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Consumer Behavior in Selecting Mobile Phones in the Context of Bangladesh

Research · June 2020

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3921991

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 ISSN 2520-4750 (Online) & ISSN 2521-3040 (Print)
Volume: 4, Issue: 7
Page:91-99
2020 International Journal of Science and Business

Consumer Behavior in Selecting

Mobile Phones in the Context of
Bangladesh
Syeeda Raisa Maliha, Md. Tafsir Alam & Mustafa Nizamul Aziz

Abstract:
The behavior of consumers regarding smartphones is more and more a
center of marketing research. Especially, consumer behavior in the case of
the smartphone industry, from selection motivation to after use behavior
has become a center of research in marketing. The outcomes of this study
confirm that the regulatory focus has an impact on consumer behavior
regarding smartphone procure decisions by controlling their perception,
rationale, and lifestyle. For consumers’ smartphones have become crucial
parts of life. This study is to analyze factors that affect a consumer’s decision IJSB
in buying a smartphone. The study also emphasizes consumer points of Accepted 28 June 2020
view for smartphones and the impact brand name has on consumers. The Published 29 June 2020
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3921991
current growth of smartphone usage is a noticeable fact that goes across all
gender and age divides. Hence, this study exhibits a quantitative analysis of
some of the key factors that affect consumer’s viewpoints and behaviors
regarding smartphone purchases.

Keywords: Mobile phones, smartphones, consumer behavior, Bangladesh, smartphone

industry.

About Author (s)

Syeeda Raisa Maliha (Corresponding Author), East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Md. Tafsir Alam, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Mustafa Nizamul Aziz, Senior Lecturer, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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1. Introduction
The quickly developing interest in Smartphones has become a buzzing issue all over the
world. The expanding development in cell phone ventures has expedited this fever of
Smartphones among the general population. Cell phone is arranged by a working framework
with cutting edge processing ability and network. For the most part Smartphones have highly
sensitive big screens and high pixel cameras with heaps of highlights and applications. These
highlights and applications in Smartphones, one way or another have made people's lives
simpler whether it is regarding everyday life, at work or for amusement. Thus, the market of
Smartphones has been rising every year with expanding advancements. This research is
additionally intrigued to discover how social and individual factors particularly influence the
buyer’s conduct amid the purchase of Smartphones. Furthermore, the research also focuses
on the reasons why individuals exceptionally utilize their Smartphone, and to what extent per
day.
1.1 Background of the Study
This research paper is designed to observe the behaviour of customers when they purchase
mobile phones. Today, brands are known as an amazing weapon, utilizing which
organizations rival one another. A brand is the most significant piece of the association
whereupon the accomplishment of the association lies; along these lines, to discover how
essential a brand's job in the cell phone industry is, this research has been conducted to
discover the manner in which customers purchase cell phones. In the current world, every
organization in every kind of business is confronting high challenge in the battle of pitching
their items to customers. In any case, it is not easy for the organizations any longer to gain the
clients' interest and seek after them to buy products without introducing itself uniquely in
contrast to the contenders. Thus, organizations today try to make their brands one of a kind
with the goal that clients can perceive its products as desirable. Nonetheless, knowing that in
recent years, various types of cell phone brands are accessible, it is yet to be known whether
brand mindfulness and shopper’s conduct have any relationship in the handset industry. This
examination is fundamentally done for the general population of Dhaka where distinctive
components that influence customers to purchase specific brands of cell phones are
inspected. Nonetheless, the scope of the exploration is kept to a restricted zone because of
time and asset constraint, so, in this manner, this examination has been centered around the
purchasing conduct of people who are of 18 or above. In this way, this undertaking is
intended to find the components which influence most of the 18 or above age gatherings'
purchasing conduct.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior is the way consumers act to purchase and use a product. It is a dynamic
process that does not only involve buying and consuming but also involves disposing of the
products and services.
2.1.1 Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior
Studies state that customer behavior is affected by some internal and external factors, four of
which are mentioned below (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008):
 Cultural factors: Includes culture, subculture, and social class that formulates customers’
essential principles, sensitivities, requirements, and behaviors.
 Social factors: Factors that influence consumer’s behavior like reference groups, family
roles, and status.

