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Research paper
On
Submitted by,
Sagar D. Ghenand.
Roll no:10012016
MBA – I
Div: B
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Abstract
Introduction
A customer is anyone makes regular purchases from a company or a store, while a consumer
is one who makes any transactional decisions of economic nature including buying of goods
and services. Consumer can be both personal consumer who buy for his or her own person
and family consumption and organizational consumer which could include nongovernmental
organization, political groups, companies and governments. Consumer behaviour is the study
of how individuals, group, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services,
ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. Buying Behaviour refers to the buying
behaviour of the ultimate consumer. Buying Behaviour is the decision processes and acts of
people involved in buying and using products which includes social and mental processes.
According to IDC India, Laptop sales in India have raised drastically, which accounts for
over 25% of the total personal computer market. Laptop sales only accounted for a 3% of the
total personal computer till 2003. The sales of the laptops has reached a mark of 0.68 million
unit in fiscal year 2006-2007 which accounts for a growth of 59% over the same period in
fiscal year 2005-2006. Sale of desktop computers and laptops has touched the mark of 8.5
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million units in the fiscal year 2007-2008. There are various main players in the Indian
notebook market. A premier global market intelligence firm, the laptop market has registered
79% Year-on-Year (YoY) growth during 2006. The laptop sales is growing at much faster
rate than projected. India's personal computer market is undergoing a major transition.
However, laptop computers cannot completely wipe out desktop computers, because both are
designed to meet different needs or different consumer segments.
The Laptop market is growing at a fast rate because of change in work life of consumers. As
the need for "anytime anywhere" access to information is increasing, the sales of Laptops are
also increasing. Other factors that are responsible for the hike in sales figure are reduction in
prices and affordability. Laptops are now sold at approximately half the price at which they
were sold two years ago. Laptops prices are now almost at par with the desktop computer
prices. The third most important factor is duty free import of Laptops as a personal baggage
that has helped a lot in increasing the penetration level of the product among the consumer
population. Awareness about laptops has also increased over the years.
The International Data Corporation (IDC, 2006) report mentioned that in 2005 consumers
continued to respond very positively to very attractive price points, but portable demand in
the business space remained very strong too. According to What Laptop (2005), Dell was the
number one choice in worldwide with 7.9 million sales. It was followed respectively by HP
(7.4 million), Toshiba (5.8 million), IBM (4.3 million), and Acer (3.9 million) in year 2004.
Furthermore, revenue generated from notebooks has long surpassed desktops, thanks to
higher average selling prices for notebooks. According to CRN (2006) in June 2005,
notebook sales accounted for $216.1 million, or $1,442.66 per notebook whereas desktops
accounted for $113.9 million, or $762.98 per unit. The average notebook price fell 11.8
percent from $1,635.07 in the year-ago month and in the same period, desktop prices fell 5
percent from $803.38 (CRN, 2006). In addition, new product launches to the market,
acquisitions and mergers in the sector, rapid developments in the nano-technology, integrated
wireless networking, and decreased prices make it extremely vital for the companies to
understand the factors underlying consumers’ laptop purchase decisions.
Background
The literature on purchase decision in this part has been limited to IT related purchase
decisions due to the product category which will be examined in this current study.
Consumers can prefer certain products, brands or companies over others, and to understand
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the reason behind these choices is exceptionally essential in order to market existing products
more effectively than rivals. Consumers’ demographic profile, purchase perceptions, and
their attitudes towards products or brands influence their purchase decisions. Jarvenpaa and
Tedd (1996/1997) identify many factors that affect a consumer’s electronic shopping
purchase decision: product understanding, shopping experience, customer service, and
consumer risk. Geisler and Hoang (1992) identify five steps in the decision process to
purchase IT:
The authors conclude that services companies follow a relatively logical and analyzable
decision process. According to decision making model, consumers process the environmental
cues; the physical factors of the product, psychosocial cues, such as advertising, and
consumers put these cues into a set of perceptions that shape their preferences. Based on
these preferences, consumers make their choices subject to situational constraints, such as
price. According to Hong and Lerch (2002), people evaluate various objective features when
buying an IT product, and because of imperfect information and simplifications according to
the decision rules people often abstract these various features into few perceptual dimensions
such as ‘usefulness’ and ‘price’. In another research conducted by Kim et al. (2002), small-
office/home-office professional (SOHO) procurement choices are influenced by a number of
salient dimensions (i.e. income, performance, price, inter-purchase time, network
externalities). Furthermore, surveys have repeatedly identified performance and price as two
of the most important attributes in SOHOs' Laptop purchase decisions. In a more recent
study, Dillon and Reif (2004) examine factors influencing consumers’ e-commerce
commodity purchases, and find that a history of e-commerce purchasing have a more positive
attitude towards on-line buying.
