Samsung Galaxy S4 Consumer Review and Satisfaction - Assignment Example

Samsung Galaxy S4 Consumer Review and Satisfaction Introduction Consumer satisfaction is one important aspect of any business establishment whose main aim is to realize profits (Oliver 59). This is so since consumer satisfaction ensures that the business establishment maintains a wide range of consumers through consumer loyalty, which gives the establishment an upper hand especially where there is competition. The most important aspect of ensuring consumer satisfaction is ensuring that goods and services provided are of the highest quality available at reasonable prices. However, business establishments regularly carry out surveys on the ground in order to establish the level at which their consumers are satisfied with the goods or services provided. Being the marketing manager of Samsung Company, I was tasked with the duty of establishing how consumers view our products, specifically the newly introduced Smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S4. This required a survey to be undertaken by interviewing consumers who own the phone. This is very important since in the Smartphone market, consumers are known to shift from one phone to another because of poor experiences and satisfaction. Thus, this paper will explain various aspects of consumer behaviour. It will analyse the findings of the interviews undertaken. Finally, the paper will make a presentation to the board of directors where it will conclude by establishing the importance of various aspects of consumer satisfaction and how it will benefit the company. Concepts in Consumer Behaviour When approaching consumer behaviour there are various concepts, theories and models involved (Sharma, 26). Consumer satisfaction is the level at which consumers feel a commodity has met their need or want. Normally customers are satisfied when the product in question fully meets the needs of the customer, which the business establishment has communicated through advertising and other marketing techniques. For example, a consumer is fully satisfied with a smart phone if it meets the technological and physical requirements, which the customer needs, and those that have been indicated on the phone’s specifications that have been communicated by the manufacturer. Thus if a company indicates that a Smartphone has high definition display yet consumers realise it does not, and then the consumer will be unsatisfied. Consumer perception is the manner in which consumers view a particular product with regard to its ability to satisfy them. Consumer perception is a very important aspect of consumer behaviour since it is one of the major motivators behind consumers when they are looking for products to buy in the market (Erlenkamp 26). This is especially the case in the smart phone market, since a phone’s popularity greatly relies on how consumers perceive it regardless of other factors such as the phone’s specification. For example, a study done in the United States of America revealed that most Smartphone users opt to buy phones that they believe are good based on information from their friends and non professional opinions in social media over phones that are better in terms of specifications regardless of the both phones being of the same price range (Himmelsbach 92). Consumer motivation on the other hand, is the process of undertaking various measures and strategies to ensure that consumers in the market are motivated to purchase a particular product or products (Wright 120). Consumer motivation is very significant aspect since it ensures that a business establishment enjoys success since it will attract new customers as well as keep existing customers loyal. Examples of consumer motivation technique include sampling which results in attraction of many consumers. The Product The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a high end Smartphone released by the company in March 2013. The Smartphone was widely anticipated after the company announced its production and the features that the phone would possess. Furthermore, its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3 had been received well consumers in the Smartphone market where it ended up winning various awards. The Smartphone operates on a 2G, 3G, and 4G network with a 5.0 inches super AMOLED screen. The smart phone runs on 4.2 Android operating software, which is upgradable to 4.3 Android operating software. Features that distinguish the Smartphone from the rest are its unique picture capturing system, geo tagging, display clarity, and processing power among others. Within six months of its release, the Smartphone had sold over 40 million devices beating its rivals in the Smartphone market such as Apple’s I phone 5 and Sony’s Xperia series (TG Gadget Awards). The device has also defeated its competitors to scoop various awards, one being the Gadgets Awards 2013, where the phone was awarded the Phone of the year 2013. Interviews The survey aimed at interviewing at least twenty users of the Samsung S4 aged between the age of 17 and 35 years. The survey opted for this age group since it was the Smartphone major target age group. The interviews took too approaches where the first one required