To Study the students buying behaviour towards Laptops

Harshit Gupta
Harshit_gupta@lbsim.ac.in

ABSTRACT

Laptops are an integral part of today’s student’s study kit. And with a plethora of brands inundating the
market, each trying to differentiate itself from the other in terms of features, style, etc and trying to entice
the buyer with attractive offers, the decision of zeroing on the laptop has become a gruesome exercise for
the student. The very nature of the product encourages the prospective buyer to go through all the stages
of a typical buying process. That is the reason that i have taken up to study the consumer buying
behaviour for laptop buying.

The primary objective of the project can be satisfied progressively by satisfying the secondary research
objectives which are determining the factors, mapping the customer profile & perceptual mapping. A
primary research based on questionnaires and analytical processing of the response will be conducted to
fulfill the research objectives wherever the secondary data is not available.

INTRODUCTION

This provides a context for the research topic. It begins with the demonstrate of the definition of
Consumer Behaviour as well as a Model of Consumer Behaviour. Then it will illustrate the different
factors that influence the Consumer Behaviour as well as the Buying Decision Process in order to
understand the essence of Consumer Behaviour. After that, the emphasis will be on Brand Field. The
effect of Brand on Consumer Behaviour will be discussed based on its Four Components in order to
analyze how Brand is very important in the Consumer Decision- Making Process therefore influencing the
Consumer Behaviour.

1
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

There is no doubt that the customer is essential for the firm in the marketing field. Wllkie (1994) stated
that “Consumer Behaviour is the mental, emotional, and physical activities that people engage in when
selecting, purchasing, using, and disposing of products and services, so as to satisfy needs and desires”.

He further explained that there are Seven Keys to Consumer Behaviour, which are:

 Consumer Behaviour is motivated.

 Consumer Behaviour includes many activities.
 Consumer Behaviour is a process.
 Consumer Behaviour varies in timing and complexity.
 Consumer Behaviour involves different roles.
 Consumer Behaviour is influenced by external factors.
 Consumer Behaviour differs for different people.

THE REASON FOR INTRODUCING A MODEL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

In order to study consumers we need to learn more about consumer buying behaviour, such as who buys?
How do they buy? When do they buy? Why do they buy? Therefore, the research of customers’ behaviour
is necessary and significant. A model of consumer buying behaviour is a representation of the phenomena
it is intended to designate-that is, it specifies the elements and represents the nature of the relationships
between them (Blackwell, Miniard, and Engel, 2001). “It is a frame of reference that guides market
researchers through marketing problems and its explanations can gain in ability to predict outcomes under
varying sets of circumstances” (Kollat et al,1970).

THE MAJOR INFLUENCE FACTORS ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

According to Kotler’s (2003) model, consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social,
personal and psychological characteristics. Generally speaking, marketers cannot control such factors, but
they must take them into account because these factors affect how individual consumers react to the
different stimuli that firms send out through their communication. The marketer’s task is to understand
what happens in the buyer’s consciousness and the buyer’s decision making process. Thereby, this section
will focus on demonstrating the factors affecting buying behaviour according to Kotler (2003).

CULTURAL FACTORS
Cultural factors exert deep influence on Consumer Behaviour. Culture is the basis for a person’s wants
and behaviour (Kotler, 2003). Culture refers to “a set of values, ideas, artefacts and other meaning
symbols that help individuals communicate, interpret and evaluate as members of society” (Blackwell,
Miniard, and Engel, 2001). It affects the consumers shaping the attitudes, feelings, biases, and opinions,
which enable marketers to interpret or even predict the reaction of consumers to specific marketing
strategies.

SOCIAL FACTORS

A consumer’s behaviour is also influenced by social factors, such as reference group, family, and social
roles and status (Kotler, 2003). Because these social factors can strongly affect consumer response, firms
must take them into account when designing their marketing strategies.

For one thing, reference group has significant influences on the individual’s product and brand purchases.
“Reference group are groups that serve as direct or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a
person’s attitudes or behaviour” (Kolter 2003). Indirect or direct reference groups include family, friends
and neighbours.

For another thing, family members can strongly influence buyer behaviour. Kotler (2003) pointed out that
“family influences one’s orientations toward politics and economics and a sense of personal ambition,
self-worth and love”. Even if the buyer no longer interacts very much with his or her parents, the family
can still significantly influence the buyer’s behaviour.

