VSRD International Journal of Business and Management Research, Vol.

III Issue XI November 2013 / 453

e-ISSN : 2231-248X, p-ISSN : 2319-2194 VSRD International Journals : www.vsrdjournals.com
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A STUDY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN
TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDER
1
Suvalaxmi Patra* and
2
Jayakrushna Panda
1
Research Scholar,
2
Professor,
1,2
Department of Management Studies,
Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, INDIA.
*Corresponding Author : laxmisuvatani13@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Consumer psychology and consumer behaviour have been playing important role in contemporary business market research. In this
age of electronic which is technology driven there is a competition among several brands of cell phones in influencing consumer
attitude, reference and behaviour. Market research is not independent of social changes, values and attitudes are based on cognition,
affection and correlation. The cognitive concepts of attitudes refer to our information based on beliefs and opinion about different
brand. The effective of feelings component refers to our feelings and emotion attach to different characteristics of different cell phone
and the cognitive component relates to our decision making and purchase behaviour it is observed that various types of consumer such
as businessman, professional and students do have different kind of values and attitudes as such their consumer behaviour will be
different. There is always a gender difference in the society as a result of socialisation, social values, family values and individual
orientation. While considering different characteristics of cell phone such as brand, technology, utility, necessity or popularity,
different types of consumer give different types of emphasis on these facets, intensive research is warranted to know the dynamics so
that more useful research could be undertaken.
Keywords : Consumer, Consumer Behaviour, Telecom Service Provider.

1. INTRODUCTION
Just before two decades Mobile phones were used only
by the wealthy people and business man. After
globalization and availability of new technology Mobile
phones have become commonly used communication
device. The manufacturers of mobile phone handsets and
the service providers have achieved a phenomenal
success by converting usage of Mobile phones from
luxurious item to commonly used item. Along with Food,
Cloth and Shelter, Mobile phone has become a basic need
for human beings today. This has been possible for
reduction of price and availability of modern technology.
The mobile phone market is one of the dynamic markets
that have been growing by leaps and bounds in the last
decade. Although the manufacturers conduct a lot of
market studies, their outcomes are not made available to
the public. Therefore, consumer behavior of mobile
phone is an open area for study. These days are the most
interesting times to study consumer behavior in the
mobile industry as changes are happening around. There
has been changes and challenges needed for new mobile ,
currently there is the trend of shifting from second
generation mobile phones to third generation in the
mobile industry. It means that mobile phones will not be
an instrument used for speaking only but a tool that
allows a variety of new services such as high bandwidth
internet access, multimedia messaging service (MMS)
and video conferencing. We are currently witnessing a
shift from modem connection to wireless internet
connection by using w-lan and GPRS network. The real
advantage of 3G mobile services relates to faster
broadband speed internet connection.
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The following research objectives have been identified to
be studied during the course of this ongoing research.
To analyse the factors which consumer considers at
the time of purchase of cell phone.
To find out brand of cell phone affect consumer
behavior.
To find out whether gender has an effect on purchase
of cell phone or not.
3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The research has got wide scope covering several areas of
consumer behaviour relating to brand, type of people
gender and marketing strategy of different brands. It has
also a scope of probing into the operations of technology
in influencing consumer attitude, opinion and purchasing
strategy.
4. METHODOLOGY
The present study follows a 2 X 2 factorial design of
research. Factor one refers to types of consumers
(business and professional) versus students and factor two
refers the gender (male & female) there are four sub
groups namely: Male business man and professional,
Female business man and professional, Male students and
Female students. In each sub groups there are sixty
respondents (N = 240) and the minimum educational
qualification of the respondents is graduation. The study
focused a persuasive random technique for selecting the
respondents.
Suvalaxmi Patra and Jayakrushna Panda VSRDIJBMR, Vol. III (XI) November 2013 / 454