participant to fill out a questionnaire where they would indicate various levels of satisfaction of particular aspect of the phone. For example, the questionnaires asked the participants to rate the device’s camera and video recorder as, very poor, poor, average, satisfactory, and very satisfactory. In order to avoid ambiguity, the questionnaire asked the participants to rate each specification of the phone rather than asking them to indicate their satisfaction of the device generally. The questionnaire also asked the participants to indicate whether they uses another Smartphone and if so to compare the two phones and indicate which phone fully satisfied the participants satisfaction The other approach the survey took was where it held audio interviews lasting no more than ten minutes. The main questions asked included how the participant viewed the company’s brand name and why they chose the Smartphone over other devices in the Smartphone market. Through the oral interview participants were also asked illustrate more on any problems they experienced with the phone. The oral interview was came out as an important sampling method in the survey as it enabled the participants to expound more on issues that were either impossible or hard to explain in a couple of written words. Outcomes Eighteen of the twenty participants of the survey indicated that they the phone met the performance specification that had been communicated to the participant through various media. The same eighteen participants indicated that the phone had satisfied them and fifteen of the eighteen participants indicated very satisfactory. Five of the participants indicated through the oral interview that they had had problems operating the Smartphone and had only utilised seventy percent of the phones features and capabilities. Two of the participants who were dissatisfied with the phone indicated that they were mostly dissatisfied with the Smartphone as result of the high cost incurred when accessing data services and the short battery life their Smartphone had. Analysis Assuming that participant represented the portion of consumers who use the device then it is my opinion that the product satisfies consumers of the Samsung Galaxy S4. This can be cited by the fact that ninety percent of the participants were satisfied with the product while seventy percent of the participants were extremely satisfied by the device. The fact that most of the participants were very satisfied with the physical features especially its clear high definition screen. However, the presence of consumers who were dissatisfied by the device indicates that the company has to do something. This is so since it is the duty of business establishments and corporations to ensure that the consumers of their products are fully satisfied from the use of their products and services. Recommendation to o the Board of Directors I would like to inform the board of directors that customers who use the Samsung Galaxy s4 smart phone are significantly satisfied with the phone. This is as a result of both my interpretation and that of other of the simple survey that was carried out. This can be attributed to the fact that we the marketing department ensured that the phones features were not exaggerated during the marketing process of the phone hence the consumers get exactly what was communicated to them. However, the issue of customer support arose from the survey since some percentage of the participant did not all the features of the phone showing the need for more investment in customer care. The survey also revealed biased unsatisfactory reactions to the product where people blamed the expenses incurred by the customers through their service provided on the corporations. Conclusion It is important for the Company to understand the various aspects of consumer behaviour present in the Smartphone market (Noel 89). This is because, concepts of consumer behaviour such as consumer perspective and satisfaction are the determinants of success or failure of a Smartphone device introduced in the market. This will be crucial in ensuring that the company enjoys significant consumer loyalty, which will result in the devices which the company intends. It is very crucial to study the various concepts of consumer behaviour since it is very instrumental in establishing the percentage in which the brand controls the market (Martinez 156). Works Cited Erlenkamp Marco. The role of perception in consumer Behaviour. Munich; GRIN Verlag, 2006 Himmelsbach Tobias. A Survey on Today's Smartphone Usage. Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2013 Martinez Pepe. The Consumer Mind: Brand Perception and the Implications for Marketers. London: Kogan Page, 2012 Noel Hayden. Basics Marketing 01: Consumer Behaviour. Worthing: AVA Publishing, 2009 Oliver Richard. Satisfaction: A Behavioural Perspective on the Consumer. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2010 Sharma Atul. Consumer Behaviour. New Delhi: Vision Publishing House, 2006 TG Gadget Awards. Finalist Samsung galaxy S4, 2012 Available at: http://awards.t3.com/categories/phone-of-the-year/samsung-galaxy-s4 Wright Ray. Consumer Behaviour. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2006 Read More