A Study on Consumer Preference Towards Smartphones in Coimbatore City

Abstract

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

The Smartphone has been in the market since 1993 but Apple introduced the smartphone since last six years. Early Smartphone's were too much expensive for general consumers therefore predominantly meant for corporate users and used as an enterprise device.

The Smartphone era started with the phase purely meant for enterprises. During this phase all the companies were designed the Smartphone as per the corporate requirements and targeting to the corporations. In 1993 the era began with the advent of smartphone 'Simon' which was the first smartphone. Blackberry as the revolutionary device of this era had introduced many features like email, internet, fax, web browsing, camera etc.

This phase was mostly focused on targeting enterprises. The second phase was the I Phone Smartphone era started with a major breakthrough Smartphone market in 2007 which was first time ever industry introduced the Smartphone for general consumers. Google introduced Android Operating System smartphone with the intention to approach the consumer market at the end of 2007. Google emphasized more on features like email, social website, audio, video and internet access that mostly liked by general consumers at a very low cost.

Third phase of Smartphone was mainly targeted to reduce the gap between enterprise customer and general consumer requirements by improving the display quality, technology stable the mobile operating system, more powerful batteries and enhance the user- friendly operating system etc. The smartphone market today is very much challenging as very few manufacturers experiment with new technologies and are giving importance to packing phones with ever-impressive specifications and trying to improve the individual components to make a unique one. Smartphone displays are enhanced to 1080p resolution, digital cameras on higher megapixel density, higher storage capacity and higher processing power is approaching towards the technology of personal computers

During the initial years of wireless telephony in India, customers had a limited choice in terms of handsets. The majority of handsets were imported by a handful of global handset players present in the market. The cost of both the handsets and wireless services were beyond the reach of low-income users. Handsets then were fairly basic, which enabled users to primarily access voice services and limited data services such as short messaging service (SMS). Over the years, this scenario has changed dramatically with a wide variety of handset choices for customers. Customized low-cost, feature-rich smartphone has become more mobility and useful than ever before. Smartphone works together with the application software of social networking tools hence, new technology tethering is the process of connecting secondary devices to the internet via a shared connection of a smart phone, either by setting up a personal Wi-Fi hotspot or by using a USB cable to connect (or tether) the devices.

Tethering has been a complex and pressing issue for many operators not in India but globally due to an inherent lack of understanding of its impact on usage behavior and the undetermined potential impact on the profitability. Clearly, the ability to connect multiple devices to a single cellular plan could significantly raise the ceiling of the potential usage demand of any given customer.

During the period 2010-2015, the number of wireless subscribers in India is expected to increase at a CAGR of 11.2% to reach 1.2 billion subscribers by 2015. A majority of the new subscriber additions is expected to be from the semi-urban and rural areas, driving down the average selling price (ASP) of handsets.

A. Need Of Study

There are number of branded smartphones available in the global market. Customers prefer to choose one brand over the other. The customer purchase smartphones by comparing the features and advancements in the smartphones among wide range. This study is an attempt to find out the determinant that influence brand preference among the customers

B. Objective of The Study

1. To know the consumers awareness on mobile phones service in Coimbatore city.
2. To examine the influencing factors of the consumers for smartphones.
3. To analyze the consumer attitude.
4. To examine the relationship between the price and inclination towards smartphone brands.

C. Scope of the Study

1. The study aims at finding out the preference of purchasing the mobile phones andthe influence of the people in mobile technologies.
2. This study enables to know how far smartphones are useful for the consumer of Coimbatore in their daily life.
3. It enables to know the awareness that is created among the consumers with regardsto technical smartphones

D. Limitations of The Study

1. Survey was limited to Coimbatore city only, so it cannot be generalizes to all thecenters.
2. The sample size is limited to 128 respondents.
3. Time is one of the major limitations.
4. At most care should be taken by the researchers to choose the correctfrom the respondents.
5. The study is based upon primary data, so any wrong information given by the respondents may mislead the findings

E. Research Methodology

The process used to collect information and data for the propose of making business decisions. The methodology may include publication research interview surveys and other research techniques and could both present and historical information

The following aspect should be considered while designing a Research Methodology

• Data collection
• The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been defined and research design has been chalked out while decided about the method of data collection to be used for the study, we must know that there are basically two types of data Primary data and Secondary data.