5. SOURCE OF DATA
The present study is based on both primary and secondary
data sources. The primary source of data were gathered
by administering questionnaire and interviewing the
respondents from the 240 respondents and Secondary
data were collected from Relevant literatures sources
such as relevant books, journals, magazine, report,
records and websites were referred to collect data from
the secondary source. Pilot survey was conducted by
administering questionnaire for preparing a final
questionnaire, containing various dimensions of
consumer behaviour.
Hypotheses:
There is significant differences among the consumers
using different brands of cell phones
There is significant gender difference with regards to
use of cell phones.
Analytical Tools:
Since the research followed a factorial design and scales
and instrument are in internal scale, parametric statistic
such as analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to
interpret the results. In its simplest form Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) provides a statistical test of whether
or not the means of several groups are all equal, and
therefore generalizes t-test to more than two groups.
ANOVAs are helpful because they possess an advantage
over a two-sample t-test. Doing multiple two-sample t-
tests would result in an increased chance of committing a
type-I error. For this reason, ANOVAs are useful in
comparing three or more means. Also SPSS package is
used to analyze the data on the basis of which
interpretation will be made.
6. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Students leant about cellular phone from many sources,
mainly from friends and families, through advertisement
and from their own experience. Whether a promotion and
advertising hurt or help a brand is under-researched
(Mela, Gupta & Lehman, 1997)
Advertisers must remember that advertising messages are
interpreted differently between different genders
(Maldonando, Tansuhaj & Muehling, 2003; Hogg
& Garrow,2003; Putrevu, 2001).
Previous studies have proven that females were more
likely to engage in elaboration than men (Maldonado &
Muehling, 2003).
Advertisement can change consumers perception of
a product in terms of attributes content and proportion
and also influence consumers taste for attributes ( Gwin
& Gwin, 2003)
Understanding why a consumer choose a product based
upon its attributes helps marketers to understand why
some consumers have preferences for certain brands
(Gwin & Gwin, 2003).
In the study by Gwin and Gwin (2003), the Lancaster
model of consumer demand (1966, 1979), also referred to
as the product attributes model, was used to evaluate
brand positioning. This model assumes that consumer
choice is based on the characteristics (or attributes) of
a brand. Each product is a bundle of attributes and that
choice is based on maximizing utility/satisfaction from
the attributes subject to budget constraints. Both tangible
and intangible attributes of a product are equally
important in choosing a product or brand (Myers, 2003).
There is no evidence that certain attributes are more
related to customer loyalty than others (Romariuk
& Sharp, 2003).
It was, found though, that the more attributes (non-
negative) associated with a brand, the more loyal the
customer (Romariuk & Sharp,2003).
Romariuk and Sharp (2003) suggested that marketers
should focus more on how many attributes the brand
should be associated with and not what attributes.
However, this study did not specify what sort of attributes
marketers should associate the brand with; i.e.
whether they should be relevant or irrelevant attributes,
tangible or intangible etc. This is because it is important
that consumer accurately lean about product attribute
performances since it would influence their
interpretations of product performance by causing
memory encode and retrieval bias. Unfounded product
attribute relationship beliefs can mislead them into
expecting something that is not there.(Mason & Bequette,
1998).
If products fall short of customer expectations, then
dissatisfaction would result. Nevertheless, it was found
that through irrelevant, some attributes may still be
important in influencing consumer choice. Persistent
preferences for product attribute occurs when there is low
ambiguity in the initial potential choice for salient
attributes coupled with experience, although those
attributes maybe irrelevant (i.e. an attributes usually not
associated with favourable brand outcomes
(Muthukrishnan & Kardes, 2001).
It was found that consumers categorize as LP/SB (low
product involvement/strong brand commitment) placed
greater importance on product attributes and
product orientations than LP/WB (weak brand
commitment) consumers, which placed the most
importance on price. Marketers should consider using
advertisement, which may play a role in making attribute
important to consumers that might not have been
considered before (Gwin &Gwin, 2003),
The brand name benefits perceived by consumers are
highly interrelated to the product-based benefits. Big
brand means a better image and a better product (del
Rio,Vasquez &Iglesiaz, 2001), Mason and Bequette
(1998) suggested that perceived product performance is
more important than actual attribute performance.
Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity might be
influenced by attribute knowledge more than consumer
preference. This may be due to consumer biasness
and prejudice, Consumers product evaluations are
Suvalaxmi Patra and Jayakrushna Panda VSRDIJBMR, Vol. III (XI) November 2013 / 455

