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JIARM VOLUME 1 ISSUE 5 (JUNE 2013) ISSN : 2320 – 5083

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MINDSET OF CLIENTELE TOWARDS THE PRACTICE OF CELLULAR PHONES

DR. (MRS.) S. BANUMATHY*

DR. (MRS.) M. SUBASINI**

*Head & Associate Professor, Dept. of Commerce, V.V.Vanniaperumal College For Women, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India

**Assistant Professor, Dept. of Business Administration, V.V.Vanniaperumal College For Women, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT

The success of any business not only depends upon the effective

administration of the management and hard work and sincerity of the employees. It

depends upon the clientele. Clientele is a pivot around which the whole business

activity revolves in many ways. Thus, the clientele assumes greatest significance in

any developing or developed country as economic activities centers around him. In

the modern world, communication connects the people wherever they are. It is

possible only due to innovation of latest communication tools. In an ancient period,

people passed the messages by sending the ambassadors and using some birds. After

that period, letters and telegram were considered as an effective communication

devices. Now a day, cellular phones play a dominant role in the communication field.

The present study is confined to three service providers viz., BSNL, Airtel and Aircel.

Even though there are many services providers in the cellular industry, these three

services are considered as the giants according to their performance and volume of

business. Hence, the study focus on the above said service providers.

INTRODUCTION

The success of any business not only depends upon the effective

administration of the management and hard work and sincerity of the employees. It

depends upon the clientele. Clientele is a pivot around which the whole business

activity revolves in many ways. Thus, the clientele assumes greatest significance in

any developing or developed country as economic activities centers around him.

Understanding the behaviour of the clientele in the target market is the essential task

of marketing managers. The clientele market consists of all the households and

individuals who buy goods and services for their personal use. Clientele may differ in


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income, education level, taste and age. So, it is necessary for the marketers to divide clientele into various groups and develop products or services designed to suit their needs.

Statement of the problem

In the modern world, communication connects the people wherever they are. It

is possible only due to innovation of latest communication tools. In an ancient period,

people passed the messages by sending the ambassadors and using some birds. After

that period, letters and telegram were considered as an effective communication

devices. Now a day, cellular phones play a dominant role in the communication field.

The cellular phone companies provide variety of facilities in a cell phone. The service

providers also offer fruitful schemes to attract the consumers. The clientele can carry

a mobile phone easily with them. They can listen to music, text and play games. The

cellular phones have a facility of calculator and a phone book. The clientele can surf

Internet and connect with the whole world by cellular phone. Hence, an attempt has

been made to study the mindset of the clientele towards the practice of cellular phone.

Scope of the study

The present study is confined to three service providers viz., BSNL, Airtel and

Aircel. Even though there are many services providers in the cellular industry, these

three services are considered as the giants according to their performance and volume

of business. Hence, the study focus on the above said service providers.

Review of literature

Banumathy and Kalaivani (2004) stated in their study “Attitude of customers

towards Cell phones” that more awareness have to be given to the customers by

service providers while introducing new technologies. Celebrity advertisements

influence the customers to a large extent. The service providers have to introduce the

cellular phones which are economical to the low income group people.

Chitra Vanitha (2009) concluded in the study “Consumer Behaviour towards

Mobile phones” that the cellular phone companies should study the behaviour of the

consumers while marketing their products. When they estimate the preferences of the

customers in a right manner, they can stand in the market. Otherwise they wash out

form the market.

Divya (2010) pointed out in the study “Strategies of Cellular Phones

Companies” that the cellular phone companies should concentrate on the activities of


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the competitors. Effective strategies should be implemented to face the competitions.

When they monitor the activities of the competitors and redesign their strategies, they

should have a bright and prosperous future.

Arun Kumar (2011) suggested in the study “Marketing Practices of Cellular

phone Companies” that advertising campaigns may be improved in order to cover the

new customers and to retain the existing customers. As advertisement influences the purchase behaviour of the consumers, exaggerations in advertisements should be avoided.

Objectives of the study

The important objectives of the study are as follows:

To Study the origin and development Cellular phone companies.

To analyse the mindset of the clientele towards the practice of cellular phones.

To offer suggestions on the basis of findings of the study.

Research Methodology

The present study is based on both primary and secondary data. The primary

data has been gathered from 900 cellular phone users through well structured

questionnaire by adopting convenience sampling technique. The secondary data has

been collected from books, journals, magazines, websites and encyclopaedias. The

primary data has been analysed by using mean, standard deviation, percentage

analysis, Likert’s five point scaling technique and Kruskal Wallis test.

Analytical framework

Likerts’ five point scaling technique has been adopted to obtain the responses

from the respondents regarding cellular phones. Mean and standard deviation are

found out to measure the level of satisfaction. Kruskal Wallis test has been employed

to compare the performance of service providers.

