A STUDY OF CUSTOMER PREFERENCE ON BRANDED LAPTOPS

A project report submitted to SRM UNIVERSITY

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of
Master of Business Administration

Submitted by

SHUNMUGA ANANTHAN. A.C (RA1552001010200)

Under the guidance of

Mr.S.CHANDRAN

SRM School of Management

SRM UNIVERSITY

Kattankulathur Campus, Chennai

MAY 2017
 A REPORT ON

A STUDY OF CUSTOMER PREFERENCE ON BRANDED LAPTOPS

By: SHUNMUGA ANANTHAN. A.C

Register No: RA1552001010200
Master of Business Administration

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of

Master of Business Administration of
SRM University
Chennai
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that Industrial Training Report titled A STUDY OF CUSTOMER

PREFERENCE ON BRANDED LAPTOPS is my own work, to the best of my knowledge

and belief. It contains no material previously published or written by another person nor

materials which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or

diploma of any other institute, expect where due acknowledge has been made in the text.

Name: Shunmuga Ananthan A C

Date: Register No: RA1552001010200

 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project report entitled A Study of customer preference on branded
laptops, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the award of Degree of Master of Business
Administration is a record of original work undergone by Shunmuga Ananthan A C
(RA1552001010200). During the year of 2015-2017 for his study in the School of Management,
SRM University Kattankulathur Campus under my supervision and report has not formed the
basis for the award of any degree/Fellowship or other similar title to any candidate of any
university.

Mr.S.Chandran Dr V.M.Ponniah

Faculty Guide Dean

Faculty Of Management

Place: Chennai

Date:

Submitted to the School of Management. SRM UNIVERSITY (Kattankulathur Campus) to for

the examination held on ..

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to

complete this thesis. I would like to thank my college authorities and my Dean Dr.V.M.Ponniah

first for providing me the opportunity to work one of the most prestigious organizations. I want

to thank the head of training department Dr.S.C.Rajan Daniel for giving me permissions to

commence thesis instance, to do the necessary research work and to use department data.

I have furthermore to thank the Industry Guide Mr,G.Venkateshwaran who gave and

confirmed this permission and encourage me to go ahead with my thesis.

I am deeply debted to my Faculty Guide Mr.S.Chandran whose help, stimulating

suggestions and encouragement helped me in all the times of research for and writing of thesis.

Especially, I would like to give my special thanks to my parents, my brothers their love

and blessing enabled me to complete this work.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PARTICULARS PAGE NO

NO

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 COMPANY PROFILE 7

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 10

OBJECTIVE 10
MANAGERIAL USEFULNESS 11
RESEARCH DESIGN 11
3
SAMPLING 12
DATA COLLECTION 13
PRIMARY & SECONDARY DATA 13
DESCRIPTION TABLE 14
LIMITATIONS 15

4 LITERATURE REVIEW 16

5 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 21

6 FINDINGS 39

7 SUGGESTIONS 40

8 CONCLUSION 41

9 ANNEXURE 42

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 45
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO NAME OF TABLE PAGE NO

3.1 Description table 14

5.1 Age Group 21

5.2 Educational Qualification 22

5.3 Occupation 23

5.4 Laptop Brand 24

5.5 Satisfaction on Performance 25

5.6 Preference 26

5.7 Preference over next purchase 27

5.8 Perception on Quality 28

5.9 Program usage 29

5.10 Ratings 30

5.11 Friends without laptop 31

5.12 Recommendation 32
TABLE NO NAME OF TABLE PAGE NO

5.13 Age: percentage 33

5.14 Education: Percentage 33

5.15 Occupation: Percentage 34

5.16 Brand: Percentage 34

5.17 Satisfaction: Percentage 35

5.18 Preference: Percentage 35

5.19 Perception: Percentage 35

5.20 Preference over new laptop: Percentage 36

5.21 Process Enhancement: Percentage 36

5.22 Tabulation for current & Future Preference 37

5.23 Tabulation For Occupation & Preference 38

5.24 Tabulation For Preference & Satisfaction 38

 INTRODUCTION

Laptop in current scenario--

The Laptop computer is an essential everyday appliance, we take its form factor, design and
convenient portability for granted, but it has undergone a considerable evolution to reach its
current state. Now the laptop has been transformed into numerous off-shoots including the
Tablet computer, Chromebook and convertible Notebook. As laptops became as powerful as
desktop systems in the 2000s, a demand for more and more streamlined mobile devices
emerged. Well mobile devices have now surpassed laptops because we now live in the post-
PC era. However, laptops are still reasonably popular for power users and those needing more
peripheral support, local storage, processing power and productivity capabilities on the go.

Market research on product design and development--

Market research complies with the product design and development, market research can
play a role in determining the need for most new products. Market research provided
invaluable insights into unmet needs and a thorough understanding of the environment in
which the new product would be sold. However, caution should be taken in terms of the
expectations of market research, for it cannot be assumed that conducting research with the
market will uncover sizeable opportunities and lead to the conception and launch of new
products. It is the role and responsibility of the researcher to use the understanding of the
needs of the market to find applications for new products that will satisfy these needs. The
market cannot be expected to announce what the new product should be, Market research
should be regarded as an experiment which may fail if it is not conducted in the right
conditions.