PERSONAL FACTORS

The age of the buyer is one of the major factors influencing individual’s purchases(Cole and Siva, 1993).
People in the different ages have different needs. A brand must be understandable to the age group to
which the product or service is targeted and should be delivered through a medium used by members of
that group (Wells et al, 1992).

A buyer’s decision is also influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer’s age, occupation,
economic situation, lifestyle and personality and self-concept (Rowley, 1997).

On the other hand, a person’s occupation can affect the goods and services bought. Occupational groups
usually have above average interest in the products and services, which are related to their occupation
(Kotler, 2003). Therefore, the marketers need to consider the right occupational groups as the production
and marketing target.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

A number of complex behaviour factors lie in psychological factors including perception, motivations,
attitudes and learning (Kotler, 2003).

Firstly, “a motive is a learned need that is sufficiently pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction”
(Kotler & Keller, 2006). In other words, it leads consumers to pursue particular goals because they are
socially valued (Buchanan & Hucaynski, 1997). Therefore, motivation is the condition of being motivated
(Walter & Paul, 1970). Thus, Marketers need to identify what needs the consumer is trying to satisfy.

Secondly, a motivated person is ready to act. How the person acts is influenced by his or her perception
of the situation. “Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organises and interprets inputs
to create a meaningful picture of the world.” (Bereson and Steiner, 1964).

Thirdly, learning describes changes in an individual’s behaviour arising from experience (Kotler, 2003).
Learning occurs through the interplay of drives, stimuli, cues, responses and reinforcement.

Therefore, marketers need to do the effort to communicate a positive belief of a product or brand for the
costumers.

THE BUYING DECISION PROCESS

It is necessary to introduce consumer buying decision process, by which marketers can monitor the
process to develop the effective marketing mix by utilizing stimuli and factors to guide consumers to
certain products.

In a buying decision process, a consumer will pass through five stages as shown below:

FIG 1: Buying Decision Process

 As shown in the figure above, the buying process starts when consumer recognises a problem or
need, which is triggered by internal or external stimuli (Kotler, 2003). In other words, the
particular consumer recognizes she or he needs to buy something to solve problems she or he
faces. This will drive the potential buyer to search and gather information about the products that
will solve the particular problems.
 At the former level, consumers simply receipt the information about the product; at the second
level, consumers are more likely looking for the product information actively,
such as online searching, visiting stores, reading materials and phoning friends. The information
source could be fell into four groups: personal(family, friends, neighbours, acquaintances);
commercial(advertising, web sites, sales persons, dealers, packaging, displays); public(mass
media, consumer-rating organizations) and experiential(handling, examining, using the product).
As a result of that, the potential buyer becomes acquainted with some of the brands in the market
and their features.
 After that, consumers move into third stage-evaluation of alternative. In this stage, Preferences
among the brands in the choice set will be formed. The evaluation is based on the product or
service whose attributes are perceived to best satisfy the need. Namely, it is a brand evaluation
stage. The outcome of brand evaluation is the awareness brands set narrow down to the small
range of consideration brands then into smaller range of choice set
 After the brands evaluation stage, the intention to buy a specific brand will be made, in this stage,
five sub-decisions will be made: brand, dealer, quantity, timing and payment method
(Kotler,2003). Then, the consumer will execute a purchase intention to buy the most preferred
brand or product which they believe may satisfy them.
 After purchasing the product, the consumer will experience some level of satisfaction or
dissatisfaction. In post-consumption evaluation. In this stage, the satisfaction of the
consumption will result in the storing evaluation in memory and refer to them in future decisions.
On the contrary, when experiences and performance fall short of expectations, dissatisfaction
occurs. This model of buying decision process emphasizes that the buying process starts long
before the actual purchase and has consequences long after the purchase. It is said that, it
encourages the marketer to focus on the buying process rather than on the purchase decision. The
model captures the full range of considerations that arise when a consumer faces making a new
purchase.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING

A successful brand is one which creates and sustains a strong, positive and lasting impression in the mind
of a buyer (Kotler,2003). As Doyle (1998.p.77) claims “a successful brand is a name, symbol, design or
some combination, which identifies the product of a particular organization as having a sustainable
differential advantage”.

That is to say a successful brand is a substantial asset to the companies. In fact, branding is defined as the
enterprise of creating added value in the minds of consumers, which is to build perceived values beyond
the observable physical value of the product, and thus differentiating the product in a highly competitive
environment.

