Individual Market Research - Term Paper Example

Individual Market Research Report of the 0 Executive summary Phones such as the Apple phones, Samsung, and blackberry have gained standing in the technological world today and that everyone seems to appreciate the idea of being associated with if not one, all of them. However, there are several varied attitudes that usually arise whenever these types of phones are announced. According to personal preference and tastes, the release of statistic demonstrating the dominance of a certain type of phone and not the other one in the market standing has been established. There are those people who love being in the possession of a blackberry, while others like Apple and others will always prefer to have Samsung if given a chance. This varied preference can be noted due to several issues. One of the most known issues that affect the market dominance of these phones is the price. This natural phenomenon will always rank and eliminate people keeping them into their expected social realm. Of course, the price cannot be the same when compared among different products due to some reasons, and that is why an equilibrium point concerning price will never reach. Another issue is its primary use. The phone functions almost in the same way and can do the same job, only that the working efficiency is not the same. This is caused by the inbuilt operating system. Therefore, people will always go for the phone that will give him or her, the anticipated services apart from the obvious call making. This is another reason why prices of the above phones are ever varying (McDaniel, & Gates, 2005 62-79). Having demonstrated that, it is pertinent to note that this being a report on the three leading brands, (app, blackberry, and Samsung) the most important attributes are outlined in this report, the influence of the above brands on both the customer’s decision-making as well as their perception. 2.0. Table of contents Table of Contents Individual Market Research Report 1 Name of the student 1 1.0 Executive summary 2 INDIVIDUAL MARKET RESEARCH REPORT 23 2 2.0. Table of contents 3 Table of Contents 3 3.0. Research objectives 5 3.1. Blackberry’s attributes 5 3.2. Apple phones 5 3.4. Samsung’s attributes 6 4.0 Introduction 6 4.1 The Mintel 7 4.2 The Fishbein Model 7 5.0 Methodology 8 5.1 Audience 8 5.2 Sampling techniques 9 5.3 Random 9 5.4 Systematic technique 10 5.5 Stratified sampling 11 5.6 Data collected 11 6.0 Method of data collection 11 6.1 Questionnaire 12 6.2 Reference to MRS 12 7.0 Limitations of the research 12 7.1 Budget 13 8.0 Analysis 14 8.1 Fishbein model 14 8.2 Graph 14 9.0 Findings 15 9.1 Conclusions 16 9.2 Recommendations 16 10 Appendices 17 10.1Appendices one 18 10.2Appendices two questionaires 18 3.0. Research objectives As earlier on stated, the main objective of this report is to classify the most pertinent attributes of the selected mobile phones as well as not only their adjacent influence on customer’s decision making but also the consumer’s perception on the same Aaker, Kumar, 1998 25-27). Each phone’s attributes are as follows; 3.1. Blackberry’s attributes The manufactures recognized the need of special servers being embedded in blackberry phones, which make it, operate between the email and phone systems hence providing a better performance. Furthermore, this phone has been known to offer the best ever security as compared to other phones. Thirdly, the phone also do not only use ‘back’ buttons when it comes to multitasking. It has special flow features that allow one to effectively transit between the applications by the use of a finger to flick them to sides( OECD economic surveys. 2006 89-92). At this moment, the peek features permits one to have a glance at the notifications and messages without exiting from the working application and open a hub. This attributes made it fly to the top rankings in the technology of phones. 3.2. Apple phones To this phone, all the media related features can be noted. First, the phone is made to have an advanced iOS five, linked with cloud-integration. Secondly, the phone also has a good voice interface and music streaming features and lastly a 4G connectivity (Landau, 1984 8-10). Among the many available attributes, these ones have been proved outstanding since every person who has this type of phone, praised it through the recognition of the above features. Notably, this phone is known by its high media capability. And since people are gradually moving from the world of median ignorance to the world of media addiction, then this phone proves to be the best of them all. Its technological approach during manufacturing is something that is worth of praise. 3.4. Samsung’s attributes Although Samsung phones are being advanced daily, for instance there is the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy S4 and many others; the truth is that all the phones are created from almost the same principles. The differentiation of its names comes as a result of the existing phone being advanced from the previous phone. For instance, the S4 phone is an advancement of the S3. However, the attributes are almost the same (Gratton, & Gratton, 2004 21- 25). This phone acts as a bridge between the phones and tablets. It has an extra-large 5.3-inch display. It has handwriting feature plus stylus recognition. Apart from the many other apps, that enable the user to sketch and take notes, the most important feature is that the phone supports 4G LTE data and it has the best 8megapixel camera. Those who are in possession of this phones, asserts that the phone works best and suits them (Barber, 2010 5-6). They have so far enjoyed the rare phone’s features that S3 and S4 had, and are further expecting to get the best from the forthcoming S5 phone. The above attributes overpowers the other obvious attributes that one can get in other un-competitive technological firms that are producing phones. 4.0 Introduction It is pertinent to note that a report is based on data collection. In the same way, this report has been cumulatively released based on the available data. Here, the data type in prominence is secondary, where most of the information is derived from the records as well as governmental statistics. To some degree, the primary data method collection is acknowledged, where questionnaires were put into action. However, the majority of its outlay comes from secondary data (Rowles, 2007 21-41). 