Research Thesis on

“Factors affecting Consumer Buying Behavior of Smartphone Users”

HELLO!

My name is Muiz & I am here to defend my thesis.

“Factors affecting Consumer Buying Behavior of Smartphone Users”

Supervisor: Sir Adil Adnan

Prepared By: Muiz Hassan (4760)

MBA 90 (Marketing)

Table of Contents:1: Introduction2: Problem Statement3: Research Questions4: Objectives5: Significance of the study6: Limitation7: Literature Review8: Methodology9: Results10: Conclusion

Lets start with a brief introduction of “Smartphone”.

∎ Smart Phone is a portable cellular device.∎ It has advanced operating, multitasking &

connectivity capabilities.∎ It is usually configured by an OS (operating system).∎ It is identified by a touch screen, internet access,

high megapixel camera & lots of other features.∎ People mostly use Smart Phone for internet

browsing, emailing, navigation, listening music, watching videos, social media, playing games & for other many purposes.

Introduction of Smart Phone

∎ Rapid growth in the demand of Smart phones has influenced the world.

∎ Nowadays consumer desires to have a smart phone.∎ Rapid innovation in Smart phone’s industry has brought such

craze.∎ Irrespective of high prices, still their demand is increasing.∎ Different factors arouse people to purchase a Smart phone.∎ Different kinds & variety of Smart phones are available in the

market (i.e. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony etc)

Introduction (Continued)

This research study is focused to find out why people purchase Smart phone & what are the major influencing factors that affect their behavior.

According to Phillips Kotler, Cultural, Social, Personal& Psychological factors are the major influencing factors that affects the consumer behavior.

Note: Only social & personal factors are considered in this research thesisFor more details, see limitations.

Problem Statement

∎ Do social/personal factors have any impact on consumer’s buying behavior?

Problem Statement

Research Questions

∎ Why do people purchase Smart phone? Is it their need or want?

∎ Why do they purchase expensive Smart phones? ∎ Do social & personal factors affect their buying of smart

phone?∎ What for they use their smart phone?∎ Does smart phone become essential for them in their

routine life? Having a smart phone makes their routine life easy?

Research Questions

Objectives∎ To examine whether people buy smart phone because of their need or want.∎ To identify whether social & personal factors have an impact on consumer

buying behavior∎ To examine why people buy expensive Smartphone as least expensive

Smartphone are also available in the market.∎ To analyze for what purpose people use their Smartphone.∎ To determine whether the Smartphone is essential for them in their daily life &

whether it has made their daily life easy.

Significance of the Study

Significance of the study

∎ The current study will be helpful for the marketers to identify

the factors that have an impact on consumers' buying behavior

of Smartphone buyers/users.

∎ It will helpful for them to formulate marketing strategy

regarding the Smartphone in future.

Limitations

Limitations

The consumers' buying behavior may be affected by cultural, social, personal and psychological factors. But due to limitation of time and resources, the research has done only on two of them i.e. social and personal factors.

Literature Review

∎ Consumer Behavior: According to Phillips Kotler “Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals & groups buy, use and dispose of goods & services in order to satisfy their needs & wants.”

∎ Consumer Decision Making Process: According to Phillips Kotler, a buyer has to pass through five stages in order to reach to the final decision (i.e. Need Recognition, Information Search, Evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision & post purchase decision).

∎ Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior: According to Armstrong & Phillips Kotler, The consumer behavior is affected by the four main factors namely: Cultural factors, Social Factors, Personal Factors & Psychological factors.

Literature Review

∎ Social Factors: The main social factors that may influence consumer buying are reference groups, family, roles and status. (Kotler & Armstrong 2007, Page 164)

∎ Personal Factors: The personal characteristics of the buyer, like age & life cycle stage, occupation, life style, economic circumstances & personality also affects the buying behavior of the consumer.

Literature Review Cont;

∎ Smart Phone: "People see their Smart phones as an extension of themselves, taking them with themselves everywhere they go, even the most unorthodox places ,from the shower to their commute, from the dinner table to the bedroom," Marc Barach, Jumio's chief marketing & strategy officer(Source: CNN.com. www.edition.cnn.com/2013/07/13/TECH/SMARTPHONE-USE-SURVEY/)"

∎ Uses of Smart Phone: Figure 3. Activity by average time per day (Source: www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/9365085/Smartphones-hardly-used-for-calls.html)

Literature Review Cont:

Methodology∎ To bring this research in conclusion, two focus group

interviews were conducted with 6 participants in each group.

∎ The Focus group is one of the qualitative research technique, in which a group of individuals are asked about their opinions, attitudes, perception & belief towards a product or services etc.

∎ Why Qualitative Research Technique: * Provides a rich & detailed output * Not limited to rigid definable variables * Much smaller sample

Methodology Contd∎ Participants Demographics:

Twelve participants took part in the focus group:•Four females & eight Males. (2 females & 4 males in each group)•All the participants were between the age group of 20-30.•All the participants were from Peshawar region.•Most of the participants were single with full/part time jobs.•Few are married with having families of their own.•All of the participants have smart phones.

