Category: Consumer Behavior

Social Media Advertising Influence And Impact On Young Consumer’s Behavior

Abstract

Social media is growing in size continuously from its introduction, as well as the number of people using it increases – there has been an increase of 9% since last year. Several impacts on consumer behavior are thought to arise from social media advertising, for example, Duffett (2017) argues for increased attitudinal responses from frequent exposure to social media marketing communications, meanwhile Ioanăs & Stoica (2014) write about added influence on other buyers and an easy impact on attitude emerging from just a small amount of negative information. Both papers (Duffett, 2017; Ioanăs & Stoica 2014) agree that the biggest impact is done on younger consumers, thus this paper will aim to examine and evaluate the scale and reality of the impact on young consumer behavior from social media advertising. The intention of the two following literature’s review is to show a decisive outlook on social media advertising largely in relation to the aforementioned effects.

Keywords: Social media; advertising; attitude; consumers

In Duffett’s (2017) research paper, the key goal to was to access the impact of social media communications on teenager’s (later specified as generation Z) cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude components. The approach of the study was to supply self-administered questionnaires at various colleges and high schools, throughout a sample size of over 13,000 young minds, ranging from 13 years old to 18. This assumption of importance of adolescents for social media advertising is also seen in the results from Ioanăs & Stoica (2014) paper – after analyzing the collected data, the conclusion that was ultimately found was that most of consumers who buy online are indeed young. There are many variables that can affect the attitudes of consumers, therefore some things may vary, but in general, as mentioned in Duffett’s article, attitudes toward advertising is a frequently postulated theory that states positive attitudes toward advertising results in analogous attitudes toward the brands, which in turn have a favorable influence on purchase intention (MacKenzie et al., 1986; Bruner and Kumar, 2000). In this case, we can hypothesize that the behavioral impact of social media advertising will act in accordance to the purchase funnel model, consequently impacting the younger participants more than the older ones.

Literature review

To further drive the hypothesis, as quoted in Duffett’s (2017) article, it is apparent that more experienced teenagers had become accustomed to social media marketing communications because their higher attitude components were not as readily positively affected as those with less familiarity who were, therefore, found to be more susceptible in this study (Cox, 2010). Relating to these findings, it is fair to say that the impact on consumers behavior is likely to diminish over time compared with experience, therefore, in this age, where most people already have internet access, the younger consumers are the most relevant audience for social network advertising (SNA). This view is further strengthened in the study. Those young consumers who had used social media for 1 year or less exhibited the greatest positive behavioral attitudes toward SNA (Duffett, 2017).

Knowing that social media is growing disruptively, a few questions arise – what is the frequency of usage of social media and how does that impact the behavior of consumers in relation to advertising? According to Ioanăs & Stoica (2014) paper, majority of the respondents access social networks very often (53%) or often (29%). This shows that the abundant majority of social media users use it frequently, thus giving way to potentially large influences from social media advertising. Based on Duffett’s (2017) research, the teenagers who use social media more frequently than compared to others displayed the most favorable attitudinal responses to social media advertising. The most logical way to interpret these findings is to state that the most impacted by social media advertising group of consumers are young teenagers, who frequently and actively use social media.

Social media has a lot of direct and indirect interaction between consumers, so it likely is fair to assume that there must be an apparent influence on other consumers taking part. As quoted in Ioanăs & Stoica (2014) paper, Social media provides a new channel to acquire product information through peer communication (Kozinets, 1999). In this paper it is stated that one way consumers may change the purchasing behavior of others are through reviews of products or services used. According to Ioanăs & Stoica, a study of Deloitte Touche USA revealed that 62% of US consumers read consumer generated online reviews and 98% of them find these reviews reliable enough; 80% of these consumers said that reading these reviews has affected their buying intentions (Industry statistics). Referencing that data, we can see that impact could sway consumer behavior rather significantly, thus negative reviews may create a big impact on whether the consumer decides to buy an item or not. As mentioned in the article, previous research has indicated that even a small amount of negative information from a few postings can have substantial impacts on consumer attitudes (Schlosser, 2005).

Discussion

The authors of both papers (Ioanăs & Stoica, 2014; Duffett, 2017) came to similar conclusions, even though Duffett’s study was conducted only on generation Z participants whereas Ioanăs & Stoica research took a view at all age varieties. This could be because the conclusions are universally true or the limitations of the studies limited both to similar conclusions.

Limitations of the studies

Some of further limitations may have impacted the results of the studies. Both studies did not have a significant enough sample of participants from rural areas. Apart from focusing solely on generation Z, Duffett’s research did not consider the number of social media types and bunched them in together. In Ioanăs & Stoica paper, a limitation could also be the underrepresentation of men, since women accounted for 3 times more numerous responses compared to men.

Conclusions

The impact of social media advertising has clearly been demonstrated throughout the summary of previous research papers, presenting a decisive show of large impact for younger adolescent consumers, especially for those who use social media actively. In combination of both research papers, it is not wrong to suggest that the behavioral impact of social media advertising will act in accordance to the purchase funnel model, as particularly pointed out in his findings by Duffet (2017).

References

1. Elisabeta Ioanăs, Ivona Stoica, (2014). Social Media and its Impact on Consumers Behavior. International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2014, Special issue on Marketing and Business Development, e-ISSN 2247–7225, 295-303.
2. Duffett, Rodney Graeme (2017). Influence of social media marketing communications on young consumers’ attitudes. Young Consumers, Vol. 18 Issue: 1, 19-39

Influence of Shock Advertisement on Consumer Buying Behavior in India

Introduction

When an individual starts a business or is running a business, it becomes necessary for him to let people know about it. Promoting is essential to let others know about the business. Either offline or online, any sort of business needs customers to enjoy a healthy business turnaround. However, advertisement is the only way to reach customers. That’s why for a company, advertisement is essential. A business will be able to operate in a competitive setting, only if it advertises its products or services.

But why Shock Advertisement? One of the biggest challenges for brands is to gain public interest. Shock advertisement, using controversies and shocking images, continues to be a promotional tool currently used. ‘You can say the right things about your product and nobody’s going to listen. You have got to say it in a manner, you feel in your gut.’

We live in a world of images, and we are exposed to thousands every day. The majority of it comes from advertisements, and it would be logical to say that most of them go unnoticed. But the ones, which stay, are the shocking ones. These shocking images intended to influence customers by creating controversies and thus make a campaign.

Is Shock Advertisements a current trend?

No, this form of advertisement peaked back in the ’80s and ’90s, thanks to the United Colors of Benetton brand for producing the first advertising campaigns that talked publicly about problems such as STD prevention, racism, and Gulf War. These advertisements put forward the cruel aspects of reality, rather than representing an idealized way. And later were followed by many organizations to portray common social issues. Initially, such disturbing images were deterred by the common public and many complaints were filed. But the primary objective of such advertisements was fulfilled i.e. attract attention. This paid way for other businesses to advertise their brand more effectively.

Elements of Shocking Advertisements

Shock advertisements by definition is an advertisement type that deliberately violates the general personal ideas or social norms to attract attention and influence its viewers to re-think about it. Content in these ads ranges from disgusting images to religious taboos which are discussed below.

• Disgusting Images – Images which gives a strong feeling of dislike and gives a strong feeling of unpleasantness. References to death and decay, blood, disease.
• Sexual References – Promoting or portraying nudity or partial nudity.
• Profanity – Commonly known as curse words or swearing or irrelevant behavior.
• Vulgarity – The state of being vulgar concerning disrespectful acts by humans such as farting, liking.
• Impropriety – Improper character or behavior which violates social convention such as inappropriate dress or manner.
• Moral Offensiveness – In general, offending others in a way that provokes violence such as victim exploitation or putting children in a very provocative situation.
• Religious Taboos – Inappropriate use of religious symbols or rituals to provoke a particular religious group such as advertising Beef burger in India.

According to Dahl, Frankenberger, and Manchanda (2003), the below 7 components of Shocking Advertisements form a base for various researches and helps to analyze positive or negative customer views on shock ads.

Theoretical Approach

The concept of Shock Advertisement ranges from the primary objective of attracting an audience to the hidden agenda of creating awareness in society. Various researches have been conducted in the past to explore the effectiveness of Shock advertisement in social media and its effects on consumer buying behaviors.

