A study on consumer behaviour of hathway broadband services, bangalore

Marketing strategy

In order to develop a framework for the study consumer behaviour it is helpful to begin by considering the evolution of the field of consumer research and the different paradigms of thought that have influenced the discipline. As described here, a set of dimensions can be identified in the literature, which can be used to characterize and differentiate the various perspectives on consumer research.

It is argued that consumer behaviour itself emerged as a distinct field of study during the 1960s; and is characterized by two broad paradigms, the positivist and the non-positivist. The positivist paradigm encompasses the economic, behavioural, cognitive, motivational/trait/attitudinal, and situational perspectives; these perspectives are referred to as the traditional perspectives as they pre-date the development of the non-positivist paradigm. The positivist paradigm, which is still the dominant paradigm, emphasizes the supremacy of human reason and that there is a single, objective truth that can be discovered by science. This paradigm regards the world as a rational and ordered place with a clearly defined past, present, and future. The assumption of rationalism is therefore fundamental to the traditional perspective.

The opposing, non-positivist paradigm, envelops the interpretive and postmodern perspectives, which have emerged more recently during the period post-1980 to date. The proponents of this emerging perspective argue that positivism overemphasizes the rational view and the ideology of a homogenous social culture and thereby denies the complex social and cultural world in which consumers live. This paradigm instead stresses, the importance of symbolic and subjective experience and the idea that consumers construct meanings based on unique and shared cultural experiences, and thus there can be no single unified world view.

Unsurprisingly, the two paradigms differ in their views on the benefits derived from consumption and the objectives that underscore consumer research. The traditional, positivist perspective takes a very utilitarian approach to the benefits from consumption. While the non-positivist perspectives place much greater emphasis on the symbolic dimensions of choice. The objective of non-positivist research endeavor is to achieve a better understanding of consumer behaviour with no specific intent to influence consumer processes. Conversely, outcomes of positivist research are directed toward advancing the goals of marketing practice.

Consumer behavior theories

The term consumer behavior may be defined as the behaviour that consumer displays in searching for purchasing, using, evaluating, producing, services and ideas which they expect will satisfy their needs. In other words, “It is a study of physiological, social, physical, behaviors of all potential customer as they become aware of evaluation, purchase and consumption and tell other about products and services”.

According to Rice (1993), perception is the initiator of behaviour. It can also be seen as a process of information extraction. Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture (Kotler, 2000). Different people tend to perceive quite differently even when they are exposed to the same reality. A set of factors, e.g. individual responses, determine an individual’s perception process and lead to individual differences. The most important is that people’s perceptions are often more important than the reality in marketing (Kotler, 2000).

The study of customer behaviour provides a sound basis for identifying and understanding the factors that influence consumers purchase on line. Schiffman and Kanuk (2000) state that the behaviour that consumers display in searching, purchasing, and evaluating products/services is those that they expect to fulfill their needs. Although perception and behaviour are typically treated as two completely separate phenomena, i.e. the input and output respectively, it has been suggested that perception and behaviour are in fact two sides of the same phenomenon and are closely related to each other (Rice, 1993). In order to understand what customer perceive and how they act to affect their perceptions, study of perception and behaviour should be treated as one integral part.

Consumer decision process

At present, the consumer decision process model has been well accepted. This model of purchase as decision process is explained in more detail by Thorelli et al.(1975). Thorelli’s decision model illustrates the type and shows there are a series of semi-discrete steps which take place over time for the buyers and purchasers.

According to Thorelli et al (1975), the prospective buyer possesses a certain stock of cognitive content, including his own personality or self-concept, attitudes and opinions both in general and on specific products, and stored information and past experience. This stock has been formed as a result of his interaction with his environment over time, and it will help determine the environment in which he places himself in the future as well as influence his perceptions of that environment.

As a result of either cognitive activity or some environmental stimulus, the buyer recognizes a need which is capable of being satisfied by a product or service. In other words, the need is often triggered by internal or external stimuli. Some authors also take this need recognition stage as the entry point. Chaston (2001) argues that the potential consumer will not implement any of the other steps in the buying process until need recognition has happened.