4.1 The Mintel From the report gathered the use of Mintel was initiated to develop research questions. Proper representations of those who are in possession of these products have been reached by the introduction of the Mintel. Here, all the female, male and relevant age groups gave out their views concerning the phone’s attribute and its influence on the consumer’s decisions. Further more, since the report is based on the phone survey, the commissioning firm is the Mintel. From the random digital Dialing, as well as geographical and demographic target the firm played a vital role in listing the telephone data collection. With this as secondary data collection criterion, it is true to ascertain that the information gathered is highly effective. Therefore, through the Mintel firm, the report stipulated here is from the latest updates by this big firm (Sontakki, 2010 30-33). 4.2 The Fishbein Model For precision, the Fishbein Model gave out the best. It is through this method that the three phone’s attributes were discovered and how they benefit the customers (Brace, 2008 13-16). Besides, it is noted that everything a consumer does is related to acquiring, disposing as well as the usage of the said product. It further clarifies the fact that the mobile phone consumers are being directed to a certain technological requirement. For instance, many people consider buying a blackberry phone because they value its centrality between the emailing and messaging. This attribute has forced many people to have the taste of blackberry, hence making it become on the top of the ranking ladder. 5.0 Methodology Before the actual research, it was pertinent to evaluate a target group. And since the product in subject is related to technology, then the obvious groups in target are teenagers and youths who are technologically literate. According to statistics, it is of no offense to conclude that in most cases youth and teenagers usually strive to be associated with the latest technology in existence. That is why; most of these groups of people are doing a lot of research on their own, concerning the best phone in the market today. That is why; they formed the best group of people, who could give out the best and reliable information regarding this report. 5.1 Audience The immediate audience is the teenagers and youths aged between 15 and 35 years. These are the groups that are very much active when it comes to internet related issues and the immerging technology, and therefore were seen as very much reliable when it comes to this research. Apart from education, they have the urge of understanding what exactly does each phone have; or rather they have full information regarding each feature that makes a certain phone unique from the other one. Thirdly, these are the people who are very much conversant with the internet, since all the research they want can easily be found online. In other words, they are forced to go online and get full information regarding a certain product brand. Therefore, they understand how useful the phones are to the user, who visits the internet almost every time. This explains why the above three phones are the best in the market today. The phones give the user an easy task when it comes to the online environment. Further this population can be found easily unlike the elderly people. As per the population graph, it is noted that it bears a pyramid shape, suggesting that the teenage and youthful group is represented by a greater percentage and. Notably, regardless of a country, youths and teenagers are densely populated unlike the adult and grown up people. The ratio is 3:2 in favor of the youths and the teenagers. Further this group was found to be more willing than any other group. Perhaps they are not very busy, or they can as well spare some time and relax, hence being caught in line of survey. They were also very cooperative, since they gave out their genuine experience about the phones. 5.2 Sampling techniques There are several sampling techniques that prove to be useful when it comes to research. However, on this research, not all the sample techniques are effective and that is why, few of the many available sampling techniques were selected for this project. Some of the best-known sampling techniques are random, stratified, and systematic. These three had a close range of usefulness on this project as compared to others. Random sampling, stratified and systematic was the sampling techniques that proved very relevant to this study. The following is analysis of the three, and the elimination reasons for the two of them. 5.3 Random This was considered as the least biased of all the three techniques, because subjectivity here does not apply. In other words, each member of the total group of youths had an equal possibility of being chosen. It had a support prove where; it had a chance of being obtained by the use of random numbers. Since all results were supposed to be tabulated in a computer for recording, this technique had an upper hand considering the fact that Microsoft Excel has a function in producing random numbers. The said function was { =RAND()}. If the above is typed into a cell, then random numbers will automatically be produced. Further, the formula can as well be modified in order to produce the range that seems more suitable to the user. For instance, the numbers required here to represent the youths and teenagers was 75, meaning out of the many villagers in a certain area, only seventy-five were chosen as a sample. To formulate a formula representing the above sample is easy, you only need to type = INT {75*RAND ()} +1. These seemed to be the best method to use in the research. This technique was used based on half an hour intervals. Here, after ever a half an hour, a participant was required to either be undertaking interview, or filling up a questionnaire. 