1
 Computer Industry

With sound macroeconomic condition and buoyant buying sentiment in the market, PC sales
touched 6.5 million units during 2006-07. The high growth in PC sales is attributed to
increased consumption by Industry verticals such as Telecom, Banking and Financial
Services, Manufacturing, Education, Retail and BPO/IT-enabled services as well as major e-
Governance initiatives of the Central and State Governments. Significant consumption in the
small and medium enterprises and increased PC purchase in smaller towns and cities was
witnessed during the year. It is expected that increased Government focus on pan-India
deployment of broadband at one of the lowest costs in the world will soon lead to accelerated
PC consumption in the home market. The growing domestic IT market has now given
impetus to manufacturing in India. The year witnessed not only capacity expansion by the
existing players, but also newer investments in hardware manufacturing. India is also high on
the agenda of electronics manufacturing services companies.

This is now a matured industry sector in the country at least as far as various application
segments is concerned. State-of-art and reliable SCADA, PLC/Data Acquisition systems are
being applied across various sections of the process industry. Latest AC drive systems from
smaller to very high power levels also find application in large engineering industries like
steel plants and/or metal industries. World class UPS systems are being manufactured in the
country to cater to the need of the emerging digital economy. However, it appears there is
really no manufacturing base in the country for the whole range of the latest test and
measuring instruments which are invariably procured from outside. A good number of Indian
companies in the control and instrumentation sector are able to acquire orders for export
systems through international competitive bidding.

However, the creation of knowledge base in the country through industrial R&D in this
critical sector has not been improving as desired. There is still lack of needed R&D activities
by the industry looking at the global market. On the part of Department of Information
Technology some of the latest technology development and applications in this area include
Intelligent SCADA Systems for monitoring and control of Mini Hydel plants, Advanced
Traffic Control System for urban tranPCation, Intelligent Power Controllers for improvement
of quality of electric power, etc. These systems have been successfully developed and applied
in real field conditions.

2
Communication & Broadcasting Sector

The telecommunication industry has gained tremendous recognition as the key driver for all
round development and growth. With about 256 million telephone subscribers (as on
Corporate Catalyst India A report on Indian Electronics Industry February, 2007) India has
emerged as one of the largest in the world and second largest in Asia.

The share of private sector in telecom industry has increased to more than 57 per cent and the
contribution of mobile telephony has gone upto 63 per cent on December, 2007. Buoyed by
the better-than-expected teledensity in 2005 (11.4 per cent against 8.6 per cent in 2004) due
to the mobile boom in India, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has revised the
upwards the target of 22 per cent teledensity by 2007. Broadband connectivity is holding
tremendous potential in the country. It is expected that the number of broadband subscribers
would reach 20 million by 2010. India has emerged as the second largest market for mobile
handsets. Following the unprecedented growth in the mobile market, a number of companies
are planning to set up production base for mobile hand sets in the country for meeting local as
well as export markets. Direct to Home (DTH) broadcast service has gained more and more
popularity during 2005. DTH service is available through National Broadcaster and private
DTH service provider. Better quality digital broadcast reception is now available almost
everywhere in the country to the common people on their TV sets through the use of small
dish antenna and a Set-Top Box (STB). Strategic Electronics

Though the government has started the process of getting private sector involved in the
production of strategic electronics equipments, the private involvement is at its nascent stage.
The estimated market for strategic electronics in India during 2005-06 was Rs.32 billion and
95 per cent of this was done by the public sector unit Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

CUSTOMER PREFERENCE

Understanding customer preferences is very important whether you are selling a product or
offering a service. This is because customers are the determiners of how successful a
company becomes. After all where will profits come from if not your customers? Customer
care is all about sticking to the promises you make to customers. However you can only
satisfy your customers needs if you get to understand them to an extent that you can
anticipate their needs and deliver beyond their expectations. Ask them whether they feel

3
special and really do enjoy doing business with you. Also get to know the types of brands
they prefer and that they would be delighted to find in your products.

Marketing strategies relevance with customer preferences---

Customer preference is what type of product an individual customer likes and dislikes. The
sweetener blend added to the company's most famous brand is formulated for each country
based on customer preference.

There is no way marketing strategies can be successful if we do not know whom were
marketing to. As such understanding customer preferences gives our marketing campaigns a
better chance of yielding results. Armed with the knowledge of who our customers are, and
their points of contact we can effectively select a suitable media. The choice of media in
marketing matters a lot because it determines whether our customers get the message or not.

Importance of customer preference---

Its crucial to understand what consumers really want. To understand what consumers want
because we all are consumers and expect the same level of service and frictionless
experiences we want as consumers, even in our capacity of B2B buyers.

Its the only way to have a holistic approach and optimize marketing ROI in a structured way.
Knowing what customers really want is not a matter of placing ourselves in their shoes only.
There are ample ways, often used in a customer journey mapping and customer experience
management context, to get a full, data-driven picture that comes really close to the
customers reality.

Understanding preferences and behaviour, gathering intelligence from a variety of sources

and most of all continuously acting upon them is what increases revenue and loyalty.
And, even as a digital marketer, dont just look at your data-driven marketing dashboards or
the buyer personas you have created. Take the Voice of the Customer (VoC) into account and
get quantitative and qualitative output. Get out to talk with real customers. Engage in real
conversations, even giving your customers a call now and then, sending them a mail or just
asking them questions whenever you meet them or have to chance to do so.do you really
want to, even in the most simple ways. If you show interest for your customers pain points,
challenges, preferences and passions, theyll show interest for you.

