Analysis of Buying Behavior - Personal Computers

Analysis of Buying Behavior

July 30

2010This is study done on Analysis of Buying Behavior in Personal Computer Industry done as part of project assignment for “Principles of Marketing” in XLRI PGCBM18 course.

Personal Computer Industry

Analysis of Buying Behavior 2010

Author: Rajesh Mittal, Satyajit Karmakar, Aniruddha Sarkar Page 2


Table of Contents1 Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................42 Objective..............................................................................................................................................43 Research Approach...............................................................................................................................4

3.1 Secondary Research......................................................................................................................53.2 Primary Research..........................................................................................................................5

4 Respondents’ Demographic Profile......................................................................................................64.1 Respondents’ Profile: Age Group.................................................................................................64.2 Respondents’ Profile: Sex (Male/Female)....................................................................................74.3 Respondents’ Profile: Professional Industry sector......................................................................74.4 Respondents’ Profile: Domicile (Metro City/ Non-metro city)....................................................8

5 Limitation.............................................................................................................................................86 Critical Considerations.........................................................................................................................9

6.1 Basic Purpose of Purchase............................................................................................................96.2 Critical Consideration Set...........................................................................................................10

7 Input Collection by Consumers for Making Purchase Decision........................................................116 Critical considerations while making a purchase

6.1 Basic Purpose of Purchase6.26.3



1 Executive Summary

Personal Computers (PC) today are integral part of every household and are treated like any other home appliances today. There are several multi-nationals, Indian and local brands each trying to differentiate in terms of features, styling and trying to entice buyers with attractive offers. What really compounds the complexity is the fact that technology is advancing (computational power doubling every 18 months) at fast pace. On the other hand, PC today is facing severe competition from other similar functional products like Laptops, Tablet PC, Smart phones. Interestingly, advent of PC-like devices has turned PC from a life style product to a utility product.

Traditionally, Indian has been slow adaptor of technology. However, adaption to PC is quite different. Initial adaptation of PC in India at enterprise level has been slow due to socio-political reasons like to loss of jobs. However, once benefits are truly understood, people started using not only at large enterprises, but also for small medium businesses and at households. What has also helped to fuel the success story is India’s success at the global IT outsourcing industry.

It is truly amazing to note that, customers are less influenced by brand names or price sensitivity and make purchase decisions based features they specifically need. Most of them are not first time buyers, utilizes all available options to make their purchase decision and their usage pattern is very similar to that of a western country.

However, it should also be noted that, penetration of computer in India is still very low. So, while vast majority of population is still to take advantage of this miracle machine, selected few in urban middle class has proven to be matured buyer and user of personal computer.

2 Objective

To study is to purchase behavior of Indian customers in personal computer industry.

1. To understand buyers’ demographics2. Critical consideration while making a purchase3. How are inputs collected for making a purchase decision4. What are typical usage of PC for Indian customers5. What are critical specifications

3 Research Approach

We have decided to split our study based on: Secondary Research Primary Research



3.1 Secondary Research We excavated several similar studies (done on Indian customers) that are non-proprietary and

available on World Wide Web. We studied similar research done on other countries to understand methodology of such analysis.

3.2 Primary Research

We decided to undertake our own survey to understand the purchase behavior of Indian customer in a better way.

Here is the high level flow of survey:

4 Respondents’ Demographic Profile


Define Objective of survey

Design questionnaire Decides target demographic segment for survey

Host survey in a Website for easy access & anonymity (www.webmonkey.com)

Distribute survey link to friends, colleagues and family members to participate in survey

Close survey

Analyze and interpret survey results


4.1 Respondents’ Profile: Age Group

3 age groups were considered for the survey: Up to 30 Years 30 to 40 Years Above 40 Years

Fig 1: Respondents’ Profile: Age Group



4.2 Respondents’ Profile: Sex (Male/Female)

Fig 2: Respondents’ Profile: Sex (Male/Female)

4.3 Respondents’ Profile: Professional Industry sector

Fig 3: Respondents’ Profile: Professional Industry sector

4.4 Respondents’ Profile: Domicile (Metro City/ Non-metro city)



Fig 4: Respondents’ Profile: Domicile (Metro City/ Non-metro city)

5 Limitation

Respondents are primarily from urban middle class male. Though, they are the primary customers of PC in the home segment, they preferences may not be true representative of all customers.

Number of respondents are only 58. We could not include more respondents due to lack of time.



6 Critical Considerations

6.1 Basic Purpose of PurchaseThis indicates the basic reason for purchase of the Personal Computer. We segmented our study in three different aspects, First Time Purchase, Replacing Old system, and need for an extra Computer. Almost half of the participants – 47.4% indicated for replacement of Old Computer, 33.6% indicated First Time Purchase and 19% indicated for an extra Computer.



6.2 Critical Consideration SetWe segmented the cnosideration factor in different parameters,

The Quality over Price: Almost all participants shown their agreement on for the better quality of product.

Branded over Assembled Computers: A mejority of participants (72%) found inclined towards the Assembled Desktop PCs.

Foreign Made over Indian Made Product: Survey result indicates that the Indian brands are equally getting popular among Consumers.

Influence of Family in Purchase: Mejority of participants agreed that the purchase decision of Desktop PC largly influenced by family members.

Looks of the Computer : We found mixed response from participants on concerns over Look of the Computer.

Utility Matters: Almost all have indicated that the product should be loaded with maximum utility gadgets.

Latest Technology: All participants indicated that the PC should be enabled with Latest Technology.

Above results indicate that Desktop PC consumers are very concious about the Quality, Technology and Utility factors. They evenly consider all kind of options available in the market. Assembled Desktop PCs, MNC Branded Desktop PCs, and Indian Branded Desktops PCs have almost equal market share. Since all participants of our survey are from higher middle and service class people, most of them are well knoledgable in computer. It is observed that Assembled computers are largly acceptaed by those people who have good knowledge in computer. This may be the reason behind a good count in participants who consider Assembled products equally with branded (MNC & India) products in purchase decision.



7 Input Collection by Consumers for Making Purchase Decision

Past Experience: Survey result indicates that past Experience plays an important role for making purchase decision.

Taking Feedback from colleagues and friends: Majority of the participants indicated that they usually discuss with colleagues and friends to get information and feedback on the products.

Visiting various Retailers: We found an indication of the mixed response from the participants on visiting various retailers to get product information.

Online Search: Online search is one of the major reliable source of information indicated in the survey


Documents

Analysis of Buying Behavior - Personal Computers