In the findings and analysis chapter, the results of the survey are presented, analysed and discussed so that the level of attainment of the research objectives can be evaluated. The main objective of this study was to identify the market for Samsung smartphones in KSA along with the factors that influence their purchasing decision. In order to ensure that appropriate sample size is selected, it was mandated that the respondents are aware of the smartphones available in the market and have adequate understanding about their usage as well.
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When customers are buying the smartphones, they give utmost attention to the brand equity because it is the crucial element that dominates their final purchasing decision (Keller, 2007). It was evident from the studies of Protio Research (2012) and Shamoon and Sciences (2011) that brand image and brand awareness are the key aspects given utmost attention by the customers when evaluation various options that are available in the luxury product category. Almost all of the customers believe that owning a smartphone is a status symbol and using it requires huge amount of care (Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2009).
Since people of KSA use smartphone as a necessity item, it is important to understand their perception about these products and also understand the factors that influence them to buy the smartphones of the top ranked brands. As the smartphone has evolved from a highly technical product to everyday consumable item, the industry has been growing at an accelerating pace. Samsung being the market leader in the electronics industry has entered into the smartphone market and has been successful in huge amount of market share (Samsung, 2013).
On international level, Samsung Smartphone has received immense appreciation by the customers. Now, it wants to understand the dynamics of KSA market so that it can enter into this segment effectively and successfully gain leading position in the market. In order to understand the potential of Samsung smartphone in KSA, the survey was conducted to get an in-depth understanding about the requirements of the market present in the region. Although it has been launched in KSA but it is facing some challenges as it has still been unsuccessful in achieving the targeted results; the company wants to identify the loopholes in its marketing strategy and make necessary changes to revert back to the right track (Mihart, 2012).
In this section, first the demographic profile of the market is given which will give general information about the respondents. In the following section, the results of the survey are presented and discussed to provide comprehensive details about the data gathered from the survey about Samsung’s brand equity, brand awareness, brand loyalty and effectiveness of marketing mediums employed. Finally, in the last section, the overall image of the Samsung smartphone is presented to summarise the findings of the survey.
Demographics of the respondents
Since the primary purpose of the survey was to understand the importance of brand in purchasing the smartphones, it was a mandatory requirement that the users of smartphones are included in the sample size. As reaching the respondents through online survey was easy and convenient, they were contacted through e-mails. The sample size comprised of 100 people and all of them replied with complete questionnaires. In order to ensure that the response rate was quick, the respondents were asked to send back the filled questionnaires within two days so that the data could be compiled quickly and analysed on time.
Gender
Since smartphone is a product that is used frequently by males and females, utmost care was given to the equal representation of both genders. In this survey, there were 56 males and 44 females; the less representation of female is because of lack of access to female respondents. As convenience sampling was used, anyone who could be accessed with ease was contacted and asked to participate in the survey. Since gender was not an important variable for the survey, this factor was not given undue attention and all other aspects of the survey were properly followed.
Age Group
It is evident from the study of DeMooij and Hoftsede (2010) that the people of young age are more inclined towards using smartphones but the recent study by Patrio Research (2012) revealed that this product is being utilised by people of all ages as it has features that are simple to use and can be effortlessly understood by older people as well. In this survey, the age group of the respondents is divided into four categories so that it can give a clear picture of the demographic profile of the respondents.
As it is shown in the pie chart that majority of the respondents were in between ages of 18 to 25, the results of the survey will based on the perception held by these people. According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2010), the instrument used for the study should try to incorporate the sample size that includes few respondents from each potential target market so that the brand can make an effective decision about its offerings (Rust, Zeithmal & Lemon, 2004). Although smartphone is used by everyone but more than 55% of the users fall in the early adulthood category i.e. early 20s.
Smartphones usage among respondents
The number of Smartphone users has increased drastically in the last few years and the main reason for such a robust growth in this industry is the excellent range of features that are presented to the customers. With the advent of time and developments taking place at a fast pace in the technology world, the smartphones that are available in the market are equipped with the latest features that enhance the experience of the users (Petrovic, 2009).
Since there is a complete cycle through which each customer goes before making final decision, it is vital for the experts to understand the key factors that impact their purchasing decision and what is the impact of branding on their selection mechanism (Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2009). One of the objectives of this study was to assess the impact of branding on the customer’s decision of buying the smartphone and the extent to which the efforts of the brand or ‘brand equity’ influences them to buy a particular product (Portio Research, 2012).
Users of Smartphone
When the respondents were asked about their Smartphone usage, everyone of them responded that they use smartphones as it has become the necessary part of their lives. When they were asked about the purpose of their usage, majority of them responded that these gadgets are easy to carry around the city and they are a perfect blend of mobile phone and computer systems that allow them to reap the benefits of convenient and affordable Internet accessibility feature.