Thorelli et al (1975) describe that this stage represents all search of the external environment for alternative solutions as well as for information helpful in evaluating these alternatives. The search for information occurs on an internal and external basis (Gilbert, 1999). The internal search for information from previous experience might be relevant to the present purchase situation. The extent and nature of external search for information likely in any given purchase has been the subject of a great deal of research. When searching for information in the external environment (e.g., friends and family), consumers focus on those relevant attributes that are available and are diagnostic (Dick et al., 1990).

This stage consists of the physical and cognitive activities involved in comparing alternatives on the basis of information gathered from external search above.

According to Kotler (2000), the consumer arrives at attitudes toward the various brands through an attribute evaluation procedure and most buyers consider several attributes in their purchase decision. These attributes used by consumers for evaluation are also called choice criteria. Jobber (2001) has made a good summary of these choice criteria. In fact, consumers attempt to optimize the trade-off between product benefits, product costs, the desired personal utilities and other variables.

Purchase Activity

Purchase activity involves the actual final decision and physical activities involved in making (or not making) the purchase. This stage includes the actual transaction. However, as suggested by Kotler (2000), perceived risks of a consumer can heavily influence his decision to modify, postpone, or avoid a purchase decision. Therefore it is necessary for marketers to understand factors that might provoke perceived risk in consumers and work out solutions to reduce that.

This step is concerned primarily with the buyer’s use of the product purchased.

After purchasing the product, the consumer will experience some level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction which will influence a consumers’ subsequent

behaviour. Dissatisfied consumers may abandon or return the product, they may even complain to the other group (Kotler, 2000). It is clear that satisfactions and dissatisfactions created by product performance will be important determinants of attitudes and information stored as inputs to future purchase decisions.

This stage suggests that following the purchase process, the buyer (or non-buyer) is left with cognitive content which may be quite different from that which was present at the beginning of the process. Buyers may change their attitudes, information and experience due to reasons of time and events. All of these may serve to change substantially the nature of the decision process for future purchases of the same type.

Consumer behavior refers to the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and services for the satisfaction of their wants. There are different processes involved in the consumer behavior. Initially the consumer tries to find what commodities he would like to consume, then he selects only those commodities that promise greater utility. After selecting the commodities, the consumer makes an estimate of the available money which he can spend. Lastly, the consumer analyzes the prevailing prices of commodities and takes the decision about the commodities he should consume. Meanwhile, there are various other factors influencing the purchases of consumer such as social, cultural, personal and psychological. The explanation of these factors is given below.

Consumer behavior is deeply influenced by cultural factors such as: buyer culture, subculture, and social class.

• Culture

Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of person wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries.

• Subculture

Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions, racial groups etc. Marketers can use these groups by segmenting the market into various small portions. For example marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular geographic group.

• Social Class

Every society possesses some form of social class which is important to the marketers because the buying behavior of people in a given social class is similar. In this way marketing activities could be tailored according to different social classes. Here we should note that social class is not only determined by income but there are various other factors as well such as: wealth, education, occupation etc.

Social factors also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The important social factors are: reference groups, family, role and status.

• Reference Groups

Reference groups have potential in forming a person attitude or behavior. The impact of reference groups varies across products and brands. For example if the product is visible such as dress, shoes, car etc then the influence of reference groups will be high. Reference groups also include opinion leader (a person who influences other because of his special skill, knowledge or other characteristics).

• Family

Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family. Therefore marketers are trying to find the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement. Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer lifestyles.

• Roles and Status

Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which he belongs. For example a woman is working in an organization as finance manager. Now she is playing two roles,

one of finance manager and other of mother. Therefore her buying decisions will be influenced by her role and status.

3. Personal Factors

Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of the important personal factors that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self concept.

• Age

Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. It is obvious that the consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time. Family life-cycle consists of different stages such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples etc which help marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage.