The aim of branding is to help customers to identify products that are relevant for them, and so take much
of the anxiety out of decision making. Thus, firms must build effective branding strategies to help
consumers organize their knowledge about certain products and service, and convince the customers what
are firm’s meaningful advantages among the different brands.

In other words, the stronger the consumer identification of the brand, the stronger the relationship firms
have with consumers and therefore the brand effect on purchase. In fact, branding can be seen as a
process of building and developing corresponding marketing strategies based on firms’ resource and
capability aiming to communicate certain brand to targets effectively an consistently thereby influencing
the consumer behaviour.

Hence, firms need to create customer-based brand equity (a topic explored in the next section) by
branding to obtain the competitive advantages. Consequently, a high degree of brand equity among the
consumers is an important goal of marketing strategy. Thus, it is necessary to discuss how brand equity
affects consumers buying behaviour.

WHAT IS BRAND AWARENESS?

Brand Awareness is “the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of a
certain product category”. That is to say, brand awareness is the capability of knowledge and
identification of certain brand retrieved under some situations. Brand Recognition refers to the
consumer’s ability to recall previous exposure or experience with the brand, brand recall refers to the
consumer’s ability to retrieve the brand from memory when given the product category as a cue. Brand
Awareness refers to the strength of presence of a brand in the consumers mind and the extent to which
they are able to recognize or recall a brand name.
BRAND AWARENESS EFFECT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Brand Awareness has significant impact on the consumer buying behaviour. Firstly, a high level of
awareness of a brand that consumers have, the high level the brand will be considered when they choose
to buy. It is because in relation to the consumer buying process, brand awareness plays an important role
when have intention to buy something for needs. That is to say, on the one hand, consumers always are
passive recipient of product information and are reluctant to spend much time and effort for choosing
brand.

Therefore, the brand awareness will lead them to choose most familiar brand that they have knowledge
of; on the other hand, in fact, in the consumer decision making process, consumers always have many
alternatives to be considered.

Thus, brand awareness is crucial to getting into this consideration set as the brand lacks of the awareness
may not has the opportunity to be considered for buying.

This will result in the increase of the sales. Diet Coke is a good example, which sales benefits from the
Coke brand. Therefore, the more the consumer is aware of the product, the greater the possibility that the
consumer will purchase the product.

WHAT IS PERCEIVED QUALITY?

Perceived quality can be defined as “the customer’s perception of the overall quality or superiority of a
product or service with respect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives”. It is a higher-level
abstraction rather than a specific attribute of a product. In other words, perceived quality is the
consumer’s judgement about a product’s overall excellence or superiority.

PERCEIVED QUALITY EFFECT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

First of all, a brand’s perceived quality provides the value for consumers to buy such brand’s products. It
is because consumers always make buying decisions rely on the feeling of the basic characteristics of the
product to which the brand is attached such as the reliability of the product since they always cannot
experience the product before they buy it.

Namely, perceived quality is related to the consumer purchasing decision making process. In other words,
consumer always prefer to donate less time and effort for gaining the information which can assess the
products’ quality, as a result, the observation of the certain brand might be a determination of the final
decision making.
Occasionally, consumers may not be able to possess the access or not be able to judge the information
about the product’s quality. Thus, perceived quality becomes the important factor affecting the final brand
choice.

Secondly, a perceived quality may result in a willingness of consumer for buying a brand for a price
premium. That is to say, if a brand’s perceived quality is good in mind of customers, then the customer
may be more willing to buy such brand even the brand’s price is higher then others.

Therefore, it will create a premium profits for the firm compared to other firms, which can indeed provide
resources with which to reinvest in the brand, such as R&D activities, brand enhancing activities.

WHAT IS BRAND ASSOCIATION?

Brand Association is the category of a brand’s implications which include anything ‘linked’ in memory to
a brand. Brand Association can be classified into three major scopes including Attributes, Benefits, and
Attitudes.

• Attributes refer to descriptive characteristics that consumers think of in the mind towards certain
brand’s product, which is formed by product-related attributes.
• Benefits is related how consumers value the offer of a brand’s products, namely, it is the
perception of consumers about what the products can do for them.
• Attitudes are defined as the overall evaluation of a brand, which is most important in consumer’s
brand choice decision making.

Up to the present, we can find that the brand association is related to the consumer’s concept and feeling
about the belief that attributable to the brand. It can also see as brand identity, which can be divided in
three perspectives in the brand: Value, Brand Personality and Organizational Associations.