Consumer buying behavior can be divided into positive and negative, based on their perspective on Shock Advertisements. According to Waller (2006), positive consumer behavior would encourage consumers to purchase the advertised brand and spread positive information about the brand. Whereas, negative consumer behavior would result in consumer’s resistance and negative publicity of the advertised brand. To understand the reasons for consumer buying behavior, according to Virvilaitė and Matulevičienė (2013), it becomes essential to evaluate various sociodemographic variables like age, gender, religiosity, and moral principles.

Influence on Age

Age plays a very crucial role in shaping consumer purchasing behavior and hence it becomes necessary to evaluate the influence of Shock advertisements on various age groups. According to Liu, Cheng, and Li (2009), younger consumer’s view on Shock Advertisement is more positive than older consumers. This was further confirmed by Prendergast and Hwa (2003), that younger consumer’s positive view on Shocking Advertisements will not impact their buying behavior of the advertised brand, whereas buying behavior of older consumers tend to switch to other brands and avoid any kind of association with the advertised brand. According to a survey by Worldometers, the median age in India is 27 years, which would motivate a marketer to focus these ads for younger consumers in India.

Influence on Gender

Shocking Advertisements have different influence on genders. Research conducted by Swani, Weinberger and Gulas (2013), points violation of social norms as a key factor behind the difference from a gender perspective. Female consumers view violent advertisements as a violation of social norms and hence develop a negative attitude towards the advertised brand. Whereas in the case of male consumers, their positive attitude towards Shock Advertisements is related to the perception of humor in humorous advertisements and greater violence. The difference in gender attitudes towards Shock Advertisement can be related to their biological differences as the majority of females being perceived as soft and emotional, whereas males being derived from such feelings generally. Marketers advertising such ads should focus their target audience before advertising their brand. Apart from biological difference for differences in gender perception about Shock Ads, according to Mahajan, Poddar, and J (2015) ads that depict gender-stereotypical also plays a great role in shaping consumer behavior and positive/negative view. Hence the choice of appeals and gender becomes very crucial in placing advertisements before customers.

Influence on Religiosity

Various studies have suggested that Religiosity plays a very vital role in shaping consumer behavior. Sabri (2012) investigated that more religious consumers tend not to acknowledge Shocking Advertisements and also advertised brand. This scenario is more profound in Muslim countries. Sabri’s (2012) research reveals that consumers in Morocco have feelings such as guilt, shame, and confusion when they view Shocking Advertisements. Such kinds of ads are viewed as a violation of their religious principals and associating with such advertised brands would be very inappropriate contrary to countries like France, where people are less religious and liberal. Sabri (2012) emphasizes that more religious people would develop a negative attitude towards Shock Advertisements, which would reflect in a negative impact on consumer buying behavior towards the advertised brand and vice versa. Such emotions can be related to personal, interpersonal and situational factors that are different in different countries. Thus, it brings in a challenge for brands to advertise their products keeping in mind the religiosity of a particular country. In a country like India, which comprises of multiple religions, brands should be even more clear with their prospective audience before advertising.

Influence on Moral Principals

Moral Principals play a key role in shaping consumers’ perception of Shock Advertisements. Individual morals are closely related to the morality levels in their country or culture. Sabri (2012) revealed that if the morality level in a particular country or culture is high, consumers will have a negative opinion of Shocking ads, which will have an adverse effect on their purchasing behavior. Not just the religiosity, but morals also impact the consumer’s positive or negative opinion of shocking ads, which constantly affects consumer buying behavior.

Need for the Study

With the rise of competition in the marketing world, business confronts difficulties from internal and external environment and to maximize their profits and create a brand name, use a variety of marketing strategies and gimmicks to attract existing and potential customers. To gain a competitive advantage, marketers need to focus their attention on product awareness. Product awareness is mostly dependent on the advertisement, be it emotional, humor or sexual.

This research tends to determine the effectiveness of Shocking Ads on purchasing behavior and which elements play a vital role in decision making and which elements play a lesser role. This will help market researchers, Companies, etc. to understand this relation, which in turn can help them focus and improve their brand by concentrating on the content of Shock Ads in the best possible way.

References

1. Dahl, D. W., Frankenberger, K. D., & Manchanda, R. V. (2003). Does it pay to shock? Reactions to shocking and nonshocking advertising content among university students. Journal of Advertising Research, 43(3), 268–280.
2. Waller, D. S. (2006). A Proposed Response Model for Controversial Advertising. Journal of Promotion Management, 11(2–3), 3–15.
3. Virvilaitė, R., & Matulevičienė, M. (2013). THE IMPACT OF SHOCKING ADVERTISING TO CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR. ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT, 18(1).
4. Prendergast, G., & Hwa, H. C. (2003). An Asian perspective of offensive advertising on the web. International Journal of Advertising, 22(3), 393–411.
5. Liu F., Cheng H., Li J. (2009). Consumer responses to sex appeal advertising: a cross-cultural study, International Marketing Review, Vol. 26, No. 4-5, pp. 501-520
6. Mahajan, R., Poddar, A., & J, R. (2015). Effects of Sexual Advertising on Customer Buying Decisions. IOSR Journal of Business and ManagementVer. III, 17(7), 2319–7668.
7. Sabri, O. (2012). Preliminary investigation of the communication effects of “taboo” themes in advertising. European Journal of Marketing, 46(1), 215–236.
8. Sabri, O., & Obermiller, C. (2012). Consumer perception of taboo in ads. Journal of Business Research, 65(6), 869–873.
9. Swani, K., Weinberger, M. G., & Gulas, C. S. (2013). The impact of violent humor on advertising success: A gender perspective. Journal of Advertising, 42(4), 308–319.
10. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/india-population/

The Relation between Consumer Behavior and Social Marketing

Introduction

Adaptive software development is a design principle for the creation of software systems. The principle focuses on the rapid creation and evolution of software systems. The adaptive development method grew out of the rapid application development method. Adaptive Software Development replaces the traditional waterfall cycle with a repeating series of speculating, collaborate, and learn cycles. ASD is made of three steps (speculate, collaborate, and learn). So, here those steps described briefly: Speculate –> Initiation and Planning Collaborate –> Concurrent future developmentLearn –> Quality Review

Methodologies

A strategy that will be used to work along the business, such as a certain model and for example charts are used to show and define the requirements. Basically, methodologies explain how the business will either expand and overcome failures with proper strategy. The communication between client and customer is one of the most vital parts of any business, with methodologies strategy, we prepare our team to overcome any miscommunication and how the product can be best described to give business the boost it requires. There are three philosophies that are used in everyday business ventures, they are XP, and Scrum most commonly used. All are based on application programming.

Advantages

Make discussion

After the organization was given the task of completing the whole of a system, the manufacturer will make a detailed study of the system and will hold discussions to seek agreement with what has been planned to build the system. After agreeing with what is planned, the manufacturer will make a little later to discuss, the process is repeated until all players are satisfied with what is required and the mission and vision have been achieved.

Get ideas

From discussion can produce a good product because before these products have a lot of ideas given by the customer or anyone associated with the project. In addition, cost savings for using the same prototype when to make changes in the product.

Make demonstrate

Make a demonstration for the customer to show the results that have been made, if not satisfied with the results of the specific reasons, allowing the manufacturers to improve existing shortcomings.

Able to maintain good quality work

By using the iterative cycle, this will take care of good quality work. In addition, developers plan more carefully and systematically to ensure the success of the system.

Disadvantages

Requires that public employees

In completing a project that requires many workers. This will cause many problems, especially in the planning of projects and conflict of ideas between them. Besides that, the problems arise in terms of division of tasks to carry out a project.

Time-consuming

In this methodology, developers need time more to complete a project. This is because each is already planned. Before implementing any parts of the project, it is agreed especially by the manager. Every change takes time to change some parts of the project. This will be difficult for all involved to complete the project with a defined time

Scrum

Scrum is an agile framework for completing innovative projects. Scrum originally was formalized for software development projects but works well for any complex, innovative or new product development scope of work. The possibilities are endless. The Scrum framework is deceptively simple.

