University Students Choice in Electronic Products - Essay Example

1.0 Executive Summary Purpose – This research study utilizes a survey questionnaire and a semi-structured group interview in investigating the factors that university students consider when purchasing netbook products. Both males and females were interviewed, with questions that ranged from what factors they deemed important in netbook technology, to what extent did price contribute to their decision to purchase a netbook. Research question – The research involved two predominant questions: (1) do netbook sales reflect the intentions of the marketing, (2) is performance factor relative to laptop computers a deciding factor. Design/methodology/approach – The scope of the study qualitatively considered university student consumer behavior. The methodology implemented a case study and 100 questionnaires derived from the internet database (survey monkey), as well as 50 questionnaires from campus. The study implements a non-probability, self-selecting sampling technique. The qualitative methodology consisted of interviewing five university students. A semi-structured technique was used. Finding – A number of significant findings were determined. A significant number of university students owned netbook computers and they found the following things significant: battery life, price, product quality, storage memory, Bluetooth, design and elegance. The participants generally had a high knowledge of computer knowledge. They are also brand conscious. There were a few problems detected but most were anticipated in the literature review. 2. Marketing Research Problem Aim The research investigates the university students’ perspectives on netbooks, in order to get the information about the students’ consumer trends regarding netbook products. And to determine the wants and needs university students have for netbook products. Objectives To formulate advice to netbook manufacturers on the university student’s perspective. Research questions This research is interested in answering the following questions: Does brand name affect university students’ netbook purchasing trends? What percentage of university students own netbook computers? Does budget/price affect university students’ purchasing trends? What is the role of brand name in university decision making process? 3.0 Sector Background Netbook is an extremely lightweight personal computer. Intel introduced the netbook in February 2008 to describe small, low cost, light weight, and lean functioning subnotebooks designed for optimal internet use. The display screen varies in great part. Many notebooks screens only contain VGA resolution. Active-matrix screens create sharp images, although they do not refresh as fast as stand-alone monitors. In terms of computer power, netbook computers are close to personal computers. They have the same CPUs, memory and disk space. However, the extent of these elements is costly. Notebook computers come with battery packs that allow you to use them without a power outlet, although the batteries must be recharged occasionely. PCWORLD (2008) towards the end 2008, netbooks had ultimately become a larger commodity than laptops. Figures estimate that nearly 30 times more netbooks were sold in (11.4 million, 70% of which were in Europe than in 2007 (400,000). Figure 1 : netbook popularity in 2008 For 2009 sales are expected to increase to 35 million, and an estimated 139 million in 2013. This trend is reinforced by the rise of web-based applications as well as mobile networking and, according to Wired Magazine, netbooks have changed into "super-portable laptops for professionals". Figure 2: netbook sales in expected PCWORLD (2008), states that more than 50 million Netbooks are expected to be in existence by 2011. Netbooks are "small laptops that are designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. They they cost about $250, making Netbooks a potentially disruptive and high volume market segment. Even though Netbooks won’t be confused with full-featured laptops, my hunch is that tons of people around the world will be attracted to a low-cost machine that plugs them in. The Netbook will expand the global PC market. By how much is a matter of conjecture." 4.0 Previous Research findings Previous research has found that university students have a great interest in computer products such as laptop computers, and oftentimes purchase laptop computers and related electronic products. Indeed, laptop computers are very important for their life and study. As a result, the potential market for laptop computers within this demographic is huge. The majority of students entering college in September will purchase a new laptop computer and many others will need to upgrade their computers within the first 1-2 years of college. Past research states that this demographic does not require high performance computers and generally utilizes the computers to finish coursework and browse on the internet. 5.0 Literature review Buying behavior Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, where, how, and what purchasing trends are recurrent among a given population. It attempts to understand the consumer decision making process as an individual and group concept. Individual consumer characteristics are studied, such as demographic and behavioral variables, in an attempt to understand and determine people’s wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. (David, 2004) In this study, the main demographic is university students, and the investigation concerns segmentation within this market. Market segmenting -- also known as a Harry Pit -- is the process whereby a company divides the market into distinct groups who have distinct needs, wants, behaviours or who might want different products & services. (Aminjonov Mirhabibjon, "Marketing Introduction"(2009) Major demographic variables are age, education, income and occupation. In this research, netbook products target young and educated consumers. Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is essential for reaching this demographic. Kenichi Ohmae (2001) stresses that a strategist should focus on three key factors for success: (1) the corporation itself, (2) the customer, (3) the competition. In this study, laptop companies’ business strategies are to produce products that focus on students’ using habits; for example, developing good performance products with a lower price. Since a company has a clear strategy, they have to consider the brand name effect. Brand name effect is the consumer’s perception of the role that brand name plays in the process of choosing the most preferred product (service). In order to attract and retain customers’ low prices should be offered. This would enable the development of a critical mass. Also, incentives should be offered. Similarly, low prices would increase the customer’s usage. Furthermore, simple and clear pricing and billing (e.g. flat rate) would encourage and stimulate the use of various services (Sismanidis and Economides, 2007). Statistical surveys are a general approach widely applied to gather customer information and study consumer behaviour (Bennekom, 2002; Fowler, 1995; Vavra, 1997). According to information integration theory proposed by Bettman et al. (1975), in the context of product evaluations, consumers assign important weights and scale values (utilities) to product attributes for which information is available at the time of decision making. They then combine these weights and values according to some rule (e.g. adding, averaging) to come up with an overall evaluation. Consumers with low product knowledge might not be able to perform trade-off contrasts among brands because these comparisons are likely to require some minimal level of knowledge and brand familiarity (Ratneshwar et al., 1987). Small brands face twin disadvantages against larger brands: fewer buyers and lower purchase frequencies among these buyers. McPhee (1963) According to Falba, Grove, Anderson and Putney (2001, p. 2), “laptops are powerful instructional tools for student learning”. Student use of laptop computers is becoming more prevalent in today’s universities. This more ubiquitous use of technology has caused several universities to uncover and manage new perceptual issues in addition to some of the more familiar issues from the era of when computers were found only in university labs. According to Shelly, Cashman, Gunter, and Gunter (2004), the use of technologies in the classroom can motivate the learners, encourage them to be problem solvers, and also create new ways to explore information. According to Silvernail and Lane (2004), educators use portable computers in a variety of ways, most frequently in developing instructional materials, conducting studies which are related to instruction, and communicating with colleagues. Online shopping College students spend nearly $200 billion dollars a year in the United States market, and include an average spending allotment of $287 monthly. (Gardyn, 2002) With this level of consumer spending allowance, it becomes essential for marketers and research experts to gain a deeper understanding of this population’s perspective on shopping within traditional store front, as well as the newly emergent e-market. It’s notable that as much as 90% of university students are daily internet users. (Gardyn, 2002) E-commerce continues to increase in usage as progressively larger numbers of consumers purchase products over the internet (apparel products currently constitute a majority share of this market). Surprisingly, it was male youth who are understood as the initial progenitors of the ecommerce format. As expected, the growing acceptance of the internet among the mainstream population has registered a corresponding shift in the ecommerce demographic, with a population much more respective of the majority population now implementing the internet for online purchases. (Stores, 2001). Bhatnagar et al. (2000) argues that customers’ understanding of convenience in making an internet purchase had a statistically significant, positive effect the frequency with which they make internet purchases. Conversely, Ramaswami et al. (2000-2001) conducted a student that examined consumers who used internet sources for product information and discovered that for these customers convenience wasn’t a significant factor when they purchased products, as time was not a deciding factor. Bhatnagar et al. (2000) also considered the consumer’s perception of risk as it related to their purchasing patterns. Two risk forms were defined: product category and financial. Product category risk was determined to be highly technical and expensive. Financial risk was determined to be concern with supplied personal information. 6.0 Methodology This research project aims to explore the netbook of university student market and product awareness. In this research, two methodologies were used in this research. Qualitative and quantitative are both adopted in this study. This research surveyed 150 consumers from universities. (based on internet surveys, campus surveys). They reported their attitudes and shopping behaviors, and their brand awareness and knowledge of products quality and buying behavior of netbook product. Method of questionnaire As one of the main research methods of this study, questionnaire has played an important part of data collection. Time saving is one of the most vital advantages for using questionnaire because most of interviewees have very limited time to be surveyed. Therefore, a short question with fourteen questions will only take a few minutes to be completed, but contains a large number of information which is meaningful for the research. The questionnaire is used simply by question and response techniques that are then formulated into data analysis. (Emory, 1985) The variable benefits of the questionnaire method include: Advantages: Collect versatile data Obtain information from the past Easy to arrange and measure Expand widely across geography Disadvantages: Hard to target respondent group Difficult to judge the reliability of answer Maintain low response rate Appear different result from assumption Students in universities contacted through the internet (search monkey survey collection tool) as well as students from attending the London university participated in the survey questionnaire. While the 50 student consumer sample size was a convenience