Apple Brand and Customer Satisfaction Su PDF

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Marketing ManagementTunis Business SchoolPaper 2Principles of MarketingTopicApple Brand: Customer satisfaction survey studyPrepared by:Abderahman RejebSupervised by Ms.:Izzudin BusnainaInstructor of Marketing ManagementFall semester 2014Academic year: 2014 - 2015Executive SummaryThis paper examined ...

Description

Marketing Management

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Tunis Business School

Paper 2

Principles of Marketing Topic

Apple Brand: Customer satisfaction survey study Prepared by: Abderahman Rejeb Supervised by Ms.:

Izzudin Busnaina Instructor of Marketing Management Fall semester 2014

Academic year: 2014 - 2015

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Acknowledgements Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude to Mr Mr.. Izzudin Busnaina who provided us with clear guidelines of this paper and helped to provide us with the translation questions

of

the

into

Arabic.

survey We

greatly appreciate his exemplary support and commitment and we would not surely complete this paper and get a large poll of respondents

without

his

consistent advice.

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Executive Summary

This paper examined the community’s interest and opinion about Smartphones namely the iPhones. The questionnaire was designed to assess the interest, satisfaction degree, and limitation in Apple brand. To ensure a wide variety of responses, the survey was distributed and shared electronically through Facebook.

Abstract

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Table of content I.

Introduction : ........................................................................................................................ 7

II.

Primary Research details and findings………………………………………………….....9 1. Primary Research details ……………………………………………………………...9  Research procedures ………………………………………………………….9  Research methodology………………………………………………………..9  Validity……………………………………………………………………….10 2. Results and findings ………………………………………………………………….11  Demographics ……………………………………………………………….11  Brand users and brand awareness……………………………………………12  Brand loyalty………………………………………………………………...13  Price and brand association …………………………………………………13  The perceived quality ……………………………………………………….14  Satisfaction…………………………………………………………………..15  Brand personality……………………………………………………………15

III.

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………17

References…………………………………………………………………………………………….18

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List of Tables: Figure 1: Questionnaire and development process ………………………………………………………..9 Figure 2: Apple brand VS Gender …………………………………………………………………………11 Figure 3: Apple brand segmented by Age………………………………………………………………….12 Figure 4: The brands owned by respondents (or the latest they own)…………………………………....12 Figure 5: "I would choose my current smartphone brand even if other brand has the same functionality as my current smartphones"………………………………………………………………………………..13 Figure 6: "My smartphone is a good value for the money I paid"……………………………………….13 Figure 7: "Other people judge you by the kind of the smartphone you use"…………….……………...14 Figure 8: "The quality of my smartphone is good"…………………………………………….…………14 Figure 9: "I would recommend my IPhone to my friends"………………….............................................15 Figure 10: Apple brand personality………………………………………………………………………..15

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I. Introduction : s Apple’s products took part in the continuous and unpredictable technological

A

advancements, its products and notably the iPhones leapfrog other substitutes and other technological gadgets to let Apple in a winner-takes-all market position. These small

hand held devices have so much to offer to customers (Mackenzie, 2011). The purpose of our primary research is to gauge the interest of people, their conception and the degree of their satisfaction with the iPhones. The primary objective of this field study is to identify the brand components of Apple and to show how its product attributes, meaning the iPhones, perceived by customers in their decision making process of buying a particular brand of smartphones. A good knowledge of our respondents' needs and preferences corresponding to smartphones would help us understand their brand knowledge, awareness and loyalty. Also, this will give us a clue about the importance of the brand name and identity in shaping the consumer brand preference. Regarding of the paper's purpose and to put in evidence the consumer's perceived value of the Apple brand, we have chosen to do our primary research using a questionnaire since it suits mostly the survey. In fact, the survey research is the most widely used method to collect primary data. It is characterized by flexibility and it help to obtain different kinds of information in many different situations (Kotler et al., 2005, 119). In addition, the major reason for choosing this method is based essentially on one special advantage; it is the absence of subjectivity. Consequently, our opinions will not be included in the respondents' answers formulation. The questionnaire contains uniform questions and there is no bias. However, it's very challenging to achieve the goal of no-bias by some other research methods, such as focus group discussion or in-depth interview since the verbal clues and real-time discussion by the researcher would impact and shape the attitudes of answerers to a certain extent. The survey involves 110 participants. They range in age interval from 15 years-old to 40 years-old. The respondents are mainly students from Tunis Business School. They represent different nationalities including Tunisians and Moroccans, Syrians, Palestinians …etc. The majority of participants belong to the middle-class which includes the students and university officers. The mean participant’s age lied between 20 years-old and 25 years-old. The sample represents the persons who possess iPhones or other brands and those who are conversant with Apple brand and products. The questionnaire design and distribution followed data analyzing of population shifts and also trends. The survey was performed during the period between 5th and 9th October, 2014. The questionnaire was distributed to the students of the university using Google Docs and Facebook. The participants 7|Page

