Study ON Brand Preference OF Mobile PHON PDF

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STUDY ON BRAND PREFERENCE OF MOBILE PHONES IN KATHMANDU

Submitted By: Medha Dhital MBA SPRING2012 Term III Roll No. 16

Submitted To: Mr. Pravat Uprety Course Instructor Ace Institute of Management

Affiliated to Pokhara University In partial fulfillment of the requirement in the course of Business Research Methodology for the degree of Master in Business Administration Kathmandu, May 2013

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our gratitude to our instructor Mr. Pravat Uprety for providing an opportunity to carry this research project and his valuable time and effort in submitting this proposal is highly appreciated.

We would like to thank our friends whose immense support and guidance made this project successful and finally we would like to thank Ace Institute of Management whose direct and indirect support was considered most in submitting this report.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The aim of this research is to find out about the brand preference of mobile phones of people residing in Kathmandu. The increasing number of telecommunication networks and huge number of their subscribers has made mobile phones an important medium for communication. Switching mobile phone brands and updating oneself with latest technology in mobile brands has been in the increasing trend as well. Mobile brand preference could be related with various other factors like age group, gender, price of phone, family monthly income, mobile usage purpose, brand attributes and many more. Through this research, we can learn about the mobile brand preference of youth in Kathmandu and help increase sales of various mobile brands.

As we went through the survey, we could find out that most of the youth in Kathmandu valley own a mobile phone and most them own a brand which costs more than NRS 20,000. Since mobile phones are effective and convenient medium for communication, they have a positive influence in the economy of our country. This research could lead to several other findings such as the users of age group 16-24 mostly prefer Wifi attribute in their phone, users of age group 2530 prefer touch pad feature in mobile phone while users of age group 31-40 prefer FM/Radio in their phone. It can be said that the highest priced mobile brands are purchased by users whose monthly family income is above NRS 50,000 so a different promotional campaigns are required for these users. The users whose monthly family income is relatively low purchase medium priced mobile phones and use them for longer time. So to attract these customers, various offers and discounts should be used as a promotional strategy by mobile brands.

So the findings of this research would also provide insight to mobile brands selling in Kathmandu valley about how they should target different customer groups and use different promotional campaigns for each user group. Likewise, the findings of brand attribute preference can help marketers to make decision regarding which model of their mobile brands would be suitable in Nepalese market.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................8 1.1 Background............................................................................................................................8 1.2 Problem Statement...............................................................................................................10 1.2.1 Objectives.........................................................................................................................11 1.2.3 Significance of the study...................................................................................................11 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK......................................13 2.1 Literature Review................................................................................................................13 2.2.1 Research Questions...........................................................................................................17 2.2.2 Research Hypothesis.........................................................................................................18 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................23 3.1 Research Plan and Design...................................................................................................23 3.2 Population and Sample........................................................................................................23 3.3 Description of the Sample...................................................................................................23 3.3.1 Sampling Frame............................................................................................................23 3.3.2 Sample unit...................................................................................................................23 3.3.3 Determination of Sample..............................................................................................23 3.3.4 Sampling method..........................................................................................................23 3.4 Instrumentation....................................................................................................................24 3.5 Data collection Procedure....................................................................................................24 3.6 Validity and Reliability........................................................................................................24 3.7 Analysis Plan.......................................................................................................................24 3.7.1 Data Management and Analysis...................................................................................24 3.7.2 Method of Data Analysis..............................................................................................25 3.8 Limitation of the Study........................................................................................................25 CHAPTER 4.........................................................................................................................26 DATA ANALYSIS................................................................................................................26 4.1 Distribution by Gender........................................................................................................26 4.2 Distribution by Age Group..................................................................................................26 4.3 Distribution by Literacy Level.............................................................................................27 4.4 Distribution by Income Level..............................................................................................27