• Value is linked to the functional benefits of the brand, which are the performance capabilities of
the product.
• Brand Personality can enable people to express their own self, or dimensions of the self through
using the brand because consumers have multiple roles, which result in a consumer feeling that
the brand is relevant to my kind of product
• Organizational Associations can reflect something about the producer’s value or represent a
certain culture, and is often the base for differentiation and consumer preferences.
BRAND ASSOCIATION EFFECT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Brand Association can help customer process information. In the reality, consumers may not have process
and access to perceive or obtain some facts about the brands, and to communicate such things may high
cost for the companies. Therefore, the brand with high level of association will contribute to facilitate
consumer for gaining the meaning of the brand.

On the other hand, brand association can help consumers retrieve the information about certain brand.
That is to say, if a brand associates with something, the consumer will easily reflect such things in the
mind when they confront the brand in some situations. Brand association also involve product attributes
or customer benefits that provide a specific reason to buy and use the brand.

WHAT IS BRAND LOYALTY?

Brand loyalty has been defined as the inclination of a customer to keep on purchasing the same brand
(Collin et al, 1991). Dick and Basu (1994) stated that brand loyalty is the strength of the relationship
between an individual’s attitude towards a brand and repeat purchasing. Schiffman and Kanuk (1997)
described a consistent preference and purchase of the same brand in a specific service or product category
as brand loyalty. Gilbert (2003) defined it as consumers purchasing the same brand of product on most
occasions or on a regular basis. Therefore, as the definitions above-mentioned, brand loyalty exist when a
customer buy one brand of product or service again and again.

BRAND LOYALTY EFFECT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

On the one hand, brand loyalty will lead consumers to purchase the same brand’s products (Aaker, 1991),
which will in turn reduces the marketing costs of doing business. It is because potential new customers
usually lack motivation to change from current brands as change a brand often has risks from them. On
the other hand, brand loyalty can contribute to the maintaining of the market share as other companies
enter the market. It is because the loyal consumer will insist to the brand they previously choose as they
are risk aversion and want to avoid swishing cost. Moreover, brand loyalty can help firms attracting
new customers. It is because the acceptance of the brand by a group of existing customers can be an
effective message through world of mouth effect. It can also create brand awareness from the customer
base, which in turn path a way for attracting new customers.

Briefly, brand loyalty will result in consumers continue to buy the brand in the future, recommend it to
friends, and choose the products over others, even those with better features or lower prices.
LITERATURE REVIEW

Laptop & PC Industry is expected to grow fast in developing countries like India & china because of
changes in government policies. In 2005, Indian government removed the import duties on Laptops,
which resulted in growth of 94% in 2005.

Cyber Media Research (2011) study states that nearly 10 million desktop & notebook personal computers
have been installed in 2010 and thus India has estimated to cross 52 million till Dec 2010 for total
installation of both.

IDC is India’s quarterly PC sales marker, for the quarter ending in Oct-Dec 2010, it suggested that Indian
PC market had found recovery from the effect of global recession. Compared to last quarter of 2009,
Laptop market has seen the growth of 49%, while with compare to 3rd quarter it has decreased by 7%
because of High inflation & low industrial growth. (Shinde J.) According to Vadlamani S.(2011), Desktop
& laptop market has achieved the growth of 6% (2.6 million units) in India in first quarter of 2011. the
growth was driven by laptop vendor by 23%. Top five brands are Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo and HCL with
combined market share of 57.5%.

IDC(2011) wrote that, in the second quarter of 2011, the sales of laptop & desktops has decreased by
4.2% at 2.44 million units, compared to Q1 2011; Dell has again leaded the market share by 17.4%, while
top 5 companies cumulating 60% market share; companies are targeting tier-3 & tier-4 cities now through
large-format retails.

According to Pinki Sharma, The entire study shows that Laptop usage is very much popular in between
the students whether their residential status is urban and rural. It’s the present day demand to run hand
with the latest technology. This technology not only simplify students task but it also seem to morale
boost up of the students. Students found themselves connected with the entire world with the help of
Laptops.

According to Dr. Nilesh B. Gajjar, The study of Consumer Behaviour is quite complex, because of many
variables involved and their tendency to interact with & influence each other. These are the factors
controlled by external environments like the following form the basis of external influences over the mind
of a customer (outer circle).

 Culture, and Sub-culture.

