Analysis on Brand Loyalty of Mobile Phone in Suzhou Me Generation商贸英语专业毕业论文.doc

Analysis on Brand Loyalty of Mobile Phone in Suzhou Me GenerationAbstractThe era of 3G witnesses the intense competition of cell phones. Consumers choices of mobile brands are no other than epitomes of mobile phone brand loyalty. At the same time, as the main force of mobile market, market share of the Me Generation has become focus of cell phone manufacturers. In addition, Suzhou, a second-line city, achieves advancement not only in technological economy, but also in high-end electronic products.This essay is based on personal information including age, gender, income and educational statues among Suzhou Me Generation with questionnaires and studies mobile phone brand loyalty in the following five aspects: price, quality, promotion, place and idea. After collecting these data, it also utilizes three methods involving models, math and descriptions. Then, influencing factors on Suzhou Me Generation in mobile phone market will be found: price and quality have a relationship with brand loyalty; promotion havs a rather weak association with brand loyalty; place and idea factor is also related with brand loyalty. At the end of the research, enlightenments and suggestions will be provided respectively to cell phone manufacturers at home and abroad.Key words：Me Generation brand loyalty mobile phones influencing factors摘 要3G时代，手机的竞争日趋白热化。消费者对手机品牌的选择正是他们对手机品牌忠诚的真实写照。与此同时，作为手机市场的主力军，80后在手机市场中所占的份额也成为了各大手机厂商的关注的焦点。此外，二线城市苏州不仅在科技经济上取得了巨大成就，而且在高端电子产品领域也有所发展。本文通过问卷的形式，在苏州80后消费者的年龄、性别、收入、教育状况的基础上，从手机产品本身的价格、质量、促销、地点、理念角度出发调查其手机品牌忠诚的状况。在搜集完数据后，本文运用三种方法：建立模型、数学研究和数据描述进行分析。然后，找出影响苏州80后消费者对手机品牌忠诚的影响因素：价格和质量对品牌忠诚有影响；促销因子影响较小；地点和理念因素对品牌忠诚也有影响。最后，本文给予国内外手机制造商启发和建设性意见。关键词：80后 品牌忠诚 手机 影响因素ContentsAbstracti摘 要iiContentsiiiChapter One Introduction11.1 Research Background11.2 General Purpose of the Research21.3 Significance of the Research31.4 The Hypothesis4Chapter Two Literature Review 52.1 Defination of Brand Loyalty52.2 Research on Inflencing Factors of Brand Loyalty62.3 Research on Inflencing Factors of Brand Loyalty of Mobile Phone7Chapter Three Methodlogy103.1 Methods of the Research103.1 Qusetionnaie Design11Chapter Four Data Analysis on Brand Loyalty in Suzhou Me Generation124.1 Characteristics of the Samples114.2 Data Analysis13Chapter Five Research Resluts and Suggestions to Mobile Phone Manufacturers225.1 Research Results225.2 Suggestions to Mobile Phone Macufacturers22Chapter Six Conclusion296.1 Conclusion of the Research296.2 Limitation of the Research30Reference31Appendix34Appendix35Analysis on Brand Loyalty of Mobile Phonein Suzhou Me GenerationChapter One Introduction1.1 Research BackgroundListening to music with mobile phones on bus, reviewing mobile newspapers in the subways, sending messages on the road, even in washroom, some people cannot separate from the stunner-mobile phone. According to the communication operation status from January to March of 2012 released by China Ministry of Information Industry, mobile phone users had reached nearly 1.019 billion, a net increase of 32.57 million than last year. There were 512.07 million mobile phone users in eastern part; while in central part and western part mobile owners reached 262.70 million and 243.76 respectively. The number of mobile phone users in Jiangsu province had accumulated 69.821 million and ranked the third after Guangdong province with 110.128 million and Shandong with 70.789 million mobile phone users until the end of March this year. Mobile phone users can be seen in Appendix. However, with the rapidly increasing number of mobile phone users, huge stresses are also put on mobile phone manufacturers, such as expanded scales, increased raw materials and decreased profits. As Aslihan Sen (2006) stated, “With more brands coming into the mobile phone market, willingness to experiment with new products, pressure on mobile phone brands, and the environment is increasingly difficult” (p.1).According to the sixth census, Nation Bureau of Statistics of China reports that the population in Suzhou has reached nearly 10.46 million which accounted for 13.3% in Jiangsu. From Suzhou Statistical Investigation Public Site, the end of the first quarter in 2012 witnessed Suzhou cell phone users had reached 15.5109 million, increasing 915.9 hundred users comparing with the end of 2011, nearly 10% higher than last year. Without doubt, taking Suzhou post-80s generation as a good example, will help mobile phone manufacturers master a keen understanding of consumers brand choices influenced by certain factors and their purchasing decisions guided by value orientations, thus, mobile phone manufacturers can formulate the further marketing strategies for preventing the young consumers from switching to other mobile brands. 