In order to measure the level of satisfaction of the respondents towards

usage pattern of cellular phones, ten statements have been framed. These statements

are related to broadband, price, coverage, validity and dimensions of service.

The level of satisfaction of the respondents towards the practice of cellular

phones has been classified into three categories viz., low level, medium level and

high level, for analytical purpose. Likert’s five point scaling technique is used to

determine the level of satisfaction. If the score values are greater than X + S.D., it

has been taken as high level satisfaction towards the usage pattern of cellular

phones. If the score values are less than X - S.D., it has been taken as low level


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satisfaction towards the usage pattern of cellular phones. The difference between

X + S.D. and X - S.D., has been classified as medium level satisfaction towards the

usage pattern of cellular phones.

Here, X = Arithmetic mean and

S.D. = Standard deviation

The level of satisfaction has been derived from the mean score values of the

900 respondents. The calculated values of X and S.D. are 420.44 and 65.18

respectively.

Therefore,

X + S.D. = 420.44+65.18 = 486 and above – High level

X - S.D. = 420.44-65.18 = 355 and below – Low level

( X + S.D.) to ( X - S.D.) = 355 to 486 – Medium level

The formula used for Kruskal Wallis test is:

12/n (n+1) (∑Ri2/nj) – 3 (n+1)

BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED (BSNL)

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is an Indian State-owned

telecommunications company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is the largest

provider of fixed telephony and fourth largest mobile telephony provider in India and

is also a provider of broadband services. BSNL is India's oldest and largest

communication service provider (CSP). It had a customer base of 102 million as of

December 2012. It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities

of Mumbai and New Delhi which are managed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam

(MTNL). The motto of BSNL is "Connecting India, faster"

Services

BSNL provides almost every telecom service in India. Following are the main

telecom services provided by BSNL:

Universal Telecom Services: Fixed wireline services and landline in local loop

(WLL) using CDMA Technology called bfone and Tarang respectively.

Cellular Mobile Telephone Services: BSNL is major provider of Cellular

Mobile Telephone services using GSM platform under the brand name

Cellone & Excel (BSNL Mobile).


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WLL-CDMA Telephone Services: BSNL's WLL (Wireless in Local Loop)

service is a service giving both fixed line telephony & Mobile telephony.

Internet: BSNL provides Internet access services through dial-up connection

as Prepaid, NetOne as Postpaid and ADSL broadband as BSNL Broadband.

Intelligent Network (IN): BSNL offers value-added services, such as Free

Phone Service (FPH), India Telephone Card (Prepaid card), Account Card

Calling (ACC), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Tele-voting, Premium Rae

Service (PRM), Universal Access Number (UAN).

3G:BSNL offers the '3G' or the'3rd Generation' services which includes

facilities like video calling, mobile broadband, live TV, 3G Video portal,

streaming services like online full length movies and video on demand etc.

IPTV: BSNL also offers the 'Internet Protocol Television' facility which

enables watch television through internet.

FTTH: Fibre To The Home facility that offers a higher bandwidth for data

transfer.

Helpdesk: BSNL's Helpdesk (Helpdesk) provide help desk support to their

customers for their services.

VVoIP: BSNL, along with Sai Infosystem - an Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs) provider - has launched Voice and

Video Over Internet Protocol (VVoIP). This will allow to make audio as well

as video calls to any landline, mobile, or IP phone anywhere in the world,

provided that the requisite video phone equipment is available at both ends.

WiMax: BSNL has introduced India's first 4th Generation High-Speed

Wireless Broadband Access Technology with the minimum speed of

256kbit/s. The focus of this service is mainly rural customer where the wired

broadband facility is not available.

Recognitions

The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory ranked BSNL

in the 65th position of the list of Most Trusted brands.

Competitors

BSNL competes with 14 other mobile operators throughout India. They are

Aircel, Airtel, Idea, Loop Mobile, MTNL, MTS, Reliance Communications, Tata

DoCoMo, Uninor, Videocon, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.


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AIRCEL

Aircel group is an Indian mobile network operator headquartered in Chennai,

that provides wireless voice, messaging and data services in India. It is a joint venture

between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities &

Investments Private Limited., Aircel commenced its operations in 1999 and today is

the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu, Assam, North-East India and Chennai. It

is India’s fifth largest GSM mobile service provider and seventh largest mobile

service provider (both GSM and CDMA). It has a market share of 7.33% among

wireless operators (includes GSM, CDMA, and FWP operators) in the country. Aircel

has also obtained permission from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to

provide international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) telephony

services. It also has the largest service in Tamil Nadu.