1. Primary Data: Primary data is the data which is collected through surveys and questionnaires.
2. Secondary Data: Secondary data is the data which is collected through internet, magazines, newspapers, journals, broachers, television etc.
3. Sampling Unit: It gives target population that will be sampled this was carried in Coimbatore. there were 128respondents
4. Tools for analysis:

• Simple percentage method
• Weighted average method
• Rank analysis

5.  Method of Data Collection: For the purpose of collecting primary data from customer relating to the study and questionnaire schedule was conducted on the respondents

F. Statement Of The Problem

1. Technology plays a vital role in this modern world.
2. As far as mobile is concerned the technology is growing very rapidly, we are coming across lot of new types and models of smartphones from each company.
3. This makes the mobile market very competitive and the sellers are making their brand to be attractive in the market and they give concessions and various gifts for the purchaser.
4. So, to trace the preference of the people towards the modern technical smartphones the study was undertaken

???????G.??????? Emergence of Smartphones

The development of the smartphone was enabled by several key technological advances. The exponential scaling and miniaturization of MOSFETs (MOS transistors) down to sub- micron levels during the 1990s–2000s (as predicted by Moore's law) made it possible to build portable smart devices such as smartphones, as well as enabling the transition from analog to faster digital wireless mobile networks (leading to Edholm's law). Other important enabling factors include the lithium-ion battery, an indispensable energy source enabling long battery life, invented in the 1980sand commercialized in 1991, and the development of more mature software platforms that allowed mobile device ecosystems to develop independently of data providers.

H. Advantage of Smartphones

1. Keep your loved ones in touch, either through calls, text or images, which express the feeling in a sweet and amusing way
2. You may know where you are and find easy ways and routes to go anywhere, especially in an unknown place.
3. You can make the world listen to your voice in a touch.
4. You can spend your time wisely reading the news or doing some official work.
5. Can entertain yourself with games, music or movies.
6. Can always be available socially.
7. Can avail the Customer service offers to be easily accessible.
8. Food and groceries can be ordered online
9. Email and Banking become easy.