4
PRODUCT POSITIONING

Product positioning is a very important tool for an effective marketing strategic planning.
Product positioning creates an image of the companys products in the mind of consumers,
highlighting the most important benefits that differentiate the product from similar products
in the market. Product positioning involves identifying points of parity and points of
differentiation that enable a companys product to both meet market standards while offering
consumers additional value on key dimensions such as quality, innovation, price, leadership,
and functionality, among others.

Product positioning starts with identifying the specific, niche market segments to target e.g.
not just working professionals but single working professionals of age group 25-30 years,
having an annual income of $50,000-$60,000, and enjoy adventure activities. After
segmenting the target market by demographic and psychographic attributes, marketers must
understand customer needs. With well-defined target segments, product positioning enables a
company to meet very specific needs of a particular market segment, offering value that may
not be provided by competitors.

Marketers must keep an eye on the competition while considering positioning elements of
their marketing strategy. An effective positioning must convey a message to customers why
this companys product should be preferred over the other competitors products of similar
nature. In other words, the company should not go by the flow of the market i.e. copying
what the competitors are doing rather they need to stand out from the crowd by offering
distinguishing or differentiated product attributes and other value added services.

The next stage is how to communicate the differentiated offerings to the identified niche
market segments. This is possible by selecting the appropriate communication channels that
are tailored to connect with their identified target audience when they will be most receptive
to these messages. Say for example, a sports car manufacturer position their products through
communication via television advertisements during sports events like formula one. They
also use print media by running full page high resolution color ads in sports magazines.

It is important that the business incorporate the product positioning across all facets of the
business, including manufacturing and customer service in order to ensure consistency of the
positioning from the consumers standpoint. Further, the positioning must not only align with

5
other divisions and with the current corporate objectives, but also provide long-term
sustainability and remain relevant for product variants and for future market scenarios. Using
strong product positioning is a key component to the success of the Marketing Strategy and to
meeting overall corporate objectives.

6
 COMPANY PROFILE

To narrow down the research context, we took Four largest PC hot seller brands with wide
network of users for this study.

Hewlett Packard

Hewlett Packard popularly called HP is a company that provides technology solutions to

consumers, businesses and all forms of institutions worldwide. The company later expands its
operations to IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and
imaging and printing services. The company is known throughout the world by operating in
more than 170 countries around the world. The mission of the company is to facilitate how
technology and services can assist individuals and institutions in addressing their problems
and challenges so as to realize their dreams. The company applies new thinking and ideas
come out with basic and valuable experiences with the technology with her IT corporation
headquarter in Palo, Alto, California, USA. The company has been maintaining a lead among
her contemporaries due to the effective strategic planning of the company and this has been
jealously guided by the company in virtually all her businesses.

HP provides products, technologies, software, solutions and services to consumers,

small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises, including customers in the
government, health and education sectors. . It specializes in developing and manufacturing
computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering
services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise, and industry
standard servers, related storage devices, networking products, software and a diverse range
of printers, and other imaging products. HP markets its products to households, small- to
medium-sized businesses and enterprises directly as well as via online distribution,
consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers, software partners and major technology
vendors. HP also has strong services and consulting business around its products and partner
products.

Dell

Although Dell company is an industry leader in personal computers, thats just one
component of their technology portfolio. To really take advantage of the possibilities their
industry provides, they branched out into an innovative array of products and services. At

7
Dell, everyone can experience multiple business units, groups, teams and positions. The
products that produce by the company including desktops, servers, notebooks, netbooks,
peripherals, printers, televisions, scanners, storage and smart phones. The main business of
Dell Company is selling the product of laptops, netbooks and desktops. Different kinds of
models have different functions, sizes, colour and price. Customers have more choices to
choose the laptops for themselves.
Dell is one of the largest technological corporations in the world, employing more
than 103,300 people worldwide. Dell is listed at number 41 in the Fortune 500 list. It is the
third largest PC maker in the world after HP and Lenovo. Dell has grown by both increasing
its customer base and through acquisitions since its inception
Dell's tagline 'Yours is Here', as seen at their Mall of Asia branch in Pasay City,
Philippines The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments. Its
Business/Corporate class represent brands where the company advertising emphasizes long
life-cycles, reliability, and serviceability.

Lenovo
Lenovo Group Limited is today the fourth largest personal computer manufacturer in
the world, after Hewlett-Packard and Dell of the US, and Acer of Taiwan. Lenovo produces
desktops, laptops, servers, handheld computers, imaging equipment, and mobile phone
handsets. Lenovo also provides information technology integration and support services, and
its QDI unit offers contract manufacturing. Lenovo also offers Internet access through its
FM365.com portal. Its executive headquarters are located in Beijing, People's Republic of
China and in Morrisville, North Carolina, USA. Lenovo's personal computer business racks
up two-thirds of the company's sales, followed by the mobile phone segment, which supplies
about 20% of revenue, and the enterprise group with about 10%.