5.4 Systematic technique This is also another good method of doing a survey; however, it is based of grids. Since this was done physically and not theoretically, this method was found to be unfit. In other words, it is a very good technique that any person can use when doing a survey, however, it is not very effective since it relies mostly on grid lines. Although its positive is that unlike the random method, this technique is more of a straight forward approach. Its draw back is that it is more biased, since all the members are not given an equal opportunity to take part in the research exercise. 5.5 Stratified sampling Here, this kind of technique is only useful when the original sampling frame of population is made up of sub-set of a certain known size. And since in this survey there were not subsets, then this method was not primarily fit for the study. 5.6 Data collected gender Type of the phone used Youths and teenagers Blackberry Samsung Apple phone Male 52 48 34 female 23 27 41 6.0 Method of data collection Since this is a critical part of research, in that, if not well catered for, it might bring forth void or null results, it was necessary for some youths and teenagers to be directed. And that is why, the main data collection method were the assisted, self administration and observation. In assisted, some of the youths who were taking part in the research required a helping hand. This was done by directing almost all questions to them in a direct manner, (without much elaboration). On the other hand, there were others who took part in the research, and they were fit enough to adhere to the self administration process. At this point, the self administers required very minimal supervision time. They further explained their real experience and how they are attracted to a certain phone and not the other ones. These were the individuals who produced the exact and very helpful information that linked to the market prominence of each phone. Beside, observation was also another very critical issue. It is wise to note that through observation, it was easy to acknowledge the number of male, and female who took part in the study as well as the total sample. 6.1 Questionnaire Questionnaire is what brought about the final evaluation. It was hard to ask every single person views and at the same time do the recording. Questionnaire saved both time and resources, since ever person had a single resource, and a perfect time to answer the asked question. Therefore, there were no any incidents of wasting materials. Wasting material at most usually a rise when a person is tired from the huge burden. Through questionnaire, the burden of filling all the seventy-five papers by one of two people was total controlled by the participation of all the members. 6.2 Reference to MRS It is always pertinent to get guidance from somewhere. In this research, the MRS proved to be the best advisor so far. They revealed the pertinence of adhering to all regulations and rights concerning the person being interviewed and the interviewer. They also produced relevant materials, concerning the flow of the three phones in the market. In short, their material did act as a general guide to the whole process. 7.0 Limitations of the research It is obvious that before any research goes through successfully, there will be several limitations that can prove to hinder its progress. This research is not an exceptional, since it also faced a lot of limitations. For instance, the interviewers faced a challenge in language barriers. As much as currently people are living in a more undiversified world, where language has been made equal by the use of one universal language-(English), the truth is that not all the people can express themselves perfectly well in English. Yes, the research was conduct to people who are literate; however, not all literate people can express themselves perfectly well in English if their first language is not English. Here, some sort of misinterpretation was witnessed. The research materials also were few. Some people missed questionnaires and that it forced the researchers to hand-write some papers for them. Harsh whether was also an issue that resisted the smooth running of the whole activity. At noon, people experienced high sun intensity which disrupted the whole session. During the evening hours again, the participants had to struggle and deal with the drizzling of the rain, which made them answer the questionnaire hastily. This situation led to the results being questionable to some level. 7.1 Budget It was better to ensure that a relevant budget is kept to facilitate the whole research. The following is the breakdown of the whole thing; first the expenditure on material was calculated as follows. One, type setting of the questionnaires was 25 dollars per page then printing them did cost 5 dollars. After which photocopy was done by 2 dollars to give out seventy papers. Therefore 30 dollars constituted the first paper. Then seventy times two gave out the remaining papers. All budgets for questionnaire papers were 140 + 30= 170 dollars. Then another cost when to transport, almost a hundred dollars. Then 60 dollars went in for lunch. Total= 170+60+100= 330 dollars. It was an expensive research. 8.0 Analysis Primary data was collected from the face to face interviews, direct questionnaires just to mention but a few. Then fully evaluated with reference the secondary data, after which this report was formulated. 8.1 Fishbein model In alliteration, this model constituted a road map to beliefs, behaviors and attitudes. Belief came about thorough the knowledge, benefits and attributes of the product. Behaviors here according to the model are achieved through the use as well a disposition of the product. And lastly, attributes are got from the cognitive component of the product (Nair, 2009 23-27). 8.2 Graph This graph represnets the dominency of each phone in the market, following the research done among the males. . This graph indicates the dominancy of each phone in the market, on the side of females. 9.0 Findings It is clear that from the graphs tabulated data above, every phone has its dominancy depending on the gender influence. In other words, the attributes of a given phone will literally direct the people who will be using it regularly. For male, they like technology than females and that is why, they have fallen for blackberry as shown in the graph above. This phone is the best when it comes to emails-an attribute that the male love the most. Female on the other hand fell for apple phone. Then it means that female ladies are very much driven by the multimedia capability of a phone. With this attribute in it, the Apple phone dictated ladies to love it. That is why, according to the graph representation above, many ladies are going in for the Apple phone. Generally, attributes will always dictate the flow of a product in the market today (Lynn, 2011 41-52). 