‘A Study on Customer Preference towards Brands in Smartphones with

Special Reference to Samsung & Apple at Alappuzha District, Kerala’

Synopsis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
OF
BANGALORE UNIVERSITY

SUBMITTED BY:
Mr. JOFIN T. M
REG NO: 19UHCMD041

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

DR. N.S NAGESHA RAO
PRINCIPAL

EAST WEST COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT

Campus: #63 off, Magadi Road, Vishwadeedam Post, Bharath Nagar, Bangalore 560091
Bangalore University
2020-2021
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Brand has always been an important aspect of marketing. Brand is a powerful differentiator in
a highly competitive market place. It provides the company the power to deflect competitive
moves. A strong brand rings trust, confidence, comfort and reliability in the customer’s mind.
Brands live in the minds of consumers and are much more than just a tag for their recognition
and identification. They are the basis of consumer relationship and bring consumers and
marketers closer by developing a bond of faith and trust between them. The promise of brand
is consistent with reliable quality, service and overall psychological satisfaction.

Brand preference is the selective demand for a company’s brand rather than a product; the
degree to which consumers prefer one brand over another. Brand preference can be achieved
by creating the positive brand image in customers mind. Brand image is the consumer’s
impression about the brand’s physical characteristics, its performance, the functional benefits,
the kind of people who use the product, the emotions and associations it develops, and the
imagery or symbolic meanings, it generates. The brand choice decisions are critical for
marketer. Understanding how customers arrive at specific brand choice is essential for brand
development.

The project focuses on the study of brand preference for Smartphones among customers. The
study is conducted in Alappuzha City. This study is basically a compassion between two
popular brands in which the customer choose to prefer namely Samsung and apple.. It also
identifies the reason for choosing a particular brand. Hence my study is on customer preference
towards brands in smartphone with special reference to Samsung and apple at Alappuzha
district, Kerala.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

I. Deepa Guleria (2015) “A Study of Consumer Preference for Smartphone: A Case

of Solan Town of Himachal Pradesh”

The related study conducted in Himachal Pradesh with a sample size 80 smartphone users to
highlight the change in the usage and applicability of the technology from the traditional
handsets to the new emerging smartphones across multiple brands, applications and prices.
The study identifies factor which are responsible for building consumer preference for
smartphone and various usability features. This study indicate suggestive inferences to help
the companies during selecting, targeting and positioning process of marketing their
smartphones.

II. Kameswara Rao poranki (2016) “Assessment of Brand Preference in the Indian
Mobile Phones Market”

The researcher state that aimed to address the question by analyzing brand is preferred mostly
by mobile phone users in Hyderabad town while purchasing mobile phones and status and
impact of the technical, economic , social and personal criterion by mobile phone users in
Hyderabad .and also wishes to found out the process of decision making while choosing and
purchasing the branded mobile product with respect to their current satisfaction level on the
particular brand.

III. Parveen Kumari, Satinder Kumar (2016) “Consumer Brand Preference towards
Mobile Phone: Effect of Mobile Phone Attributes on Purchase Decision”

In this study, it is found that Technical Features are most considered attributes of mobile phone
followed by Looks, Image & Resource, Entertainment, Basic Attributes, Storage, Display, Way
Entertainment, User Friendly and Weight. Technical attributes includes Internet/GPRS, Huge
Memory, Sending & receiving e-mail, Strong battery backup, Operating System, Video-calling
Facility and Multi- Window. Looks encompasses Shape, Size, Colour, Touch-Screen, Screen
size and Social Media Application. Image with Resource involves Dual Sim, Wi-Fi and Brand
Image.

Entertainment attributes incorporates Bluetooth, MP 3 Player and Playing Games. Basic

Attributes includes Communication and Design & Appearance. Storage & Display attributes
contains Video-recorder, Sophisticated and Good audio-video quality. Way Entertainment
attributes embraces Camera and FM-Radio. User-friendly attributes includes Key Pad and as a
modem.

IV. Revathy Rajasekaran, S. Cindhana and C. Anandha Priya (2016) “Consumers

Perception And Preference Towards Smartphone”

The study proved that the respondents have perceived smartphone in a positive manner. The
results can be used by Smartphone manufactures and marketers to know the needs of their
target customer and design the product and formulate marketing strategies accordingly. The
study shows that the product features like camera, battery life, processing speed are the most
important factors in purchase decision. Further Product feature, price, peer group and brand
image are the key influencing factors to buy the smartphone. Though the price of smartphone
is high the customers are ready to pay and afford it for their social need. From this study it is
clear that the Smartphone has become an essential part of life and it made life easier. Thus,
there is ample opportunity and scope for Smartphone brands to get a larger pie in market share
as long as they are to innovate in the industry.

V. Nushrat Nahida Afroz (2017) “Students’ Brand Preferences towards

Smartphone”

The study suggest that, brand name variable have statistically significant relationships with
consumer preferences variable. The findings of the study indicated positive correlations among
the variables i.e. battery backup, camera resolution, durability, and price have significant
impact on the overall preferences of the consumers. The result derived from Cross tabulation,
Likelihood ratio entails that these above factors are influenced the customer brand preference,
and there exists a strong relationship between these factors and brand preference.