 Social Class, and Social Group.
 Family, and Inter-Personal Influences.
  Other Influences (which are not categorised by any of the above six, like geographical, political,
economical, religious environment, etc.).

Here the findings don’t support completely to the entire brand equity dimensions of Aaker’s model, it was
found that perceived quality and brand loyalty had a significant positive direct effect on brand equity. It
had the strongest impact which indicated the essential role of development of perceived quality and brand
loyalty in minds of customers to build brand equity for laptop brands.

Here the findings don’t support completely to the entire brand equity dimensions of Aaker’s model, it was
found that perceived quality and brand loyalty had a significant positive direct effect on brand equity. It
had the strongest impact which indicated the essential role of development of perceived quality and brand
loyalty in minds of customers to build brand equity for laptop brands.

Wahida Farzana said, The purpose of the study is to explore how consumers’ psychological factors
(Motivation, perception, and attitude) are associated with brand equity (brand loyalty, brand association,
perceived quality, and brand awareness) of laptop. The result revealed that, consumers’ motivation to use
laptop and brand association criteria work separately.

Like other products, consumers’ perception for choosing laptop relies upon different sources of
information. In this particular case, they choose newspaper and websites to build up their perception.
Though newspaper and websites play the vital role for organizing, evaluating information, they rarely
help them to choose the brand.

According to Vijay R. Kulkarni, Brand & Features, Price, Visibility & Service Center, Reliability &
Responsiveness, Warranty, Guarantee & After Sales Service, are the factors which impact the buying
behavior of the post graduates students.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

 To study the Student’s Buying Behavior towards laptops.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE

 To know the factors influence and perception of the students while purchasing of laptops.

SCOPE OF STUDY
This report is limited to survey area in GURUGRAM.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The research design is Descriptive studies. Descriptive studies are well structured, they tend to be rigid
and its approach cannot be changed every now and then.

Descriptive studies are undertaken in many circumstances.

When the researcher is interested in knowing the characteristics of certain groups such as age, profession.

When the researcher is interested in knowing the proportion of people in given population who have
behaved in a particular manner, making projection of certain things.

The objective of this kind of study is to answer the why, who, what, when and how of the subject under
consideration.I have taken descriptive because my research includes the knowing the behavior of customer
towards Laptop. I have analyzed how people of various age groups respond towards laptop or their perception
towards laptop.

DATA COLLECTION

 Primary data collected: Online Questionnaires

 Secondary data collected: Internet
 Research instruments: Questionnaire

SAMPLE DESIGN

 Sample size: 100.

 Sampling type: For this purpose of research Convenient/ non-probability sampling approach has
been used. Non-probability sampling is arbitrary and subjective.

LIMITATIONS

 Respondents were reluctant to share their experience accurately.

 Few Customers are hesitate to deliver some information due to the time wasted in the providing
the same.
 Due to time constraints it is not possible to cover vast area. So that survey has limited to
GURUGRAM.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA INTERPRETATION

SECTION 1: CONSUMER PROFILE

Q.1 : Gender:

Male Female

Female
22%
Male
78%

As per the graph above,

78% of the population is of Males and,

22% of the population is of Females.

 Q.2 :Age:

1. 16-20

2. 21-25
3. Over 25
NO. OF PEOPLE

100
90

80

70

60

50

40 94

30

20
3 3
10
16-20 21-25 Above
0 25

AGE

As per the graph above,

3% of the population fall in 16-20 age group,

94% of the population is falling in 21-25 age group and, 3%

of the population is falling in 25 & above age group.

 Q.3 : Please indicate the course you are
in?

M.B.A
M.C.A
B.C.A
B.B.A
B.Pharm
B.Tech
Others Other
B.Pharm s7
1% %
B.Tech
11%

MCA MB
A
BCA
3%
12% 48%
BBA
18
%

As per the graph above,

48% of students are from MBA, 3% from MCA, 12% from BCA, 18% from BBA, 11% from
B.Tech, 1% from B.Pharm and 7% are from other courses.
Q.4 : Do you own a laptop now?

Yes
No

YesNo

22%

78%

As per the graph above,

78% students have laptop and rest 22% are not having a laptop.
SECTION 2:

Please select the answer that most corresponds to your opinion in each question.

1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neutral 4. Agree 5. Strongly Agree.