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4.5 Distribution by Price range.................................................................................................28 4.6 Descriptive Statistics of Brand of Mobile Preferred............................................................28 4.7 Analysis Between Age Group and Mobile Brand Preference.............................................29 4.8 Analysis between Literacy Level and Mobile Brand Preferred..........................................31 4.9 Analysis between Monthly Family Income and Mobile Brand Preferred...........................33 4.10 Analysis between Price Range and Mobile Brand Preferred.............................................35 4.11 Analysis between Age Group and Mobile Brand Attribute Preference.............................37 4.12 Analysis between Age Group and Mobile Phone Usage Purpose.....................................39 4.13 Analysis between Gender and Duration of Current Mobile Brand Usage.........................40 4.14 Analysis Between Age Group and Current Mobile Brand Usage Duration......................41 4.15 Analysis between Monthly Family Income and Current Mobile Brand Usage Duration..41 4.16 Analysis between Age and Current Mobile Brand Usage.................................................42 4.17 Analysis between Gender and Current Mobile Brand Usage............................................43 4.18 Analysis between Monthly Family Income and Price Range............................................44 4.19 Analysis between Educational Level and Better Features Preference...............................45 4.20 Analysis of Likert Scale.....................................................................................................46 4.21 Analysis of the variables of Likert Scale...........................................................................47 CHAPTER 5.........................................................................................................................49 SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION.......................................................................49 5.1 Summary and Findings....................................................................................................49 BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................................................51 ANNEX 1............................................................................................................................53

LIST OF TABLE

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Table 1: Distribution by Gender....................................................................................................26 Table 2: Distribution by Age Group..............................................................................................26 Table 3: Distribution by Literacy Level.........................................................................................27 Table 4: Distribution by Income Level..........................................................................................27 Table 5: Distribution by Price Range.............................................................................................28 Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of Brand of Mobile Preferred........................................................28 Table 7: Analysis between Age Group and Mobile Brand Preferred.............................................29 Table 8: Analysis between Literacy Level and Mobile Brand Preferred.......................................31 Table 9: Analysis between Monthly Family Income and Mobile Brand Preferred.......................33 Table 10: Analysis between Price Range and Mobile Brand Preferred.........................................35 Table 11: Analysis between Age group and Mobile Brand Attribute Preferred............................37 Table 12: Analysis between Age Group and Mobile Phone Usage Purpose.................................39 Table 13: Analysis between Gender and Duration of Current Mobile Brand Usage.....................40 Table 14: Analysis between Age Group and Current Mobile Brand Usage Duration...................41 Table 15: Analysis between Monthly Family Income and Current Mobile Brand Usage Duration .......................................................................................................................................................41 Table 16: Analysis between Age and Current Mobile Brand Usage..............................................42 Table 17: Analysis between Gender and Current Mobile Brand Usage........................................43 Table 18: Analysis between Monthly Family Income and Price Range........................................44 Table 19: Analysis between Educational Level and better Features Preference............................45 Table 20: Analysis of Likert Scale.................................................................................................46 Table 21: Analysis of the Variables of Likert Scale.......................................................................47

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Theoretical Framework for study of Brand Preference of Mobile Phones....................16

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Mobile phones aren't just a rich person's fashion today. It is transforming the way thousands of people do business in a country where even landline phones were a luxury a decade ago. As an essential element of daily life, the purchase of a mobile phone is an important decision with a variety of mobile phone brands available to choose from. Each mobile phone manufacturer consistently updates their offerings with the latest technological updates and many customers have a preferred brand that suits them or a brand they have become familiar with. Across the globe, even people with low incomes are now adopting cellular phones as tools for enhancing their business. According to Oxford English Dictionary one of the earliest uses of word "mobile" was in association with the Latin phrase "mobile vulgus", i.e. excitable crowd. Today's mobile phones live up to these origins. Cell phone technology introduces new senses of speed and connectivity to social life. If the fixed line telephone has brought communication links into the workplace and homes, the "mobile" puts them straight into the hands of numbers and varieties of individuals.

A brief history of the mobile phone as a technology The idea for cellular telephony originated in the US. The first cellular call and the first call from a hand held cellular device also were placed in the US. The mobile phone merges the landline telephony system with wireless communication. The landline telephone was first patented in 1876. Mobile radio systems have been used since the early 1900’s in the form of ship to shore radio, and were installed in some police cars in Detroit starting in 1921. The blending of landline telephone and radio communication came after the Second World War. The first commercially available "mobile radiophone service" that allowed calls from fixed to mobile telephones was offered in St. Louis in 1946. By 1964 there were 1.5 million mobile phone users in the US. This was a non-cellular system that made relatively inefficient use of the radio bandwidth. In addition, the telephones were large, energy intensive car-mounted devices. In the drive to produce a more efficient mobile telephone system, researchers W. Rae Young and Douglas Ring of Bell Labs developed the idea of cellular telephony, in which geographical areas are divided into a mesh of cells, each with its own cell tower. This allowed a far more efficient use of the radio spectrum and the "cell" phones needed less power to send and receive a signal. The first installation was in 1969 on the Amtrak