Timeline of Aircel

Aircel started as a regional player in Tamil Nadu in 1999. Soon, it became the

leading operator in Tamil Nadu. At one time, Aircel was the fastest growing operator

in India. In 2010, the company bough 3G and wireless broadband (BWA) spectrum in

13 and 8 circles respectively in the 2010 spectrum auction It paid US$ 1.44 billion (

79.1 billion) for the 3G spectrum and US$ 0.76 billion ( 49.76 billion) for BWA. Of

this, the company raised $0.88 billion ( 48.3 billion) from Deutsche Bank, Standard

Chartered Bank, HSBC and Barclays. It also took a $0.44 billion ( 24.2 billion) one-

year bridge loan from HSBC, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank. The company, as

of November 2012, has around 1 million 3G customers. It is yet to launch its LTE

network, although it is conducting trials at its center in Hyderabad. Aircel expects to

launch it in the first quarter of 2013.

AIRTEL

Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian multinational

telecommunications Services Company headquartered at New Delhi, India. It operates

in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. Airtel has GSM

network in all countries in which it operates, providing 2G, 3G and 4G services

depending upon the country of operation. Airtel is the world's third largest mobile

telecommunications company with over 261 million subscribers across 20 countries

as of August 2012. It is the largest cellular service provider in India, with 183.61


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million subscribers as of November 2012. Airtel is the third largest in-country mobile

operator by subscriber base, behind China Mobile and China Unicom.

Airtel is the largest provider of mobile telephony and second largest provider

of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription

television services. It offers its telecom services under the airtel brand, and is headed

by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Bharti Airtel is the first Indian telecom service provider to

achieve Cisco Gold Certification. It also acts as a carrier for national and international

long distance communication services. The company has a submarine cable landing

station at Chennai, which connects the submarine cable connecting Chennai and

Singapore.

Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its

business operations except marketing, sales and finance and building the 'minutes

factory' model of low cost and high volumes. The strategy has since been copied by

several operators. Its network—base stations, microwave links, etc.is maintained by

Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network whereas business support is provided by IBM,

and transmission towers are maintained by another company (Bharti Infratel Ltd. in

India).

Ericsson agreed for the first time to be paid by the minute for installation and

maintenance of their equipment rather than being paid up front, which allowed Airtel

to provide low call rates of 1/minute (US$0.02/minute). On 31 May 2012, Bharti

Airtel awarded the three-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for setting up an Internet

Protocol access network (mobile backhaul) across the country. This would help

consumers to access internet at faster speed and high quality internet browsing on

mobile handsets.

Results and discussions

Level of satisfaction towards the usage of cellular phones

For analytical purpose, the level of satisfaction of the respondents towards the

usage of cellular phones has been classified into high, medium and low. Table 1

exhibits the level of satisfaction towards the usage of cellular phones.


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Table 1 Level of satisfaction towards the usage of cellular phones Level No. of respondents Percentage

High 501 55.67

Medium 195 21.67

Low 204 22.66

Total 900 100

Source: Primary data

Out of 900 respondents, 501 (55.67%) have high level satisfaction, 204

(22.66%) have low level satisfaction and 195 (21.67%) have medium level

satisfaction towards the usage of cellular phones.

Socio economic profile of the respondents

Socio economic profile influences the standard of living of the human beings. In this study, five socio economic variables sex, age, education, occupation and monthly income are taken into account. Table 2 depicts the socio economic profile of the respondents.

Table 2 Socio economic profile of the respondents Socio economic profile No. of respondents Percentage

Sex Male 523 58.11

Female 377 41.89

Age (in years) Below 20 124 13.78

20-30 266 29.56

30-40 209 23.22

40-50 135 15.00

Above 50 166 18.44

Education School level 178 19.78

College level 518 57.56

Others 204 22.66

Occupation Students 101 11.22

House wives 174 19.33

Business men 233 25.89

Employees 182 20.22

Farmers 88 9.78

Others 122 13.56

Monthly income (in Rs.) Below 7,000 249 27.67

7000-14,000 398 44.22

Above 14,000 253 28.11



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Out of 900 respondents 523 (58.11%) are male, 266 (29.56%) belong to the age group

of 20-30 years, 518 (57.56%) completed their education upto college level, 233

(25.89%) are business men and 398 (44.22%) have earned a monthly income of

Rs.7,000 – Rs.14,000.

Mindset of clientele towards the practice of cellular phones

The businessmen manufacture the products in order to meet the aspirations of

the clientele. Hence, it is a need of an hour to study the mindset of the clientele

towards the practice of cellular phones.

