Consumer Buying Behavior Of Smart Phones

Published by :http://www.ijert.orgInternational Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)ISSN: 2278-0181Vol. 6 Issue 06, June - 2017Consumer Buying Behavior of Smart Phones *Ms. Harshleen Kaur SethiBarclays Shared Services Pvt. Ltd.New Delhi, Delhi 110096Abstract - The cell phones have all qualities and features thatqualify them to be called as a mini computer. ‘Such handheldcompact gadgets that offer both communication and computingare known as Smart phones’. A recent research presents thatIndia has overtaken even the U.S. and has qualified to be theworld’s second-largest smartphone market by the users. Thefuture projections say that a billion smartphone sales would begenerated in the coming five years. India is a market whereinthe leading smartphones brands in the world involve in cutthroat competition and make every possible effort to win theIndian customer. This research paper is aimed at studying theconsumer buying behaviour with respect to smart phones inIndia specifically at the Delhi/NCR region. The purpose of thisstudy is to understand two major consumer decisions whilebuying a smartphone:1. Which smartphone to buy (brand)?2. From where to buy (online / brick & mortar store)?The store chosen for this purpose is Croma Electronics,Connaught Place (Near Odeon theatre) where a live study of theconsumer buying behaviour was conducted.Keywords— Smartphones, Technology, Perception, LifestyleI. INTRODUCTION“The relevance of consumer behaviour to the profession ofmarketing is a fundamental one. If marketing concerns itselfwith "consumer satisfaction at a profit" then obviously theunderlying principles as well as the overt symptoms of theconsumer choice process are of vital concern to the marketingman whether he is a professional or a professor”.(Ramachander, S.,1988) There are discrete functions includedin making the categorization of decisions before buying smartphones, which involve the rational behavior, which is basedon factors like, learning as well as experience and aredirected towards a definite objective.Mobile phones can be considered as the first form of theelectronic communication mobile technology in the year1995, the sales of the mobile phone in India has beenphenomenal. “Nowadays, mobile handsets have become anintegral part of human daily life and personal communicationacross the globe. In the current highly competitive mobilephone market, manufacturers constantly fight to findadditional competitive edge and differentiating elements topersuade consumers to select their brand instead of acompetitor’s”. (Guleria, Deepa and Singh, Dr. YashwantParmar, 2012).With a subscriber base of more than 851 million, the Mobiletelecommunications system in India is the second largest inthe world and it was thrown open to private players in iki/Communications in India)According to a market survey company, mobile user base hadincreased to 407 million users by 2011. And interestingly italso claims that there has been higher increase in penetrationand tele-density in the rural mobile connections compared tourban India. e-phones-study-2011-545.php)A smartphone is considered a hybrid device. It combines thebest of mobile phones and PDA devices. It permits the user toaccess e-mails, set calendars, browse web and use many otherapplications. The display screens of the smart phones supportviewing of documents, reading e-mails and browsing theWeb. Their battery life is usually quite high but depends onthe operating systems and also, the usage patterns of thesmart phone. Most of them have high-resolution cameras andadded features like, games and eBook readers are inbuiltalong with the hardware inclusions such as GPS receiversthat makes it an all-inclusive operational tool.The smartphones, in the present times and scenario, havepenetrated everywhere and raised the comfort level of theindividuals in their every day lives. The smartphones areproliferating at a very fast pace in India mainly due to theyounger demographic and rapidly expanding economy. Theway an individual deals with things is eased through thesmartphones. “India is challenging the worldwide pattern inSmartphone Market since it is still a developing businesssegment an expanding number of individuals are upgradingfrom feature phone to a smartphone. More than 70 percent ofcell phone smartphone users were relied upon to move up topremium smartphone models”. ‘India secured the second spotin the list of the world’s largest smartphone market, enlistingin at a healthy growth rate of 23% Year over year. As perreport from Counterpoint(April 2016) , there is anopportunity for growth in Indian smartphone In India morethan 1.2 billion individuals have smartphone in the hands ofless than onefourth of a billion of its people’.Current Scenario of the Indian Smartphone MarketThe Indian Smartphone market has leading brands like,Samsung, Xiamo, Lenovo (Motorola), Oppo and Vivo. ‘Indiaregistered 109.1 million units of smartphone shipments with amarginal 5.2 per cent annual growth in 2016 Samsungcontinued to lead the smartphone market with 25.1 per centshare despite a 13.1 per cent sequential decline in the fourthquarter of 2016. But Samsung’s annual shipments grew 3.2per cent in 2016, driven majorly by the J-series. Motorolaclimbed up to second spot with 10.7 per cent share against3.3 per cent share in the same period last year. Year-on-yearshipments grew threefold while sequential growth was 15.3www.ijert.org(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)742