The Scrum Software Development Methodology / Framework

A product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a product backlog. During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how to implement those pieces. The team has a certain amount of time, a sprint, to complete its work – usually two to four weeks – but meets each day to assess its progress (daily scrum). Along the way, the Scrum Master keeps the team focused on its goal. At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable, as in ready to hand to a customer, put on a store shelf, or show to a stakeholder. The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective. As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another chunk of the product backlog and begins working again.

Advantages

• Scrum can help teams complete project deliverables quickly and efficiently.
• Scrum ensures effective use of time and money.
• Large projects are divided into easily manageable sprints.
• Developments are coded and tested during the sprint review
• Works well for fast-moving development projects
• The team gets clear visibility through scrum meetings
• Scrum, being agile, adopts feedback from customers and stakeholders
• Short sprints enable changes based on feedback a lot more easily
• The individual effort of each team member is visible during daily scrum meetings

Disadvantages

• Scrum often leads to scope creep, due to the lack of a definite end-date
• The chances of project failure are high if individuals aren’t very committed or cooperative
• Adopting the Scrum framework in large teams is challenging
• The framework can be successful only with experienced team members
• Daily meetings sometimes frustrate team members
• If any team member leaves in the middle of a project, it can have a huge negative impact on the project
• Quality is hard to implement until the team goes through the aggressive testing processXP(Extreme programming)

Extreme programming is basically software development procedures designed and created to improve software quality as well as the ability it has to adapt to the ever-changing needs of users of that particular software. The first to develop the Extreme Programming Methodology was Ken Beck around the mid and even late nineties. At the time, software used to manage the payrolls in large organizations known as Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation Systems is what he was working on. Extreme Programming and Agile processes of development have a few similar characteristics. One of them is that they both aim at producing frequent and iterative small releases during the course of the project. This allows both the clients and team members to review and examine the software project’s progress during the entire process. This type of programming prescribes a set of daily practices that developers and managers should adhere to.

The main objective of these practices is to encourage and embody some particular values. Experts believe when you exercise these practices, they will inevitably lead to developing procedures that are much more responsive to client needs while still creating and designing software that is of better or similar quality.

Advantages

• The main advantage of Extreme Programming is that this methodology allows software development companies to save costs and time required for project realization.
• Time savings are available because of the fact that XP focuses on the timely delivery of final products.
• Extreme Programming teams save lots of money because they don’t use too much documentation. They usually solve problems through discussions inside of the team.
• Simplicity is one more advantage of Extreme Programming projects. The developers who prefer to use this methodology create extremely simple code that can be improved at any moment.
• The whole process in XP is visible and accountable. Developers commit what they will accomplish and show progress.· Constant feedback is also the strong side. It is necessary to listen and make any changes needed in time.
• XP assists to create software faster thanks to the regular testing at the development stage.· Extreme Programming contributes to increasing employee satisfaction and retention.

Disadvantages

Some specialists say that Extreme Programming is focused on the code rather than on design. That may be a problem because good design is extremely important for software applications. It helps sell them in the software market. Additionally, in XP projects the defect documentation is not always good. Lack of defect documentation may lead to the occurrence of similar bugs in the future.· One more disadvantage of XP is that this methodology does not measure code quality assurance. It may cause defects in the initial code. XP is not the best option if programmers are separated geographically.

Recommendation

There are small and often subtle differences between Scrum and XP. However, they can have a profound impact on the team. My typical advice to teams is “start with Scrum and then invent your own version of XP.” The XP practices are wonderful but they work best and teams commit to them the most stridently if they discover them themselves rather than having them mandated. I help teams do this in my coaching by asking questions like, “Would this bug have happened if we’d been doing test-driven development?” and “Would we have made that mistake if we were pairing?”I find true XP to be a small target off in the distance. If a team can aim at that and hit the bull’s eye, wonderful. If not, however, they are likely hacking (e.g., refactoring without any automated testing or TDD). Scrum is a big bull’s eye that on its own brings big improvements simply through the additional focus and the time boxed iterations. That’s a good starting point for then adding the XP practices.

The Impact Of Social Media Influencers On Consumer Behavior

Companies and organizations continuously want to create value for customers and build strong customer-relationships in order to capture value. For ages, firms and organizations have been seeking to shape their target audience’s thoughts, attitudes and behavior so that they can attract more customers and build brand awareness. One way brands are promoting their products and services is through social media influencers.

Social Media influencers are normal people, like you and me, who happen to have a passion for a certain field, such as cooking, fashion or beauty. Through posting about their passion on social media platforms, they gain internet popularity letting them act as an external stimuli to their audience’s opinions, decisions and behavior. This position is strengthened by a large number of followers and likes to provide the target audience with a form of social proof. As a benefit of their promotions, influencers either get paid for promoting and talking about the products, or they get sample of promotional products and services.

Social Media Marketing is a new quick and effective approach to reaching a wide audience and increasing brand awareness; specially the younger age group, a demographic that is difficult to reach for marketers. They place strong value on forming their own identity, which is linked to social identity theory: part of psychology that deals with how people view themselves as belonging to a group of similar individuals, which affects part of their personal identity. In return affecting their needs and wants, and eventually their purchasing decision.

Social Media Marketing is considered to be a form of subconscious marketing. Subconscious Marketing relates to the touch-points between a company and a purchaser that is often ignored, until there is purchasing need. Unlike celebrities, influencers promote through a sense of trust, reliability and attractiveness. In the digital age, influencer marketing is becoming more relevant; as the customer perceives the influencer one of his/her in-group and which ultimately affects his/her purchasing decision.

Attractiveness Bias is defined as “subconsciously attributing attractive or charismatic people with many other qualities simply because they are good looking.” This bias can lead to positive associations between the influencer and the brand, as by using attractive personas, the brand will influence the subconscious of the viewer, potentially briefing them when faced with a product-related decision. Influencers are not only expected to be good looking, they are expected to be relatable, but appealing. It is shown in a study that 56% of customers rely on friends’ recommendation, and 43% rely on influencers, which is relatively close. These numbers show that influencers are just as valuable as friends and family when it comes to purchasing. Why? Because people trust who they trust, they follow public figures because they trust their wisdom and they believe in their authenticity.

Due to high demand of Social Influencer Marketing, a whole industry was created with intermediaries’ agencies acting as matchmakers between companies and influencers.

Teen Consumer Behavior Affected by Family

The ability to evaluate long-term consequences is essential to successful financial decision making. Teens develop financial behaviors that can influence their actions as adults (Martin and Oliva 2001), such as making the strategic choice to delay gratification by saving and avoiding a debtor’s prison (Bernthal, Crockett, and Rose 2005). Teens experience stress from school, family, and finances at higher levels than their parents realize (APA 2009).

Teenagers in the United States possess significant spending power ($116 billion; Youth Pulse 2010), with increased access to cosigned or parent’s credit cards (Jumpstart.org). Teenagers also frequently visit shopping centers and are tar- gets for luxury goods (Dunleavey 2006). However, 48% of U.S. teenagers have low financial literacy (Mandell 2008), and ethnic and female teens lag further behind (Lusardi, Mitchell, and Curto 2010). This combination of access to money or credit, being presented with offers, and low financial literacy and high stress can be problematic. Under- standing which factors may improve this segment’s financial decision making could help inform the design of financial education interventions and regulatory policy and guide companies that market to teenagers to improve industry self-regulation

Family influences teenager’s buying behavior by acting as the reference group. Reference group is a term from social psychology identifying that group to which people refer or make reference in evaluating themselves (Kotler, 2008). Reference groups expose a person to new behaviors and lifestyles, influence the person’s attitude and self-concept, and create pressures to conform that may affect the person’s product and brand choice. The group influence tends to be strongest when the product is visible to others whom the buyer respects. As cited by Martin and Bush (2004) in the journal article ‘Do role models influence teenagers’ purchase intention and behavior?’, Moschis (1985) claimed that family influence on consumption patterns and attitudes often overrides any other form of influence. Besides that, teenagers tend to follow family’s perception in terms of economic and social status. The background of family a child being brought up contributed in this situation. A teenager will have a positive perception towards a product if the parents are satisfied with the product. Besides that, Hogg and Bruce (2003) cited that the family influence relates clearly to perception of brands as Hite and Hite (1994) indicated. Reflecting on child development theory it is suggested that children’s behavior is absorbed at very young ages from familial examples (Hite and Hite, 1994). Teenagers may imitate certain buying pattern of the family. For instance, they may purchase the product according to the amount and quantity the family used to make. For example buying the product in bulk, in value pack or individually. They may also follow the buying pattern of the family for example the duration and frequency in using and purchasing a product. An example will be making the purchase of daily product in weekly or monthly basis.