The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. For example a marketing manager of an organization will try to purchase business suits, whereas a low level worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes.

• Economic Situation

Consumer economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low income and savings will purchase inexpensive products.

• Lifestyle

Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a society and is expressed by the things in his/her surroundings. It is determined by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world.

• Personality

Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore it can greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears; rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc which can be useful to determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service.

There are four important psychological factors affecting the consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

• Motivation

The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs, biological needs, social needs etc. The nature of the needs is that, some of them are most pressing while others are least pressing. Therefore a need becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction.

• Perception

Selecting, organizing and interpreting information in a way to produce a meaningful experience of the world is called perception. There are three different perceptual processes which are selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention. In case of selective attention, marketers try to attract the customer attention. Whereas, in case of selective distortion, customers try to interpret the information in a way that will support what the customers already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers try to retain information that supports their beliefs.

• Beliefs and Attitudes

Customer possesses specific belief and attitude towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand image and affect consumer buying behavior therefore marketers are interested in them. Marketers can change the beliefs and attitudes of customers by launching special campaigns in this regard.

The rapid growth in Indian telecom industry has been contributing to India’s GDP at large. Telecom industry in India started to set up in a phased approach. Privatization was gradually introduced, first in value-added services, followed by cellular and basic services. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), was established to regulate and deal with competition (the service providers). This gradual and thoughtful reform process in India has favored industry growth. Upcoming services such as 4G and Wi Max will help to further augment the growth rate. The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market globally by 2010. This is evident from the facts of Telecom Industry for example, India added 113.26 million new customers in 2008, the largest globally. The country’s cellular base witnessed close to 50 per cent growth in 2008, with an average 9.5 million customers added every month. This would translate into 612 million mobile subscribers, accounting for a tele-density of around 51 per cent by 2012. It is projected that the industry will generate revenues worth US$ 43 billion in 2009-10. In this report we have tried to capture most of the areas of Telecom Industry. Major highlights of the report are History of Telecom Industry, Current Industry Analysis, Role of TRAI, Spectrum allocation, FDI Regulation, Competitive advantages, Outsourcing in Telecom, Emerging Technologies, Latest Innovation, and Growth Trends, Mergers and Acquisitions.

The Indian telecommunications has been zooming up the growth curve at a feverish pace, emerging as one of the key sectors responsible for India's resurgent economic growth. India has surpassed US to become the second largest wireless network in the world with a subscriber base of over 300 million in April, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The Indian Telecommunications network with 110.01 million connections is the fifth largest in the world and the second largest among the emerging economies of Asia. Today, it is the fastest growing market in the world and represents unique opportunities for U.S. companies in the stagnant global scenario. The total subscriber base, which has grown by 40% in 2005, is expected to reach 500 million in 2011. According to Broadband Policy 2004, Government of India aims at 50 million broadband connections and 75 million internet connections by 2011. The wireless subscriber base has jumped from 64 million in 2009 to 75 million in FY2010- 2011. In the last 3 years, two out of every three new telephone subscribers were wireless subscribers. Consequently, wireless now accounts for 54.6% of the total telephone subscriber base, as compared to only 40%. Wireless subscriber growth is expected to bypass 4 million new subscribers per month by 2012. The wireless technologies currently in use are Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

Rural India had 76.65 million fixed and Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) connections and 551,064 Village Public Telephones (VPT) as on September 2008. Therefore, 92 per cent of the villages in India have been covered by the VPTs. Universal Service Obligation (USO) subsidy support scheme is also being used for sharing wireless infrastructure in rural areas with around 18,000 towers by 2012. It is believed that of the next 250 million people expected to go mobile; at least 100 million will come from rural areas. Though the rural mobile penetration is highest in Punjab (20.69 per cent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (17.09 per cent), Kerala (10.63 per cent) and Haryana (10.20 per cent), most companies are now sweating it out by hard selling their products and services in the rural areas of the region. As a result, the geographical coverage of mobile telephony in India has gone up from 13 percent, a couple of years ago, to 39 percent now.