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1. S. Namasivayam, Prakash and Krishnakumar (2014) Client Satisfaction is that the prime aim of a business. it's necessary for businesses to manage consumer satisfaction. To be ready to do this, companies wish dependable and representative measures of satisfaction. The importance of consumer satisfaction decreases once a firm has will increase negotiating power, they conducted this study and located the extent of consumer satisfaction towards Samsung smartphones. The target respondent includes those consumers who are victimization the Samsung smartphones.1
2. Dr.T.N.R. Kavitha, K. Yogeswari (2014) For this study questionnaire has been collected among the size of the population is 50 and the survey was conducted in erode city were collected to find the solution. Simple percentage Analysis, Chi square analysis has been used for the study. The consumer buying a variety of smart phones which satisfy his wants and they are always influenced by his purchasing activities by some considerations which led him to select a particular brand or a particular operating system in preferred to others2
3. Deepa Guleria (2015) For this study questionnaire has been collected among 80 respondents on the basis of convenience sampling from Solan town of Himachal Pradesh were collected to find the solution. Percentage method, total weight age method and also Chi-square test and F test for analyzing had been used for the study. Thus, Smartphone companies must focus mainly on usage ease, processing speed, applications and technological needs so as to build strong preference for Smartphone and give an edge to a particular brand.3
4. Sandeep Kumar, Chaubey (2015) The different product attributes that the consumers give importance in selecting a handset have been observed to be design, price, internet connection, battery life, camera, video quality, apps downloading, operating system and social netw58orking. The product attributes help to select the product when consumer confused between different products.4
5. Prasad. S (2016) In their study they found the role of consumers using smartphones and factors responsible to select the smartphones on the basis of android or windows. For this study questionnaire had been collected among sample size 400 technical and non- technical students and executives in India and the solution were found. The SEM of consumer preferences has developed through the factor analysis of 20 statements on the different smartphone companies and used for the study to find that the consumer buying a variety of smart phones which satisfy their wants and they are always influenced by his purchasing activities by some considerations which led him to select a particular brand or a particular operating system in preferred to others.5
6. J. Sathyaanand K Varunapriya (2015) To find out the elements which influence them to purchase android mobile phones. For this study questionnaire has been collected among sample sizes of 120 respondents. Simple percentage analysis, Chi-square analyses is had been used for the study. They should get the feedback report from the consumer in order to fulfil the consumers need and wants. They should reduce the price in order to gain more consumers and to be at their competitors.6
7. Subhadin Roy (2017) Indicated that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on smartphone app usage intention supported the applicability of TAM in mobile apps. In research by Jasmine Taneja Jha and Joginder Kumar Nanda found that the maximum usage was for online shopping, Cab bookings and bill payments and maximum time was spent using WhatsApp followed by Facebook. Also, the consumers looked for attributes which were factor analyzed to give Imperative such as Camera, Multimedia, Touch screen, Memory Capacity, Color Display, Attractive Color of Phone, Design of Phone, Model/Style, etc.7
8. MirsathBegum. MandMaheswari.R (2017) In their study attempts to find about the consumers’ preference in the selection of mobile phones and SIM cards and to estimate the consumer satisfaction on the various cell phone services. For their study questionnaire has been collected among carried out among 62 males and 38 females, At total of sample size to be 100 were collected from various countries like Russia, China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan has been used for the study. The results of the survey show that economy is the most influencing element for the mobile subscribers.8
9. Sumathi K. and others (2018) in their study explored the impact of Smartphone on academic performance of higher learning students. They mentioned that Smartphone andtablets play a very significant role in higher learning student’s information seeking behavior in meeting their learning and research needs. It was revealed that there is high level of awareness about the usage of smart phones by higher learning students for their academic works. Smart phones have tremendous impact on their higher education, especially with easy internet access and high-speed browsing.9
10. PA Keerthi, 2019, Usage of electronic devices like personal computers, laptop, tablets and smart phones has become a major part of our daily lives. A future without gathers electronic devices is unimaginable. Day by day new technical advancements are being made to these devices and much new advancements are yet to come. In early days, using any one of these devices was limited, only a very few people were aware of the future technological changes, at present, people have started to adapt to these devices.10
11. G Saranya, G Yoganand (2019) Consumers’ preference towards branded smartphones has been focused as important in the current scenario. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the determinants of brand preference in Coimbatore city. This study employed descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance. Data were collected in Coimbatore city among arts and science college students. Standard questionnaire has been distributed among the students and sample size for this study was 100 respondents using convenience sampling. The results showed that the smartphone manufacturers has to concentrate on high end features in the smartphones with advanced technology in order to fulfill the urge of the consumers satisfaction and also to take steps to reduce the price of the smartphone because of the huge demand arises among consumers. Brand price plays a major role because being college students the price has an impact in the purchase of smartphones.11
12. P Jim Paul Joshua, S Karpagalakshmi (2019) Smart phone is a mobile phone which offers advanced technologies with functionality similar as a personal computer. There is no significant difference between age of the respondents and satisfaction with usage experience of smartphones. The satisfaction level of respondents on smartphones has been moderately high and it may be increased. The sales promotion strategies followed by smartphone companies are in the satisfactory level.12
13. Bhanwar Singh, 2018, Smart phone is need of today. A Smartphone not only fulfill the task of calling and receiving calls but also serve various need of users like internet and social connectivity, multimedia, selfie, health traits measurement, video calling etc. A large number of variables affect the buying decision of Smartphone buyers. It is need to note for manufactures of smart phone consider preference of buyer while design the smart phone. A number of large factors influence and decide the buying behavior of smart phone buyers. It is also need to consider to manufacturers that what type of feature, design and model, size, memory capacity, price range, after sales services. In this study various type of variables are included for study which represent different part of smart phone.13
14. P Kanagaraj (2018) Mobile phones are getting smarter each day. In view of the rapid development, multi-functionality, ubiquity and connectivity of mobile devices, it offers a

new and potentially powerful market for the mobile phone users. The objective of the study is to identify the mobile phone preferred by the respondents, to analyses the satisfaction of the consumers towards mobile phone usage and to compare the satisfaction score among selected demographic variables. With the click of small buttons on a computer one can easily get any information according to user needs and choice. Recent developments in mobile technologies have produced a new kind of device, a programmable mobile phone. Generally, smart phone users can program any application which is customized for needs. Furthermore, they can share these applications in online market. Therefore, mobile phones and its application are now most popular14