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 Personal factors: Individual factors such as the age, type of lifestyle maintained by the
customers, their occupation, the financial condition has an impact on their buying
behavior.
 Psychological factor: Some psychological factors like motivation, perception, knowledge,
values, and things those sorts have a further impact on customer behavior.
Moreover, situational factors can also affect consumer behavior, such as the consumer’s
mood. In the case of purchasing mobile phones, consumers might be affected by the factors
mentioned above.
2.1.2 Customers’ Purchase Decision Process
A standard consumer purchasing decision process is:

Figure 1: A buyer’s decision-making process (Riley, 2012)

A consumer buying decision process starts with ‘need recognition’, where the consumer
identifies a problem or need. After that, the consumer ‘searches for information’ about which
the consumer’s desire is aroused. This process helps consumers to gain awareness and
knowledge of the available brands of a particular product or service. After gathering
information, the consumer ‘evaluates the alternative’ brands that are available. After
evaluating the alternatives consumer finally makes the ‘purchase decision’. Finally comes the
‘post-purchase behavior’ where consumers decide whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied
with the purchase (Ganlari et al., 2016; tutor2u, 2020; Riley, 2012; Lautiainen, 2015).
2.1.3 Types of Consumer Buying Behavior
Consumer buying behavior differs based on several factors like- the kind of product they
desire to purchase, the level of involvement with the product, and so on (Consumer Behavior
in Marketing - Patterns, Types, Segmentation, 2019).
 Complex buying behavior: Here, a consumer is highly involved with the product and
there are major differences among brands. Such complex buying behavior takes place in
case of high involvement, expensive products.
 Dissonance reducing buying behavior: Here, the products are of high involvement, but
the differences among brands are few.
 Habitual buying behavior: This behavior is also characterized by low involvement and
few variations among brands. Consumers do not put in much time or effort to search and
buy the product.
 Variety-Seeking buying behavior: Consumer practices variety-seeking buying behavior
when there is low involvement but a good amount of diversity among brands. Here,
consumers do not mind trying out new brands as there are so many varieties and little to
lose.
2.2 Brand
A brand is a combination of elements like name, logo, slogan, jingle, and other elements that
create a separate identity for a particular product or services to differentiate those from
others and it also helps to create consumer preference.
2.3 Buyer Decision Process for New Products
The stages for adopting a new product are as follows:

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Figure 2: Stages for adopting a new product (Kotler et al., 2008)

This model shows that for consumers to adopt and purchase a new product, they need to gain
awareness about the product first. After responding to their interest, they assess the new
product and then purchase the product in order to try its actual value.
2.4 Factors Influencing Brand Consumer Buying Behavior
Some of the factors are discussed below which influence consumers’ final purchase decision
(Yaseen et al., 2011; N. & Ali, 2016; Ladipo et al., 2018; Dziwornu, 2013):
2.4.1 Perceived Quality
Perceived quality means how a brand’s quality is measured by consumers. If a particular
product has good quality, consumers may buy that product even if the price is high.
2.4.2 Price
Another important factor consumer considers while purchasing a product is price. Price also
plays as a pointer of a product’s quality as price has a positive relationship with quality in the
minds of the customers.
2.4.3 Brand Loyalty
A customer who is loyal to a particular brand of product normally does not go for other
brands of the same product class.
2.4.4 Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is a very strong practice which can influence consumers’ behaviors very
effectively. Sales promotion is rather considered as a short-term method to influence
consumer behavior rather than long term behavior.
2.4.5 Social Influence
Consumers sometimes purchase product influenced by others either directly or indirectly
like: consumers seeking their friends’ opinion in case of buying handsets where their
purchase decision highly depends on their friends’ opinion.
2.4.6 Product Uniqueness
A unique product itself will have an impact on consumers’ buying behavior. Unique and
updated products attract customer most and they can grab the whole market within a short
time.

3. Research Methodology
The research methodology used for this project include both primary and secondary
research.
3.1 Primary Research
Primary research involves collecting new and original data to establish new findings
regarding a particular subject. In the study, a questionnaire was prepared for physical survey
which consists of simple multiple choice and Likert scale questions. It was also made sure
that the questionnaire avoids all kinds of biasness from the researcher and avoids
respondents’ unwillingness and inability to answer questions. The reason for selecting survey
questionnaire for this research is that it is both time and cost effective compared to face-to-
face interviews as it allows covering large number of sample sizes and wide geographic areas.
Another reason for choosing this method is that it is easy to analyze and interpret. Also,
respondents are more comfortable with filling out questionnaires rather than interviews as it
takes very little time compare to interview approaches.

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3.2 Secondary Research

Secondary research is a process where data is collected from existing research to gather
insights. There are two types of resources from which secondary data can be collected which
are- internal sources and external sources. For this research project secondary data is mainly
collected from ‘external’ resources where data has been collected from books, journals and
reports from the internet. As this is an academic research, most of the secondary data is
collected from academic sources.