Q.5 : Do you recognize most of the famous laptop

brand in the market?
Strongly Disagree Disagree
1%
1%

neutra
l
8% Stongly agree
22%

agree
68%

As per the graph above,

22% respondents are Strongly Agreed with the question, 68% are Agreed with the question, 8%
are Neutral about the question, 1% Strongly Disagreed with the question and the rest of the 1%
Disagreed with the question, that they recognize the famous brands in the market.
 Q.6 : In the case that there are many laptop brands in
the market, you would prefer the one is well-known?

Strongly

Disagree Stongly agree

Disagree 5%
1%
8%
neutral
6%

agree
80%

As per the graph above,

5% of respondents Strongly Agreed with the question, 80% of respondents are Agreed with the
question, 6% are Neutral to the question, 8% Disagreed to the question and 1% Strongly Disagreed
with the question, that they prefer the famous brands in the market.
 Q.7 : You will choose a well-known brand when the other
brands offer similar feature or price?

Strongly
Disagree
0%

DisagreeStongly

12% agree
11%

neutra
l
22%

agree
55%

As per the graph above,

11% of the respondents are Strongly Agreed with the question, 55% of the respondents Agreed
with the question that they will choose the famous brand inspite the other brands offer the same
features and 22% of the respondents are Neutral and the rest 12% of the respondents says that they
Disagree with the question.
 Q.8 : Do you agree well-known brandspresent advance in
innovation?

Strongly Disagree
1%

Stongl
Disagree
y
agree
8%
9%

neutra
l
35%
agree
47%

As per the graph above,

9% of the respondents Strongly Agreed with the question, 47% of the respondents Agreed with the
question that well known brands presents advance in innovation whereas 35% of the respondents
remains Neutral, 8% of the respondents Disagreed with the question and 1% of the respondents
Strongly Disagreed with the question.
 Q.9 : Do you agree well-known brands
represent better quality?
Disagree Strongly Disagree 4%1%

Stongly agree

neutra 17%
l
24%

agree
54%

As per the graph above,

17% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that well known brands represents the better quality
whereas, 54% Agreed with the question, 24% of respondents remain Neutral, 4% Disagreed with
the question, the rest 1% Strongly Disagree with the question.
 Q.10 : You will purchase a well-known brand because
well-known brands represent better quality and service
even you need to pay a price premium?

Strongly
Disagree Disagree

0%
10% Stongly agree
14%

neutra
l
agree
35%
41%

As per the graph above,

14% of the respondents Strongly Agreed with the question that they will purchase a well known
brand even they need to pay the price premium whereas, 41% of the respondents Agreed with the
question, 35% of the respondents remains Neutral and 10% of the respondents are Disagreed with
this.
Q.11: Do you agree a well-known laptopbrand can match your lifestyle?

Strongly Disagree
Stongly agree
0%
12%

Disagree 14%

neutral
agree
32%
42%

As per the graph above,

12% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that branded laptops can match their lifestyle where, 42%
of the respondents Agreed to the question, 32% of the respondents remains Neutral and 14% of the
respondents showed their Disagreeness.
 Q.12 : Do you agree the well-known brands present
better value (such asattributes, services) for money
over competitors?

Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Stongly agree
0%
13% 9%

neutra agree
l
36% 42%

As per the graph above,

9% of the respondents Strongly Agreed with the question whereas, 42% of the respondents are
Agreed with the question, 36% of the respondents remains Neutral and 13% of the respondents
Disagreed to it.
 Q.13 : Do you agree the well-known brands’ image can
somewhat reflect your own self- image and
personality?

Strongly
Stongly
Disagree
agree
Disagree
1% 9%
12%

neutral
18%

agree
60%

As per the graph above,

9% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that the well known brands reflect their self image and
personality whereas, 60% of the respondents Agreed to the question, 18% stayed Neutral, 12% of
the respondents Disagree with this question, 1% of the respondents Strongly Disagree with this
question.
 Q.14 : You will rely on the laptop’s brand image than its
actual attributes in decision making?

Strongly DisagreeStongly
agree
0% 4%

agree
15%

Disagree
36%

neutra
l
45%

As per the graph above,

4% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that they will rely on the brands image in doing their
decisions whereas, 15% of the respondents Agreed to the question, 45% of the respondents remains
Neutral and 36% Disagreed with the question.
Q.15 : You prefer to buy the laptop on special occasions?