15. T. Kumar (2018)“Customer Brand Preference of Mobile Phones at Coimbatore “The research helps to understand and today’s mobile phone market scenario and generally analyzed mobile consumer buying behavior at Coimbatore. The findings also suggest that managers of thesemobile companies should shift their focus on building corporate image and analyze more carefully the reasons for purchase in order to increase brand loyalty among the consumers.Among mobile companies’ consumer are loyal to brands such as Samsung then to Nokia and then to Motorola, LG and Sony Ericsson. This research study will help the mobile 15

16 Veronika Kalmus, Anu Masso, Signe Opermann, And Karin That, (2018) Showed that three underlying dimensions of the perceptions of smartphone use such as expanding flexibility and diverse opportunities, vanishing boundaries and foci and changing social identity and communication conventions. Further, time use and subjective perceptions of personal time, rather than generational differences, explained the variation in the perceptions of smartphone use.16

17. Shrinivas, And Leena James, (2018) Noted that product quality and country of origin was significantly positive and related to purchase intention. The research revealed that product quality, product design, product price, country of origin on purchase intention of smart phone among youth had greater impact on consumer purchase intention towards purchase of smart phones among youth.17

18. Revathi Rajasekaran, S. Cindhana and C. Anandha Priya, (2018) “consumers perception and preference towards smartphone” ICTACT journal on Management studies. Smartphone usage has proliferated in recent years. Nowadays people seem to become dependent towards Smartphone due to its convenience, great camera features, easy applications installations, and more importantly, it can do most of the computer functions on the go. In this technology and competitive era, this study aims to explore the key factors which motivate consumers to purchase and use Smart Phones.18???????

19. Dr Sukhvir Singh and Mr. Inderpreet Singh (2018) “A study on consumer perception about smart phones” AIIRJ Vol-I January 2018 ISSN 2349 638xThe mobile phone has made our life easily. We can perform different task of our daily life on mobile phones in few seconds. We can transfer money, pay utility bills by using mobile phones in few seconds for which we have to go to banks that takes a lot of time. The aim of the study is to cover entire research about judging the customer reactions while making purchase of smartphone19

20. Dr. L. Venkatesan, (2018) “Buyer preference towards Mobile phones in selected areas. The Scope of this studies the customers using Mobile Phones to find the level of their first choice, perception and satisfaction. It was collected with the aid of formal structured interview schedule, with personal face-to-face interaction. The schedule covers personal data, economic conditions, and satisfaction towards charges and services suggestions from the consumers20

21. Mohan, (2019) conducted a survey and his findings where Smartphone is just not only the want of customer but a need. Moreover, consumer perceives brand image while purchasing smartphone and few consumers in India market are brand loyal.21

22. Khomh et al, (2019) According to them many software companies prefer to reuse existing grown-up software deliver a high-quality system in short period. One of the best examples is of Google who used Linux operating system into android OS for the mobiles. This study author has conducted an experiential study to understand how Android adapts the Linux kernel. Using software repositories from Linux and Android, author assessed the effort needed to reuse and adapt the Linux kernel into Android22

23. Junghun Kim, Hyunjoo Lee, Jongsu Lee, (2020) Brand loyalty, defined as an amicable attitude and commitment toward a particular brand, builds around consumer satisfaction and leads to continued maintenance and purchasing of that brand. The analysis revealed that some consumers made their purchasing decisions because they were convinced by other people. Consumers can develop an interest in a new brand of smartphone under the influence of their peers, which can affect their intention to switch to a new brand23

24. Mrs. Kaneenika Jain (2020) India is the world’s second largest mobile phone manufacturer after China. The important reasons for choosing a particular brand were better storage, faster processing and better camera specifications among youth of Jaipur city. It can be summarized that the consumption of mobile phones among college students. The usage pattern of mobile phones among both males and females was similar24

25. Venkata R (2020) has demonstrated the details of graph theory and matrix approach and decision-making method in the manufacturing environment. the linguistic terms with their corresponding crisp scores were given. instead of assigning arbiters value for various ambutes, this fuzzy method reflects the exact linguistic description in terms of crap scores hence, it gave better approximation of linguistic descriptions that were widely used.25

A. Research Gap

The research says the preference of customer on various brand are not the same. This study has an overview of the preference with respect to the features and quality of the various brand. It shows the customer preference on the brand name and awareness on various of smart phone brand.