Family has a significant effect in teenager’s buying behavior in terms of self-concept. Self-concept is one’s own perception of own self. According to Kamaruddin (2006), self-concept is formed through the social interaction of an individual with his or her environment. As a result of the interaction with significant people, mainly the family members, the personality and self-concept are formed. The self-concept summarizes the beliefs a person holds about his own attributes and how he evaluates the self on these qualities. (Solomon, 2009) Teenager’s self-esteem is being built up by family through the process of growing up. It refers to the positivity of a person’s self-concept. Teenager tends to make purchase decision depending on their self-esteem. The most significant area will be one’s physical appearance.

Price Discrimination And Consumer Behaviour

The main focus of this research study was to study the phenomenon of price discrimination in the business universities. For this purpose Dainora Grundey & Ingrida Griesiene selected two business universities of Lithuania (Europe). A comparative analysis of both universities discloses that pricing strategies differ from university to university. They targeted the tertiary education (post-secondary education), as governors and administrators seek profitability as well, taking into account various important factors, such as

• Economic crisis;
• Demographical crisis i-e shrinking educational market in most developed countries, including Europe;
• Shortage of economic resources (labor, land and capital)
• Deficiency of population’s interest in higher education;
• Increasing fees for tertiary education;
• Lack of government’s funding to insure free tertiary education (for at least a proportion of population);

The research objective of this study is price discrimination, which necessitated the solution of the following research tasks

• To define price discrimination in general terms (as applied in marketing, economics and management sciences)
• To determine and identify the levels of price discrimination of two business universities in Lithuania at the theoretical level.

Main Findings

Four different perspectives of price discrimination are referred as micro-economic, marketing, economic, and money & business. The overview of price discrimination cases in the tertiary education (higher education) sector pointed out that ‘third-degree price discrimination’ is the most common case in practice. The factors of price discrimination in higher education could be summarised as follows:

• Situation # 1: The price discrimination in higher education lies in charging different fees for different customer segments (fee concessions); or charging no fees.
• Situation # 2: The pricing policies of colleges and universities normally based on costing model, which incorporates this year’s salaries, fixed costs, and variable costs need to be offset by revenues generated by tuition fee, property tax, apportionment and other general funds.
• Situation # 3: The overview of price discrimination cases in the tertiary education (higher education) sector pointed out that third-degree price discrimination is the most common case in practice, such as university national and international rankings, institutional prestige, need-based admissions, need-based financial aid policies; quality of studies, merits and awards for students. (Dainora Grundey, 2011)

Explores the interaction between inequality status and discriminating bases. Outcomes reveal that discriminating bases affect all three responses for disadvantaged consumers, but only influence perceived unfairness for advantaged consumers. Direct discrimination conforms to social norms for disadvantage consumers and induces the weakest unfavorable responses. While direct discrimination against social norms generates the highest perception of negative emotions and unfairness but has similar effects on store choice to indirect discrimination.

Investigates the impact of data revelation of information disclosure order by examining pre and post-purchase disclosure. Outcomes reveal that post-purchase revelation of discrimination data induces higher negative emotions for indirect discrimination, but is quite insignificant for direct discrimination or indirect discrimination.

The most significant factor possibly affecting consumer responses is the timing to disclose the price discrimination information. Some supermarkets mark membership costs right the retail shelves, whereas others charge discounted prices only when consumers show their member cards to the cashiers. Similarly, airline companies adopt sophisticated dynamic pricing schemes that change ticket prices hourly. In this case, consumers only know whether or not they overpaid for their tickets if they chat with other passengers after the fact. Thus, information disclosure timing crucially affects consumer acceptance of the pricing policies and constitutes an important strategic decision for sellers

The central argument of this study is that a consumer confronted with price discrimination evaluates both prices: the one offered to the consumer and the one offered to others. A consumer cares not only about distributive justice in terms of equality rule, need rule, and transaction utility, but also about procedural justice regarding whether having the freedom to choose to be advantaged or disadvantaged. (Chi-Cheng Wu, 2012)

Conclusion

The above research studies show that buyers are discriminated and that this discrimination is correlated directly with the behavior of the buyers and indirectly with their personal characteristics. As the market gets far from the absolutely competitive market conditions, the distinction between the market value and also the incremental cost will increase. Then, this causes the market effectiveness to decrease. In a different way to extend the market effectiveness during which markets it’s not possible to extend the competition by increasing the amount of corporations is to implement the value discrimination. Value discrimination will increase the output, decrease total weight lessen close monopoly. Value discrimination may decrease value at low financial gain market and bars this market to pack up. As a result value discrimination will increase market potency.

Recommendations

• Based on the above discussion, dealers and retailers are recommended to carefully discriminate prices keeping in view the consumers buying behavior patterns, which is one of the most successful ways to know consumers’ interests when making a purchase decision.
• The effective use of marketing strategy and the marketing mix will ultimately leads to profitable customer relationships and to set suitable prices to their items as pricing has a direct impact on a company’s revenue.
• Moreover, a sophisticated software of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be used to maximize customers loyalty, which will ultimately leads to a company success.

References

1. Alan Kirman, S. M. (2008, December Sunday). Price Discrimination and Customer Behaviour:. 43. Marseille, France.
2. Chi-Cheng Wu, Y.-F. L.-J.-J. (2012). Consumer responses to price discrimination: Discriminating bases, inequality status,. Journal of Business Research, 106-116.
3. Dainora Grundey, I. G. (2011, June). PRICE DISCRIMINATION:A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BUSINESS UNIVERSITIES IN LITHUANIA. Economics & Sociology, 64-77.

How Modern Technology Influences Consumer Behavior

Throughout the years, media has proven to be a very powerful tool for influencing a large number of audiences from different walks of life. Most of the time, people are unaware that the digital media is already manipulating their purchasing behavior and buying decisions by creating appealing advertisements on different media platforms, which is part of their goal to attract more consumers.

According to a website of Scotch and Ramen, a media agency that works on reporting business tips and articles, business companies should always consider their consumers’ expectations, such as what they want and need. It is an effective way for them to find the business more appealing than other companies, and they also suggested that there are several studies that claimed that companies have been using a combination of psychology and the power of digital media to create a great effect on the consumer behavior.

Also, the pace of change that society is experiencing today is having an effect on how people consume things. With the help of technology, people have an easier way to buy products through online shops that can easily be accessed on their phones and computers, and this is why technology plays an important role in shaping the way how companies will conduct their business from now on.

Social media advertisements

Since social media became accessible to a lot of people, businesses have been using its different platforms to influence a lot of audiences to buy their products. Most, if not all, of them have created accounts on various social media in order to reach their target audiences much easier and for the public to have some kind of access to them, especially when they want to voice out their concerns and suggestions to the companies with respect to the products or services they paid for.

Digital Marketing Institute, a company that provides professional certification to marketing educators, compared the interaction between potential customers and businesses to a spinning roulette wheel, where the ball acts as the company’s message, which will spin and bounce as the roulette wheel turns before landing on a space (i.e. a customer). The roulette wheel is the social media that allows the companies to have an interaction with the people in a larger public venue.

In the United States, Americans spend an average of 23.6 hours online every week, and they usually spend this time checking and updating their social media accounts. MDG Accounts, a creative marketing company, elaborated on their website that social media enables the advertisers to spend less on their advertisements when it comes to print media. In 2018, they reported that brands devoted 33% of advertisement spend on digital platforms.

Social media is also a way for businesses to engage new customers with the help of popular hashtags and targeted ads. They are also making sure that their advertisement is very pleasing to their audiences so that they could effectively attract them to try new products and services and keep them loyal to the brand.