Stongly agree
9%
Strongly Disagree
18%
agree
22%

Disagree 31%

neutral 20%

As per the graph above,

9% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that they buy laptops on the special occasions whereas,
22% of the respondents Agreed with the question, 20% of the respondents are Neutral and 31% of
the respondents Disagreed with it , 18% of the respondents Strongly Disagreed with it.
Q.16 : Do you mind buying online without seeing the laptop in person?

Stongly agree 3%

agree 17%

Strongly Disagree 27%

neutral 20%

Disagree 33%

As per the graph above,

3% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that they buy the laptop online without seeing in person
whereas, 17% of the respondents Agreed, 20% of the respondents remains Neutral 33% of the
respondents Diasgreed and 27% of the respondents Strongly Disagreed and says that they will not
buy laptop without seeing in person.
 Q.17 : The laptop's looks and stylishness
important to you?

Strongly Disagree
8%

Stongly agree
20%
Disagree
21%

agree

neutra 28%
l
23%

As per the graph above,

20% of the respondents Strongly Agreed that laptops looks & stylishness are important to them
whereas, 28% of the respondents Agreed to the question, 23% of the respondents remains Neutral,
21% of the respondents Disagreed to the question and 8% of the respondents Strongly Disagreed to
the question.
 Q.18: Before purchasing, you search for various factors of
laptop like attributes, price etc from various sources like
internet, friends etc?

Strongly Disagree
0%

Disagree
8%
neutra
l
Stongly agree
12%
29%

agree
51%

As per the graph above,

29% of the respondents Strongly Agreed with the question that they search the various factors
before buying whereas, 51% of the respondents Agreed with the question, 12% of the respondents
are Neutral and 8% of the respondents Disagreed to the question.
 Q.19 : You are satisfied with your past purchase for a
laptop?
StronglyDisagree 0%

Disagree 5%

Stongly agree
neutra 18%
l
21%

agree
56%

As per the graph above,

18% of the respondents Strongly Agreed to the question that they are satisfied with their past
purchase whereas, 56% of the respondents Agreed to the question, 21% of the respondents remains
Neutral and 5% of the respondents Disagreed with the question.
Q.20 : You will recommend your friends with your favourite laptop brand
when they consider purchasing a laptop?

DisagreeStrongly Disagree
1%
6%

Stongly agree 14%

neutral 26%

agree 53%

As per the graph above,

14% of the respondents Strongly Agreed with the question, 53% of the respondents Agreed with
the question whereas, 26% of the respondents remains Neutral, 6% of the respondents Disagreed
with it and 1% of the respondents Strongly Disagreed with it.
Q.21 : You would buy the same brand of laptop when you consider
purchasing a second laptop?

Strongly Disagree
Stongly agree
0%
10%

Disagree 12%

agree 32%
neutral 46%

As per the graph above,

10% of the respondents Strongly Agree to the question, 32% of the respondents Agreed that they
will buy the same brand on their net purchase whereas, 46% of the respondents remains Neutral
and 12% of the respondents Disagreed to the question.
CONCLUSION

Here, in this study the respondents are the students. The respondents are 100 in which 78% are male and
22% are females. Most of the respondents fall in the 21-24 age category which is 94% and rest from 16-
20 &25 above are having just 3-3%. Around 65% students are agreeing to their knowledge of brand
awareness, in terms of perceived quality there is 50% respondents who are agreeing whereas around 45%
of respondents are giving their vote to agree on brand association and on brand loyalty the number is upto
45%.

The students prefer to buy the laptops when reach in the college or when there is a need for a laptop to
them. From the study I can say that mostly management and engineering students are having the need of
laptop and rest of them do have but not as compare to management students.

FINDINGS

The consumer decision-making process and resulting preferences and buying behaviour are influenced by
internal– as well as external factors. Other factors like age, lifestyle, learning and personality also play a
role. Emotions, like the experiencing of guilt after an unplanned purchase, also influence their behaviour.

 External factors consist of culture, social class, and family/household and reference groups. One of the
important external factors is groups (friends & family).
 The majority of students like to shop with shopping companions. Their first choice is friends, followed
by family members.
 The majority of students usually do not buy the same brands as their friends or family members.
 Students indicated that they usually play the roles of information searchers/gatherers and product users
in their households.
 Students search for information to obtain a better price and when they plan to buy expensive products.
 The majority of students’ decision-making style is quality consciousness, followed by price
sensitiveness and services orientation.
 Students make use of the brand first and outlet second sequence in their decision- making.
LIMITATIONS

In this research, there are some limitations caused by the following reasons.