Favourite Brand
Apple was the first brand to introduce the concept of Smartphone in the market by launching iPhone. Although it is still considered to be the leading brand in this industry but other companies are trying to get some share in this market; up till now, the brand has faced tough competition from Samsung as it has been able to meet the demands of the customers at a sufficient level. The findings of the survey revealed the following facts about the favourite brands of the customers:
From the above figure, it is evident that Apple is the market leader that is preferred by almost 65% of the respondents. Samsung occupies second position in the smartphone category and it is two folds behind Apple which means that it will have to increase the efforts of meeting the demands of the customers. Nokia has been trying to regain its market share which it has lost to the smartphone users; the company is still unable to recover from the decline in its revenues.
Factors considered when buying smartphones
The smartphones are the most crucial and valuable possessions for everyone and every user wants to be ensured that they own a smartphone that will work appropriately for long period of time and will allow them to avail good amount of return on investment. The price ranges of all these smartphones is significantly higher than other substitutes available for these excellent technological gadgets but switching to other product or brand is a very difficult decision (Shamoon & Sciences, 2011).
According to DeMooij and Hoftsede (2010) and Mihart (2012), the customer decision making process is a time consuming task as the consumers want to be assured that they gather sufficient information about the smartphones from appropriate sources so that they are provided only genuine and authentic devices. It is a belief that the customers purchase the highly technical tools on the basis of quality, reliability, brand image and value for money that these instruments have to offer. It is true to certain extent that there are other factors that are taken into account when comparing among various available options in the market.
The users of smartphones showed in the survey that they in addition to price, quality and features of the appliance, they even consider the accessories that are available in the form of complementary services. The representation of the survey findings are presented in the following figure:
For majority of the respondents about 20%, price is the most crucial factor for making buying decision, followed by quality (18%), features (16%), warranty (16%) and accessories (14%). In terms of accessories, the respondents were concerned about the services that were provided by the brands. For instance, Apple provides the users an easy access to iTunes Store from where they can download various applications, songs, videos and software. The respondents are least concerned about the customer support because they know that they can get the phone serviced through the warranty card directly from the company.
Sources of information used for retrieving appropriate details about smartphone
One of the vital aspects in the purchasing process is the factor that influences the customer to avail the offering. According to Keller (2007), brand equity and brand awareness are the key elements of the brand that allows it to gain top mind share of the customers. in order to create appropriate brand image in the market, the companies have to ensure that they communicate the right message to the customers via their marketing activities. With the advent of time, the traditional mediums of advertising have become outdated and the latest trend is of electronic marketing and word-of-mouth (Petrovic, 2009).
The customers have become too much conscious about their selection of smartphones as they want to ensure that they will have the most updated version of the phone with all advanced features. When the customers are buying the smartphones, the key factors that tend to influence them are opinions of friends or family members, viewpoints about the product posted by the users on the social networking sites, reviews accessible through online search engines like Google and advertisements done by the brand (Mihart, 2012).
For this study, the survey revealed that majority of the respondents look at the Brand advertisements to gather first-hand information about the product. More than 45% of the respondents gave number one ranking to the brand advertisements for retrieving the required details, followed by family and friends. The second ranking was equally shared by the brand advertisements and friends which was about 30% each. Finally, the third highest ranking was given to social networking sites, followed by friends and brand advertisement.
Figure 4: Ranking about the sources of information utilised for gathering in-depth data
It shows that the brand awareness efforts carried out by the companies can provide fruitful results if right marketing strategy is developed and effectively implemented.
Awareness about Samsung Smartphone in KSA
Samsung has been offering all of its products in KSA market with extreme level of comfort as the customers in this market appreciate the offerings presented to them by the top ranked brand. Almost all of its categories have been able to capture significant market share and now it is concerned about boosting its performance in the smartphone industry (Portio Research, 2012). In order to understand the customer perception about Samsung brand and its marketing strategy, the respondents were asked to answer some question about the brand awareness and the level of satisfaction with the product.
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Rating of Samsung Smartphone
The customers are aggressively looking for new and innovative products that can meet their needs effectively. When Samsung introduced its smartphone in the industry, its size was bigger as compared to that of Apple iPhone; but soon it released Galaxy S3 Mini in the market to provide a feasible alternative to the iPhone users. The rating of any product can be evaluated only after the customers have used it; in order to ensure that the rating is given by only Samsung smartphone users, there was a screening question in the questionnaire.
The people who have responded to this question have either used the smartphone or have an idea about its features because they have experimented with its features. The findings of the survey showed that only 15% have ranked the smartphone in possessing excellent performance features and majority of the respondents i.e. 58% gave good rating. However, 6% even ranked it as poor in performance criteria which shows that the product lags behind in terms of performance from its competitor i.e. Apple.
Figure 4: Samsung Smartphone’s performance rating
Point of awareness about the smartphone
When Samsung first introduced its smartphone in the market, it undertook various marketing efforts from simple flyers to high prices Television Commercials (TVCs). It is a known fact that any new brand that is entering for the first time in the market has to carry out a diverse range of marketing initiatives to create awareness about its presence. Samsung has been successful increasing a distinctive brand image in the electronics industry but it had to portray unique position in the smartphone industry.