Online shops

Shopping could be a therapeutic activity for a lot of people, but most of the time shopping in a crowded store with everyone rushing to get what they want to buy could be very stressful, not to mention the long lines at the checkout counters. This kind of scenario is common during the holiday season where almost everyone is busy buying gifts for the people closest to them. Thus, one of the benefits that digital media has brought to humanity is the rise of online shops.

According to a blog called anilasnook, online shops provide consumers with the convenience of avoiding standing in a long queue just to buy the things they need. There are now a lot of online shop apps that are downloadable to the smartphones and let the customers compare the prices and search for the lowest one or the top-rated products.

Because of this, the competition between the sites to attract customers brings great benefit to the customer since most of these online shops offer deals and discounts in order to attract potential customers, especially on special holidays, national holidays, and important festivals. Customers are also attracted whenever reputed brand names announce deals and promos on their website despite the reality that they’re still offering expensive products despite the supposedly slashed-down prices.

Encourages innovation

Due to the innovations that technology allows social media platforms to have, various companies continue to work harder in creating products and advertisements aimed to generate a lot of profit for their company. Most of these businesses also require their employees to stay abreast of the latest technologies and social media trend in order for them to have a fighting chance in the digital competition.

It is advisable to have a skilled workforce that will be able to work on the latest and most relevant technologies, strategies, and techniques, which they could use to put their brands ahead of the competition.

Impact of E-commerce Sites on Consumer Buying Behavior

Abstract

The development of the web, revolutionized the thought of the conventional way of shopping. A buyer is not concerned about the timings or particular location of the stores; buyer can be active at essentially all the time and can buy anything from anywhere. The impact of electronic commerce (e-commerce) on obtainment, shopping, trade collaboration and client services as well as on conveyance of different services is so emotional that nearly exaction is influenced. As the online shopping is getting worthiness, it would be critical to know the shopper behavior towards the electronic commerce particularly online shopping. In this report, the recognition of the shopper with respect to the Online Shopping, the level of fulfillment of respondents who are utilizing Online Shopping is studied are distinguished employing a little study. The ponder conclude that Online advertising is fair starting to root itself within the trade world of INDIA since of which not all the products are accessible. Indeed popular brands put as it were specific things online and thus there are fewer choices accessible on the web. Since it’s a unused concept individuals are still not completely utilized to it since of which they feel awkward shopping online. They feel that the item would be altered with and the quality wouldn’t be the same. India may be a creating country where major chunk of its population live in provincial ranges and thus don’t have had to the web. By this a major parcel of the target advertises is misplaced. Individuals in India lean toward progressing to the shopping centers and looking, touching different things some time recently obtaining them. They are not very willing to provide upon shopping physically so indeed in the event that they have get to the web.

Introduction

The development of the web has changed the thought of the conventional way of shopping. A buyer is now not bound to opening times or particular areas of the retail outlets; he can end up dynamic at essentially any time and put and can buy items and services. The web gives a medium for communication and data exchange and the number of web users is expanding driving to the development of the online shopping trend. E-commerce is broadly considered as the buying and offering of items over the internet, but any exchange that’s completed exclusively through electronic measures can be considered as ecommerce. E-commerce is subdivided into three categories: business to business or B2B (Cisco), business to customer or B2C (Amazon), and consumer to customer or C2C (eBay) conjointly called electronic commerce. E-commerce is targeting the mass at time and is giving ultimate options to buyers which none other media can give. Few features make it more helpful for shopping, just like the capacity to see and buy the items any time, visualize their needs with the items, and examine items with other shoppers. Most of users tend to buy online because of its buying ease. Previously, the cost factor was considered but now ease of buying has replaced it. Now-a-days the most trending concept is of mobile commerce or M-commerce because of its utilities and cost benefits and recognizes that the exchanges may be conducted utilizing mobile phones, individual artificial assistants and other handheld gadgets that have Web access.

“There’s no question that mobile commerce is developing at a quick clip,” said e Advertiser foremost analyst Jeffrey Grau, creator of an imminent report on mobile buying. “And mobile acts as a motor of by and large e-commerce development, by changing over potential brick-and-mortar deals to digital deals as shoppers utilize their Smartphone’s whereas shopping in-store.” Presently, in order to have an effect on the buyers and being able to hold them in such a competitive and effortlessly open market, the primary step is to recognize the viewpoints that impact the clients while purchasing online. The issue here is that there are millions of individuals online at any time and almost each of them may be a potential client for a company that provides online retailing. And presently with the added ease and other benefits of m-commerce, that’s curious about offering its items online will need to constantly look for distinctive ways in which it can offer its services to the buyers.

E-Commerce

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is buying and selling utilizing an electronic medium. It is accepting credit and payments over the net, doing banking exchanges utilizing the Web, selling commodities or data utilizing the World Wide Web and so on. Turban et al. characterize e-commerce as the method of buying, offering, exchanging, or trading items, services, and/or data through computer systems, counting the Web. A few analysts see e-commerce in terms of Web applications, such as the intranet, extranet, site, and mail. Others see e-commerce as a combination of trade forms and Web advances such as intuitive with clients and suppliers. Indeed in spite of the fact that there’s no agreement on the definition of e-commerce, there’s common understanding among analysts that the most components of e-commerce incorporate: site, e-mail, intranet, extranet, LAN and remote zone arrange (Faded). We have embraced the over definitions and portrayals of e-commerce.

Impact of Internet on Consumer Behavior

The impacts on shopper behavior are regularly made between outside and inside components. Outside components are come from the natural conditions; inner variables are ordinarily from the consumer’s intellect. There are numerous variables may impact consumer’s behaviors. Agreeing to Warner, the outside impacts might separate into five segments: Socioeconomics, socio-economics, innovation and open approach; culture; sub-culture; reference bunches; and promoting. The inner impacts are an assortment of mental forms, which incorporate states of mind, learning, recognition, inspiration, self image, and semiotics (Malcolm). In expansion to these, (N., 1983)also proposed that the customers have two sorts of thought processes while shopping, which is utilitarian and non-functional. The utilitarian thought processes are generally about the time, shopping place and consumer’s needs, which may well be like one-stop shopping to save time, the nature of shopping put such as free parking place, lower fetched of items and accessible to select from broadly run of items. The non-functional thought processes are more related to culture or social values, such as the brand title of the store. The conventional shopping is essentially about the client to buy their needs. This behavior will be impacted by the seller’s publicizing and promotion which draws in clients goes there and buys products, a short time later a portion of modern items will be taken home and be utilized.

Internet Shopping

Web shopping and conventional shopping are sharing numerous similitude’s, at the same time, it still exists a few contrasts between them, such as the Web shopping may give comfort and intuitively services, and the conventional shopping might allow clients more comfortable shopping environment and great quality of items (Lee K. and Chung N., 2000). Both viewpoints of shopping centers are attempting to progress their services by learning commutatively from each other, such as conventional shopping centers give more parking spaces, more counters, and closer to private region in arranges to progress services in comfort; Web shopping centers receive virtual reality and 3D methods to move forward the introduction of items.

Within the following areas, the study would give the nature of web shopping at, to begin with, at that point the E-commerce web location will be demonstrated to comprehend the substance of web shopping, after that, online security, protection, and belief will be talked about. All of these common outlines and talks approximately the web shopping will give a foundation to the think about and offer assistance to building the establishment of scholarly inquires about.

Convenience

Most of the clients and analyst found that web gives the most ease of buying online (Wolhandler, 1999). Due to the inclusion of Web, it permits the client to shop online anytime and anyplace, which implies clients can browse and shop online 24-hours a day, 7 days a week from home or office, which pulls in a few time-starved customers come to Web for save time to looking items in. Also, the Web offers a few great ways to save cash and time. For case, customers don’t require go out to the physical store and thus there’s no transportation fetched. Compare with the conventional shopping, there’s no waiting line for customers on the Web, and a few customers reported that they feel pressure from the deals individuals now and then, but Web offers them more pleasant while shopping online.