sample, the participants demonstrated significant diversity. As the research did not attempt to make point and interval variable estimate, but rather tested for significant relationships, this data method was appropriate. (Calder et al., 1981) The questionnaire featured two distinct segments: (1) socio-demographic information, (2) services received. The socio-demographic segment asked participants questions such as, “What is your general perception of the product when you take the service quality into account?” There scale consisted of a spectrum from 1 (lowest regard) to 5 (highest regard). The likert questionnaire consists of a psychometric scale and is commonly used in survey research. The Likert format consists of the following categories: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree. Survey items were as follows: (1) factors, such as gender and age; (2) department of education; (3) ownership rate of netbook. The subjects were asked a total of 18 questions about their perception of buying netbook products, which divided into three parts: brand value, consumer buying behavior and product quality. Questions consumers asked related with literature reviews Brand Value Brand awareness is important for me to buy a netbook Reasonable price is important for me to buy a netbook I have wide knowledge of netbook products I am loyal to one brand of netbook I really would like to own a good brand netbook Consumer Buying Behavior I am interested in netbook products Advertising will convince me to buy a netbook Netbook products are good enough for me to do university coursework Netbooks are cheaper than notebooks, that is the reason I would like to buy netbook I would like to buy a netbook because it is the latest technology I would like to buy a netbook online I would like to buy a netbook from street retailer store I would like to buy a netbook because it makes me feeling good Product Quality Netbook products should have high quality Netbook products should have high performance Netbook products need focus on Easy-to-carry advantage Netbook products need focus on Bundled software High price netbook means good quality product Figure 3: questionnaires related to literature review Method of interview Qualitative research was adopted in this project. The reason for doing qualitative research is that the target population is small; the best way to get the information is through doing interviews. Question designs will be focused on literature reviews and related questions, which back up strong academic opinions. According to the report of conducting an interview for data collection (2005), the University of Melbourne, Australia (online), states time should be considered. The numbers of questions are eight with the control the time of 10 minutes. This is to make sure these interviews would never bother them. This also ensures the quality of the entire research. The sample was non-probability sampling. According to Wilson. A (2003), the advantages of nonprobability sampling are that the cost is significantly lower. The less stringent procedures required potential respondent selectionsto be conducted reasonably quickly, the samples tent to be smaller, and ultimately easier to get the most important respondents. The Sample size will be 150. The details are shown below. Interview questions will be designed based on three aspects research questions. It will find out 5 students’ buying behaviors. The number of interviewees considers the total number of respondents. 5 interviewees were invited into a focus group. The personal interview is a two-way conversation between an interviewer and an interviewee to receive information from the answers of the interviewee. It is an excellent data collection technique to obtain the feeling and opinions from the respondent (Hussey and Hussey, 1997). The advantages and disadvantages of interviews are: Advantages of interview: In-depth interview collection and detail Content adjustment Control length and condition Economical equipment requirements Ensure a high response rate Disadvantages: Time and resource inefficiency Interviewer bias Requires well-developed presentation skills Hard to analyze The reason to choose interview as one of the main research method for this study is because the interviewees are not difficult to contact. As students in the same university, many students have been informed before the interview and have consented to the survey. Moreover, extra information about the feeling and attitude of questions can be collected by a semi-structured interview so that it can provide significant help to explain the reason of certain result and phenomenon. This is hardly received by other research methods. In collecting valuable information and avoiding drawbacks, four steps have been devised: Design the structure and questions order, making sure the topic is understandable. Schedule interviews and inform the participants of the process. Practice the interview process to ensure efficiency Give clear and appropriate instructions to the participants during the interviews. Continually direct interviewee to the topic at hand. Organize, analyze, and articulate data. Interview questions related to the literature review Brand value Do you think brand will affect you to buy a netbook product? Can you tell me your opinions of brand value? Is that brand important for a netbook product? Are you a loyal customer to one netbook brand? Consumer Buying Behavior Do you prefer to buy netbook online? What is the procedure of you decision to buy a netbook? Would you like to buy netbook on retail store? Product quality Quality is the most important factor to encourage you to buy a netbook? Do you think netbook should have high performance? Do you think high price means high quality in netbook product? Figure 4: interview questions related to the literature review Research Hypotheses Related to the literature review and by focus group and also from the findings of pilot research, Three areas of research were chosen for detailed analysis. There are: Netbook price Netbook quality Netbooks Brand effects Null hypotheses 1 Netbooks price is important for a university student to purchase a netbook product 2 Brand name will affect university