4. Analysis
4.1 Background of the Analysis
In the first part of the analysis, all the important questions are being discussed in terms of
what kind of responses are being received from the respondents and in the second part, the
relationship between the variables are analyzed statistically.
4.2 Question by Question Analysis
a. The survey started with (see appendices for details) the very basic question asking about
the gender of the respondents where the percentage of male respondents (53%) is
higher than the female respondents.
b. In the second question, people were asked about their age and to mark in which age
group they belong to. Most responses were received from the 21-25 age group as it
possessed the highest percentage (68.0%), followed by the 18-21 age group in the second
place.
c. Respondents were asked about their occupation as we tried to find out what kind of
impact occupation has on their mobile phone purchase behavior. From the result of the
survey, it is very clear that the majority of the respondents are students. The rest of the
respondents were involved in jobs, businesses and some were homemakers.
d. In this question, respondents were asked about their educational qualifications. Most of
the respondents have completed their post-graduation degree, followed by respondents
from the HSC background. Few of the respondents belonged to a group that completed
their masters and SSC.
e. Respondents were asked if they are aware of buying a particular brand. Most of the
people select brands for buying mobile phones based on the word of mouth
communication by their friends, family, and others. About 29.0% of people prefer
advertisements to buy mobile phones. 28.0% of people go for their research and 6.0% of
people prefer other sources.
f. Here, the respondents were asked about their preferred mobile phone brands. Here, it is
seen that the majority of the respondents (31%) prefer the Red Mi brand. Samsung was
preferred by 29.0% of the respondents. Oppo is preferred by 11.0%, some of them
(10.0%) prefer iOS, 7.0% of them like Nokia and 2.0% voted for Lenovo.
g. In this question, we asked the respondents if they search for a particular brand when
they go to buy that brand’s product. About 68.0% of people always search for
information about a brand, before going to purchase a product. 26.0% of people search
sometimes and 6.0% never go for any inquiry about the particular brand.
h. Here, we asked my respondents about their preference for buying new or second-hand
mobile phones. 86.0% said that they prefer to buy new mobile phones because they do
not feel comfortable in second-hand mobile phones. On the other hand, 14.0% of people
said that they would like to buy secondhand mobile phones because they want running
handsets and they cost less.

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i. Here, the question was if they take opinions from others when they go to buy a mobile
phone. The majority of the respondents (70.7%) said affirmatively that they take
opinions from others before buying a mobile phone. 29.3% said they do not ask for any
suggestions. They just go to the market and buy their preferred handsets.
j. In this question, respondents were asked if they always buy a particular brand’s product.
About 55.0% of people said that they always buy a particular brand's product. The rest
45.0% change their brand for different technological tastes.
k. Here, the question was about their preferred price range. It is seen that most of the
people prefer the range of BDT 16,000-25,000 for buying mobile handsets. Those who
have more affordability preferred the range BDT 26000 and above. 25.0% said they
would like to buy their smartphone within BDT 15000.
l. Respondents were asked about their area of consideration for buying a mobile phone. It
has been seen that most people consider the performance of their phones. 30.0% of
people are price-conscious. 11.0% look for value-added service of the brand. 10.0% of
people prefer coverage and the rest of the respondents said they consider other areas of
mobile phones while buying a mobile phone.
m. The respondents were asked about the influencing factors before buying a phone set.
43.0% of people are influenced by camera quality. 28.0% like to see the storage capacity
of the phone. Only 3.0% people responded that they care about audio quality(music) and
the rest of the respondents are influenced by the other criteria of mobile phones.
n. This question is about their preferred operating system. 87% said that they like the
android operating system. 9% said they prefer Apple OS and only 3% said they will go for
Microsoft.
o. In the second half of the questionnaire, consumers were asked to express their opinions
regarding the factors that influence their purchase behavior in a 5-point Likert scale, 5
being very important and 1 being very unimportant.
Brand Awareness: 47.5% are very much conscious about the brand, 37.4 % were
somewhat conscious, and 1.0% of people said that brand is not important to them at all.
The rest of the respondents hovered in the middle.
Quality of Product: 47.5% people responded that quality is very important to them,
37.4% said quality is important and 1.0% said quality is not mandatory. This means that
majority of the people care about quality.
Price of the Product: 35% of the respondents said that price is very important, 46% said
that it’s important. On the other hand, 4% said it’s unimportant and 2% said it’s very
unimportant. This explains that most of the buyers are price sensitive.
Product Uniqueness: To 28% of people, uniqueness of the product is very important,
30% said it’s important, but 11% of people said that uniqueness is very unimportant.
Sales Promotion: About 38.0% of people said that they like sales promotion, almost 45%
said that it is important, but 2.0% of people answered that sales promotion is not
important.