Technology

The comfort based on Web is primarily agreeing to the innovation improvement, and which plays a key part amid the advancement of Web shopping. Within the final decade, organizations have realized that the unused innovation seems to affect on Web shopping profoundly, and in this way, there are numerous imperative innovations like virtual reality and 3D procedures have embraced to pick up enormous competitive preferences (Clark, 1989). Information technology has utilized within the frame of the Web moved forward way better quality of item data, which offer assistance shopper’s choice making (White, 1997). Through the wide extent of studies almost the Web utilize, the development of Web and the rate of growth of Web utilization have been fast expanded within the final decade. Concurring to the BMRB Worldwide (2004) and GVU’s WWW 9th Client Studies (1998), the number of Web clients in Awesome Britain has expanded to 22.7 million among 48.4% of the grown-up populace and around 53% of web clients have detailed that shopping may be a essential utilize of the Internet. Additionally, a factual report on the Web Improvement in China from CNNIC (China Internet Network Data Middle) have released in July 2006. From this report, within the viewpoint of Web shopping, there are 30 million users often shopping online, and close 1/4 Web clients have online shopping encounter. Both studies appears that increasingly Web clients lean toward online payment while they shopping, in this way the security of online payment certainly will become a noteworthy figure to impact the Web shopping (Universal, 2004).

Consumer Trust in Internet Shopping

Individuals buy items and administrations are the foremost based on their level of belief in this item or services, and vendors either within the physical store or online shops. Online believe is the fundamental and basic component for building a relationship with clients. Present research appears that online belief is lower level than the face-to-face intuitive within the physical store, and the result appears that dependability of Web shipper (seen judgment, seen competence, and seen security control) and outside environment (third-party acknowledgment and lawful system) have an impressive effect on customer belief in Web shopping. The dependability of E-commerce web location is exceptionally depending on how much security can be given. For example, an exceedingly specialized competence can be a figure to impact the dependability. As said over that the net dealer can give third-party confirmation to E-commerce web location, and whereas this protection and security strategies are used, customers will think their E-commerce transactions through Internet are secure and thus the site is more reliable to them. Beside this point, if the Ecommerce web site can provide the information about their customer services, location of the office, contact telephone number, and a help button on the web site, customers could also increase their trustiness as they can feel that the online retailers is truly exist.

Literature Review

The Internet is a part of the day-to-day life of the majority of the world, and within this environment, a new form of communication has gained importance in recent years; Social networking sites. It is one of the most effective and significant business development tools in the 21st century because of its ability to connect individuals with others (Vinod S. chandwani & Dr. Shradha Bhome, 2004). Technology gives consumer the power to investigate products to label them and criticize them in equal measure, and more. Therefore many companies today have pages on social networks to complement the information held about products, held by the feedback of consumers about products and tend to relate more to a company after reading various reviews (Elisabeth Ioanas & Inova Stoica, 2014)

On an everyday premise in present-day, 100,000 tweets are sent, 684,478 pieces of substance are shared on Facebook, 2 million search questions are made on Google, 48 hours of video are transferred to YouTube, 3,600 photographs are shared on Instagram, and 571 websites are made (James 2012). Social media presented an unused, complex and wild component in buyer behavior displaying an unused challenge both to the scholarly community and the marketers (Atlaf, 2014). It is evident that now day, social media components are popular like Facebook and Twitter have got an attention to consumer markets. The results form collected data indicate that the social media has a significant impact on consumption behavior in Pakistan (Madni, 2014). Social media allows customers and prospects to communicate directly to your brand representative or about your brand with their friends. However, the obvious question is: who are the people interacting online and how engaged are they in online activities? (Simona Vinerean, Luliana Cetina, Luigi Dumitrescu & Mihai Tichinedelean, 2013). Social Media have given plenty of opportunities to consumers in adapting different aspects in life. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have played significant roles in expanding consumers’ online purchases (Elham Al-Mukhaini, Israa Al-Dhuhli & Sara Ismael, 2013). As the usage o f the social media has become more popular, these tools are perceived as a source by consumers to search information about the products during their buying decision process (Ozer, 2012).

The growth of online social networks around the world has created a new place of interaction and communication among people. Individuals can share their knowledge, opinions, and experiences with one other due to the online social networks provided features and may have an impact on people’s behavior in terms of communication and purchasing (Ayda Darban, & Wei Li, 2012). The larger part of the populace nowadays may be a client of online shopping, and after the development of e-commerce, presently M-commerce is coming into the spotlight. Different ponders appear that m-commerce has numerous points of interest that make the consumers prefer m-commerce over e-commerce. Information mining could be a semi-automatic disclosure of designs, affiliations, changes, inconsistencies and factually noteworthy structures and occasions in information (Pahwa, 2015). As per the study results indicate that social media tools create a statistically significant difference on purchasing behaviors of consumers according to age groups and educational status of them (Ankara, 2013). A sample of social media users who are familiar with these online ads were drawn from a public university in Ghana. The findings reveal that social media users perceive online ads, especially pop-up ads as intrusive and ineffective. Also the study establishes that pop-up ads have little impact on the purchase behavior of social media users since a negative attitude has been formed towards pop-up ads. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended, among other things, that advertisers should design pop-up ads that are user friendly and less intrusive (Le Wang, Lei Xu, Flora Ampiah, Xiaoshu Wang, 2014)

Conclusion

It is found that since online promoting may be an unused concept it’ll take time for individuals to believe these sorts of shopping exercises. At present individuals feel that there are major security concerns in online exchanges and don’t feel comfortable doing the shopping online. They feel that there are tall dangers of extortion and hoax in online commerce. Online promoting is fair starting to root itself within the trade world of INDIA since of which not all the items are accessible. Indeed popular brands put as it were particular things online and thus there are less choices accessible on the web. Since it’s a unused concept individuals are still not completely utilized to it since of which they feel awkward shopping online. They feel that the item would be altered with and the quality wouldn’t be the same. India may be a creating nation where major chunk of its populace live in country regions and subsequently don’t have got to the web. By this a major parcel of the target advertises is misplaced. Individuals in India favor reaching to the shopping centers and looking, touching different things before acquiring them. They are not very willing to give up on shopping physically so indeed in the event that they have access to the web.

References

1. Ankara, G. U. (2013). A Study on teh effects of social media on young consumers’ buying behaviors.
2. Atlaf, N. (2014). Impact of Social Media on Consumers Buying Decisions.
3. Ayda Darban, & Wei Li. (2012). The Impact of online social networks on consumers purchase decision.
4. Elham Al-Mukhaini, Israa Al-Dhuhli & Sara Ismael. (2013). Sultan Qaboos University College of Economics & Political Science.
5. Elisabeth Ioanas & Inova Stoica. (2014). Social Media and Its Impact on Conusmer Behavior.
6. International, B. (2004). BMRB International. London: Hadley /house.
7. Le Wang, Lei Xu, Flora Ampiah, Xiaoshu Wang. (2014). The Influenc of Pop-up Advertising on Consumer Purchasing Behavior.
8. Lee K. and Chung N. (2000). Effects of virtual reality-driven shopping mall and consumer’s purchase intention. Korean Management Review, 377-405.
9. Madni, G. R. (2014). Consumer’s Behavior and Effectiveness of Social Media.
10. N., S. J. (1983). An integrative theory of patronage preference and behaviour. Patronage behavior and retail managemetn, 9-28.
11. Ozer, S. (2012). Comsumer buying decision making in new era. Ireland: National College of Ireland .
12. Pahwa, B. (2015). Data mining and consumer buying behavior. International conference on technologies for sustainability – Engineering, Information Technology, Managemetn and Environment.
13. Simona Vinerean, Luliana Cetina, Luigi Dumitrescu & Mihai Tichinedelean. (2013). Social media marketing. International Journal of Business and Management.
14. Vinod S. chandwani & Dr. Shradha Bhome. (2004). A study on impact of social networks on consumer behavior.

Samsung: The Aspects Of Consumer Behaviour

INTRODUCTION

Samsung is a South Korean conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises of numerous businesses under the umbrella brand of Samsung. It was initially started as a trading company but has diversified into other sectors through the years. Samsung has been consistently successful in satisfying customer needs through its varied range of products and services.