The company makes many of its own products, but outsources some manufacturing as well.

Hong Kong-based Lenovo serves customers in more than 160 countries. Its three biggest
markets, the Americas, China, and Europe, together for about 85% of sales. The Asia/Pacific
region generates the rest.

Lenovo has operations in more than 60 countries across the globe. It has operational hubs in
Beijing, Paris, and North Carolina, and a marketing hub in Bangalore, India. It also has major

8
research centers in Yokohama, Japan, and in China in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. It
makes products at plants in China, Singapore, India, Japan, Brazil, Switzerland, and the US.

lenovo rebranded itself under the tag line, "Never Stand Still," marking its expansion in size
and scope. The rebranding rollout included the company's first conference, Lenovo Tech
World, held in Beijing, where it brought users and developers together and touted new
products. Lenovo's growing stable of products and geographic expansion pushed revenue
higher for six years until 2016 (ended March).

Acer

Acer ranks as the world's No. 3 branded PC vendor*, designing easy, dependable IT
solutions that empower people to reach their goals and enhance their lives. Established in
1976, Acer Inc. employs 5,300 people in more than 100 countries. Offering a complete range
of laptops, desktops and peripherals, Acer has the right solution for all your home computing
needs. The company designs, manufactures, and sells computer hardware and software
products; it ranks among the world's largest manufacturers of individual components such as
keyboards, motherboards, set-up boxes, storage drives, monitors, CD-ROM drives,
keyboards, printers, scanners, and software. Acer's nearly 30 years of growth results
primarily from its business of manufacturing and assembling branded and contract PCs in
several locations throughout the world. The company sells its products through dealers and
distributors in more than 100 countries.
Acer planned to further expand desktop market penetration. At the time notebook PC sales
represented 58 percent of Acer's earnings. Comfortable with its leading presence in Asia and
Europe, the company was ready to position itself to increase sales in China and North
America, turning up the competitive heat on rivals Dell and Hewlett Packard.

9
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The process used to collect information and data for the purpose of making business
decisions, the methodology may include publication research, interviews, surveys and other
research techniques, and could include both present and historical information.

Every research needs a systematic or scientific study so that proper authentic data can be
found out. By systematic it is mean that the study should be best on scientific analysis and
follows a proper and logical methodology. In order to make our research empirically valid
and scientifically relevant a proper research methodology has been which caters from
research design, research tools, techniques methods, to analysis and proper presentation on
data.

Research Objective

Primary objective

To understand the user thought and preferences on well known PC

brands

Secondary objective

To know the preference of brands while purchasing of laptops

To know the perception of customers towards their laptops

To study the buying pattern of customers while purchasing of laptops

To study customer usage of laptops

To know the personal views of people regarding choices among various branded PC
Laptop.
To study which branded PC Laptop is mostly preferred by people as per their choices.
Comparison between various branded PC Laptop.

10
Managerial usefulness of the study
The entire study is dedicated to the objectives stated above and it also has some
advantages over some sections which arent related directly to this report, but consciously we
can use these type of reports to lobby the advertising interests of the respective firms. For in
our need product design and development directly related to market research by terms it
totally depends upon the later. Marketing study recreates a products demand and interests any
firm to produce a demand derived product.

Research Design

The research undertaken in this study is descriptive in nature. Descriptive research

design is a scientific method which involves observing and describing the behaviour of a
subject without influencing it in any way. The main purpose of descriptive research is the
description of state of affairs, as it exists at present. The main characteristic of this method is
that the researcher has no control over variables; he can only report what has happened or
what is happening. The study attempts to describe the socio cultural characteristics of the
respondents and also to describe their consumption level.

Definition of Research:-

RESEARCH in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge .Also can be

defined as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic.
Research is a careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any
branch of knowledge.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

The research design comprise of the plan and structure of investigation conceived so
as to arrive at the responses to the research queries. It there by addresses the aims and
objectives of the study, both descriptively and analytically.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

The sampling technique adopted for the study is non-probability Random sampling
technique according to the convenience of the researcher. A questionnaire was administered
to different software companies to obtain data for the purpose of analysis.

11
POPULATION AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

Population

A population is said to be the collection of objects that possess the information sought
by the researcher and about which inferences are to be made

Area of Survey: The survey was conducted in the different localities of Chennai City.

Sampling Plan: - Sampling plan consists of:

a) Sampling Unit: - The well known and people interested inthe feedback was selected
from different place of Chennai.

b) Sample Size: - For survey 52 general public with various qualifications from various
fields were taken as sample size.

c) Sampling Procedure: - Convenience sampling procedure was followed.

d) Sampling Method: Data were collected from the people with experience of using laptop
and interests are contacted and data gathered through online questionnaire.

SELECTION OF SAMPLES

When a small group is taken as the representative of the whole, the study is taken as sampling
study. The whole group from which the samples have been drawn is technically known as
universe or population and the group selected for the study is known as sample. The sample
is very small as compared to the universe which may inconvenient yet it fulfils the aim of the
topic selected to be studied. As sampling method simple random sampling design was taken.
Since the samples or respondents were selected on random sample design without any bias.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Primary Data
Secondary Data

12
Primary Data Collection:-

Primary data can be collected by three ways:

1. Observation

2. Experiment

3. Surveys

But here, only survey method of data collection is preferred which is very suitable to reach
the researchers motto.