 Firstly, the main limitation of the research is generated from the small size of the sample. Under
time and financial constraints, the study was performed only with a small portion of the
population for the whole population. This may influence the generalizability of the samples and
may get the incorrect results.
 Secondly, the selection of the survey location has limitation. Only Gurgaon is selected for
conducting the survey. Therefore, the result would be representative of the users of the specific
area rather than of the target population as a whole because different cities may reflect different
consumer behaviour.
 Moreover, the Likert scale adopted in the questionnaire might limit the range of options. Closed
questions could cause bias by forcing respondents to choose between certain alternative
corresponding to their personal views on a particular subject.
 In addition, in this study, only quantitative method is used to do the research and statistic analysis
is used to examine the topics. Thus, the result may be not depth enough. This also caused the
discussion of findings may not so accurate and in detail.
 Finally, as the survey was conducted in a laptop market and the respondents were random
selected, thus, the respondents might, intentionally or unintentionally provide inaccurate answers
to the questions. Thus the findings may not be accurate.
 However, care was taken throughout the study to reduce the negative impact of these Limitations
essentially the need for further research is recognized.

RECOMMENDATIONS

 Retailers should make use of reference group influences by focusing on friends and family in their
advertising strategies, and personal selling strategies. For example: “Bring along a friend!”
 Retailers should focus on the individuality of students, which is typical of this age group, and steer
away from advertising campaign with themes like blending in or being like everyone else. For
examples, slogans like “Be your own person” or “ For the individual.” should appeal to students.
 Retailers need to supply the relevant price information for example, retailer price, discount or payment
options, about their products, especially if they are selling expensive products.
 Retailers should make use of their knowledge of decision-making styles to segment the market, to do
niche marketing and better understand the market. Retailers should ensure that their quality, price and
 services are better than the competition, in order to gain a bigger share of the student market.
 Retailers should use weekends for new product launches, competitions or promotional campaigns.

QUESTIONNAIRE

SECTION 1: CONSUMER PROFILE

1. Gender:
o Male
o Female
2. Age:
o 16-20
o 21-25
o Over 25
3. Please indicate the course you are in?
o M.B.A
o M.C.A
o B.C.A
o B.B.A
o B.Pharm
o B.Tech
o Others
4. Do you own a laptop now?
o Yes
o No
SECTION 2: Please select the answer that most corresponds to your opinion in each question.
1. Strongly disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neutral 4. Agree 5. Strongly agree

Sr. no Questions Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

disagree agree
5. Do you recognize most of the
famous laptop brand in the
market?
6. In the case that there are many laptop
brands in the market, you would prefer
the one is well-
known?
7. You will choose a well-known brand
when the other brands offer
similar feature or price?
8. Do you agree well-known brands
present advance in innovation?
9. Do you agree well-known brands
represent better quality?
10. You will purchase a well-known brand
because well-known brands represent
better quality and service
even you need to pay a price
premium?
11. Do you agree a well-known laptop
brand can match your lifestyle?
12. Do you agree the well-known brands
present better value (such as
attributes, services) for money
over competitors?
13. Do you agree the well-known brands’
image can somewhat
reflect your own self-image and
personality?
14. You will rely on the laptop’s brand
image than its actual attributes in
decision making?
15. You prefer to buy the laptop on
special occasions?
16. Do you mind buying online without
seeing the laptop in person
 17. The laptop’s looks and stylishness
important to you?
18. Before purchasing, you search for
various factors of laptop like
attributes, price etc from various
sources like internet, friends
etc?

For respondents who own laptop already

19. You are satisfied with your past

purchase for a laptop?
20. You will recommend your friends with
your favourite laptop brand when they
consider purchasing a laptop?

21. You would buy the same brand of

laptop when you consider
purchasing a second
laptop?

22. When are you buying or did you buy the laptop and how long do you want it to last?

Comment:

\
References
WEBSITES:
 www.altavista.com
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_behaviour
 www.learnmarketing.net/consumer.htm
 www.theglobaljournals.com/ijar/file.php?val=MTAzNQ==

RESEARCH PAPERS:

 garph.co.uk/IJARMSS/Sep2012/4.pdf
 http://digitallibrary.srmuniv.ac.in/dspace/handle/123456789/8120
 http://www.aims-international.org/aims10/AIMS10Proceedings/PDF/P701-done.pdf
 http://raijmr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2_10-15-Dr.-Nilesh-B.-Gajjar.pdf