… These real time data are collected in smart phone

III. CHAPTER – III

???????A.  XIAOMI

Xiaomi Corporation is a Chinese multinational electronics company that was founded in April 2010. Xiaomi makes and invests in smartphones, mobile apps, laptops, home appliances, bags, shoes, consumer electronics, and many other products. It is also the fourth company globally after Apple, Samsung, and Huawei to have self-developed mobile system-on-chip capabilities. The company has built the world's largest consumer IoT platform, connecting more than 100 million smart devices. Monthly active users of MIUI have reached 242 million by 2021. Although Xiaomi is not a long-established brand, it has become a big player in the market. In the third quarter of 2020, Xiaomi shipped 46.6 million smartphones globally, with a market share of 13.5 percent. As of November 18, 2020,140 million units of the Redmi Note series have been sold globally. In the first 10 months of 2020, high-end flagship phones led by the Mi 10 series have sold more than 8 million units worldwide. On March 30, 2021, Xiaomi Group announces its entry into the car manufacturing field, which has made Xiaomi the subject of much discussion. As a vigorous emerging giant company, we hope to understand Xiaomi's marketing approach, the development of the IoT, and the reason for its entry into the field of car building and its current situation through research.

Cao et al. studied the development of an innovation ecosystem from the perspective of managerial cognitive capability. Researches use a tech company in China, Xiaomi, as a core example to investigate the relationship between the innovation of ecosystem with the managerial cognitive capability using Xiaomi's IoT framework. Multiple ways of gathering data and analyzing data are applied; for example, conducting interviews with different employee levels of Xiaomi and cross-checking the data they collected Yang and Hua aim to analyze the development status of the mobile phone industry and Xiaomi mobile phones. They also carry out a SWOT analysis of the strategic development of Xiaomi mobile phones based on the Internet + era background, as Xiaomi mobile phones put forward the “AI + IoT” development strategy and are committed to the development of new smartphones

???????B.  Innovation And Development

In the 2021 review of WIPO's annual World Intellectual Property Indicators Xiaomi was ranked as 2nd in the world, with 216 designs in industrial design registrations being published under the Hague System during 2020. This position is up on their previous 3rd place ranking in 2019 for 111 industrial design registrations being published.

On 8 February 2022, Lei released a statement on Weibo to announce plans for Xiaomi to enterthe high-end smartphone market and surpass Apple as the top seller of premium smartphonesin China in three years. To achieve that goal, Xiaomi will invest US$15.7 billion in R&D overthe next five years, and the company will benchmark its products and user experience againstApple’s product lines. Lei described  the  new strategy  as  a  "life-or- death battle for ourdevelopment" in  his  Weibo  post,  after  Xiaomi's  market  share  in China contracted overconsecutive quarters, according to a recent report by Canalys, Xiaomi leads Indian smartphonesales in Q1. Xiaomi is one of the leaders of the smartphone makers in India which maintains device affordability. In 2022, Xiaomi announced and debuted the company's humanoid robot prototype to the public, while the current state of the robot is very limited in its abilities, the announcement was made to mark the company’s ambitions to integrate AI into its product designs as well as develop their humanoid robot project into the future

??????????????C.  Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is one of the famous manufacturing and selling of electronics and computer organization. It is founded on 13 January 1969 and it’s headquartered in Suwon, South Korea. Samsung entered the electronic industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding in Mid-1970s. It provides high quality of home appliances, telecommunication equipment, semiconductors solid state drives, DRAM ships, automotive chemical, Apparel etc. It also offers services like construction, entertainment, financial service, device solution, information technology and mobile communication (Cho, Kim and Kim, 2015). Samsung Company comprises various affiliated businesses most of them united under the Samsung Brand and is the largest South Korean. Samsung company have mission is to provide the high quality of innovative technology and electronic devices and services. The mission statement of Samsung is related to its vision that is “Inspired the World, Create the future”

