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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of Cellular/Mobile phone

www.wikipedia defines cellular phone as:

The Cellular telephone (commonly "mobile phone" or "cell phone" or "handphone") is a

long-range, portable electronic device used for mobile communication. In addition to the

standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones can support many

additional services such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to

the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Most current mobile

phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn

interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is

satellite phones.Cellular telephone is also define as a type of short-wave analog or digital

telecommunication in which a subscriber has a wireless connection from a mobile

telephone to a relatively nearby transmitter. The transmitter's span of coverage is called a

cell. Generally, cellular telephone service is available in urban areas and along major

highways. As the cellular telephone user moves from one cell or area of coverage to

another, the telephone is effectively passed on to the local cell transmitter. A cellular

telephone is not to be confused with a cordless telephone (which is simply a phone with a

very short wireless connection to a local phone outlet). A newer service similar to cellular

is personal communications services (PCS).


2.2 Brand preferences and advertisement

Students leant about cellular phone from many sources, mainly from friends and families,

through advertisement and from their own experience. Whether a promotion and

advertising hurt or help a brand is under-researched (Mela, Gupta & Lehman, 1997). In

the long-run, advertisement help brands by making consumer less price sensitive and

more loyal. Exposure of an ad is crucial to be effective in changing consumer knowledge,

attitude and behaviour (Evans,Moutinho & Van Raaj, 1996). And for the ad to be seen, it

must grab the attention of its target audience. ‘Ads originality’ as defined from Pietes,

Warlop and Wedel, (2002) were easier for customer to remember than ordinary ads by

increasing attention to it. This thus increased attention to the brand being

advertised.However, regardless of the content, ads for brand leaders are more successful

due to the influence of the brand (Simon, 1970). Ads for less popular brands may be less

successful even though the content may be good.

Liking towards the brand itself can influence liking for the brand (Hawkins, Best &

Coney, 1992). However according to study by Biehal, Stephens and Curlo (1992)

whether consumers like or dislike an ad does not necessarily lead to brand acceptance or

rejection. So, even though consumers may like the ad that they see, it does not necessarily

mean that they will go out and buy the brand advertised.Usually the consumer uses their

attitude towards the ad (Aad) in brand choice equaled that of attitude towards the brands

(AB).
Advertisers must remember that advertising messages are interpretend differently

between different genders (Maldonando, Tansuhaj & Muehling, 2003; Hogg & Garrow,

2003; Putrevu, 2001).Prevoius study have proven that females were more likely to

engagae in elaboration than men (Maldonado & Muehling, 2003). Hogg and Garrow

(2003) found that women paid more intention about the details of the characters of an ad

when asked to analyze advertising messages. They said that this may be explained by the

fact that females have a greater tendency than men to consider external information and

information related to others. Women are ‘comprehensive processors’ who try to gather

all available information about the product.

In building brand preferences, Alreck and Settle (1999) proposed six strategies:

1) Need association- the product/brand linked to need through repeated messages.

2) Mood associations- brands should be associated with good feelings through

slogans,songs.

3) Subconscious motivation-use of symbol to excite consumers’ subconscious

motives.

4) Behaviour modification-consumers are conditioned to buy the brand by

controlling cues and rewards.

5) Cognitif processing-penetrating perceptual and cognitive barriers to create

favourable attitudes towards the brand/product.

6) Model emulation- portraying idealized lifestyles for consumers to imitate.


However, this study focused only on the symbolic or tangible elements in influencing

brand preference. It did not discuss tangible aspects (i.e product characteristics) of

influencing brand preference. Advertisement can change consumer’s perception of a

product in terms of attributes content and proportion and also influence consumer’s taste

for attributes ( Gwin & Gwin, 2003)

2.3 Brand preference and product attribute

Attributes are the characteristic or features that an object may or may not have

and includes both intrinsic and extrinsic (Mowen & Minor, 1998) .Benefits is the positive

outcomes that come from the attributes.People seek products that have attributes that will

solve their problems and fulfills their needs (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Understanding why

a consumer choose a product based upon its attributes helps marketers to understand why

some consumers have preferences for certain brands (Gwin & Gwin, 2003). In the study

by Gwin and Gwin (2003), the Lancaster model of consumer demand (1966, 1979), also

reffered to as the product attributes model,was used to evaluate brand positioning.This

model assumes that consumer choice is based on the characteristics (or attributes) of a

brand.Each product is abundle of attributes and that choice is based on maximizing

utility/satisfaction from the attritubes subject to budget constraints. However there were

two limitataions of the model: (1) the model is static and deterministic and (2) the model

does not explain how the preferences for attributes were formed.This article also also didi

not mention if experience with the product played a part in influencing attributes

preferences.
Both tangible nad intangible attributes of a product are equally important in

choosing a product or brand (Myers, 2003). There is no evidence that certain attributes

are more related to customer loyalty than others (Romariuk & Sharp, 2003). It was, found

though, that the more attributes (non-negative) associated with a brand, the more loyal

