A STUDY ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF MOBILE PHONE

Sameer ahmed M, Nanda kumar T, Ambrose L, Jayasurya K

Department of Business Administration, Sacred Heart College, (Autonomous)
Thiruvalluvar University, India

ABSTRACT

The behavior of consumers towards smartphones is increasingly a focus of marketing research.

In particular, consumer behavior in the smartphone industry, from adoption motivation to post-
usage behavior has become a major focus of research in the field of marketing. The results of
the research confirm that the regulatory focus has an influence on consumer behavior towards
smartphone purchase decision by affecting their perception, motivation, and lifestyle. India is
one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the smartphone industry in India is also
growing very fast. For consumers’ smartphones have become essential parts of personal and
business life. There is a continuous increase in disposable income; there has been a major shift
in the attitude and aspirations of the consumers. This research is to analyze the external and
internal factors which influence a consumer’s decision in purchasing a smartphone. The
research also focuses on consumer attitude for smartphones and the influence brand name has
on consumer buying decisions. The recent growth of smartphone usage is an observable fact
that crosses all age and gender boundaries. Hence, this research explores through quantitative
analysis some of the key factors believed to affect consumer’s attitudes and behaviors towards
smartphone purchase. The present study carried out with 50 mobile phone users.

Keywords:

Buying, Behavior, Mobile Phone

INTRODUCTION

The increasing interest in smartphones among the people is the main reason that has amplified
the interest to research the topic. People’s obsession about smartphones has been increasing
rapidly. The aim of this research is, therefore, to find out consumer behavior of smartphone
buyers in Indian Market. The research aims to find out the reasons behind people purchasing
smartphones, the factors influencing the purchase decision and the motivations behind the
purchase decision.
Different consumers have different characteristics in their life that also influences their
buying behavior. Social factors such as family, groups, roles and status) and personal factors
(such as age, occupation, lifestyle, personality and self-concept) are those characteristics that
could influence the buyer behavior in making the final decision.

Even when cheaper smartphones are available in the market, why do people buy expensive
smartphones? Price, quality, brand, country of origin, marketing, sales, word of mouth, etc.
could be several factors that a consumer may think before buying a smartphone. How much
does the brand of a smartphone affect the buying decision of a customer? As there are various
types of smartphones available in the market with a varying price; what is the difference
between them? And how they impact the customer buying decision?

This research also aims at the marketing strategy of the smartphone companies to influence
buying behavior of the customer. These strategies include Promotional campaigns, Tie-Ups
with the network carrier, etc.

The research objectives of this study are as follows:

 To identify to what extent evaluation of outcomes and beliefs affect consumers’ attitudes
and intention to purchase in the smartphone market in India.
 To develop a framework on the effects of external influence and internal influence which
affect self-concept and lifestyle of the consumer which result in purchasing decision-
making process.
 To analyze what are the factors which influence and eventually motivate the customer
to buy a smartphone in the Indian market.
 To analyze the theoretical implication of brand of smartphone in the Indian market and
what are the effect on the purchase decision-making process.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

A.Mohankumar and U.Dinseshkumar (2015) In their article they explained “customer

purchase behaviour towards mobile phones”. The present study is conducted in Erode city and
it is decided to consider different mobile phones’ like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC
and Micromax. This study helps to know the factors which influencing the consumer to
purchase Mobile Phones. Have report to know the buying behaviour of the consumer while
choosing Mobile Phones. This study also helps to know the consumers satisfaction level
towards different branded mobile phones. The consumer buying a variety of mobile phones
which satisfy his wants and they are always influenced by his purchasing activities by some
considerations which lead him to select a particular brand or a particular store in preferred to
others. Consumers mostly preferred Nokia mobile phones.

Dr.Abdul Ghafoor Awan and Ms. Arooj Fatima:(2014) This research aims to study the “youth
purchasing behaviour in selection of mobile phones”. Have founded the study has focused that
how these strategies used by mobile phone companies in Pakistan influence the purchase
decision of youth in selection of their mobile phones. This type of research which was
conducted to find the impact of various independent variables on the purchasing behaviour.
The study included both male and female respondents to show that how marketing strategies
used by marketers in terms of service quality, pricing, value offered, trust and switching cost
affects the purchasing behaviour. Youth is considered as the largest and important segment of
customers which cannot be ignored by cellular companies if they want to increase their profits.