Table 3 Mindset of clientele towards the practice of Mobile phones Aircel Airtel BSNL

SA A N

O

DA SD

A

SA A NO DA SDA SA A NO DA SDA

New broad

band

packages

72 58 36 70 64 107 89 64 12 28 166 18 61 11 44

Attractive

rates

41 103 67 51 38 98 30 58 56 58 155 47 23 51 24

Wide

coverage

55 69 49 76 51 56 28 103 45 68 68 75 49 30 78

Quick

service

54 64 62 65 55 49 122 23 32 74 23 87 70 56 64

Customer

centric

service

82 28 47 59 84 68 73 69 41 49 12 119 66 53 50

Reliability

of service

69 96 18 62 55 52 56 72 81 39 16 148 49 41 46

Value

added

services

33 86 79 81 21 51 133 51 53 12 79 68 65 30 58

Attractive

publicity

45 59 70 82 44 105 36 24 14 121 26 60 62 55 95

High

validity

145 46 59 12 38 69 106 45 21 59 43 51 47 57 102

Standard

charges

137 52 63 34 14 78 119 14 24 65 12 58 126 63 41

Source: primary data


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Table 4 Mindset of clientele towards the practice of Mobile phones – Kruskal Wallis Test Results

Aircel Airtel BSNL

Score Rank Score Rank Score Rank

New broad band packages 904 18 1135 5 1151 3

Attractive rates 958 12 954 13 1158 2

Wide coverage 901 19.5 859 26 925 17

Quick service 897 21 940 15 849 27

Customer centric service 865 25 970 10 890 22.5

Reliability of service 962 11 901 19.5 947 14

Value added services 929 16 1058 6 980 9

Attractive publicity 879 24 890 22.5 761 30

High validity 1148 4 1005 8 776 29

Standard charges 1164 1 1021 7 837 28

151.5 132 181.5


12/n (n+1) (∑Ri2/nj) – 3 (n+1)

=12/30 (30+1) [(151.5*151.5)/10+(132*132)/10)+(181.5*181.5)/10] - 3 (30+1)

=0.012 (2295.225+1742.4+3294.225) – 93

= 0.012 (7331.85) – 93

= 87.9822 – 93=5.0178

The calculated value of Kruskal Walis test = 5.0178

Degrees of freedom =3-1 =2

Table value = 5.991

As the calculated value (5.0178) is less than the table value (5.991), the null

hypothesis is accepted. Hence, there is no significant difference among the service

providers regarding their services.

Suggestions

Some suggestions are offered to improve the services of cellular phone companies.

1. BSNL has to improve the advertising pattern to spread the propaganda of cellular phone schemes.

2. It has to increase the validity period to cover more clientele. 3. It has to stabilize the standard charges. 4. Airtel has to improve its wide coverage. For that it has a tie up with forest

departments. 5. It has to take efforts to provide quick services when compared to the competitors.


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6. Aircel has to meet the expectations of the clientele by providing customer centric services.

CONCLUSION

In the modern world, communication occupies a dominant position. No one

can perform their normal work without getting information from others. The nature of

communication has undergone a substantial change in the past 20 years and the

change is not over. Globalization brings mushroom growth of Cellular phone

companies in our country. Some companies stand in the market by their tireless

efforts, effective marketing strategy and sincere performance. Some companies drop

out from the market within a short duration. Some other drop out companies reenters

into the market by joining hands to successful companies. No one can neglect the fact

that in the Cellular phone market, the companies achieve success only from the

support and cooperation of the customers

REFERENCES

1. Beckmen, “Principles of marketing Management”, Arabia: Judon Publishers, 2001, p.340.

2. Clark, R.D., and Clark, F.E., “Principles of Marketing”, Mumbai : Himalaya Publications, p.14

3. Devinder Singh, “Marketing practices” I Edition, Chennai: Kalyani Publishers, 2005.

4. James, E. and Blackwell, D., “Consumer Behaviour”, New York: Halt Sounders International Edition, 1982.

5. Levitt, “Marketing Principles and Practices”, New York: Kofta Publications, 2000.

6. Peter F. Drucker, “The Practice of Management”, Tokyo: H.J. Publications, pp.37-38.

7. Philip Kottler, “Marketing Management”, Delhi: Riyas Publications, 1998.

8. Banumathy, S, and Kalaivani, P., (2004), “Attitude of customers towards Cell phones”, M.Phil. Dissertation, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, April 2004.

9. Manickam, P, “A study on Consumer Behaviour towards Home Appliances” Readers Shelf, Vol. VI, No. 4, Dec. 2009, pp. 7-10.

10. Ramana, A.V., and Viswanath, P., “Consumer Behaviour and awareness with special reference to edible oil users”, Indian Journal of Marketing, Vol. XXXV, p.35, Mar. 2005.

11. Rani, M, “Consumer Behaviour towards Toothpaste”, Indian Journal of Marketing Vol. II, No. 6, Sep. 2005, pp. 14-17.

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