Research Instrument: Questionnaire was used as the research instrument to collect the
required information. questionnaires were prepared for retailers and customers survey and
interview was taken by the help of the questionnaire.

Secondary Data

The Secondary data are the data which is collected already by someone else and which have
already been passed through the statistical process. It is collected from company records,
websites, library, and articles, etc.

13
Description Table

S. No. Particulars Description

1. Project Title A STUDY OF CUSTOMER PREFERENCE

ON BRANDED LAPTOPS

2. Sample Size 52

3. Sample Unit Students, Employees, Businessmen, etc.

4. Area Covered Chennai

5. Sampling Procedure Random Sampling

6. Research Design Descriptive

7. Data Collection Method Survey

8. Research Instrument Questionnaire

9. Type of Questionnaire Structured

10. Type of Questions Close Ended, Open Ended Questions

11. Method of Survey Census Survey

12. Type of Sampling Stratified Sampling

Table 3.1

14
 LIMITATIONS

In every research work there are some limitations and this research is no exception.

Limitation of time

Availability of time was one of the biggest limitations faced. Due to shortage of time we had
to limit the work in its present form such as we had to limit our self in Chennai only.

Limitation on the part of respondents

Some of the people were not interested in filling questionnaire; some people were talking this
research seriously. Some people were engaged in their job hesitate to fill questionnaire and
their personal details.

Others limitations

Since we didnt have any previous experience in research work and report writing so it may
have lead to discrepancies in the report. Our sample size was only 52; we had to limit our
work in the present form.

The sample size is only 52 in number and the data collection is at random.

The study was limited. Hence the findings cannot be generalized.

The details over a period of time will get invalid since there will be a drastic change in
Peoples behaviour.

15
 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. (Physorg.com, 2006)

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 Indias 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. Its 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).

16
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.).

Brand Preference

According to Rinal B.Shah, The research was aimed to examine the applicability of Aakers
conceptual framework of customer-based brand equity for laptop brands in Indian market.

Here the findings dont support completely to the entire brand equity dimensions of Aakers
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 Centres,
Reliability & Responsiveness, Warranty, Guarantee & After Sales Service, are the factors
which impact the buying behaviour of the post graduates students.

According to Adrijit Basu, There is cut throat competitions in the market on price front and
so they have to find out better quality and low cost product. The characteristic of this specific
industry is that the marketing defines, creates and forms the goods and their target groups.
Ability to meet changing technology, customers needs and styling and shortening product
life cycle are the challenges that laptop manufacturing companies will have to face.

17
Kay, R. H. and Lauricella, S.highlights the impact of unstructured vs. structured use of
laptops for 177 university students and revealed that structured use of laptops resulted in
significantly more time spent on note taking and academic activities and significantly less
time spent on sending personal emails, instant messages and playing games during class.

Ray, S.(2009)The study highlights the adoptability of Wi-Fi connectivity as a necessity in

Hospitality, Airlines, Schools, Colleges and various other place
s. It also notifies that laptop market is boosting due to price reduction and ultra-slicks laptops.
Punyatoya P. This article presents a brief literature reviewof the concept of brand personality
and its relationship to consumer brand preference and purchase intention
Rungchat Chompu-inwai and Toni L. Doolen This research focused on studying the impact
of using laptops in a required undergraduate-level engineering course at Oregon State
University (OSU) in Winter 2004 and Winter 2005. The individual usage of laptops with
wireless capability both inside and
outside classrooms in Winter 2005 was found to positively impact student learning outcomes
and assist in the achievement of class learning objectives. No significant differences in
attitudes were found in either year.
Student attitudes towards laptops and the usage of
laptops were unchanged by the introduction of laptops in both years. Mellon, C. Present a
study on laptop usage rate inside and outside the classroom and the respective effect of laptop
usage in improving stud
ents performance level and improving work quality.

Moses, P. et al (2008)The study focus on empowering the teachers with the latest technology
through training and concluded that laptop usage in the study as an instructional tool is an
effective media to enhance
students learning.
Fried, C.B. Examine in his study the impact of laptop usage in the class and noticed a
favourable improvement in students working.
Grimes,D.& Warshauer, M. also conducted a study on the students of three

18
different schools of California by mean of one-to-one laptop program and found that in
second after introducing this programme the students perform better than non-laptop user
students.
Vuojrvi, H.In this study qualitative interview data with twenty students (identified and
selected by quantitative survey) was analyzed using the grounded theory approach during
which a multi-aspect domestication process was identified. Results highlight the importance
of a structured way of organizing laptop initiatives in universities.

Customers buying products are buying utility, function, and performance as much as image
and status (Terpstra and Sarathy, 1997, p. 375). Actually, Customer merchandise has
implications more than their utilitarian, functional, and commercial significance
(Czikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Ericksen, 1996; Leigh and Gabel, 1992;
Levy, 1959; Mick, 1986). Consumers do not consume products for their material utilities
but consume the symbolic meaning of those products as portrayed in their images (Elliot,
1997, p. 286). Therefore, the acquired goods are not only bundles of attributes that yield
particular benefits (Holt, 1995, p. 1) but also indications of symbolic meanings to the public.
Consumers are more likely to use brands to express how they are either similar to or different
from people of their in-group (Markus and Kitayama, 1991).