Published by :http://www.ijert.orgInternational Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)ISSN: 2278-0181Vol. 6 Issue 06, June - 2017per cent. Lenovo (including Motorola) slipped to third placeas shipments declined 17.4 per cent sequentially in the fourthquarter of 2016 and 14.5 per cent over same quarter ofprevious year, the report noted, Oppo made it to the top fivelists with 8.6 per cent share.’Major smartphone dealers in the country at the moment are:1) Online Storesa. Amazon.comb. Flipkart.comc. Snapdeal.com2) Offline Stores in New Delhia. Cromab. Sargam Electronicsc. Vijay SalesII. OBJECTIVESThe objectives of the paper is to:1) Analyze the purchase behavior of an Indianconsumer buying a smartphone2) Consider various external and internal influenceswhich determine the purchase process of theconsumer3) Study the perception of the consumer regardingvarious smartphone brands4) Study the entire chain of the consumer decisionmaking processbehavior. Since, it has a lot of stores in various parts of thecity, it can procure its products in bulk at reduced costs, andthe same benefit is passed on to the consumer in the form oflower prices. Thus, lower prices attract a lot of consumers.Also, Croma is a multi dealer store, where the buyer can getall the brands under a single roof making the comparativesurvey and insight by the buyers easy and they need not visitdifferent stores for different brands. Further, they also havedummy models available which makes the choice easier.Consumer can explore the features and make a better choice.Store personnel are also properly trained to guide theconsumers. Consumers get a better knowledge about thefeatures of the product and a clear comparison between theproducts in the same price range. Hence, at Croma,consumers get better variety, better guidance and lower pricesthus attracting various consumers.Reason for choosing Croma at Connaught Place (CP)The store, which was selected, was the Croma Store atConnaught Place, because CP is a central location and attractsconsumers from all segments. Thus, it is possible to study thebehaviour of different people with different spending habitsin the same store. This would not have been possible if aCroma store in some posh mall, which attracts crowd onlyfrom the upper segment.Also, the Croma store in CP is located under Odeon Cinemas.This is a major reason for the increased footfall, as peoplewaiting for their movie ShowTime or their friends usuallyspend their time over there. They tend to get attracted by theoffers, which drive them to make a purchase sometimes, evenif it mounts to wasteful expenditure from their side.5) Study the current market strategies of smartphonemakers and smartphone dealers6) Propose a market strategy in sync with the consumerbuying behavior to the smartphone makers andsmartphone dealersIII. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe paper is based on primary as well as secondary data. Thesecondary data is taken from IDC Surveys, and othernewspaper surveys. Primary research was conducted bystudying the buying behaviour at the Croma Store,Connaught Place and collecting actual user data by devisingstructured questionnaires for them to understand theirdecision making process. There are certain identifiablecharacteristics of the consumer behavior comprising of ‘what,how, where, when, etc’. were obtained by survey throughquestionnaires.IV. OVERVIEWReasons for choosing Croma ElectronicsCroma was chosen as the primary store because it is a trustedbrand owned by Tata, and hence more people prefer to visitCroma, as they think it is more reliable. Also, Croma storeshave a lot of offers on all its products, which attract moreconsumers and hence it would be easier to study consumerIJERTV6IS060374Fig. 1: Layout of the Croma Storewww.ijert.org(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)743

Published by :http://www.ijert.orgInternational Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)ISSN: 2278-0181Vol. 6 Issue 06, June - 2017 Product accessories were displayed close to theproducts to attract customers to buy accessoriesalong with the product purchase. E.g., mobileaccessories and cameras accessories were displayednear mobile and cameras. Mobile accessories were displayed on the wall justbehind the cash counter where people came to maketheir payments.Observed Purchase ProcessAfter having visited the store for many times (during aweekday and at the weekend), it was observed that themaximum footfall was during the weekend evening. Around10-15 customers were observed, out of which only 4 endedup in final purchase.Fig. 2: Layout of the Mobile SectionThe following brands in handsets were available at the store:1.SamsungThe maximum customers generally followed the followingsteps:i) The customer enters the mobile section and asks for asmart-phone in a particular price range and with somerequired features.ii) If the purchaser has enough information about the featureseither by searching and comparing online or through his peershe asks less at the counter and his decision is mostly notinfluenced by sales personnel.iii) Depending on what his requirements were and thefeatures available he selects few.iv) After selecting on the basis of features, the consumerfinally physically tests the touch, the camera, the screenquality etc.In some cases this stage can arrive even after the secondstage, i.e., the customer gives equal priority to both price andfeatures.v) Finally the customer weighs the handset on both the priceand features depending on what weight age he gives to priceand features.In some cases warranty can be asked along with features 060374In 4 out of 10 cases the customer buys the handset that bestsuits his requirement and price range.www.ijert.org(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)744