influenced by memory.
Wooten and Reed (2004) suggested that consumers with
high susceptibility to normative influence tend to use
protective self-presentation to avoid undesirable
disapproval. Informational Influence The informational
influence is based on the desire to make informed
decisions and optimize the choice.
7. ANALYSIS
Table 1 : ANOVA Conducted On Nokia User
SOURCE Df ms f P
A (TYPE OF
CONSUMERS)
1 232.47 10.14
<
01
B (GENDER) 1 212.44 8.13 <01
AXB 1 208.13 8.04 <01
ERROR 237 77.33
The findings clearly indicate that both the main effect and
interaction effect are found to be significant. Consumers
type and gender influence the behavior of Nokia users.
Table 2 : ANOVA Conducted On Samsung User
SOURCE Df ms f P
A (TYPE OF
CONSUMERS)
1 310.34 19.12
<
01
B (GENDER) 1 288.37 16.14 <01
AXB 1 270.81 13.77 <01
ERROR 237 101.24
The findings clearly indicate that both the main effect and
interaction effect are found to be significant. Consumers
type and gender influence the behavior of Samsung users.
Table 3 : ANOVA Conducted On Motorola User
SOURCE Df ms f P
A (TYPE OF
CONSUMERS)
1 188.37 4.21
<
01
B (GENDER) 1 177.44 3.94 <01
AXB 1 136.89 2.16 <01
ERROR 237 67.24
The findings clearly indicate that Main effect and
interaction effect are found to be significant. It indicates
that both consumers type and gender influence the use of
cell phone.
Table 4 : ANOVA Conducted On L G User
SOURCE Df ms f P
A (TYPE OF
CONSUMERS)
1 218.73 20.14
<
01
B (GENDER( 1 212.77 18.27 <01
AXB 1 184.26 15.26 <01
ERROR 237 100.74
The ANOVA revels both gender and consumer type
jointly influences cell phone use.
The study has taken up two aspects of consumer
behaviour (CB) and Marketing orientation. It has focused
on 25 aspects of marketing and consumer behaviour
relating to four brands of cell phone and three types of
respondents.
8. FINDINGS
The findings indicate that NOKIA user, irrespective of
type of respondents, have stronger positive attitude to
items like necessity of using cell phone, using Nokia as
the brand and giving importance to the brand name of the
cell phone. They also focus on cell phone categories such
as GSM/CDMA, mode SIM (dual/Single), screen type,
camera resolution, and sustainability of batteries/ talk
time, connectivity/internet, Wi Fi multimedia. Nokia
users give lower attention to other brand of cell phones,
price particular. Cell phone used by important people,
video recording and I pod and popularity of the cell
phone.
On the other hand Samsung users give high degree of
necessity of importance of cell phone. They also focus on
brand name. They also value SIM operating system and
display features. They also give importance to screen size
and memory capacity. They value sustainability of the
battery and talk time. They do not give importance to a
particular cell phone used by important people or
popularity of the cell phone. They give a very high
positive opinion regarding the favourability of use of the
cell phone.
The Motorola users give at most importance to the
necessity of the using of cell phone. They do not value
brand names of brand names of NOKIA, SAMSUNG and
L G. they put emphasis on the brand name, categories,
such as GSM/CDMA, screen type, memory capacity,
camera resolution, sustainability of battery/ talk time,
connectivity, internet, wi fi/ multimedia have ever the
Motorla user do not give importance to a particular cell
phone used by important people, popularity of the cell
phone and video recording and I pod.
The L G users have with positive attitude towards the
positive necessity for using the cell phones. They also
value brand name, they also value the categories such as
GSM/CDMA, they also importance to screen type,
memory capacity, camera resolution, sustainability of
battery or talk time, connectivity / internet, wi fi /
multimedia and a set of advertised by electronic media.
On the other hand they give low importance to a
particular cell phone used by important people, popular
cell phone, video recording and I pad and favourability of
use of cell phone.
9. CONCLUSIONS
An overall analysis reveals that users of the entire four
brands do give importance to the necessity of using cell
phone, brand name, categories, SIM, screen type, camera
resolution, memory capacity, connectivity / internet and
talk time. It indicates that consumers are contentious
about technology and system.
Since the study follows a 2 X 2 factorial design two way
analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to interpret the
data this analysis indicate the main effect as well as the
interaction effect. It is used for each brand separately.
Suvalaxmi Patra and Jayakrushna Panda VSRDIJBMR, Vol. III (XI) November 2013 / 456

ANOVA revels that there are both significant main
effects as well as interaction effect. There are significant
difference between business man, professional and
students, and there is also significant effect on gender
difference in relation to consumer behaviour and
marketing orientation. Business man and professional
using any brand give more emphasis to sustainability,
systems, operation connectivity and necessity of use of
cell phone compared to students. Females, irrespective of
the brand used give more emphasis on screen size, wi fi,
multimedia, memory capacity, screen type and category
such as GSM/CDMA compared to males. However the
differences are more conspicuous among the users of
Nokia and L G compared to Samsung and Motorola. All
these difference might have been influenced by electronic
media or by the prolonged attitude developed by different
categories of respondents. Since Consumer Behaviour
and marketing orientation are the results of several factors
it is very difficult to give a one to one co relation and
induce any final judgment. Market is changing, brands
are also changing and technology is moving very fast, but
human mind and attitude do not change so fast. As such
Consumer Behaviour leads to be assessed from time to
time.
10. SUGGESTIONS
Consumer psychology and consumer behaviour have
been playing important role in contemporary business
market research. In this age of electronic which is
technology driven there is a competition among several
brands of cell phones in influencing consumer attitude,
reference and behaviour. Market research is not
independent of social changes, values and attitudes are
based on cognition, affection and correlation. The
cognitive concept of attitude refers to our information
based on beliefs and opinion about different brand. The
effective of feelings component refers to our feelings and
emotion attach to different characteristics of different cell
phone and the cognitive component relates to our
decision making and purchase behaviour it is observed
that various types of consumer such as businessman,
professional and students do have different kind of values
and attitudes as such their consumer behaviour will be
different. There is always a gender difference in the
society as a result of socialisation, social values, family
values and individual orientation. While considering
different characteristics of cell phone such as brand,
technology, utility, necessity or popularity, different types
of consumer give different types of emphasis on these
facets; intensive research is warranted to know the
dynamics so that more useful research could be
undertaken.
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