The company generates revenues through three major business units: information technology and mobile communications (IM), consumer electronics (CE) and device solutions (DS). The IM division generated the most revenue and the DS division was the most profitable business unit. As of 2016, Samsung was the world’s second largest information technology company by revenue after Apple Inc. Samsung was also considered as one of the most valuable brands in the world.

Samsung is a fast responder to market and consumer needs and it can observed in their product diversification. The company has a broad product line which cater to different customer segments. Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines are the company’s high-end premium segment offerings with a focus on innovation and higher perceived brand value. The Galaxy J series and A series are the lower end units.

Samsung has been a market leader in India for over a decade. Since Apple launched its first ever smart phone in 2007, Chinese and Korean companies started to copy the technology and Samsung was the first one in doing so. Being a fast follower and an innovative company, Samsung was able to well establish itself in the smartphone category. It soon became the market leader with a 28% market share in India.

In the recent years, due to immense competition from rivals like Oppo, Xioami, Vivo, OnePlus and Motorola, Samsung’s profits have begun to decline and it has started to lose market share. In the high end segment, Samsung has tough competition from OnePlus and Apple and in the low end segment, it has competition from Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi.

A major reason for this decline is the offerings made by these new brands. New startups like OnePlus, Xiaomi,Vivo and Oppo have started to sell good quality phones at cheaper price points. With the increasing awareness about these brands, the demand for them is also increasing. This has led to Samsung losing its market share to new entrants.

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

The smartphone industry is one of the most competitive markets in the world. According to the International Data Corporation, shipments in India grew by an estimated 11% to about 150 million units. The growth is expected to be at 12% in 2019. The Indian smart phone industry accounts for more than 10% of the global market. The number of smartphone users in India is estimated to increase to 442.5 million by 2022.The smartphone industry has a lot of players catering to different market segments through different product lines.

Xiaomi was the market leader in the category for the entire year with a market share of 30% and 41 million units were shipped. India is now the biggest market for Xiaomi worldwide. Samsung which was ahead of Xiaomi in 2017 slipped to the second position with a market share of 25.8%. The decline in the Chinese smartphone market has made India a major destination for the Chinese companies. Other leading Chinese counterparts like Vivo and Oppo are in the third and fourth place and have been steady in this position. The smartphone industry is dependent on e-commerce for its shipments and deliveries. The new foreign direct investment policies in India, may lead to slower market development.

In the higher end segment, Samsung has tough competition from Apple and OnePlus. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer surpassed Samsung and Apple to become the fastest growing premium phone in India in 2018. It captured 40% market share in the premium segment. This remarkable growth was driven by the record shipments of OnePlus 6. Samsung captured a 34% market share with its S9 but Apple saw a decline and reached its lowest ever share of 14%. This was due to the decline in the shipments of iPhone 8 and X series. OnePlus came up with an innovative strategy to capture the customer’s attention through its word of mouth reference from its existing users and also effectively leveraged social media.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A study conducted by the Mediterranean Journal of Social sciences suggested that six major factors affect the buying patterns of smartphones. Price, social group, product features, brand name, durability and after sales services. A major deciding factor is consumer value price. Consumers buy phones that offer the best features at the lowest price. Consumer behaviour is influenced by two factors- individual and environmental. The individual factors include demographics, perception, motivation, personality, beliefs and life styles. The environmental factors include the culture, social values, reference group and family. India is a developing country and smartphone penetration has grown rapidly since 2010. A large number of national and international firms have invested in this market.

Another article published in the International Journal of Current Advanced Research studies the factors affecting smartphone purchase in Dehradun, India. Most of the employed people with income levels less than 2 lakhs are interested in getting updated with the latest technology. Most of them use their phones for basic calls, messages, camera and for other entertainment purposes. Features like display, camera, memory and battery capacity are considered highly important by more than 80% of the users. Most of them stay loyal to a brand until there is no glitch in the phone. A majority of them are open to trying new brands that offer better features at a lower price point but would prefer known brands if price-feature mix is similar.

The factors are both internal and external. The product, features, prices are not the only deciding factors but other factors like brand perception, loyalty, peer group, social status and lifestyle also influence the buying pattern. Samsung has seen high loyalty among the middle-aged and older aged segments and also caters to their life style and social status through their high-end devices. On the contrary students and young working professionals are more influenced by their peers and phone features play a major role in decision making. With the advent of technology and increasing importance of e-commerce sites, consumers have many portals to gain knowledge about the sector. Various views, opinions and reviews are taken into consideration before making a purchase.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Culture is the beliefs of human societies and their roles, behaviour, values, traditions and customs. During depth interviews conducted it surfaced that Indian consumers look for value for money and hence prefer best quality available at the lowest price. These consumers also consider the resale value and the availability and cost of components. They value warranty and after sale service.

Demographic- Consumers are influenced by their life cycle stage. Young professionals are in a good economic circumstance and hence they prefer to spend more money on a Smartphone. Young population from economically weak background buy products that they can afford whilst saving aside some from their salary. Youngsters these days want latest technology available at the lowest price and this has affected their buying behaviour as well. They are automatically attracted towards attractive things and smart phones are the attraction of modern age. The older population however try to get the best at the lowest price and prefer trusted brands even if they have to compromise on features. ocial status

Social class of a consumer is identified by a wide set of variables which includes income, profession, wealth, education and family background. Group of people share similar social and economic condition. Hence, social class has a powerful impact on consumer’s purchase Intention. Society is classified into seven different groups- upper uppers, lower uppers, upper middles, lower middles, working class, upper lowers and lower lowers.

Being a part of society, every individual wants to be recognized and belong to a group and hence make purchase decisions accordingly.

Reference group and Family- From the depth interviews conducted, for male participants it seemed that social factors didn’t affect them much in purchasing their Smartphone. Most of them agreed that they made independent decisions while buying their smart phones. They just checked the features of the Smartphone in the internet or the stores and made their final decision independently. Just opposite to male participants, most female participants agreed that their decisions were influence by their friends and family. For older generation, mostly the children were the decision makers.

Marketing activities have influenced buying decisions to a great extent. However, the well-informed tech savvy generation prefer to ensure the marketing claims to be correct. Features such as look, camera quality, display, battery backup are the most sort out features and hence brands capitalizing on them have successfully been able to attract customers increasing their brand recall. Slice of life advertising has also helped them capture consumer’s attention.

INTERNAL INFLUENCES

Perception refers to the different ways in which an individual can sense external information Smartphones in general are perceived to be highly essential these days and are also considered to fulfil the social needs of people. Consumers perceive smartphones as a status symbol. In the case of Samsung, the higher end phones are perceived to be high quality but there are different perceptions about the mid range and lower end devices. Young individuals perceive the low end phones to be not value for money.

Motivation- A need turns into motivation when there is sufficient level of intensity. Motivation can lead to goal-oriented behaviour. In the case of smartphones, high end smartphones are aspirations of many people, especially youngsters. With everyone in the society owning a smartphone, it becomes a necessity thus leading to motivation to own one.

Personality encompasses a person’s traits. People usually buy products to enhance how they feel about themselves and communicate the same to the outside world. Smartphones are also products that can help explain a person’s traits. People tend to associate themselves with the traits of the smartphone. For example, iPhone is considered to be extravagant and innovative and people tend to associate themselves to these traits of the product.

Attitude is a way of thinking. Attitude in case of smartphones can be related to usage of the phone. Various consumers have different notions about smartphones. For few they are mere entertainment devices and for few they are personal assistants that are needed on a regular basis. A majority of the users use it for calling, messaging and entertainment purposes. Few use it for office related work.

METHODOLOGY

Before proceeding on to data collection, it was vital to decide the type of study to be undertaken to analyse the opinions and perceptions of the consumers. We decided to proceed with Qualitative data analysis to capture varied perceptions and opinions among different categories of consumers. We have followed a step wise approach to collect primary data and analyse it to gather insights

1. Defining target respondents

Samsung phones are used by customers from various demographics and psychographics. Users, non-users and lapsers were considered for the study. In order to understand the perception of different kinds of customers, users were categorized based on demographics (Income, age and gender) as follows-

• (a) Low Income –women- housewives or working (>25 years)
• (b) Low Income- men -working (>25 years)
• (c) High Income – men – students/young working professionals (18-30 years)
• (d) High income- men- workin g (>30 years)
• (e) High income – women – students /young working professionals (18-30 years)
• (f) High income- women -working/ housewives (>30years)

Both Samsung and non Samsung users were interviewed.