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Metroliner that traveled between New York City and Washington. Four years later Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first cellular call from a prototype handheld cell phone. The world's first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. On 6 March 1983, the DynaTAc mobile phone launched on the first US 1G network by Ameritech. In 1991, the second generation (2G) cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard and ten years later, in 2001, the third generation (3G) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA Standard. The history of mobile phone usage in Nepal dates back to 1999 when NTC started providing GSM mobile service from May 1999. Mobile phones have emerged as an important means for communication in Nepal. Its role has been significant in the development of various industries of Nepal. Mobile phones were considered as means of pleasure and luxury some years back, but today it has become the need of almost all people in Nepal for business purposes, convenience as well as for maintaining one's status in the society. At the beginning when NTC started its GSM mobile service with post paid service then there were very few mobile phone users that also within Kathmandu valley only. Later NTC started pre paid service and distributed more than one lakh sim cards. It also improved its network services throughout the country which increased the mobile users in Nepal. Queue were started to be seen outside Nepal telecom's offices for sim card which showed the mobile phone popularity across Nepal. With evolution of other mobile telecommunication service providers like NCELL and UTL, today, almost every adult in Nepal possess a mobile phone of and each individual's mobile phone varies in model and brand from the other's. Different Brands of mobile Phones available in Nepal There are many brands of cell phones available in Nepalese market. So far, as contemporary brands of cell phones or mobile phones is concerned in Nepalese market, Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, Motorola, LG, Sony Ericson, iPhone, Vodafone and so on are seen to exist in the competitive market. Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, LG, Sony Ericson and iPhone have secured prominent position in the Nepalese market. With the strong presence of these brands, many other brands which also exist in the market are facing hard times and the brand war among these leading mobile brands has provided the Nepalese market with better mobile sets and variety of features. Nokia This is popular brand name for the Nepalese cell phone users. This German cell phone brand have produced and launched more than 50 brands of cell phones in the world. For example, some of them are nokia 1100, nokia 6680, nokia 6600, nokia 7260, and so on. Its prices starts from Rs

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1500 in Nepal. Main competitors of this brand in Nepal are Samsung, Blackberry, LG and iPhone. Samsung Samsung offers a wide selection of powerful and stylish internet-ready Smartphones, which include Android, Bada and Windows mobile devices. It has increased its market share in Nepalese market due to its affordable range of prices and and android applications. It is mostly popular among the youngsters of Nepal. Blackberry BlackBerry is a range of mobile email and Smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) since 1999. From handsets which were very popular for business users, Blackberry offer an extensive range of handsets for both consumer and business users. It has therefore captured nokia's market in Nepal and is a threat to Nokia, iPhone and samsung. LG Style meets function with an LG phone. LG Android and Windows mobile phones come with touch screens and high quality cameras as well as all the latest features consumers would expect in Smart phones making it one of the major competitor in mobile phone industry across the world as well as in Nepal. iPhone The iPhone is a line of smart phones which is designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It runs Apple's iOS mobile operating system, known as the "iPhone OS". In the recent years it has gained huge popularity worldwide. In Nepal also iPhone has captured a huge market especially of the higher income group. It has thus threatened established brands sales such as that of Nokia and Samsung in Nepali market as well as worldwide.

1.2 Problem Statement In present context, mobile phone has a huge impact in lives of people daily. In our country the mobile phone industry is still in its growth stage, as compared to the industrially advanced countries. It is for the fact that the economy of our country has been in the developing stage. Now-a-days, the customers are more dynamic. Their taste, needs and preference are changing with the advancement in technology and communication with the outside world.

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With the increase in mobile phone brands in the market, lots of mobile dealers are cropping up old established brands and new brand of mobiles are entering the market. With the increase in competition locally as well as from global dealers, Nepalese mobile phone dealers are coming up with new and promotional campaigns and schemes to attract the customers. This research is guided towards determining the preferences of various mobile phone brands by Nepalese customers. The major problems identified regarding the mo...