Objective:
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Definition
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data Collection
According to the research purposes of this study, a questionnaire was prepared and then it
was spread among students and professionals of VIM and VIIT College and collected the
data of consumer buying behavior on purchase of laptop. Since this research was focused on
the factors influencing laptop purchase decisions of consumers, it was seen appropriate to
perform a traditional survey. In addition surveyor had explained the purpose of the study,
with the questionnaire to the customers.
The laptop brands examined in this research were limited by the following brands: Acer,
Dell, HP, HCL, Lenovo, Toshiba, Compaq and Sony.
A total of 50 responses were collected, but 49 of the respondents declared that they had a
laptop. Furthermore, 2 of the responses were eliminated since they were considered as
unusable, so as a consequence, 47 of the responses were covered in this study.
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had switched, were asked to state the reason of why they switched from a previous laptop
brand to their current brand. The options for switching included (a) overall dissatisfaction
from the previous laptop brand, and (b) reasons other than dissatisfaction. These questions
helped to divide respondents into three groups as (1) stayers (those who had never switched
from a previous laptop brand), (2) satisfied switchers (those who switched for reasons other
than dissatisfaction), and (3) dissatisfied switchers (those who switched because they were
dissatisfied from their previous laptop brand).
One of the objectives of this study was to investigate the factors that influence consumers’
laptop purchase decisions. For that purpose, a list of laptop features was stated in the
questionnaires, which were gathered from the analysis of PC journals as well as personal
interviews with the experts from the sector. The consumers were asked which factors they
found important when they were purchasing a laptop. Finally, demographic questions such as
age, occupation and gender were also asked.
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Table 1: Frequency distribution of laptop brands
Frequency distribution of laptop brands
Brands Frequency Percentage (%)
Dell 15 31.91
Compaq 5 10.64
Acer 6 12.77
Sony 5 10.64
Toshiba 2 4.26
HCL 3 6.38
HP 6 12.77
Lenovo 5 10.64
Total 47 100.00
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the respondents were stayers, while 8.51% of them were satisfied switchers and 6.38% of
them were dissatisfied switchers.
Table 2: Distribution of respondents according to three customers group
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DVD/CD player 47 3.36
Bluetooth 47 3.30
Design and colour 47 3.23
Speakers 47 2.87
TV and audio connection 47 2.70
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Wireless internet 40 3.475
Weight 40 3.425
Bluetooth 40 3.4
DVD/CD player 40 3.325
Design and colour 40 3.075
Speakers 40 2.875
TV and audio connection 40 2.7
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Memory & hard disk capacity 4 3
Guarantee & warrantee 4 3
Wireless internet 4 3
Bluetooth 4 2.75
Design and colour 4 2
Weight 4 1.75
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Repair maintenance 3 2.33
Conclusion/finding:
Year by year the number of people who are using and owning personal computers (PC)
substantially increases in all over the world. Contrary to the introduction years of computers,
today they have been used by almost all age groups, and by both males and females, and the
gap between age groups with respect to computer usage/ownership decreasing.
In such a volatile industry, it becomes extremely important to learn the factors that are
influencing consumers’ purchase decisions.
Among all the consumer groups it is found that processor speed and type and brand image
are in top five factors which are considered important while purchasing laptop.
For aggregate results processor speed and type, memory and hard disk capacity, Brand
image, after sales service and display resolution quality became the top five features which
influence purchase of laptop.
In case of stayers they show somewhat similar trend with aggregate results in important
factors considered while purchasing laptop.
In case of satisfied switchers brand image, TV & audio connection , Processor speed and
type, repair and maintenance, after sales service are top five features which they consider
most important while purchasing laptop.
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In case of dis-satisfied switchers Processor speed and type, Design and colour, Brand image,
wireless internet, memory and hard disk capacity are top five features which they consider
most important while purchasing laptop.
Thus we can say that as the consumer group changes important given to factors also changes.
It is observed more in case of satisfied and dissatisfied switchers due to their experience
about various factors from previous brand.
References:
http://www.consumermate.com/survey-report-on-consumer-buying-behavior-on-electronic-
products.html
http://www.google.co.in/#hl=en&biw=1345&bih=583&q=consumer+buying+behavior+on+p
urchase+of+laptop&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=73a526cd30607c24
http://www.learnmarketing.net/consumer.htm
http://www.scribd.com/doc/28726420/Consumer-Buying-Behaviour-on-Electronic-Products
https://mr.pricegrabber.com/March_CBR_Portable_Laptop_Trends_v9_FINAL.pdf
http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html
www.pricegrabber.com
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Annexure:
Personal information
Name
Contact no.
Questions
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a) Dissatisfaction from previous brand in terms of following
1. Battery back up
4 Wireless internet
6 DVD / CD player
7 Speakers
8 Weight
9 Bluetooth
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14 Brand image
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