consider status will
prefer Apple Smartphone. Now in order to understand consumer perception we need to
understand culture, so that behaviour of consumer is well understood. The perception
consumers have of a business and its product or services whether its durable or non durable,
have a effect on purchasing behaviour of the consumer thats why companies spend lots of
money in marketing themselves. They marketing themselves by providing excellent customer
services and other influential programs which can favourable influence the perception of

target consumer. With the help of careful planning and execution companies can influence
those perception and foster profitable consumer behaviour. Consumers continually synthesise
all the information they have about a company to make a decision about whether the company
offers value for the money, in a sense consumer perception is an approximation of reality.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In this project we are going to discuss about the perceptions of consumer towards durable
brand for which we have taken the example of Smartphones to analyse how the consumer
perceive and what are the factors which affect the consumer perception regarding a particular
product.
Perception:Perception is the process by which we select, organise, and interpret
information input to create a meaning full picture of the world. It depend not only on physical
stimuli but also on the stimuli relationship to the surroundings environment and on condition
within each of us. One Person might perceive a fast talking sale person as aggressive and in
sincere another person might perceive that as intelligent and help full. Each person will
respond to the sales person differently. People perceive differently because of three perceptual
processes
1. Selective Attention
2. Selective Distortion
3. Selective Retention
4. Subliminal Perception

Selective Attention:Attention is the allocation of processing capacity to some

stimulus. An average person may be exposed to different ads brand communication a day.
But we cannot possible attend these; we screen most stimuli out a process called Selective
Attention.
Selective Distortion:Even noticed stimuli dont always come across in the way the
sender intended. Selective distortion is the tendency to interpret in a way that fits our
preconception. Consumer will often distort information to be consistent with prior brand and
product belief and expectations.
Selective Retention:Most of us dont remember much of the information to which
we are exposed, but we do retain information that supports our attitude and beliefs. Because
of selective retention , we are likely to remember good points about a product we like and
forget good points about competing products. Selective retention again works for the strong
brands.

Subliminal Perception:-

The selective perception mechanism require consumers; active

engagement and thought . A topic that has fascinated armchair marketer for ages is subliminal
perception. They argue that marketers embed covert , subliminal message in ads or packaging
.consumers are not consciously aware of them, yet they effect behavior . although its clear
that mental process include many subtle subconscious effects , no evidence support the notion
that marketers can systematically control consumers at that level , especially enough to
change moderately important or strongly held beliefs. Consumer perceived value of the
Smartphone tradeoff between benefit and sacrifices perceiver by consumer, in which benefits
are adopted from the technology of acceptance model.

Product Level:Kotler indicates that marketer needs to consider five product levels when
planning market offering. Each level increases more consumer value. Five product levels are
as follows:

Core benefits
Basic Product
Excepted Product
Augmented Product
Potential Product

In case of Smartphone market the Core Value for the most buyers could be the convenience
and timeliness of communication, including multi-media communication; at the second level,
the basic might be concrete, communicable, and multi-function Smartphone product; at the
third level, Smartphone user expect that the Smartphone is useful and quality, for example
performance, camera, and screen pixels; at the fourth level, the augmented product can be the
pleasing design and diversity. At the fifth level, the potential product is possibly the voice
control system.

According to our survey the major determinant of mobile phone include branding, price,
feature, appearance, & lifestyle. Therefore in this study branding, price, feature, appearance,
lifestyle, & accessories are sub-assumed into the independent variable.

1. Branding:Kotler and Keller suggested that branding could be divided in two parts
brand awareness & brand image. Brand awareness refers to the ability of the customer to
consider a brand under different circumstance. On the other hand Brand Image refers to the
perception about the brand which is reflected by the bran associations held in consumer
memory. Consumer often choose that product brand that they are familiar with because a well
known brand gives people perception of being safe.

2. Price:Price of a product is nothing but the cost of product. Which is the reason the
people compare price with the quality of product, consumer generally perceived that if the
price of the product is high then the quality of the product is better. When the utility of the
two product is similar and their prices differ, consumer will choose the option which choose
the product with lower price to maximise the utility.
3. Feature/ Appearance:Appearance of the product can influence the consumer
perception easily because products with appealing look are able to catch consumers eyes and
get once attention. Appearance of the product is now only satisfied by the needs visually but
also a critical factor in marketing strategies, for example:- Apple made it product look
appealing to a consumer with a snow white industrial design, which save the appearance of
Apple product four years.
4. Lifestyle:Some people think that if they have a good quality Smartphone it represent
their lifestyle. So lifestyle can be considered as the factor which distorted consumer
perception.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Objective of the study is to study the consumer perception towards durable brands.
Here we have to study how consumer perceive durable brands, how consumer
behaved and what are the factors which effect the consumer perception regarding
durable brands. The study is based upon the primary data collected through an
online survey.

HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

H0: 0= 1= 2= 3= 4= 5= 6= 7=0
Ha: 0 1 2 3 4 5 670

0 = intercept
1 = Smartphones Technology
2 = Appearance
3 = Features
4 = Brand Value
5 = Size
6 = Accessories
7 = Price

H0 : These factors does not affect the perception of the purchasing behaviour of the
consumers.

Ha : These factors does affect the perception of the purchasing behaviour of the consumer.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Study: The study was causal in nature with survey method being used for data
collection.
Sampling Design
Population: The population included viewers from IBS Hyderabad & Other
personal contacts.
Sampling frame: Since the data was collected through personal contact the
sampling frame included general viewers from IBS Hyderabad & Other personal
contacts.
Sample size: Sample size was 148 respondents.
Sample elements: Individual respondents were the sample elements.
Tools used for data collection: Self designed questionnaires were used to evaluate
Audience Perception of Consumer Perception Towards Consumer Durable Brands
with an example of Smartphones. Data was collected on a 7 point Likert type

scale, where 1 indicated minimum agreement and 7 indicated maximum

agreement.
Tools used for data analysis: After the collection of respondent from two days
online survey we analyzed the data on Regression and ANOVAs with the help of
SAS 4.2 Statistical Package.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Hypothesis tested using Multiple Regression:

H0: 0= 1= 2= 3= 4= 5= 6= 7=0
Ha: 0 1 2 3 4 5 670
Results Of Multiple Regression

Price and Brand value are the most important considerations in the buying behaviour.

Battery life plays an almost negligible role in the purchasing behaviour of consumers.

For =.05, P value =.001, which implies that H0 is rejected. ie the variables considered
affect the purchasing behaviour of the consumer.

Dependent mean= 0.61972, suggests the sample is slightly in favour of purchasing a

Smartphone.

R2=0.4925 suggests that 49.25% of the variance is explained by the model.

Variance Inflation Factor is less than 5 for each of the variable, which suggests lack of
multi-collinearity. That means that each of the variables in consideration is
independent on its own.

The distribution of residuals for purchase suggests that the errors are equally
distributed among the variables.

All the observations for which the the cooks D statistic is above the horizontal line
are influential. The influential observations can be used for further analysis to study
their buying behaviour.

Outliers: an outlier is an observation with large residual. In other words, it is an

observation whose dependent-variable value is unusual given its values on the
predictor variables. An outlier may indicate a sample peculiarity or may indicate a
data entry error or other problem.

Leverage: An observation with an extreme value on a predictor variable is called a

point with high leverage. Leverage is a measure of how far an observation deviates
from the mean of that variable. These leverage points can have an effect on the
estimate of regression coefficients.

ANNOVA suggests the following:

55% of the sample rated 7 in how technology affects their purchase behavior.

35% of the sample rated 7 in how appearance affects buying behavior.

45% of the sample rated 7 in how features affects buying behavior.

40% of the sample rated 7 in how brand value affects buying behavior.

35% of the sample rated 6 in how value for money affects buying behavior.

30% of the sample rated 7 in how size of the phone affects buying behavior.

25% of the sample rated 6 in how accessories affect buying behavior.

25% of the sample rated 5 in how the battery life of the phone affects buying behavior.

35% of the sample rated 5 in how price affects buying behavior.

25% of the sample rated 7 in how lifestyle of the consumer plays a role in buying behaviour.

LIMITATION
1: Some of the people were not responsive.
2: Possibility of error in data collection because many of the respondents may
have not given a answer to the questionnaire.
3: Sample size is less to represent the whole population.
4: The time period of research was short.
5: Respondents behaviour may be casual.
6: Financial resources are not available.

REFERENCES

Marketing Management Philip Kotler 14e

Marketing Research Naresh K. Malhotra Fourth Edition
Statistics for Business and Economics Anderson, Sweeney, Williams

ANNEXURE
ANNEXURE 1
QUESTIONNAIRE

Consumer perception towards smartphone

NAME

OCCUPATION

Do you have a smart phone?

o
YES
o

NO

The emergence of smartphones has changed the way we

communicate with one another.

Disagree
Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree , to 7,Agree,.

Do you get attracted by the appearance and design of

smartphone and then want to own it?

7
Agree

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

My Purchase of smartphone depends on the features the

smartphone provides.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

Brand name plays a vital role while purchasing any

smartphone.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

I consider the 'value for money' concept while purchasing a

smartphone.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

I prefer smartphones which are easy to carry and can be easily

fit to my pocket.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

Accessories and other free benifits effect my purchasing

decision.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

I look towards the battery life factor if the number of technical

applications and functions are less.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

Smartphones are generally high priced.

Disagree

Agree

Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

I believe that the type of smartphone represents my life style.

1
Disagree
Select a value from a range of 1,Disagree, to 7,Agree,.

7
Agree