VI. T. Kumar (2018) “Customer Brand Preference of Mobile Phones at Coimbatore”

The research helps to understand today’s mobile phone market scenario and generally analyze
the mobile consumer buying behaviour at Coimbatore. The findings also suggest that managers
of these mobile companies should shift their focus on building corporate image and analyze
more carefully the reasons for purchase in order to increase brand loyalty among the
consumers. Among mobile companies consumer are loyal to brands such as Samsung then to
Nokia and then to Motorola, LG and Sony Ericsson. This research study will help the mobile
service providers at Coimbatore to understand the consumer and draw a suitable marketing
 strategy to increase sales. The study helps to improve the economic development of
Coimbatore.

VII. Sumathi K. (2018) “Reviewing the impact of Smartphone usage on academic

performance among students of higher learning”

This study explored the impact of Smartphone on academic performance of higher learning
students. They mentioned that Smartphone and tablets play a very significant role in higher
learning student’s information seeking behavior in meeting their learning and research needs.
It was revealed that there is high level of awareness about the usage of smart phones by higher
learning students for their academic works. Smartphones have tremendous impact on their
higher education, especially with easy internet access and high speed browsing.

VIII. Dr. M. Rajesh (2019) “Brand Preference for Mobile Phones Among the Students
in Chennai”

The paper shows the investigation conducted at Dhanraj Baid Jain College to know about the
preference in different brand of mobile phone in the present market. Study investigated these
components and discovered ways they could help makers and advertisers of mobile phones to
improve their upper hands. The examination gave new experiences to nearby advertisers on
which variables purchasers most thought about when searching for a mobile phone brand,
which will likewise be of advantage to makers when they produce new brands of mobile
phones.

IX. Dr. Neeta Rath (2019) “A Study on Brand Preference of Mobile Phone Users in
Virar”

This study shows concluded that the people in Virar city prefer branded mobile phone as it
delivers the higher value of money than the competing brands. Most of the people get
information regarding mobile phones from television, newspaper and internet. Virar people
prefer the mobile phone which provides the facilities like GPRS, SMS and E- mail facility, and
downloading facilities. They use the different phone accessories such as Bluetooth, camera,
memory card, dual SIM card, USB data cable and head phone. The mobile phones which
provide these facilities are mostly preferred brands. The people in virar change their handsets
in 1 to 3 years because of the new mobile phones are coming with the updated technology and
innovation. They are ready to spend Rs. 10000 to Rs. 20000 on the branded mobile phone
which is not related to their family income levels.
 X. Dr. Rajuagrawal, Kaneenika Jain (2020) “Consumer Preferences for Mobile
Phones: A Study of Youth in Jaipur City”

This study on consumer preferences towards Smartphone among youth shows that the
respondents are very much concerned about the price, quality and brand image of the mobile
phones purchased by them. Further, it was observed that there is significant difference between
the purchase behaviour of male and female college students. The male college students are
more inclined towards quality factors and price equation. Female respondents were more
interested in the appearance and design of the phone. The usage pattern of mobile phones
among both males and females was similar. The important reasons for choosing a particular
brand were better storage, faster processing and better camera specifications among youth of
Jaipur city.

OBJECTIVES

 To study the brand preference for Smartphones among the Customers of Alappuzha
District.
 To study the reasons for brand preference for a particular brand.
 To identify the major features which a customer looks in Smartphone.
 To propose various suggestions to the brands based on the findings.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

 The main aim of the project is to know the customer preference towards brands in
Alappuzha district.
 In this study, the popular brands like Samsung and Apple are considered to understand
the customer preference.
 The study is for a time period of 45 days.
 RESEARCH DESIGN

I. Population Size

People residing at Alappuzha district is 1.75 Lakh as per censes 2011.

II. Sample Size

With confidence level of 95% and margin of error of 5% and with a population of 1.75 Lakh
the sample size would be 384.

III. Type of Sampling Method

Simple Random sampling method will be used.

IV. Data collection

Primary data will be collected by distributing by simple closed ended questionnaires to the
samples.

Secondary data will be collected from the websites of Samsung and Apple, other articles and
journals, newspapers and various other publications.

V. Data collection tools

Questionnaire method is adopted to collect the primary data. A simple closed ended
questionnaire will be distributed to all the samples

VI. Tools for data analysis

Tabular and Graphical representation, percentage method will be adopted for the data analysis.

VII. Limitation Of The Study

The study is limited to only Samsung and Apple and not covered any other reputed brand in
the market. The study is limited to Alappuzha district, Kerala only. Due to the pandemic the
study is conducted only online as per disaster act. The findings obtained are totally based on
the responses of samples. The responses maybe biased and may not the whole population and
the study is limited to 45 days time period which may not be sufficient for an exhaustive study.
 CHAPTER SCHEME

Chapter 1: Industry profile

Chapter 2: Company Profile

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Interpretation

Chapter 5: Findings suggestions and conclusions

Bibliography

Appendix