1.2 General Purpose of the ResearchDifferent consumer groups have different brand positions of mobile phones. Some young people pursue simple operators, others yearn for the function of “man-computer intelligence” of hi-tech mobile phones and some affluent second generations even purchase luxury phones. When IPhone4s debuted in Suzhou in January, it was easily discovered that young people paid for the smart phones without hesitation; some young men camped out of the Apple store queuing all night and others were even willing to buy smuggle mobile phones.After analyzing the current situation of samples in terms of their age, gender, income and education backgrounds in the group of Me Generation in Suzhou mobile phone market, this essay is intended to grasp influencing factors of mobile phone brand loyalty among the Me Generation and how these factors act on them, which facilitates mobile phone manufacturers allocate resources invested in customers rationally, thus boost their sales and gets benefits. At the same time, it also provides a series of suggestions for Chinese cell phone manufacturers to realize their mobile phones strengthens and weaknesses of price, quality, place, promotion and idea and spurs them to design new products, manage brands and maintain brand loyalty among the post-80s generation in Suzhou.1.3 Significance of the ResearchSignificance of the research can be generalized in the following two aspects:The first aspect is that it can be seen that although many experts have done researches on the theories and statistics of brand loyalty; yet, researches aiming at certain age period in a particular area remain sparse. Actually, brand loyalty among different consumer groups distinguishes in various areas. These kinds of research cannot really encourage cell phone manufacturers to master the reasons why consumers purchase and remain faithful to certain brands in some areas. This essay will overcome drawbacks that scare studies researched on certain consumer groups in some areas and guide mobile phone manufacturers in formulating sales plans both in adjusting products and satisfying consumers.The second aspect of this research is for international and domestic cell phone manufacturers. It is of great importance for international mobile phone manufacturers to ameliorate cell phone systems, thus they can enhance their international competitive strengths and continually expand cell phone markets in Chinese second-tier cities. As Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, only do they inject innovational spirits into their products absorbing merits from international enterprises, people can cast away deep-rooted ideas that “made in China” are cottage products and establish company images among the Me Generation, which ensures sustainable development in Chinese mobile phone sector.1.4 The Hypothesis This research sets five variances of influencing factors of mobile phones and raises the following hypotheses:H1: There is a relationship between mobile phone price and brand loyalty.H2: There is a relationship between mobile phone quality and brand loyalty.H3: There is a relationship between mobile phone promotion and brand loyalty.H4: There is a relationship between mobile phone place and brand loyalty.H5: There is a relationship between mobile phone idea and brand loyalty.H1PriceMobile phone influencing factorsBrand loyaltyQuality H2Promotion H3 H4 Place H5 Idea Figure 1.2 HypothesesChapter Two Literature Review2.1 Definition of Brand Loyalty Foreign professors define brand loyalty in many perspectives, mainly categorized in the following three aspects. The first point recognizes brand loyalty is related with behavior loyalty. Repeat purchase behavior can reflect brand loyalty which is also related with deliberate and predisposed inclining to purchase brand, often stemming from positive use experiences (Brown, 1952, p. 54-55). Brand loyalty can be deemed as successive or discontinuous tendency in purchasing behavior (Bhattacharya, 1997, p. 423). Brand loyalty is also regarded as a function related with purchasing frequency of certain brands (Lyong, 1998, p. 57). The second view is attitude loyalty. David Allen Aaker (1996) defines “brand loyalty is a measure of attachment that a customer has to a brand” (p. 21). In addition, brand loyalty is signified as consumer devotion to repurchasing the product or service consistently in the future, thus causing repeating same-brand or brand-set (Oliver, 1997, p. 392). Another definition of bland loyalty can be summarized in the following fields: a based behavioral response, expressed over time, some decision-making unit with one or more alternative brand out of a set of such brands, and is a function of psychological (decision-making, evaluative) processes (Jacoby, & Chestnut, 1978, p. 11). This definition given by Jacoby and Chestnut covers comprehensive aspects. The third one is combined behavior loyalty with attitude loyalty under the condition of psychology. True brand loyalty represents when consumers have high relative and preferential attitudes towards brands exhibited through consistent purchasing behavior (Yee, & Sidek, 2008, p.222). Many Chinese scholars have also done further studies in brand loyalty. Brand loyalty should include repurchase rate, purchasing percentage and brand purchasing quantities (Qu Yunbo, 1997, p. 185-199). Another viewpoint is that brand loyalty is inferred from brand inversion frequency. In order to attract consumers, enterprises should change operating models guided by strategies of brand loyalty (Zeng Jiahong, 2010, p. 103). A brand loyalty model is also established, called “Behavior-emotion” model which can be seen in the following table 2.1 (Ji Jian & Chen Xiaoping, 1999, p. 29). Table 2.1 Behavior- emotion model2.2 Research on Influencing Factors of Brand Loyalty Generally speaking, influencing factors of brand loyalty generally can be divided into two views. The first one refers to brand trust and consumer satisfaction. Some scholars suggest that brand trust has a positive effect on brand loyalty. Brand trust and brand loyalty should be associated, because brand trust is important in relational exchanges and brand loyalty is also reserved for such valued relationships (Mohammad, 2012, p. 115). In addition, consumer satisfaction is also essential to brand loyalty. It may be responsible for as much as 37% of the difference in consumer loyalty (Hallowell, 1996, p. 32). Another view of factors influencing brand loyalty is consumers and enterprises themselves. Gender, involvement, price consciousness, and brand consciousness are found to be important moderators of the product value brand trust brand loyalty chain. (Matzler, Grabner-Kräuter, & Bidmon, 2006, p. 85) Chinese scholars also contribute to researching influencing factors of brand loyalty. From the view of enterprise, brand loyalty is associated with the feature of the products, concerning the importance of the products, risks of after purchasing, the involvement of products and product conversion cost (Zhou Dongrui, & Yang Shuqing, 2011, p. 66-67). Chinese researcher Lai Zedong (2010) finds that five elements will influence purchase decision-making, including consumer themselves, cultural aspect, product involvement degree and nature of market, quantity of competitors and enterprise marketers (p. 392-393). In addition, advertising and integrated brand promotions often provide an extra incentive remain consumers brand loyalty (OGuinn, Allen, & Semenik, 2011, p. 26).2.3 Research on Influencing Factors of Brand Loyalty of Mobile PhoneAfter collecting 120 samples from universities, Zhang Lingming (2006) compares influencing factors of brand loyalty between Rejoice and Nokia, then he calculates data using method of regression coefficient and summarizes that 25% performance factors and usage factors influence consumer brand loyalty which can be illustrated in the following table 2.2. It is also affected by ads and fame (p. 32). Table 2.2 Factors in Regression EquationModelPartial regression coefficient Standard partial regression coefficient tSig.(constant)4.07169.0680.000Performance factor0.3160.4305.2750.000Usage factor0.2060.2783.4140.001From perceived quality, some scholars come to the conclusion that perceived quality is a basic element that influenced brand loyalty. For the purpose of researching consumer consumption of mobile phones, three men collect 297 samples from four cities. They modify and examine the model, then proof that perceived quality produces indirect influence on emotion loyalty with mediation of brand trust; emotion loyalty had a direct influence on behavior loyalty (Liang Sen, Nie Rui, & Lu Tao, 2007, p. 87). The model is in figure 2.3:Behavior loyalty Brand trust Perceived qualityConsumer satisfaction Emotion loyalty Figure 2.3 Model of Mobile Phone Brand Loyalty Wu Ya (2008) studies the research on influencing factors of mobile phone brand loyalty in Me Generation with factorial analysis. He finds that both internal factors from consumers and external factors from manufactures have a huge impact on mobile phone brand loyalty among the post-80s generation. Those influencing factors include reference groups, self image, worth of mouth, function of opinion leader, fashion product, “personalised” ads, consumption experience and unique design and package (p. 28).However, all of the above-mentioned methods have some defects. Although data is as accuracy as they calculated, complex models cannot be comprehended by non-specialists; fewer experts focus on