Samsung Company has great organization culture in terms of innovative driver that assist in shaping the productive community within firm. It has designed strong culture for become an innovative corporation and world leader. Samsung Electronic launched an exhaustive program in 2012 in order to reform the organization (Chen and Ann, 2016). For reform the organization, corporation refined management structure in each business area to optimize capabilities throughout the whole organization. With help of new structure of organization corporation refocused upon the three business sectors such as Device solution, IT & Mobile communication

???????D.  OPPO

The brand name "Oppo" was registered in China in 2001 and launched in 2004. Since then, the company has expanded to 50 countries. In June 2016, OPPO became the largest smartphone manufacturer in China, selling its phones at more than 200,000 retail outlets. OPPO was the top smartphone brand in China in 2019 and was ranked No. 5, in market share, worldwide

The South Korean boy band 2PM prepared a song known as "Follow Your Soul" in a promotionaldeal with OPPO for launching its brand in Thailand in 2010. In June 2015, the company signed anagreement with FC Barcelona to In 2016, the Philippine Basketball Association tied up with this company as its o?cial smartphone partner, beginning with the 2016PBA Commissioner's Cup which began on 10 February. OPPO hires celebrity endorsers in Vietnam. S?n Tùng M-TP endorsed three smartphone units: Neo 5, Neo 7, and F1s. OPPO made a sponsorship to one of In 2017, OPPO won the bid to sponsor the India national cricket team, which allows their logo to be used on the team's kits from 2017 to 2019.

• Branding

In 2019, OPPO became a sponsoring partner of the French Open tennis tournament held in Roland-Garros, Paris. The same year, they also became a sponsoring partner of Wimbledon for 5 years asthe ?rst o?cial smartphone partner. Starting with the 2019 World Championship, OPPO is the exclusive global smartphone partner for League of Legends esports through 2024, OPPO will haveyear-round activations centered around the sport’s three annual global tournaments: the Mid- Season Invitational, the All-Star Event, and the World Championship. The South Korean boy band 2PM prepared a song known as "Follow Your Soul" in a promotional deal with OPPO for launching its brand in Thailand in 2010. In June 2015, the company signed an agreement with FC Barcelona to become a sponsor of the Spanish football club. In 2016, the Philippine Basketball Association tied up with this company as its official smartphone partner, starting at the 2016 PBA Commissioner's Cup.

OPPO hires celebrity endorsers in Vietnam. Son Tùng M-TP endorsed three smartphone units: Neo 5, Neo 7, and F1s. OPPO made a sponsorship to one of Vietnam's top-rated reality shows, The Face Vietnam. In 2017, OPPO won the bid to sponsor the India national cricket team, which allowed their logo to be used on the team's kits from 2017 to 2019.In 2019, OPPO became a sponsoring partner of the French Open tennis tournament held in Roland-Garros, Paris. The same year, they also became a sponsoring partner of Wimbledon for 5 years as the first official smartphone partner. Starting with the 2019 World Championship, OPPO is the exclusive global smartphone partner for League of Legends esports through 2024, OPPO will have year-round activations centered around the sport’s three annual global tournaments: the Mid-Season Invitational, the All-Star Event, and the World Championship.

E. VIVO

Since its founding in 2011, vivo has expanded its global market, serving over400 million users withits mobile products and services, to over 60countries and regions. ISn 2017, vivo entered the smartphone market in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal In June 2017, it entered the Pakistan smartphone market and the vivo brand is currently experiencing rapid growth and popularity in the country. In October 2020, vivo announced that it would begin to sell its products also in Europe partnership to jointly promote and develop breakthrough innovations in mobile imaging technology. The ?rst vivo Zeiss co-engineered imaging system" will be featured in the vivo X60 series. As part of the collaboration agreement, vivo and Zeiss will establish the vivo Zeiss Imaging Lab, a joint R&D program to innovate mobile imaging technology for vivo’s ?agship smartphones. In 2021, vivo was ranked among the top 5 smartphone makers, achieving a global market share of8%.” In April 2021, three pallets of vivo phones caught ?re at Hong Kong International Airport, prompting a ban on air freight of vivo phones through Hong Kong. In June 2022, vivo entered theworld- famous Guinness Book of Record.