students to purchase netbook products 3 Different department student have different demands on netbook products 4 Netbook products quality is very important for university students 5 University students would like purchase netbook online 7.0 Results In this research, only 27 out of 150 respondents have owned netbooks. That means in this research, there are only 18% of students have owned netbook. It is not a big market share. But it is similar with the current market share of netbook (in figure one). Results details also shown as following. Figure 5: percentage of students who owned netbooks Qualitative Results From the data collection, it was found most university student have owned laptop computer, but only a few of them have owned laptop. In this focus group, only one student has a netbook. But according to the interview, 4 out of 5 interviewees stated they are interested on the netbook products. They give the reasons for why they would like to consider to buy netbook products in the next year. The first reason is netbook is cheaper and it is good enough for university coursework. The second reason is netbook is smaller than laptop computer, it will more easy to carry to the class. The third reason is that netbook have been developed for years, now it might be good to purchase, which means the performance and quality both are good now. Only one participant reported he would not to buy netbook, he gave the reason is, netbook, cannot satisfy his demand on entertainment，such as watching films. Results Reasons 4 participants Yes. Would like to buy a netbook Easy to carry to class Good enough for coursework Smaller than laptop 1 participant No. Already got laptop Cannot satisfy personal demand Figure 6: results of qualitative research Quantities research results Hypotheses one: Netbooks price is important for a university student to purchase a netbook product This table indicates that the means and standard deviations for each group of views of price of netbook.The mean for gender with price of netbook products With a non-significant P = 0.584, the result of our H 1 shows that Netbooks price is not important for a university student to purchase a netbook product Hypotheses two: Brand name will affect university students to purchase netbook products This table indicates that the means and standard deviations for each group of awareness of barnd name of netbook.The mean for university students with brand name of netbook products With a non-significant P = 0.168, the result of our H 2 shows that Netbooks brand name is not really affected university students to purchase netbook products. Hypotheses three: Different department student have different demands on netbook products This table indicates that the means and standard deviations for different departments students’ demand of netbook. The mean for university students demand from different department With a non-significant P = 0.155, the result of our H 3 shows that each department’s student have a similar demand of netbook which means netbook is same for them to use. Hypotheses four: Netbook products quality is very important for university students This table indicates that the means and standard deviations for different departments sutdents’ opinion of quality of netbook product. The mean for university students demand from different department With a significant P = 0.043 , the result of our H 4 shows that university student s have a strong opinion of netbook product should have a high quality. Hypotheses five University students would like purchase netbook online This table indicates that the means and standard deviations for university students’ opinion on online shopping. The mean for university students demand from different department With a significant P = 0.032 , the result of our H 5 shows that university student s would like to purchase netbook from internet. 8.0 Discussion of findings From the results part, there are some significant points need to discuss. The results including the price, brand name, quality and online shopping aspects. The details is list below. The results indicate that there are some relations between the quality and the customers decision to buy netbook products. Related to previously literature reviews, the quality of product is the most important factor for any customer. In this research, more than 95% participants reported the quality is the first factor for them to consider before make a decision of purchase. Compared with the Hypotheses one: Netbooks price is important for a university student to purchase a netbook product, which resulted most university students do not think low price is the reason to encourage them to buy a netbook. We can find, the university students in this research put quality as first position. Go back to the literature review, “In order to attract new customers and retain the current ones low prices should be offered.” This point is not useful for this product in university students market. The reason for why university students think quality is more important than price, from the interview data, the answer could be found, the first reason, netbook product already cheaper than normal laptop computers, and the second reason they all mentioned in interview which is electronic product must have a high quality standard, otherwise, it would be the trouble to repair. According to Falba, Grove, Anderson and Putney (2001, p. 2), “laptops are powerful instructional tools for student learning”. Students’ use of laptop computers is becoming more prevalent in today’s universities. In this research, result of H 3 shows that each department’s student have a similar demand of netbook which means netbook is same for them to use. Also according to focus group’s interview, most of participants stated netbooks could be the useful tools for their coursework. In this point, this research result is similar to the previously literature review. That means laptops are powerful tools for students learning, but also netbooks have the potential advantage to takeover laptops in the university. Also in this research, the relation between online shopping of netbook products and university students was found out. The previous literature review stated, the internet has