5. Findings
From the research analysis, we can see that majority of the respondents belong to the age
group of 21-25 where most of the respondents are students. It is also seen that number of
male respondents is more than female respondents. Though in response to a question most of
the respondents have mentioned that they never searched for any information about a
particular brand before making the final purchase, it is also seen from another question’s
analysis that the majority of the respondents are well aware of brands. Thus, this gives the
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idea that people are quite aware of a brand through various mediums like word of mouth,
advertising, and so on; as a result, they do not need to search any information about brands
before making the purchase decision. It also can be assumed from the analysis that
respondents can gather knowledge about a particular brand of mobile phones through their
friends and family. From the analysis, it is evident that the majority of the people can afford
mobile phones within the range of BDT 16,000-25,000 range and mostly they prefer the
performance of the device especially high performance of camera as this is an era of being
trendy and uploading pictures. According to the analysis, it is quite clear that people love the
Android operating system. They are brand conscious and they think about the product
uniqueness of particular brands. Here, price is an important factor when they go for buying a
mobile phone. Most of the time they are not influenced by any kind of sales promotion, as
their need and timing are much more important than buying mobile phones on sale. We got to
know the consumers’ behavior while purchasing a mobile phone. Consumers take time to
evaluate their situation before purchasing a product as they search for information about the
products and the brands. Moreover, they choose it according to their affordability, social
status, technological attitude, and beliefs. The main thing that we got to know here is that
performance and uniqueness of the device influence customers to a great extent. They get
satisfied most when they find the desired product within their affording price range. If this is
ensured, they do not think about the brand's promotional activities or any other factors.

6. Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the quality of a product is the most important factor which
affects the consumer’s mobile phone purchase behavior. The price of the product is another
important factor to consumers because, at the end of the day, there is no free lunch in this
world. Brand and product uniqueness are the third and fourth choice of respondents;
therefore, camera function and operating system are the fifth most important factors that
affect a consumer’s mobile phone purchase behavior. Different kinds of sales promotion are
not very important to people except for those who are interested in trying different brands of
mobile devices.

References
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Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Wong, P. V., & Saunders, P. J. (2008). Principles of Marketing (5 edition).
Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
Ladipo, P., Awoniyi, M., & Akeke, O. (2018). Influence Of Smartphone Attributes On Student’s Buying
Decision In Lagos State Tetiary Institutions. JURNAL MANAJEMEN DAN KEWIRAUSAHAAN, 6.
[Link]
Lautiainen, T. (2015). Factors affecting consumers’ buying decision in the selection of a coffee brand.
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Dziwornu, R. (2013). Factors Affecting Mobile Phone Purchase in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana: A
Binary Logit Model Approach. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5.
[Link]
N., R., & Ali, D. (2016). Factors affecting consumer buying behavior.

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Riley, J. (2012). Buyer behavior - The decision-making process. Retrieved from

[Link] Accessed on 7 January
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Appendix
Questionnaire:
Please circle the best option in answering the questions below:
a. Gender
 Male
 Female
b. Age
 18-21
 22-25
 26-29
 29+
c. Occupation________________________
d. What is your educational qualification?
 SSC
 HSC
 Hon’s
 Masters
e. How did you become aware of a particular brand?
 Advertisements
 Word of mouth communication by friends, family or others
 Through own research for a particular product
 Other_____________
f. Which brand of mobile phones do you prefer most?
 Apple
 Samsung
 Nokia
 RedMi
 Oppo
 Lenovo
 Others
g. Do you search for any information about the brand before you purchase that brand’s product?
 Always
 Sometimes
 Never
h. What type of mobile phone do you like to purchase?
 New
 Second hand
i. Do you make the mobile phones purchase decision by taking others’ (friends and family) opinion?
 Yes
 No
j. Do you always buy a particular brand’s product?
 Yes
 No
k. Which price range you will choose to buy a mobile phone?
 Below 5000
 5000-15000
 16000-25000
 26000 and Above
l. Which area do you consider most to purchase mobile phones?
 Coverage

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 Price
 Performance
 Value Added Service
 Others
m. Which factor influence you to buy the particular mobile phone?
 Camera
 Music
 Storage
 Others
n. Your most preferred operating system (OS)?
 IOS
 Android
 Microsoft
o. Please rate the following factors which according to you are important or unimportant when purchasing mobile
phones. You have to rate each of the factors by giving (√) mark.
Factors Very Important Important Neither Important Unimportant Very
nor Unimportant Unimportant
Brand awareness

Quality of
product
Price of product
Product
uniqueness
Sales promotion

Cite this article:

Syeeda Raisa Maliha, Md. Tafsir Alam & Mustafa Nizamul Aziz (2020). Consumer
Behavior in Selecting Mobile Phones in the Context of Bangladesh. International Journal of
Science and Business, 4(7), 91-99. doi: [Link]

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