According to the marketing guru, Keller (2007), brand awareness and brand association are the vital characteristics that help a brand to stand out among its competitors. When Samsung position in terms of its brand awareness was evaluated, it was found that majority of the respondents i.e. 33% got to know about the product from their friends. While, 30% of them received information for the first time from Internet and only 24% saw TVCs that were aired by the brand.
The survey shows that the major source of information is friends as people are too much dependent on word-of-mouth instances that allow them to get first-hand details about the new products and offerings that are launched in the market.
Figure 4: Point of awareness about Samsung smartphone
Importance of Internet marketing for smartphones
As the latest trend in the world of marketing is of Internet marketing, every brand has to ensure that it makes effective use of online mediums that will help them in getting in touch with their customers as soon as possible. Samsung employed online marketing tools to create awareness about its new product and it ensured that its product was discussed by the users on various social networking sites so that everyone is well-informed about the latest offering of the company.
When the respondents of the survey were asked about the importance of Internet marketing in introducing the brand in the market, majority of them i.e. 94% replied that it definitely plays a vital role in creating awareness about the product and it is the foremost point of interaction with the target market.
Viewpoint about Samsung Smartphone
In order to measure the effectiveness of Samsung smartphone in its current market, the evaluation of its marketing initiatives undertaken so far will reveal some unexploited avenues that can be employed to enhance the presence in the KSA market. Similarly, for the analysis of the viewpoint, it was vital that the smartphone users who are using Samsung Smartphone were included in this section. With the help of screening question, the distinction between the respondents was made and responses of only Samsung smartphones are incorporated in the analysis.
Effectiveness of marketing mediums
When the respondents were asked about their opinion of the marketing mediums used by Samsung, majority of them i.e. 40% responded that the TVCs are not up to the mark as they lack clarity about the features that are present in the smartphone. Besides that, about 35% of the respondents mentioned that Samsung has been able to gain entrance in the market because it is slightly cheaper than Apple’s iPhone. On the other hand, 20% were of the viewpoint that Samsung has a good brand awareness so it required less efforts to create awareness about its new offering.
When the respondents were prompted to provide details about the effectiveness of various marketing platforms used by Samsung for its smartphone, the survey revealed the following results:
It is evident from the above figure that majority of the respondents i.e. 23% believe that social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the most effective marketing mediums for reaching the target market. However, 22% gave the opinion that TVCs are the right tools used for promoting the new offering of the company, followed by newspaper advertisements, radio and company sponsored events. Hence, Samsung has ensured that it develops a strategic marketing strategy that will allow it to make use of every mean to get in touch with its target audience and end consumer.
Brand Loyalty
Another important determinant of the success of a product or brand is the customer loyalty or brand loyalty (Keller, 2007). According to the experts of the marketing industry, those brands that are able to make a customer addicted to the offering to such a great extent that the person cannot consider switching to other brand are definitely the market leaders. In this survey, 65% of the respondents were using Samsung Smartphones and 83% of them showed high brand loyalty. The survey shows that Samsung has been able to successfully capture the mind share of the customers and it can definitely strengthen its position by altering the specifications that are required by the customers.
Suggestions for enhancing marketing efforts
According to the survey results, the customers have recommended that Samsung needs to restructure its marketing strategy and make certain changes in its offerings so that it can meet their expectation level. The foremost thing that is required is to develop a well-designed and competitive product that has excellent performance range. Samsung should ensure that it carries out test marketing of its product before launching it completely in the market so that the changes can be made in the initial phase of the product development.
Another important suggestion given by the respondents is that Samsung should launch brand again in the market with new and innovative concept so that it can create distinctive position in the market. One effective recommendation that is given by the customers is that the company should use social networking sites and other online mediums such as blogs to create awareness about the product and also run advertisements on Television so that the customers can get more detailed information about its latest offering easily.
Overall market for Samsung Smartphone
Samsung has done a marvellous job in the smartphone industry worldwide as it has entered into this market by presenting the best and superior quality alternative to the smartphone. However, it has to ensure that it offers the product in each market in accordance to its dynamics so that it is able to achieve the targeted position conveniently. The survey was carried out with the purpose of identifying the role of branding and brand awareness on the purchasing decision of the customers especially in KSA.
The findings of the survey revealed that the customers use variety of sources for gathering information about the alternatives that are present in the market. In order to ensure that they retrieve vital information from reliable sources, they carry out market research on their own and there are two factors that tend to impact their buying decision to a considerable extent i.e. brand advertisement and family and friends’ opinions.
In order to acquire distinctive position in the market, the brand will have to get engaged in extensive marketing efforts that will help it in creating brand loyalty. There are some problems present in its current smartphones which shows that the products lag behind in terms of performance and reliability. The survey also highlighted that the phone lacks certain features that are offered by its strongest competitor i.e. Apple such as its online store and a wide array of accessories.
Hence, Samsung smartphone can strengthen its presence in the market of KSA by offering the products at right places and revamping its image as a unique smartphone rather than a copied version of iPhone. The company will have to restructure its marketing strategy so that it can make effective use of the right mediums that are preferred by its target market.
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