Bhat and Reddy (1998) also reported that brands have practical and emblematic
importance for consumers. The emblematic importance, which is attached to brands, is often
broadcasted via the use and consumption of brands (Gottdeiner, 1985; McCracken, 1986).
Consequently, there seems to be a noteworthy relationship between brand images, consistent
with the emblematic importance of brands, and consumers self images (Zinkham and Hong,
1991). Individuals are more likely to buy brands whose personalities intimately match their
own self images (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). Similarly, consumers express themselves by
selecting brands whose personalities are recognized to be consistent with their own
personalities (Aaker, 1999; Kassarjian, 1971; Sirgy, 1982).

In many circumstances, consumers self image influences his/her purchase decisions

(Zinkham and Hong, 1991) In other words, consumers use products to illustrate, maintain,
and reinforce their self concepts to themselves (Sirgy, 1982; Wallendorf and Arnould,
1988; Zinkham and Hong, 1991). Therefore, purchase and consumption are good vehicles
for self-expression (Jamal and Goode, 2001, p. 483).

19
 Previous research indicated that self image/self expression affect consumers product
preferences and their purchase intentions (Ericksen, 1996; Mehta, 1999). For example,
Ericksen (1996) found a significant relationship between self image and intention to buy an
American automobile (Ford Escort). Based on this finding, it might be inferred that
individuals prefer brands that have images compatible with their perceptions of self (Jamal
and Goode, 2001, p. 483; Belk, et. al., 1982; Ericksen, 1996; Solomon, 1983; Zinkham and
Hong, 1991). Moreover, this self image consistency strengthen positive attitude toward
products and brands (Ericksen, 1996; Sirgy, 1982, 1985, 1991; Sirgy, et. al., 1997).
Specifically, the more similar a consumers self-image is to the brands image, the more
favourable their evaluations of that brand should be (Graeff, 1996, p. 5).

20
Data analysis and interpretation

Age Group
15-20 21-30 31-40 41-50
2 44 5 1
Table 5.1

Age
15-20
21-30
31-40
41-50

The Above table indicates 2 people belong to the age group of 15-20, 44 people
belong to the age group of 21-30, 5 people belong to the age group of 31-40 and 1 person
belong to the age group of 41-50.

21
Educational Qualification
Engineering & Technology Management Studies Science & Humanities
34 10 8
Table 5.2

Engineering
Mangement
Science

The Above table indicates 34 respondents were graduates of engineering and

technology,10 people undergone management studies and 8 were studied science and
humanities.

22
 Occupation

Students Engineers Businessman Others

24 9 12 5
Table 5.3

Students
Engineers
Business
Others

The Above table indicates 24 students of various courses, 9 engineers from various
fields, 12 business persons and 5 other general public have commented to this questionnaire.

23
 Which Brand of Laptop they using now

HP Dell Lenovo Acer Others

24 12 10 2 4
Table 5.4

HP
Dell
Lenovo
Acer
Others

The above table indicates that, 10 people have Lenovo, 12 have Dell, 2 people have
Acer, 24 people have HP laptop and 4 people using other brand of the total of 52 respondents.

24
 Did you satisfied with your Laptops performance

Yes No
50 2
Table 5.5

yes
No

The above table indicates 96.15% of respondents (50 out of 52) were happy with their
laptops usage and performance and only two of the respondents disappointed with it.

25
 Will you prefer Brand Rather than Features

BRAND Features
32 20
Table 5.6

BRAND
Features

The above table indicates that, 32 people have preferred laptops on their brands and 20
respondents have said Features are much above than a BRAND.

26
 If you decided to buy another laptop which brand will you choose

HP Dell Lenovo Acer

14 15 16 6
Table 5.7

HP
Dell
Lenovo
Acer

The above table indicates the future purchase decision of new laptops which the
respondents going to buy, 14 people wish to buy a HP, Dell favoured by 15 respondents, 16
people figured Lenovo as a possible choice and only 6 respondents view acer as a possible
resurrection.

27
 Do you agree brand represents better quality

Yes No Maybe
36 3 13
Table 5.8

Yes
No
Maybe

The above table indicates that, 36 people have seen brand as a tag for quality
representation, while 3 people declined it and 13 a possible strength team sit away on this
question.

28
 How Well Your Laptop Enhance Your programming and job typing processes

Poor average Good Better

1 2 17 32
Table 5.9

poor
average
good
better

The above table indicates that, 17 people have feel good about their laptops function in
their process while 32 people feel very better position on this side, and 2 respondents were
not interested in sharing laptops share on their functions, and also one member feel bad on
his/her product function.

29
 Ratings

RANKs 1 2 3 4
HP 23 13 13 10
Dell 13 23 22 11
Lenovo 12 12 15 4
Acer 14 4 2 27
Table 5.10

30

25 HP

20 Dell

15 Lenovo

10 Acer

0
1 2 3 4

The above table indicates that the ranking done by our respondents in which HP hits the
first line in which it gained more votes for rank 1. Dell reached second as it ranked while
Lenovo noted to third and coming up to frontline as emerging brand, whereas acer laid
down by our voters as it noted as the last move.

