Concept Paper for Graduate Research Project on

“BRAND PREFERENCE OF LAPTOPS AMONG CONSUMERS IN

KATHMANDU VALLEY”

Submitted by:

Ashesh Siddhi Bajracharya

Ace Institute of Management

Exam Roll No: 16570138

PU Registration No: 2016-2-57-0064

A Graduate Research Project Concept Paper Submitted to

Ace Institute of Management

Pokhara University

Submitted for the Degree of

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Kathmandu

October 2018
Background of the study

The increasing use of internet and need for personal computer to assist one’s studies, job, business
and social activities have been playing significant role not only around the globe but also in Nepal.
Contrary to the introduction years of computers, today laptops and personal computers have been
used by almost all age groups, and by both males and females. Furthermore, consumers’ desire for
portable and attractively designed PCs forces the companies to provide laptops to the potential
market. Extended battery life, price cuts, prevalence of home-offices, and integrated wireless
networking also cause to the increased sales of laptops. Moreover, power cut prevailing in Nepal
has also boosted the prospective market of laptops in recent year.

Switching laptop brands and updating one with latest technology has been in the increasing trend
as well. Moreover, consumers go through various decision making processes and rank different
preferences before they make the final purchase. Laptop preference and purchase behavior could
be related with various other factors like age group, gender, and price of phone, family’s monthly
income, laptop usage purpose, brand attributes and many more.

A laptop computer is a small, portable computer that is small enough to sit on a person’s lap. While
the personal computer (PC) industry began in the early 1970’s, it was not until 1981 that the first
commercial portable computer became available. The next big event in the history of laptops came
in the summer of 1995, after which Microsoft and Intel became the standard for the software
(Windows) and hardware (Intel processors) used in laptops. Over the past fifteen years, the
increasing price-performance ratio, consumer preferences for mobility as well as increased
hardware life has resulted in higher growth of laptops than desktops since 2004. The laptop and
PC industry is expected to grow at a faster rate in developing countries compared to the developed
countries. Therefore, changes in government policies in developing countries like India and China
can affect the potential growth rates in their markets. The global PC market, including the laptop
(portable) segment, is dominated mainly by the five top competitors: Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell,
Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba in descending order, and together they constitute approximately 60%
of the total market share (based on units shipped). In the top 10, Apple has been gaining market
share compared to Windows PCs and laptops, mainly due to its positive brand reputation. (Aditya
Shah, April 2009)
The computers have come a long way from their birth as complex mechanical calculating machines
available only to a few large institutions to being ubiquitous complex electronic systems capable
of handling large amount of data and executing complex calculation in the today’s world. Their
power and performance has been growing at an incredible pace which has made them a must-have
for every business from a retail shop to airlines. The ever decreasing price of the computer systems
has added to the trend. All these factors have increased the importance of computers in the
education, offices and business world and otherwise at a phenomenal rate especially over the past
few years.

As the requirement for better, powerful, compact, faster & higher memory computer systems grew,
smaller & portable computer systems called laptops was introduced. These wonderful machines
are a great help to the user owing to their compactness and capabilities. In the present age of
information, laptops have proved to be an executive’s best friend. Laptops have become the ideal
gadgets for students, business person, and service holders as they are always on the go because of
the many things that these products can do to make their jobs very easy and convenient as possible.
Their feature of compactness over desktop PCs gives the user the convenience to work, share and
stay connected while on the go.

Since purchasing a Laptop requires high involvement decision, the consumers doesn’t want to
compromise on the quality. Consumers believe that the branded products are of better quality
compared to the non-branded. So while purchasing high involvement products like Laptop people
are willing to purchase only those products that has strong brand value and image in market. Such
belief shows that the consumers are very much affected by the brand name which also affects their
purchasing decisions. Knowledge of brand preferences also helps to know consumers’ attitude
towards brand (i.e. product) and this understanding in turn shed light on different aspect such as
effectiveness of branding and advertising policy, consumers’ response to price and availability of
product, consumers’ perception of the total image of the manufacturer. The research will focus on
analyzing the consumers’ brand preference and identifying various factors which enables a
customer to prefer particular brand of Laptop.

