It has been a long development of mobile phone communication, which can change customers' needs and preferences. The increasing development of mobile phones and strong competitive situation leads to a lot of improvements and interest around the world because new technology can desire customers in terms of convenience and their lifestyle in these current ones. The number of mobile phone subscribers was less than one billion in developed countries in 2001, however there was a significant increase of about six times mobile phone ownership in 2010 compared to 2001 (Kelly, 2009; Rebello, 2010).
Thus, the mobile phone has more utility and functionality leads to improved technology and more subscribers. The mobile phone market in Thailand in the third quarter of 2013, the total population of Thais is 67.9 million people and 88.9 million people are mobile users which are more than 1.2 times of the total population. This may be surprising the number displayed the trend of mobile phone usage in Thailand is very popular, diverse and the most developed in the Asian continent and tends to increase dramatically every year.
Due to increasingly developing technology, and the number of Smartphone ownership is rising, so now mobile phone in Thailand are many brands available such as iPhone, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, LG, Blackberry and etc., each company has been very competitive and effort is making a lot of business strategy to building the brand and retaining customers. They express their personal style such as music, clothes and mobile phone in their society (Willis, 1990).
LITERATURE REVIEW LITERATURE REVIEW
- Smartphone
- Process of consumer decision
- Product Feature
- Brand
- Convenient concern
- Social Influence
- Price
Need recognition: The first and most important process that recognizes the buyer's problem. External and internal stimuli can be caused by their needs New smartphone such as memory capacity, screen size, types of new models. Evaluating Alternatives: Most customers will pay more attention to get the most appropriate benefit from the relevant and important attributes they need and choose.
Hardware can be described by its physical appearance, such as the phone's casing, size, weight, color, and design. A study by Liu (2002) analyzed the purchasing decision factor in the mobile phone industry in Asia and found that new technology, such as memory phone capacity and SMS, has more influence on customer choices than size. Bhattacharya and Mitra examined the brand's impact on women than men, and customers select a brand based on perceived brand quality (53.3%). The most critical element of a company's success is the brand name involved per product and the brand name influences consumer evaluation and influences the purchasing decision (Khasawneh and Hasouneh (2010).
There are three different types of social influence such as conformity that will occur when his/her opinion meets. In 2009, NAR's Center for Realtors reported that most smartphone application users download Twitter, Facebook, and so on.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Instrument
Sampling
- Depth interview
- Questionnaire Online
Respondents will rank five survey factors as the most and least important factors in the final purchase decision. For quantitative method, the questionnaire is designed based on research framework and insight information from in-depth interviews. Each question will be analyzed in different aspects of the buying process and criteria factors from each customer, also each question can validate the answer from in-depth interview.
To identify the important level in each attribute to support the answer in in-depth interview - Knowing most.
Analysis data
Moreover, the result will be compared with the in-depth interview answer to validate and support the result.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Depth interview
Even a smartphone brand is not well known, but I chose it because it has many features and good looks". Brand Name – This factor makes the researcher understand more about what the female respondents think about the brand name of each Smartphone. Even the brand name is not the most important factor for choosing a Smartphone, but the brand name can make the consumer think a lot about which brand is more suitable with their lifestyle.
For me, the brand name is associated with the quality of the product and service to guarantee that I get a good product and service after purchase if I have a smartphone problem”. I love brand that is known in the market so I feel confident to use in public”. Brand is not the first important factor as respondents' opinion, but it is still influenced to buy smartphone and it seems that women prefer to use well-known smartphone.
Female respondents feel that this factor is not a very important factor as a product feature as they would like. Some used iOS or Android before, but they can change smartphone in different brands that are different. I think the price of smartphones currently in each brand is quite similar, so I just evaluated the product feature and operating platform which is more useful and convenient to use.
If it's not the size of a smartphone to keep in my pocket, I'll give up my choice first. Brand – When the researcher mentions the brand, most of the male respondents think of the quality of the product, which is also important in the purchase decision. They also believe that each brand has a different unique style that suits each person.