2. Data collection

Both primary and secondary data was collected for the study. After defining the required target respondents we approached one or more customers from each of the defined segments to understand their perception about smartphones. Nearly 20 customers who were both Samsung and non Samsung users were interviewed. Some of the below mentioned aspects were covered while interviewing the respondents.

• Current phone owned by them
• Major features that they look for while purchasing a phone.
• Influencers while making a purchase.
• Major functionalities used in the phone
• Perception about Samsung and other competitors like Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi, Apple.
• If Samsung users, then the feature that makes them repurchase the brand again.

Respondents were also asked various questions based on the answers given by them.

3. Analysing the data collected

The recordings that were collected from the field were transcribed to text to analyse the patterns. Keywords mentioned by the respondents was coded to summarize the data and make it easier for analysis. The below graph shows importance of each feature while purchasing a phone. (20 respondents were interviewed)

4. Insights:

The following insights were recorded using deductive reasoning technique

• Majority of the smartphone users in the above 35 age category with high disposable incomes have been using either Samsung or iPhone for a very long time.
• Majority of the women above 40 years and men above 50 years of age and with high or medium disposable incomes have been brand loyalists of Samsung and would prefer to continue with the brand.
• Very few in the above-mentioned categories are aware of other brands and their purchase decisions are influenced by family (mostly children), friends, online reviews or reviews by store owners.
• Among the low-income groups, price point is a major concern. Customers buy phones that offer maximum features at the lowest possible price point. Brand loyalty in this case is very low. Awareness about others brands is less and purchase intention is heavily based on reviews by peers or store owners.
• Majority of the young working professionals with higher disposable incomes, prefer phones with good quality, specifications and innovative features and wouldn’t mind paying a premium for the same. They are influenced by their lifestyle, society and peers.
• Young working professionals with lower disposable incomes and a majority of students aspire to have good quality phones with innovative features but are not willing to pay a premium for the same. Brand loyalty is low and they switch to phones that offer the best specifications at a reasonable price and consider brand name as an added benefit.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the above behavioural insights we have come up with the following recommendations.

• Ten years ago, when smartphones were launched, creating awareness about product features and price was important and Samsung was highly successful in doing so. Hence it emerged as a market leader.
• But in the current scenario, customer demands have changed and they demand more innovative features at affordable prices. Samsung should limit its product portfolio and release fewer phones to cater to different categories. The J series can have two phones to cater to the lower end, the A series for the mid-range users and Note and S series to cater to the higher end users.
• The J series phones should be provided with maximum features at affordable and competitive prices. This can help them capture their users who have now shifted to Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi. The A series phones should have good quality features bundled with reasonable innovation. This can help them capture customers who aspire to have higher end phones but cannot afford to do so. This can also help them capture customers who are moving towards OnePlus. The S series should be bundled with innovative and sought-after features and can be priced at a premium.
• Apart from product portfolio changes, they should also concentrate on improving their communication strategy. Each of the offerings should be clearly communicated to the users. A majority of the lapsers are young working professionals and students. They also form a major part of the influencers. They should be targeted through digital platforms through a creative communication strategy for lower end and mid-range phones. The strong brand image associated with Samsung should be leveraged.

These strategies will not only help in increasing the sales but also help Samsung regain its lost spot in the Indian smartphone market.

REFERENCES

1. Durmaz, Y., Celik, M. and Oruc, R., 2011. The impact of cultural factors on the consumer buying behaviors examined through an empirical study. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(5), pp.109-114.
2. Amrit Mohan.., 2014. Consumer Behaviour towards Smartphone industry in Indian Market. DublinBusinessSchool Publications.
3. Mesay SataShanka, 2013..Factors affecting consumer behaviour of mobile phones- Mediterranean Journal of Social sciences.
4. P V SreeVyshnavi., 2016. Factors affecting mobile phone purchase in towns. International Journal of Current Advanced research.
5. https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP44856419
6. http://www.businessworld.in/article/Xiaomi-Ringing-In-Success/27-12-2018-165601/
7. https://www.dnaindia.com/business/report-what-to-expect-from-the-smartphone-industry-in-2019-2702583
8. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Indian-smartphone-market
9. https://www.livemint.com/technology/gadgets/indian-smartphone-market-grew-by-10-annually-in-2018-report-1549642282575.html

Impact of Cellphones Branding on Consumer Buying Behavior

Abstract

Branding is one of the most significant factor in consumer buying behavior. The paper consist about how branding impact on consumer buying behavior. Now a days cellphone industry in its boom stage there are many brands available for mobile phones & each brand has its own competitive advantage the paper also focus on which factors considered while purchasing particular brand. From last 18-19 years there was tremendous change in cell phone industry earlier use cell phones was only restricted to making & receiving calls but now days use of cell phones is beyond human neseecites. This paper also consist of investors perception towards different cell phones brands.

Introduction

Branding and Brand based differentiation are powerful means for creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Corporations for years are devising the Branding strategy to achieve the highest return from investment in brands. Companies have a wide variety of options available with respect to branding strategy. In spite of well devised branding strategy, the brand varies in the amount of power and values in the market place, at one extreme some brands are unknown to most of the buyer then there are brands that had a fairly high degree of brand awareness, brand acceptability, and brand preference and some commands high degree of brand loyalty.

In case of mobile phones, to understand consumer buying behavior for brands of the companies employing diverse branding strategy would be very crucial. As mobile phones are becoming one of the basic necessity, it is important to study the consumer buying behavior to understand the consumer preferences and reasons for those preferences. Smartphone has formed new dimensions for business in Indian market. It is not only the smartphone sellers who are enjoying the business but it also created a new area for mobile application developing companies in India. Internet services providers and other sectors of life to utilize the smartphone to gain competitive advantages. As much as mobile market is concerned, India has already proven to be a giant in the sector in terms of both a producer and a consumer. Since 2016, India has the fastest growing smartphone market in the world. And from the February of 2015 report has confirmed that India’s mobile market has already surpassed the USA, establishing itself as the second largest in the world, behind China in the top spot.

By India’s increased production capacity and reduced dependence on importing smartphones, the emphasis for trading partners and external supplier from the global economy has shifted toward servicing the infrastructure and software environment needs of the mobile market in India.

Objective of the study

• To study the brand preference for mobile phones among the consumers.
• To study the reasons of particular brand preference.
• To study the factor influencing consumer buying behavior
• To find out an impact of brands on consumer behavior.

Conclusion

In this modern era, a Smartphone is just not only the want but also a need if you know how to make proper use of it. Obviously, Smartphone have changed the ways that we used to live, communicate and connect with people all over the world.

The craze for mobile services in India is increasing substantially. This study reveals the consumer’s purchasing behavior towards mobile phones. Most of the consumers having one mobile phone and also android operating system is most popular among the mobile phone users.

The study shows that Samsung was the top manufacturer of smartphones worldwide in 2018 where as Xiaomi became the leading smartphone brand in India in 2018 because of its better feature and reasonable price. However, One+ is also one of the most preferred brands of Smartphones as per this study.

Also, the research shows that Quality is the most influencing factor while purchasing the mobile phone. The majority respondents are undergraduates i.e., students and therefore Family and Friends have played important role in their life for setting up an image of a particular smartphone brand.

Bibliography

1. Aaker, David A & McLoughlin, Damien. 2007. Strategic Market Management. European Edition. Hoboken. NJ: Wiley.
2. Ehtesham Mohammad. Factors influencing Consumer Behavior in selecting Mobile Phone Handsets: A Case Study of USIU. 2012.
3. Harish, R., & Rajkumar, P., (2011) Service quality and customers preference of cellular mobile service providers, Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, 6(1), 13-41
4. Heeks, Richard (2008). ‘Meet Marty Cooper – the inventor of the mobile phone’. BBC. 41 (6): 26–33. doi:10.1109/MC.2008.192.
5. https://nextwhatbusiness.com/top-mobile-phone-companies-india/

https://www.finjanmobile.com/indias-mobile-market-benefits-global-economy/