• Marketing

In October 2015, vivo became the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) under a two- year deal starting in the 2016 season. In July 2017, the deal was extended until 2022. However, in response to the 2020 border skirmishes between India and China, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was criticized in India for allowing a Chinese company to be the title sponsor of the league. Vivo and BCCI mutually agreed to suspend the deal for the 2020 season, with a clause to resume it next season.

In June 2017, vivo reached a sponsorship deal with FIFA to become the official smartphone brand of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. The company also signed a deal with UEFA as an official partnerof the UEFA Euro 2020 and UEFA Euro 2024, and became a title sponsor of India's Pro Kabaddi. Vivohas a sponsorship deal with the NBA in China, with Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry. He endorses the brand in China and the Philippines.

???????F.  Oneplus

The OnePlus One was introduced on 23 April 2014 as OnePlus' first smartphone. It differed fromits competitors largely flagship devices from larger phone manufacturers, in its usage of CyanogenOS, its openness to developers, and price-to-performance ratio in comparison to its hardware, although criticism was levied for technical issues. In order to reduce marketing costs, OnePlus relied instead on word of mouth and initially only allowed purchases via an invite system. Throughout early 2014, OnePlus would continue to expand, hiring Chinese celebrity author Han Han to help market its products in mainland China and expanding its operations tothe European Union in March of that year. In December 2014, alongside the release of the OnePlusOne in India exclusively through Amazon, OnePlus also announced plans to establish a presence in the country, with plans to open 25 official walk-in service centers across India 2015–2019: Continued success, expansions in Southeast Asia

In 2015, OnePlus began an effort to expand in Southeast Asia, making its products available in theregion for the first time, partnering with Lazada Indonesia in January 2015. In June 2016, OnePlusdecided to pull out of the Indonesian market due to local regulations for imported 4G smartphonesrestricting sales of the OnePlus 2. Also in 2015, OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus X, the company's first foray into the budget device market. In May 2018, OnePlus would release the OnePlus BulletsWireless earphones. In September of that year, OnePlus announced that it would be producing a line of smart TVs with OnePlus TV exclusively sold in India. The initial model of the OnePlus TV line, the OnePlus TV, was released in September 2019.2020–present: Further product launches, Carl Pei's resignation OnePlus would release a series of new products in 2020, including the OnePlus Buds and the OnePlus Nord in July, the latter being OnePlus' first budget device since the release of the OnePlus X in 2015. On 16 October 2020, Carl Pei resigned as the marketing director of OnePlus.

• Invitation system

Early phones were only available through a system whereby customers had to sign up for an invitation, which OnePlus called an invite, to purchase the phone at irregular intervals. The systemwas claimed to be necessary for the young company to manage huge demand. OnePlus ended theinvitation system with the launch of OnePlus 3 on 14 June 2016. Announced via an interactive VRlaunch event, the OnePlus 3 initially went on sale within the VR app itself. OnePlus touted the event as the world's first VR shopping experience. The phone was made available for sale later that day in China, North America and the European Union on the OnePlus website, and in India on Amazon India

IV. CHAPTER-?

In this study three tools are used for analysis and interpretation to find the people’s attitude towardssmartphones. They are

• ?????????????? Simple percentage method
• Weighted average method
• Rank analysis

A. Simple Percentage Method

The percentage method is used for comparing certain feature. The collected data respondents inthe form of table and graphs in order to give effective visualization of comparison made.

No. of. Respondents

SIMPLE PERCENTAGE METHOD =---------------------------------------------------- 100

Total no. of. Respondents

Table no 4.1.1 showing the age of the respondent

Source: Primary data

• Interpretation: The above table shows 79% of the respondents is between the age of 15 -25, 11% of the respondents is between the 25-35, 5% of the respondents between the age group 35-45 and above 45.