30
 Did you see any of your friends without laptop

Yes No
34 18
Table 5.11

yes
no

The above table indicates that, 18 people have noted they didnt see any of their friends
and colleagues without laptop, whereas 34 respondents said yes. A definite market is there.

31
 Will you recommend any of these brands to others

HP Dell Lenovo Acer

27 14 24 6
Table 5.12

HP
Dell
Lenovo
Acer

The above table indicates that, 24 people have referred Lenovo as a possible
recommendation when they are asked to recommend a brand to their friends, also 27 have
preferred HP, Dell voted by 14 supporters, and only 6 commenters write acer as a
recommendation.

32
 PERCENTAGE ANALYSIS

Age
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid 15-20 2 3.8 3.8 3.8
21-30 44 84.6 84.6 88.5
31-40 5 9.6 9.6 98.1
41-50 1 1.9 1.9 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.13

The peoples of 84.6% are in age 21-30 then 9.6% of peoples are in age 31-40 and peoples of 3.85
of peoples are in age 15-20.

Which course have undergoing or undergone

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid Arts and science 1 1.9 1.9 1.9
Engineering and 34 65.4 65.4 67.3
technology
Management 10 19.2 19.2 86.5
studies
MCA 1 1.9 1.9 88.5
Science and 6 11.5 11.5 100.0
humanities
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.14

65% of peoples have undergone engineering courses, 19.2% are graduated in management
studies and 11% are graduated in science and humanities.

33
 Occupation
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid Business 6 11.5 11.5 11.5
Doctor 1 1.9 1.9 13.5
Employee 5 9.6 9.6 23.1
Engineer 3 5.8 5.8 28.8
Home maker 1 1.9 1.9 30.8
IT Engineer 11 21.2 21.2 51.9
Student 25 48.1 48.1 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.15

As per above survey 48% are students, 21% are IT engineer, 11% are in business and 9% are
employees in a company.

Which brand of laptop you are using

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid Acer 2 3.8 3.8 3.8
Apple 1 1.9 1.9 5.8
Asus 1 1.9 1.9 7.7
Dell 12 23.1 23.1 30.8
Hasse 1 1.9 1.9 32.7
HP 24 46.2 46.2 78.8
Lenovo 10 19.2 19.2 98.1
Samsung desktop 1 1.9 1.9 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.16

The above results tell that 46% of people are using HP laptop, 23% are using Dell and 20% of
people are using Lenovo.

34
 Did you satisfied with your laptop's performance
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid No 2 3.8 3.8 3.8
Yes 50 96.2 96.2 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.17

The 96% of population are satisfied with their laptop performance and rest of 4% is not get
satisfied with their performance.

When you buy a laptop, will you prefer features & advancements or the BRAND
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid BRAND 32 61.5 61.5 61.5
Features 20 38.5 38.5 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.18

Above sample size indicates only 38.5% of buyers prefer features over brand, whereas the rest of
people use to buy on the niche brands.

Do you agree brand represents better quality

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid Maybe 13 25.0 25.0 25.0
No 3 5.8 5.8 30.8
Yes 36 69.2 69.2 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.19

69% of the people are agreeing that brand will represents the quality and 6% of peoples are not
agreeing the brand representing quality then 25% of peoples are possibly agreeing the brand
represents quality.

35
 If you decided to buy another laptop which brand you will choose
Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid Acer 6 11.5 11.5 11.5
Any 1 1.9 1.9 13.5
Apple 1 1.9 1.9 15.4
Asus 1 1.9 1.9 17.3
Dell 12 23.1 23.1 40.4
HP 15 28.8 28.8 69.2
Lenovo 16 30.8 30.8 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.20

The peoples of 38% are decided to buy Lenovo laptop and 28% of peoples are willing to buy HP
laptop, finally 23% are preferring dell laptop.

How well your laptop enhance your programming and job typing processes

Valid Cumulative
Frequency Percent Percent Percent
Valid 1 1 1.9 1.9 1.9
2 2 3.8 3.8 5.8
3 17 32.7 32.7 38.5
4 32 61.5 61.5 100.0
Total 52 100.0 100.0
Table 5.21

The 60% of peoples said that they are more likely in their programming and job typing process
and 32% o f peoples are good in their programming process.

36
STATISTICAL TECHNIQUE

In this research we used a chi square test and cross tabulation for data analysis

NULL HYPOTHESIS

There is no significance change interference of buying a new laptop and between

currently using the laptop.

If you decided to buy another laptop which brand you

will choose
Acer Apple Asus Dell HP Lenovo Total
Which brand Acer 0 0 0 1 1 0 2
of laptop you Apple 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
are using Asus 0 0 0 0 1 0 1
Dell 2 0 0 3 3 4 12
Hasse 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
HP 4 1 1 6 6 6 24
Lenovo 0 0 0 2 3 5 10
Samsung 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
desktop
Total 6 1 1 12 15 17 52
Table 5.22

Chi-Square Tests
Asymp. Sig.
Value df (2-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 16.668a 35 .996
Likelihood Ratio 19.310 35 .985
N of Valid Cases 52

Level of significance =0.05, Degrees of Freedom = 35, Calculated Value =16.668a,

Table Value @ =53.1605 a

The results tells that table value exceeds calculated value so null hypothesis is accepted.
So there is no significant difference exists among buying behavior of a new laptop and the
currently using the laptop brand.