Laptop market is a highly competitive market in the present scenario in Nepal as well. Due to rapid
changes in the field of technology day by day, new laptop brands are coming into existence. In
Nepal we can find brands like Dell, Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP and so on. The consumer
desires and expectations are moving on. These brands are always coming up with new features but
it will become difficult to survive for laptop manufacturers if they don’t move fast with growing
needs of consumers. This study presents a brief overview of Kathmandu Laptop industry and
makes an attempt to identify and evaluate various factors which influence purchase particular
brand of laptop. Finally present paper comes with some simple and practical suggestions to
improve laptop features and that will help laptop manufacturers to develop brand management
strategies and to make proper positioning of their brands.

The Nepali consumers like in developed countries too have started to become brand conscious and
the presence of various multinational brands to choose from has made brand loyalist consume their
favorite brand. Especially, the youngsters seem to be hooked to their favorite brands.

Statement of Problem

Laptop using culture is increasing day by day in the city area as well as other places of the countries
along with that, the availability of various brands is increasing as well. Various low cost Laptops
from China, India and even other parts of the world are currently available in market. But price is
not only the factor that people consider while purchasing a laptop. There are some buyers who are
influenced by the price while some are influenced by quality, technology or the brand itself.
Different consumers have different attitudes and perceptions regarding different brand. Likewise
the age and income of consumer also determines the buying behavior for specific brand. This
research will basically answer following questions:

a. What is the current market share of various available brands?

b. What are the most important factors that people consider while purchasing laptop?

Objectives of the study

The major objectives of this research are going to be:

 To identify the major determinants that influence consumer to buy a particular laptop brand.
 To examine the determinants that influence purchasing particular brand of laptop. It could be
factors like brand image, price, features, configuration, convenience of service, audio quality,
video quality, brand name etc.
 To test the out the dependency between brand and gender, age, occupation, education, income,
quality, features, after sales service, resale value, audio and video quality.

Significance of the study

The study is expected to provide following contribution to the stakeholders:

 It will help to know the extent to which the customers are involved in brand searching,
analyzing its attributes, brand choice etc. In addition to this, it will also be helpful to develop
the profile of specific consumer for specific brand.
 Through the finding of the study, it will help us to better understand brand preference practices
of laptop market. It will also help us to know the extent to which the customers are involved
in brand searching, analyzing its attributes, brand choice etc. In addition to this, it will also be
helpful to develop the profile of specific consumer for specific brand.
 The most favorable brand is known from a buyer’s perception and responses to various features
and attributes of product which will help the marketers to trace out the important reasons for
brand preference.
 To get the deeper understanding of choice and preference of customers that can help the
managers to design marketing programs that concentrate on customers.

Limitations of study

Due to lack of time and budget, it compels the researcher to take limited samples which reduces
the accuracy of the study. Following are the limitations of this research:

 In this study, the product which is going to be selected is only laptop, so the result derived
from this study will be applicable for this product only.
 The sample size of this study is small in size which may not fully represent the total laptop
users.
 This study is totally going to be based on the views and responses received from consumer of
Kathmandu valley only. The finding of the study may not be applicable for other parts of
country.
 This study will be entirely based on the opinions, views and responses of respondents.
Opinions of the respondents will be taken as being true, which may not be correct at all times
in near future due to changing behavior of customer.

Theoretical Framework

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Built quality Preference of Branded Laptops

Peer Group Review
Location of Purchase
After sales service
Availability
Duration of Use
Features
Design
Moderating Variables
Brand Image
Price Age
Gender
Income
Education
Occupation
Advertisements

Methodology

In order to collect reliable and valid information, relevant questionnaire will be prepared and
distributed among the respondents who had the probability of using the high involvement products.
The primary data essential for this study will be collected from the Nepalese consumers of the
products from different brands and requirement class. Also, SPSS will be used.