Methodology Contd∎ Focus Group Discussion Questions:

1. Do you buy Smart phone because of your need or your want? 2. Do you have an expensive Smart phone? If "yes" why you decide to buy an expensive Smartphone? 3. Do your social traits or characteristics (such as Reference groups, family, roles & status) affect or influence you while purchasing your Smartphone? Which and how? 4. Do your personal traits or characteristics (such as: age & lifecycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, life-style and personality & self-concept) affect or influence your decision during purchase of Smartphone? Which & how? 5. What are the major things that you usually do with your Smart phone? For example. phone calls, internets browsing, gaming, news, online shopping, travel planner, weather forecast, social Medias, emails etc. 6.How much essential do you think about the Smart phone in your routine life? Is having a Smart phone makes your routine life easy?

Note: The questions for the focus group were set up by the researcher (me) prior to the interview & were tested with 5 people voluntarily to check its reliability.

RESULTS

∎ Q1) Do you buy Smart phone because of your need or your want?

∎ In short, all the participants of the focus group agreed on a point that Smartphone becomes their need.

∎ Further one male participant from focus group 2 said, “ It could be said as I buy it because of my want but from another point of view, it has made things easier for me in my routine activities. So, I will prefer to say it as it is my need.”

Results

∎ Q2) Do you have an expensive Smart phone? If "yes" why you decide to buy an expensive Smartphone?

∎ The reply to this question was a big “yes”.∎ Majority of them have ‘Samsung Galaxy S4 & S5’, few have

‘iPhone 5 & 5s, ‘Microsoft Lumia 920’ and ‘Sony Xperia Z.

Few replies were:∎ “I bought expensive because it contains best hardware and has

latest features which are very useful in everyday use.”∎ “Cheap Smartphone’s are not so durable & reliable, so that why I

have decided to buy the expensive one.”

Results Contd

∎ Q3) Do your social traits or characteristics (such as Reference groups, family, roles & status) affect or influence you while purchasing your Smartphone? Which and how?

∎ It seemed that the social factors do not affect “males” in their purchasing of smart phone.

∎ Most of males agreed on that they made independent decision while buying their smart phones.

∎ But the response of the females was totally opposite to the males.

∎ It seemed that social factors do affect “females” in their decision making.

∎ Out of 4 females, three were agreed on that their purchasing decision are influence by their friends.

Results Contd

∎ Q4) Do your personal characteristics (such as: age & lifecycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, life-style and personality & self-concept) affect or influence your decision during purchase of Smartphone? Which & how?

∎ It seemed that the participants were influenced by one or more personal characteristics while buying smart phones.

∎ Overall, most of the participants were largely influenced by different personal characteristics like, age, life cycle stage, economic circumstances, personality, occupation & life style.

Results Contd

Question 4 (continued)

The participants’ main views & thoughts were:“I am young, so that is why I am automatically attracted towards attractive and fascinating things & smart phone is the attraction of modern age.” (Age and life-cycle stage)

“For me, the economic issues comes in between when I think about buying a Smartphone.” (Economic circumstance)

'' Well Yes, I am affected mostly by economic circumstances. As I bought this Smartphone because it was on a discount and the price was good for it. Also my personality influenced me as I like to try new things.” (Personality & Economic circumstances)

“ I am a lover of technology , that's why I wanted to purchase iPhone to try its features as it is more user friendly.” ( Self-concept & Personality)

“ Lifestyle has affected me as I have a busy life so it is become easy for me to manage my daily tasks due to smart phones.” (Life style)

∎ Q5) What are the major things that you usually do with your Smart phone? For example. phone calls, internets browsing, gaming, news, online shopping, travel planner, weather forecast, social Medias, emails etc..Which & how?

∎ The participants of the focus group mentioned that they use their Smartphone for various stuff or purposes.

∎ According to most of the participants, they use their Smartphone for text messaging, phone calling, taking pictures, social networking like twitter, facebook, whatsapp, skype, viber etc, internet browsing, online shopping, emails, documents reading, weather forecast, navigation, listening songs, playing videos, playing games & many other useful applications.

Results Contd

∎ Q6)How much essential do you think about the Smart phone in your routine life? Is having a Smart phone makes your routine life easy?

∎ Almost every participant of the focus groups mentioned that Smartphone is very essential for routine life & concluded that Smartphone has made their life easy.

One response was∎ "A Smartphone can replace a watch, camera, torch light,

calculator, analog items like note book, phone book & even computers on various fields. I can use my Smartphone whenever I need & for entertainment purposes whenever I get bored. So, yes I think that Smartphone is essential for daily life & it makes life easy."

Results Contd

Conclusion

Conclusion∎ Smartphone becomes the need of every individual.∎ People like to buy expensive Smart phones because

they are durable, reliable, have better hardware & have updated version of OS (operating system).

∎ Social factors do not have much influence on males but are influencing factors for females.

∎ Personal factors do have influence on consumers’ decision during purchase of Smart phones.

∎ People use their Smart phones for many purposes like; internet browsing, socializing, taking pictures, emails, weather forecasting etc.

∎ Smartphone has made the life of people much easier.

THANKS!

Any questions?