37
 If you decided to buy another laptop which brand you
will choose
Acer Apple Asus Dell HP Lenovo Total
Occupation Business 1 0 0 1 4 0 6
Doctor 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Employee 2 0 1 0 2 0 5
Engineer 0 0 0 0 2 1 3
Home 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
maker
IT 0 0 0 3 1 7 11
Engineer
Student 2 1 0 7 6 9 25
Total 6 1 1 12 15 17 52
Table 5.23

INTERPRETATION

As per above results the students preferring HP, Lenovo and dell. Most of businessman
are preferring HP laptop. The IT sectors prefer Lenovo laptop.

Did you satisfied with your

laptop's performance
No Yes Total
If you decided to buy Acer 0 6 6
another laptop which Apple 0 1 1
brand you will choose Asus 0 1 1
Dell 0 12 12
HP 0 15 15
Lenovo 2 15 17
Total 2 50 52
Table 5.24

INTERPRETATION

In this table mostly every brand of laptops get satisfied results from the users, except
Lenovo got a slight dissatisfaction note as two of the samples declined over the performance,
which hailed by most of the Lenovo users.

38
 FINDINGS
.

Most people with engineering background uses laptop more than other fields as The Above study
indicates 34 respondents were graduates of engineering and technology

The above study indicates 96.15% of respondents (50 out of 52) were happy with their laptops
usage and performance

Most of the users see brand as a tag that represents quality above study indicates that, 36 people
have seen brand as a tag for quality representation

The above study indicates that, 10 people have Lenovo, 12 have Dell, 2 people have Acer, 24
people have HP laptop and 4 people using other brand of the total of 52 respondents.

In ranking done by our respondents in which HP hits the first line in which it gained more votes
for rank 1. Dell reached second as it ranked while Lenovo noted to third and coming up to
frontline as emerging brand

Further HP being the most preferred brand as current usage, The above study tell that 46% of
people are using HP laptop, 23% are using Dell and 20% of people are using Lenovo.

There is no significant difference exists among buying behavior of a new laptop and the
currently using the laptop brand.

As per above study the students preferring HP, Lenovo and dell. Most of businessman are
preferring HP laptop. The IT sectors prefer Lenovo laptop.

39
 SUGGESTIONS

In order to improve the market share, the companies should work on price strategy, durability of
product, easy availability of product & should provide better quality product

In order to retain the market leadership, dell should also find out their loopholes, especially they
should work on quality aspect on their branding & easy availability of product.

Lenovo should work on the product life cycle curve of its product and should do r&d on the
product to make its product saleable in the market. It should try to retain the market share.

HP should work hard to hold its position since most people prefer Lenovo as their choice in case
of next laptop.

Acer need to be aware of its declining stature as its has been kicked out of 4th place since the last
year.

Dell also need to focus on adverse lines of losing position as their home competitors arent even
on the ground.

40
 CONCLUSION

Although this survey covered a relatively small number of branded laptop users and sampling of
branded laptop. publics are friendlier and very co-operative to help us in filling this form to
perform this work.

Marketing is a very crucial activity in every business organization. Every product produced
within an industry has to be market

From this survey we have discovered that existing branded laptop are good but there are many
companies which are not providing particular facilities to retain their customer. Branded
laptops markets are very big and it is in its growing stage. Peoples are enjoying its and some of
them use it just as status symbol only. Whereas some of them are really needs it for their work.

In spite of few limitations and hindrance in the project I found that the work was a challenge and
fruitful. It gives enough knowledge about the computers market and the distribution process
undertaken by an organization.

41
 ANNEXURE

Questionnaire

1. What is your good name

2. Age

a. 15-20

b. 21-30

c. 31-40

d. 41-50

3. Which course have undergoing or undergone

a. Science and humanities

b. Engineering and technology

c. Management studies

d. Other:

4. Occupation

5. Which brand of laptop you are using

a. HP

b. Dell

c. Lenovo

d. Acer

e. Other:

42
6. Did you satisfied with your laptop's performance

a. Yes

b. No

7. For what purposes you are using your laptop

i. Entertainment

ii. Programming

iii. Gaming

iv. Business

v. Others:

8. When you buy a laptop, will you prefer features & advancements or the BRAND

a. BRAND

b. Features

9. If you decided to buy another laptop which brand you will choose

a. HP

b. Dell

c. Lenovo

d. Acer

e. Others:

10. Do you agree brand represents better quality

a. Yes

b. No

c. Maybe

43
11. How well your laptop enhance your programming and job typing processes

Poor Ordinary Good Excellent

12. Please give your ratings for these brands

RANK HP Dell Lenovo Acer

1
2
3
4

13. Did you see any of your friends without laptop

a. Yes

b. No

14. Will You recommend any of these Brands to Others

i. HP

ii. Dell

iii. Lenovo

iv. Acer

44
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Philip Kotler -: Marketing Management

Kothari C. R. (2005) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Saxena Rajan, Marketing Management

www.india-today.com/btoday
www.hp.com
www.indiainfoline.com
www.altavista.com
www.acer.com
www.dellindia.com

45