9.1 Conclusions Generally, it is true to note that a product is always liked by its attribute. The attribute of any given product will direct if it will sale the highest in the market or not. All that customers will consider when choosing a product is the attributes. The graph of technology has is ever climbing, that is why, the phones that can support internet is what the consumer need. The group that has so far discovered this phenomenon is the young generations. That is why; most of the technological products are being purchased highly by youths and teenagers. This group is entirely innovative. Any firm that is fighting to remain on the technology should totally embrace new innovations in order to compensate the demanding nature of the current youths. 9.2 Recommendations Basing our arguments on the implications of the research, it is noted that a product should address or rather meet the needs of customers for it to hit in the market. A product that answers or responds to the search of customers will always remain stable in the market. Therefore, any given product should be made based on what the customers are saying. However sufficient the product might be, to meet the desires or rather the wishes of the clients, then there is no doubt it will sale properly in the market. Produces should understand this criterion, and adhere to it for effectiveness of what they produce to the world market. Further, as stated earlier, this report summarizes the three leading mobile phones brands, that is the Blackberry, Apple and Samsung phones’ attributes, as well as its influence ob both the customer’s decision –making as well as their perceptions, pertaining the market intake of the phones, it is of no offense to conclude that technology has embraced the world. With that, each firm that has the responsibility of technological knowhow should ensure what they release to the market, corresponds to the value of the technology at that time. In doing this, no single firm will face a loss or rather a sense of market denial on their products. 10 Appendices 10.1Appendices one 10.2Appendices two questionaires A consumer research investigation on target consumers’ attitudes towards leading brands of mobile phones Please answer the following questions Q1. Are you? [ ] male [ ] female Q2 what is your age range? [ ] 18 -24 [ ] 25-30 [ ] 31-40 [ ] 40+ Q3 do you own a mobile phone? [ ] yes [ ] no If yes, please state the make and the model of your mobile phone. Is it apple phone, blackberry of Samsung? Q4 when purchasing a mobile phone, how important are the following in reaching on which to buy? Highest lowest -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Size [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Price [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Design [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Features [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Operating system [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Battery life [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Q5 how good do you think the Apple mobile phones are when it comes to making mobile phones with these attributes Highest lowest 1 2 4 5 6 7 Size [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Price [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Design [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Features [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Operating system [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Battery life [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Q6 how good do you think the Samsung mobile phones are when it comes to making mobile phones with these attributes? Highest lowest 1 2 4 5 6 7 Size [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Price [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Design [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Features [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Operating system [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Battery life [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Q7 how good do you think the blackberry mobile phones are when it comes to making mobile phones with these attributes? Highest lowest 1 2 4 5 6 7 Size [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Price [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Design [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Features [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Operating system [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Battery life [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Q8 which of the following do you use your mobile phone for the most? (Please answer only one) [ ] Phone Calls [ ] Text messaging /Email [ ] Camera [ ] Music [ ] Alarm [ ] Internet Exploring [ ] Gaming If other, please state Q9. How would you best describe yourself? [ ] Shop Worker [ ] Office Worker [ ] Manager [ ] Director [ ] Self-employed [ ] Student [ ] Public Sector [ ] Home Maker [ ] Retired [ ] Other If other, please state Q 10. What types of the new innovation would you like to see embedded within the future mobile phone technology? Bibliography Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V., & Day, G. S. (1998). Marketing research (6th ed.). New York: Wiley. Barber, P., & Wallace, L. K. (2010). Building a buzz libraries & word-of-mouth marketing. Chicago: American Library Association. Brace, I. (2008). Questionnaire design how to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page. Burns, A. C., & Bush, R. F. (2000). Marketing research (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Gratton, S., & Gratton, D. A. (2004). Marketing wireless products. Edinburgh: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. Landau, M. (1984). Market research and industry surveys (2nd ed.). London: British Library, Science Reference Library. 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