V. CHAPTER-?

A.  Findings

1. 79% of the respondent are between 15-20 ages
2. 52% of the respondents are male
3. 79% of the respondents are unmarried
4. 66% of respondents having family members of 3-4
5. 57% of the respondents choose their occupation as other type
6. 45% of the respondents getting salary less than 150000
7. 70% of the respondents are aware of smartphones for more than 2 years
8. 32% of the respondents choose known brand as Redmi
9. 31% of the respondents prefers Samsung brand
10. 48% of the respondent’s source is friends to buy the smartphone brand
11. 47% of the respondent’s advertisement source for the brand is online advertisement
12. 58% of the respondents choose the brand by their own decision
13. 37% of the respondents considers quality as the main factor
14. 37% of the respondents considers camera as their main feature
15. 54% of the respondent’s periodical purchase for smartphone is above 2 years
16. 49% of the respondents spends 10000-20000 for purchasing a smartphone
17. 63% of the respondents prefers showroom as their place of purchase
18. 47% of the respondents prefer features for the smartphone brand
19. 34% of the respondents gives ratings as good
20. 34% of the respondents says their opinion as very good

???????a.  Weighted Average Method

• The above table shows rank 1st has been given for features of the smartphones and rank 6th is given for design of the product.
• The above table shows rank 1st has been given for features and rank last is given for brand name of the product.

???????b.  Rank Analysis

• The above table shows that rank 1 given to features that is helpful according to the respondents based on their attractive features followed price, quality, brand name, availability, design.
• The above table shows that rank 1 given to special offers that is helpful according to the respondents based on their special offer, followed quality, price, features, design, availability, brand name.

???????B.  Suggesition

From the study it is found that the four key factors which influence the usage and purchase decision of smartphone are product Quality, features, price and brand image. From the study it is found that customers are more interested in product features like battery, camera, Ease ofuse and Memory.

So, the manufactures can concentrate more on it while designing smartphone. Smartphone companies can concentrate more on battery issues this is a major problem faced by respondent in smartphone. As peer group is an important factor in purchase decision of smart phone, Advertisement is a best way to promote smartphone.

Also, most of the smartphone users get reference through friends and family. As price of the smart phone play a vital role in purchase decision, smartphone marketers can increase the brand loyalty among smartphone users by Price Offer if they buy their brand second time.

The manufactures can offer different kinds of smartphone for different group of target consumers say youth, business professionals and students. The companies can target more on the youth population as they are the one who uses Smartphone the most.

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I first and foremost thank the almighty for having bestowed his blessings on me to complete the project.

I am indebted to our beloved principal Dr. S. PALANIAMMAL, Sri Krishna Adithya College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore for her support and encouragement.

I take this opportunity to thank Dr. A. SUKUMAR, HOD, Department of B.Com. PA, Sri Krishna Adithya College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore for supporting me to complete this project work.

I thank my project guide Mrs. R. Mythily, Assistant professor Department of B.Com. PA, Sri Krishna Adithya College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore for his timely advice and guidelines which assisted me in completing the project work successfully.

I would like to express my gratitude to all the faculty members of Department of B.Com. PA, Sri Krishna Adithya College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore under whose valuable guidance the project work was done.

My special thanks to my Parents, Friends and Well-wishers for their moral support throughout the project work period.

VII. ANNEXURE

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Conclusion

The Consumers considered quality and features as major factors building preference followed closely by technological needs and applications. Thus, smartphone companies must focus mainly on quality and features, so as to build strong preference for Smartphone and give an edge to a particular brand. Most of the consumers considered friends advantage to be a major influence followed closely by compatibility and social influence. Thus, friends advantage of a Smartphone should be attributed to attract consumers. Thus, the Smartphone companies must focus mainly on Battery and memory of the phone. Even emphasis on improvising retailerand company sources should be made for generating more awareness among consumers. The consumers ranked brand name and quality as most important benefits derived by Smartphoneusers. The majority of the consumers aware of Redmi, Samsung, vivo, oppo, one plus. The consumers prefer Samsung, Redmi majorly for their quality and price. And also, consumers look for battery, camera and ease of use. Mainly, consumers purchase smartphones from Showroom. The manufactures should avail the products on time for the consumers. The consumers said quality and features are good in smartphones. The consumers considered quality and features overall opinion on smartphones as Very Good. The consumer is highly satisfied on brand name and quality. Most of the respondents will continueusing the same brand. The Price Offers attracts the consumers most.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Srikanth M, Mrs. R. Mythily. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.