were informed of the general purpose of the research objectives and they voluntarily and anonymously invited to answer the questionnaires. Besides, they were asked to spread and share the questionnaire by inviting their Facebook friends to take part in the research because this technique was seemed very useful for inviting a large number of Facebook users effectively and hastily. Random sampling method did not work in this case because there are privacy settings of the Facebook profiles. Consequently, it was necessary to invite respondents (shared friends of Facebook users) to like the page, join some Facebook groups and fill the survey. The questionnaire was spread electronically over a total of 5 days during the collection period. This period was chosen as it was seen as too early for the deadline of paper submission (30/10/2014) and the time span is large to get as much as we could answers and data that have been easily collected without being under any time pressure. The survey questionnaire forms were developed based on similar survey which had been undertaken in previous years. The survey was carried out primarily with English and accompanied with a translation into Arabic language in order to facilitate the respondents’ responses and to avoid being limited to certain demographics. Research was also undertaken on similar surveys which had been conducted internationally. Due to the resemblance in terminology between the researches handling with the similar topic, one survey form was produced. A pilot survey was undertaken during a single day in October 4th, 2014 to test the method proposed for undertaking the survey; test the understanding of the questions and to determine the likely response rates.

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II. Primary research details and findings : 1. Primary Research details:  Research procedures: The

data

were

collected

electronically

through Facebook and using Google Docs since they are both more advantageous in terms of convenience (time, geographical dispersion of location and mobility for both: the group members of the research and the respondents) and as they are less obstructive (absence of participant effects) to the conductors of the research project. The survey was undertaken during 5 days in October, it was distributed in one main Facebook

group

entitled

“Sophomore

students TBS” and other groups. This allows getting very high response number equal to 110 participants who answered all the survey questions. To increase the response rate, a full questionnaire development process was undertaken. Figure 1 : Questionnaire and development process

 Research Methodology The questionnaire consists altogether of close ended questions to find the precise required information and exhibit to the respondents the freedom of choice in order to save their time when filling the survey, which sometimes follows rating scale and multiple choice questions. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part included information about the sociodemographic profile of the participants (gender and age). The second part of the questionnaire is designed according to the previous model mentioned in the first paper notably the original Keller model. It will be dedicated to determine the brand recognition of Apple in the level of iPhones and in term of to what extent Tunisian youths know about the Apple brand (brand awareness) in addition to 9|Page

their opinions about the brand as reflected by brand association held in target consumer's memory (brand image). By starting from this model, we will demonstrate the importance of the marketing mix to help building the Apple brand and we will shed the light upon the branding strategy that helps the company to gain a sustainable competitive edge at the level of its product, price, place and promotion.

 Validity: This section provides the readers with the assessment of the data collection process implemented regarding the primary research. It outlines also the evaluation of the quality of the primary data. To ensure the effectiveness of this study, each question in the questionnaire was designed purposefully to serve the concepts which were used in the conceptual framework of this research study, as shown in table 1 underneath: No Concept Questions Demographic Gender? questions

Age?

Filter Question

Have you ever owned an Apple Smartphone?

1. Brand users

The purpose of the question used. As stated by University of Southern California (2012), when the market is divided into sub-groups, this is called market segmentation. These questions are used to determine the major targets of Apple iPhones. We have focused just on two demographic aspects as they are the major motivator for the company to create different product and manage effectively the segments according to its interests. This question is used to determine if the respondent is familiar with Apple iPhones or not. Otherwise speaking, this question analyzes the brand awareness of the respondents.

Which of the following This question is used to know which kind of Smartphone brand brands do you own today (or the respondent is using or have used. the latest you own)?

2. Do you agree with the following statements, please consider: on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 is the strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree?

Brand Value “Apple is a strong brand”

“I would choose my current Brand Loyalty Smartphone brand even if the other brands has the same functionality as my current Smartphone” “I will switch to another brand when purchasing a new Smartphone”

This question is used to measure the strength of the Apple brand, as mentioned by Aaker (1996) strong brands are brands that have strong brand value where customers associate this brand to be strong. These questions were designed to measure the respondents’ loyalty towards the Smartphone brand that they are holding. According to Keller (1998, p.54) brand loyalty is usually used to describe the frequent similar purchase behavior of a customer towards certain specific brand. The brand loyalty is measured when customer purchases the product of a certain brand despite that other competitors brands have the same product with the same features.

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Price

“My Smartphone is a good value for the money I paid”

This question aims to measure the Smartphone value for money, if the customer thinks that the product is worthy of the money or price they paid for.

Brand Association

“Other people judge me by the kind of Smartphone I use”

This question is designed to ascertain how Smartphone are associated with brand, hence many people associate brand with certain kind of class or social group.

Perceived Quality

“The quality of my Smartphone is good ”

This question is used to measure the level of student perceived quality of Smartphone brand, since customers are contented with a product when the product quality is good.

Satisfaction

“My Smartphone brand is more than just a product for me” “I would recommend my Smartphone brand to my friends”

Satisfaction is measured when customers are satisfied with the product to the extent that they recommended to their friends and acquaintances.

Brand Identity Brand Personality

Sincerity

Based on Big Five Model of Aaker’s (1991, p. 24), each one of these personality traits was incorporated in one question to identify the characteristics of a given smartphone brand.

