Autumn 2023

Business Research Methods (BRM)

Home Assignment-1
Topic: Research to isolate factors affecting brand choice. What caused
switching from one cellular phone operator to another in Malaysia.

Submitted By

Research Report on Factors affecting brand choice switching from

one cellular phone operator to another in Malaysia.

1. Introduction:
The telecommunications sector in Malaysia has had significant growth in the last few decades. The
primary regulator of telecommunications in Malaysia is the Malaysian Communications and
Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Regulatory reforms and market liberalization play a big part in creating competition and structural
reforms in industry. The major telecommunication companies in Malaysia are U-Mobile, Maxxis,
CellCom and Digi.
Customer has freedom to switch different mobile operation considering, Network Reliability, Costing
and overcall new offer or Advertisement.
This research is based on Primary data through the questionaries. The purpose of the study is to
investigate the factors effecting the brand switching behavior of the consumer. There are five
questions which will give the idea of Age of the respondents, their existing mobile operator and
previous telecom operator and the reason to switch the mobile operator. Switching behavior can
depend on so many criteria but basically, we have tried to find out the reason for focusing on reliable
network, lower cost, or advertisement.

We have set below questionaries for the data collection:

Questions for the survey questionnaire:
(1) What is your age-group? Answers: Under 30 / 30-45 years / 46 and above
(2) Which is your mobile operator? Answers: U-Mobile /Maxis/ CellCom/Digi
(3) Is it first telecom operator? Answers: Yes / 2nd or later
(4) Which one was your previous telecom operator? Answers: U-Mobile /Maxis/ CellCom/Digi
(5) Why did you switch to a different operator? Answers: Reliable Network /Lower cost/Advertisement.

2. Mothodology:

2.1 Approach
Current research is based on questioners where answers obtained through closed-ended questions
(also called restricted questions) with multiple choice answer options are analyzed using quantitative
methods. Research findings in this case can be illustrated using tabulations, pie-charts, bar-charts,
and percentages. We shall calculate the responses in percentage.

In this quantitative method all respondents are asked the same questions. It’s a way to collect the
primary data in a shorter period and minimum or no bias from the researcher during the data
collection process. Usually, enough time for respondents to think before answering questions, as
opposed to interviews.

2.2 Sample and Data Collection

The question is distributed openly in one of the City of Malaysia areas where all ages of people
come. Around 160 respondent’s fill-up these questions. The respondents answered questions with
red tick marks. We have ignored every response with a faulty answer: e.g., more than one tick in
response to the same question. We have also Ignore every response who said it is their first cellular
phone operator. That is, ignore if the respondent marks yes in response to Question: -3. Considering
this total respondent, we have counted 152 for the research.
The Survey question looks like below –
2.3 Data Analysis
Initially there were 160 respondents but depend on rules we have ignored every response with Faulty
answer and people who selected first mobile operator. So total respondent counted 152 after omitting
those. Data Table-1 shows the survey data %.

Data Table 1: Respondent % of questionaries

From above Table we can see the % of respondent at different ages. 38.82% respondents are 30-45
years followed by 35.53% are under 30. Ages 46 and above are least at 25.66%. Most of the
respondents are young or Middle Ages.
We can see CellCom is the most popular brand for Mobile Operator at 29.61% of Respondent
followed by Digi 28.29%. Whereas Maxis is least 23.03% followed by 19.8% of U-Mobile.

Table 2: Age distribution of Clients of 4 Operators

Choice of mobile operator is varied according to ages of Clients. From above Table we can see Digi is
most popular for young people under ages 30 where, around 42% of Young presently using Digi
followed by CellCom, Maxis and U-mobile respectively at a % of 26%,20% and 11%. Among
middle-aged people 30-45 Years mostly prefer CellCom followed by U-mobile and then Digi and
least preferable Maxis 17%. For age 45, the most popular is Maxxis, then CellCom, third preference is
Digi and most less preference with U-Mobile will 15.38.

Table 3: Causes distribution of switching to different Brand

Mobile
Operator
U-Mobile Switch Reliable Lower Advertisemen
To Network cost t
Maxis 6 4 2
CellCom 14 13 1
Digi 7 4 3

Mobile
Operator
Maxis Switch Reliable Lower Advertisemen
To Network cost t
U-Mobile 6 6
CellCom 12 7 2 3
Digi 11 10 1

Mobile
Operator
CellCom Switch Reliable Lower Advertisemen
To Network cost t
U-Mobile 14 3 11
Maxis 9 4 4 1
Digi 10 5 5
 Mobile
Operator
Digi Switch Reliable Lower Advertisemen
To Network cost t
U-Mobile 22 2 10 10
Maxis
CellCom 17 17

From above Table-3, we can see, most of the respondent, 14 respondents changed U-Mobile to
CellCom for Reliable Network followed by Digi ,7 person also for the Reliable Network and
Advertisement.

From Maxis to Digi & CellCom the shifting reason is mostly Reliable Network, 7 and 10 respondents.

From CellCom to U-Mobile the main switch reason was Advertisement as total 14 vs 11 respondent.
Also, customers change to Maxis and Digi for Reliable Network.

From Digi to U-Mobile the shifting reason is mostly low cost and Advertisement respondent with 10
and 10. , 17 respondent changes to CellCom due to lower price.

3. Conclusion:
The Research based on questionaries shows quantitative analysis of different factor that related to
changing behavior of client of Mobile Operator. Considering the age, young generation under 30
preference is Digi. For Mid age people preference is CellCom considering low cost and over Reliable
Network. For Age 46 and above like Maxis is the preference brand.