Mesay Sata :( 2013) The purpose of this study she, investigate the “decision of buying mobile
phone devices” in Hawassa town From this analysis, it was clear that consumer’s value price
followed by mobile phone features as the most important variable amongst all and it also acted
as a motivational force that influences them to go for a mobile phone purchase decision. The
objective of this research was to investigate the underlying factors that determine the decision
to purchase mobile phone devices. According to the study, majority of the consumers own
Nokia mobile phones. Moreover, most of Nokia mobile phone users have a plan to shift to
other brands such as Samsung, Apple and BlackBerry.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
The present study is made to analyze the consumer buying behavior towards mobile phone.
Questionnaires have been entrusted to 50 respondents for data collection but only 17
questionnaires were found complete for extracting information. Research methodology is
purely and simply basic frame work for a study that guiders the collection of data and
analysis of the data. In customer surveys adopted this description research design in
collection and analyzing of the data.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. It can be defined as a scientific
and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. It is a careful study of a
subject, especially in order to discover new facts or information about it.

The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of current English lays down the meaning of research
as “a careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch
of knowledge. “Redman and Mory” define research as a “systematized effort to gain new
knowledge.”

In other clear terms research refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the
problem, formulating a hypothesis, collecting the facts or data, analyzing the facts and reaching
certain conclusions either in the form of solution(s) towards the concerned problem or in certain
generalizations for some theoretical formulation.

MOTIVATION IN RESEARCH

 Desire to complete the project report as an academic activity in partial fulfillment of

the requirement for the award of the degree of BBA.
 Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative and initiative work.
 Desire to study and portray the characteristics of a particular group of employees.
 Desire to acquire knowledge of doing research work.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done systematically. When we talk of
research methodology we not only talk of the research methods but also consider the logic
behind the methods we use in the context of one research study and explain why we are using
a particular method of technique and why we are not using others so that research results are
capable of being evaluated either by the researcher himself or by others.

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is a arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner
that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure. Out of the
research design said above the research design took for the study was “Descriptive Research
Design”.

RESEARCH DESIGN USED:

1. Title of the study

A study on “A study on Buying behavior of Mobile phones in Tirupattur”.

2. Field of the study: The study has been conducted in Tirupattur.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT:

Research Instrument used for study is Questionnaire

SOURCE AND DATA COLLECTION OF THE STUDY:

The study has been undertaken by the use of both the primary data and secondary data.

 Primary Data
The primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus
happen to be original in character. For this study, well-structured questionnaire was
prepared for the collection of primary data from the respondents.
  Construction and source of Questionnaire
Questionnaire consists of four main headings viz. personal information, general locus
of control (source: adopted from J.B.Rotter, “External control and internal control”,
psychology today, June 1971, p42.), Work locus of control (source: Paul E. spector, 1988)
and Communication locus of control (source: Hamilton,J.P.(1991). The development of a
communication specific locus of control instrument, communication reports, 4(2))

 Question Formulation and Wording

Structured questionnaire is prepared in which there are definite, concrete and pre-
determined questions. The questions are presented with exactly the same wording and in
the same order to all respondents.

 Open End Question

This invites the free responses from the respondents to answer in their own words and
at any length they prefer.

 Closed End Question

The respondents are given a limited number of alternative responses from which they
are to select the one that is most closely matches their opinion or attitude.

 Secondary Data
Secondary data are those which have already been collected by someone else and which
have already been passed through the statistical process.

For this study, secondary data have been collected from books, journals, internet, reports
and publications of the industry etc.

SAMPLING INSTRUMENT

The instrument used to collect data for the study was the structured questionnaire

NO OF RESPONDENTS:

No of sampling:50
The researcher had the following limitations while conducting the study.
 This study was carried out only among the consumers in Tirupattur district
 The sample size was restricted to 50 due to time constraints.
 The sample was taken on the basis of convenience; therefore the shortcomings of the
convenience sampling may also be present in this study.
 The respondents were mostly from the middle and lower income groups.
 Level of respondents is low because fear and illiteracy of respondents.