Excitement Ruggedness Competence Sophisticated

2. Results and Findings:  Demographics: 53.6% of the respondents were female and 46.4% were male. Weighting the sample's responses to overcome this minor bias, we noticed that Apple has a greater penetration in women (Figure. 2)

Figure 2: Apple brand VS Gender 11 | P a g e

Most of the respondents, in turn, were aged between 20 and 25 years old (75.5%) and others where age remarkably lied between 15-20 years old (12.7%) and 25-30 years (8.2%). Normalizing again, in order to overcome the bias in ages, we present the distribution according age in figure 3. Apple has almost inconsistent distribution among ages, it is being considerably more preferred by younger segments.

Figure 3: Apple brand segmented by Age

 Brand Users and brand awareness: -

Have you ever owned an Apple smartphones and which kind of brands do you own today (or the latest you own)?

In regards to the distribution of respondents among the students of Tunis Business School, 40.9% of the respondents did not possess iPhones and 59.1% of them have actually iPhones or they have owned them in the past. According to the data obtained from the survey, the leading brand in smartphones is Apple since have 42.1% of the respondents while Samsung maintains 20.7% of the respondents and 14.9% and the rest of participants do own other brands. Consequently, this implies that Apple has more brand users in our sample than the others and the brand awareness stems from the fact that respondents could easily recall the brand with its logo and name as shown in details in figure 4:

Figure 4: The brands owned by respondents (or the latest they own)

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 Brand loyalty: {} Figure 5: "I would choose my current smartphone brand even if other brand has the same functionality as my current smartphones" As shown in Figure 5, Apple commands a high brand loyalty. 23.6 % of the respondent agreed and 26.4% strongly agreed that they would stick to Apple.

According to Aaker (1991, 87) these

consumers are ranked on the fourth level of brand loyalty because the preference for the brand is based on the symbol, previous experience, or the logo of the company. They are not vulnerable to the competitors or other substitute brands. The theoretical significance of this implies that Apple’s iPhones have higher customer loyalty and a strong brand value according to 80.9% of respondents. Also, 57.3 % of the respondents showed their intention of not switching Apple brand when purchasing another new smartphones, 20% choose to be neutral and the rest agree to renew the experience with other brands. Aaker (1991, 48) notes that a measure of brand loyalty is reflected in the additional price that customers would be willing to pay to obtain their brand.

 Price and Brand Association: {} Figure 6: "My smartphone is a good value for the money I paid" When participants were asked if their smartphones are good value for the money they paid, half of Apple smartphone holders agreed (50.9%) and 28.2% of them strongly agreed with the statement. 12.7% of respondents chose to be neutral and the rest of the poll disagree about the given statement. This clearly demonstrates that Apple consumers are more satisfied with the price of their smartphones with respect to its value. {} Figure 7: "Other people judge you by the kind of the smartphone you use" According to Aaker, premium price reinforces the perceived quality, meaning that high price signals high quality to the customers. Although Apple is well- known by premium price smartphones and it wants to be associated with high class brand of smartphones by charging high prices on iPhones, only 30% of our respondents agreed about the association of Apple's product to their customers' personality. 31.8 % were neutral to this fact and 38.2% disagreed about having an iPhone is a way of showing someone's social status.

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 The perceived quality: {} Figure 8: "The quality of my smartphone is good" Regarding this aspect, respondents were asked if the quality of their iPhones is good in order to ensure the perceived quality of their Smartphones. As shown in figure 8, 48.2% of respondents agreed, 39.1 % strongly agreed and 12.7 % of respondents were split between being neutral and opposing. Apple offers a high perceive quality to its customers. The perceived quality meets the customer’s perception of the overall quality or the superiority of a product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternative (Aaker, 1991, 85). The reason for high perceived quality of Apple could be accredited to Apple differentiation and positioning of it products. Apple is famous for its creativity and innovation and in giving the consumers reason to buy their products.

 Satisfaction: {} Figure 9: "I would recommend my IPhone to my friends" The findings from figure 9 exhibit that Apple Smartphones’ users are generally satisfied with the product and would recommend it to their friends. Respondent were asked if they would recommend their Smartphone brand to their friends, 54.5% confirmed that they would (20% strongly agreed, 34.5% agreed) while 25.5% are Indifferent and 20 % would not recommend it to their friends (12.7% strongly disagreed and 7.3% disagree).

 Brand personality: {} Figure 10: Apple brand personality As figure 10 above, the empirical data obtained suggest that of all the five personality traits that are associated with the Apple Smartphones, competence has the highest score. 56.4% of the respondents ascribed competence personality trait to Apple iPhones. The significance of this score reflects how important competence in brand personality of iPhones. Sophistication scores the second highest respondents percentage (52.7%). It means that they consider Apple iPhones as a portrayal of aspirational luxury. IPhones according to them are glamorous, seducing and smooth products. 14 | P a g e

Ruggedness scores the third with 31.8% of respondents agreeing that smartphones features are strong and resilient.

Empirical data obtained surprisingly shows 24.5% o...