become more ubiquitous, the profile of the online shopper has come to resemble that of the general population (Stores, 2001). Bhatnagar et al. (2000) also found that customers’ perceived convenience of shopping on the internet had a positive impact on online purchase behaviour. In this research, the positive results shown the university students would like to purchase netbook products online. That is reflecting online service is important for all the netbook company to do. Although more than two months have been spent on preparing and working on this research, there are still many limitations which are ineluctable. Firstly, the internet surveys are so difficult to achieve a number of respondents as expected. And also the focus group arrangement become a great obstruction of the research. Limited time on calculating and analyzing data has also affected the process of the surveys. In addition, although most of interviewees are gettable, it is still hard to arrange time to interview in good practice. Because of unexpected changes, extra time has been spent on rearranging interviews for some of them. Furthermore, only 150 samples adopted in this research, it could be basis of target numbers. Recommendations for future academic research from this research are listed as below: Need to clear make a research objective Manage time and control research time Prepare academic stuff Need to find more participants in the aim of avoid basis 9.0 Further Marketing Research Projects For the netbook industry, from this research, basically the university students agreed the netbook products could be the good product which can be offered to the university students. The currently marketing research can only give a basic overview of this particular segment market. But it will be useful to any netbook company for exploring students market. Students market is a target market for any company, and also students are powerful customer group. It is worth to do another marketing research about the details of university students demands on netbook product. Here are some new hypotheses could be tested: H1,netbook will takeover laptop or other tools in the lectures or seminars by learning. H2, Netbooks do not need high performance, because students like the advantage of the size. H3, brand name is not affecting Netbook products in university students market. 10.0 Conclusion This is a marketing research based on overview university students buying behavior of netbook products. This research has been taken two month to complete, which try to make the research useful. Many literature reviews have been adopted from E-sources and books, and these literature reviews are related to this research’s purpose. Although, some results in this case study cannot get the similar results with literature reviews, but it is good for marketing development for netbook products. The positive result is university students accept this kind of product, that can give netbook company encouragement to keep on develop the technology of netbook. Netbook Manufacturers have to define the correct students’ demand, then to produce the correct product in order to satisfy more customers and also to gain more profit. 11.0 Reference Bennekom, F. C. V. (2002). Customer surveying: A guidebook for service managers. Customer Service Press. Bettman, J.R., Capon, N. and Lutz, R.L. (1975), “Cognitive algebra in multi-attribute attitude models”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 12, pp. 151-64. Bhatnagar, A., Misra, S. and Rao, H.R. (2000), “On risk, convenience and internet shopping behavior”, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 43 No. 11, pp. 98-105. David, J (2004) Principles and practice of marketing 4th edition, McGraw.hill Emory, C. (1985), ‘Business Research Methods’, 3rd Edition, Richard D. Irwin, Inc, USA. Hussey, J and R. Hussey (1997), ‘Business Research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students’, Macmillan Press, London Ratneshwar, S., Shocker, A.D. and Stewart, D.W. (1987), “Toward understanding the attraction effect: the implications of product stimuli meaningfulness and familiarity”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13, March, pp. 520-33. Ramaswami, S., Strader, T. and Brett, K. (2000-2001), “Determinants of online channel use for purchasing financial products”, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 95-118, Winter. Kenichi Ohmae (2001),The Invisible Continent: Four Strategic Imperatives of the New Economy, HarperCollins, first edition McPhee, W.N. (1963), Formal Theories of Mass Behavior, Free Press, Glencoe, IL. Falba, C., Grove, K., Anderson, D., & Putney, L. (2001). Benefits of laptop computers for elementary teachers. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 33 (5). R Stores (2001), “Consumer trends in online shopping”, Vol. 83 No. 1, pp. 5-9. Sismanidis, E., Economides, A.A., 2007. User friendly congestion pricing in 3G. Ubiquitous Computing and Communication Journal 2 (2), 27–36. Shelly, G. B., Cashman, T. J., Gunter, R. E., & Gunter, G. A. (2004). Teachers discovery computers: Integrating technology in the classroom. Third Edition. Boston, USA. Silvernail, D. L., & Lane, D. M. M. (2004). The impact of Maine’s one-to-one laptop program on middle school teachers and student: Phase one summay evidence, Research report 1. Maine Education Policy Research Institute University of Southern Maine Office. www.pcworld.com (accessed on 4th April 2009) 12.0 Appendices Marketing Research Questionnaire   University students choice in Electronic products : a focus on the trend of netbook market growth Mini-note PCs have been in the market for many years; however, many of these products were significantly more expensive than mainstream notebook PCs. But in the year 2008, When it comes to naming categories of new mobile computing devices, There is the mobile Internet device, or MIDs, and there is the netbook, which some say is the latest name for the ultramobile PC (UMPC). In this study, If you would kindly spend a few minutes completing the following questionnaire, sharing your views and opinions on brand value; Consumer Buying Behavior and product quality referring to netbook products, it would be much appreciated. Read More