the customer (Romariuk & Sharp,2003).Romariuk and Sharp (2003) suggested that

marketers should focus more on how many attributes the brand should be associated with

and not what attributes. However, this study did not specify what sort of attributes

marketers should associate the brand with; i.e. whether they should be relevant or

irrelevant attributes, tangible or intangible etc.This is because it is important that

consumer accurately lean about product attribute performances since it would influence

their interpretations of product performance by causing memory encode and retrieval

bias.Unfounded product attribute relationship beliefs can mislead them into expecting

something that is not there.(Mason & Bequette, 1998). Hence if products fall short of

customer expectataions,then dissactisfaction would result.Nevertheless, it was found that

through irrelevant, some attributes may still be important in influencing consumer

choice.Persistent preferences for product attribute soccurs when there is low ambiguity in

the initial potential choice for salient attributes coupled with experience,although those

attributes maybe irrelevant (i.e. an attributes usually not associated with favourable brand

outcomes (Muthukrishnan & Kardes, 2001). Consequently, Mason and Bequette (1998)

also said that perceptions on product performance based on salient attributes are more

important in influencing the consumer purchase behaviour than actual product attribute
performances. Similarly, Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity may be more

influenced by attribute knowledge more than consumer preference.

For low-involvement products, consumers have more objective view of the nature

of the attrinutes (eg. food, cosmetics) because they are constantly being advertised and

promoted.Similarly Rioo, Vasquez and Iglesias (2001) sugggeated that consumer

evaluation of a product can be broken down into evaluation related to product (tangible or

physical attributes) and brand name (intangible attributes, or images added to the product

due to its brand names). In his study on the relationship between human values and

consumer purchases, Allen (2001) found there was a significant association between

human values (eg. hedonistic, achievement, self-direction, conformity, security etc.),

product preference and tangible attribute importance with how consumers perceive the

product (i.e tangible attributes) and how they evaluate the product (i.e symbolic

meaning,tangible/intangible attribute importance). Human values influence the

importance of the product’s tangible attribute importances that are already important to

consumers.

However perception of product performance on the salient attributes are more

important than actual performance (Mason & Bequette, 1998).Mowen and Minor (1998)

suggested that marketing managers should know the attributes that consumers expect in a

product and how positively or negatively they rate these attributes to help develop and

promote a successful product.Retailers need to be knowledgeable of the product attributes

perceived as the most important by each individual consumer group in order to build and

maintain market share (Warrington & Shim, 2000). It is the consumer who determines

which attributes matter to them. Different consumer groups place different importance on
different attributes (Warrington & Shim,2000).It was found that consumers categoriez as

LP/SB (low product involvement/strong brand commitment) placed greater importance

on product attributes and product orientataions than LP/WB (weak brand commitment)

consumers, which placed the most importance on price.

Markerters should consider using advertisement, which may play a role in making

attributee important to consumers that might not have been considered before (Gwin &

Gwin, 2003),Romariuk & Sharp (2003) suggested two objectives of short-term and long-

term brand building. In the short term, managers need to identify a specific attributes to

be communicated to the market,based on which message gave the best execution.The key

aim is to develop likeable advertisement.In the long-run,managers need to build up a

‘bank’ of consumer perception about the brand to make it the one most often thought of

and make it difficult for competitors to have access to the minds of consumers (Romariuk

& Sharp, 2003).

The brand name of the product itself is an important attribute. Brands have both

functional (product-related) and symbolic dimensions (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz,

2001), On the product related benefit side, consumer evaluate product performance based

on its capabilities, usage effectiveness, value for money and reliability. The purchase and

consumption of products is increasing regarded by consumers as an indirect way of

communication to improve their self image and deliver certain impressions to other

people in their environment (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz, 2001), Therefore the brand

name benefits perceived by consumers is highly interrelated to the product-based

benefits. Big brand means a better image and a better product (del Rio,Vasquez &

Iglesiaz, 2001), Howevwer, as mention earlier, Mason and Bequette (1998) suggested
that perceived product performance is more important than actual attribute performance.

Similarly Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity might be influenced by attribute

knowledge more than consumer preference. This may be due to consumer biasness and

prejudice, Consumers’ product evaluations are influenced by memory. The biasness can

be reduced by having current information, experience and knowledge (Mason and

Bequette ,1998). Therefore, it’s not surprising that brands that consumers believe offer

superior value are most preferred brands chosen often (Myers, 2003). Brands with higher

equity resulted in greater preferences and high market shares.

Price is another form of attribute used by consumers to evaluate a product.Price can

sometimes be an indicator of quality; with a higher price indicating higher quality

(Mowen & Minor, 1998; Siu & Wong, 2002). Consumers perceive that a higher price can

be attributed to the higher cost of quality control (Siu & Wong, 2002). Some consumers

are highly price sensitive (elastic demand),whereby a high prices may shift consumers to

competitive brands (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Therefore price can have a positive or

negative influence on customers.

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