Social influence - This factor is not important in making decisions for both men and women. Price - Smartphone price is also not too much justified, men have the same answer as the woman mentioned that they are willing to pay high price with high quality and function of smartphone because it is valued to buy. For me, the price is not much considered because their price in the market is not much different, but I worried more about the quality of the product after purchase."
Questionnaire online
- Demographic
- Smartphone purchasing history
- Purchasing process and ranking criteria factor
72% are "The old one had problems with slow processing or bad system, so I want to buy a new model". As Tables 1 and 2 show the average ranking from 5 factors both of women and men who rank the important level in each factor. The result of female respondents worry about the product has the most, the other important factor is convenient concern, brand, price and social influence, respectively.
Surprisingly, the result of male respondents is the same as that of women when deciding to buy a smartphone. Considering the significant level in each factor to find out the consumer rating in each sub-attribute as follows;. According to Tables 4.1 and 4.2, it can be seen that product feature is the most important factor in purchasing a smartphone, so the researcher analyzed 10 important levels.
By comparing the result of in-depth interview, it is the same ranking that sample customers are most concerned about the product function, so this result can prove that this factor is the most important factor for both women and men for decision to buy smartphone, especially battery life and touch screen sensor. If we think about brand and brand reflects customer identity, it shows that respondents both worry about the important level (as figure 4.10 and 4.11) which means brand can reflect their image and characteristic. As we can see in figure 4.12 and 4.13, those men and women generally think that computer connection and operating system are important for a decision to buy smartphones.
If we consider the important level of family, friends and celebrity, respondents think that they are less factors for the purchase decision as we can see in figure 4.14 to 4.16, while women are considered between gender, less influenced by others, even their friends for purchasing smartphone. It confirms from the result of an in-depth interview that generation Y is self-expressive and confident towards purchasing smartphones. According to table 4.1 and 4.2, price is also not as important to both female and male Thai generation Y as social influence.
If researcher considering the important level of price, model with reduced price and higher price with better quality found that respondent think price is important for purchasing smartphone (as figure 4.17), also higher price higher quality is the same important level (figure 4.19). However, there are less respondents in the direction of the important level of reduced model, it justified that Thai generation Y was not worried about purchasing smartphone with reduced price. From the result of online questionnaire can prove the result of in-depth interview about the important rank of five criteria that both of female and male have the similar position, not much different when Thai generation Y decided to buy Smartphone product.
CONCLUSION
Summary
Recommendation
However, smartphone is one kind of technology devices that have been changed all the time, customer trend is changing gradually, so we have to follow customer trend to provide smartphone that suits their lifestyle and requirement at that time.
Evanschitzky, H, Kenning, P, Vogel, V & Ahlert, D 2007, 'Consumer price knowledge in the market for clothing' International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, vol. The global mobile phone market maintained its growth trajectory in the fourth quarter despite soft demand for feature phones, according to 48 to IDC. Rebello, Global Wireless Subscriptions Reach 5 Billion, Retrieved from http://www.isuppli.com/Mobile-and-Wireless-.
34; How to Motivate Generation Y with Different Cultural Backgrounds: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between China and Sweden". Smartphone Dependence and Influence on Consumer Shopping Behavior of People in Kota Kinabalu, Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Sabah Malaysia, Malaysia. Smartphone and Medicine Use of Related Apps Among Medical students and young doctors in the United Kingdom (UK): a regional survey [online].
Retrieved from http://myce.com/mobile-phones/faq -/what-is-the-difference between-a-smartphine-and-a-traditional-cellphone-21963/. Carsky (1996) In-Store Shopping Behavior - A Comparison of Involved and Involved Consumers, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Online questionnaire
Please tick on the level of importance for each of the things that were related to when you bought the current smartphone. Convenience of use (such as operating system, connection to computer) Social influence (such as friends, family member's influencer).
