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Abstract
The study was determined to examine the relationship between consumer perception and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Rivers State. The survey design was adopted for the study. The population of this study constitutes all Mobile Phone Service subscribers in Bori, Rivers State, which was unknown. The judgmental sampling technique which is a non-probability sampling technique was used for selecting the sample size. The sample size of this study is judgmental sample of 64. Both primary and secondary data were used. Questionnaire on the effect of consumer perception on brand preference of Mobile Phone Service Providers in Bori was used and administered for the collection of data from the respondents. The data collected were processed electronically using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 22). The statistical test used in the testing of the hypotheses was Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The revealed that familiarity, affective perception and perceived risk influences brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State. Based on the findings of the study, we recommend that Mobile phone service providers should ensure that customer’s have a positive and favourable feeling towards their brand to build up customers emotion and perception for the brand, Mobile phone service providers should try to exceed customer expectations in terms of loss to increase customer’s satisfaction and reduce customer’s dissatisfaction and Mobile phone service providers should improve on their advertising strategies to help customers increase knowledge and familiarity with brands, build trust with the brand, thus increasing its chances of having a higher perception and being patronized.
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Table of Contents
Declaration iii
Certification iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgement vi
Abstract vii
Table of Contents viii
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
CHAPTER 1 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problems 3
1.3 Purpose of the Study 4
1.4 Research Question 4
1.5 Research Hypotheses 5
1.6 Significance of the Study 5
1.7 Scope of the Study 6
1.8 Limitations of the Study 6
1.6 Definition of Terms 7
2.1 Conceptual Review 9
CHAPTER 3 27
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27
3.1 Research Design: 27
3.2 Population of the Study 27
3.3 Sampling Techniques Used 27
3.4 Sample Size 28
3.5 Sources of Data 28
3.5.1 Primary Source (s) of Data 28
3.5.2 Secondary Sources of Data 28
3.6 Research Instrument for Data Collection 28
3.7 Validity and Reliability of Instrument 29
3.8 Techniques for Data Analysis/Test of Hypotheses 30
CHAPTER 4 31
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS 31
4.1 Questionnaire Distribution and Retrieval 31
4.2 Data Analysis and Presentation 32
4.5 Discussion of Findings 37
CHAPTER 5 39
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 39
5.1 Summary 39
5.3 Conclusion 39
5.4 Recommendations 40
References 41
Appendix I 47
Appendix II 48
Questionnaire 48
List of Tables
Table 4.2: Age 32
Table 4.3: Sex 32
Table 4.4: Academic Qualification 32
Table 4.5: Familiarity and Brand Preference 33
Table 4.6: Affective Perception and Brand Preference 34
Table 4.7: Perceived Risk and Brand Preference 35
Table 4.1: Questionnaire Administration and Retrieval 31
List of Figures
Fig2.1: A Conceptual framework showing the relationship between Consumer Perception and Brand Preference 9
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Consumer preferences for products or brands arise from the combination of many different factors. Some factors come from features of the product itself (e.g., price, durability), while others are attributes of consumers themselves (e.g., goals, attitudes, discretionary income), (Venkatraman, Clithero, Fitzsimons, & Huettel, 2012).
Ge, Brigden and Häubl (2015) proposed that consumers often make choices in settings where some alternatives are known and additional alternatives can be unveiled through search. When making a choice from a set of alternatives, the manner in which each of these was discovered should be irrelevant from a normative standpoint. Consumers must often decide between choosing among a set of previously discovered alternatives and searching to discover additional alternatives before making a choice.
Brands constitute a significant informational role for buyers of that product. Low and Fullerton (1994), in their various studies researching the history of the growth of brands, concluded that trademarked products gave a chance to purchasers of assigning a particular identity to it. Further exploration into this subject has also concluded that as soon as a product available in the market launched a new iteration, the buyers ended up assigning it a worth based on their perceptions of it (in relation to the primary product) in order to make evaluations of the new product (Aaker & Keller, 1990).
Consumers are becoming more value conscious, focusing on price and value as the primary reason for product and service (Cronin, Brady & Hult, 2000). In general, price is considered as unquestionably one of the most important marketplace cues due to its presence in all purchase situations. Higher prices negatively affect purchase probabilities (Sternquist & Jin, 2004). In the existing literature, perceived price is what a consumer gives up or sacrifices in order to obtain a product (Athanassopoulos 2000).
Brand preference is regarded as a key step in consumer decision making, involving elements of choice. In establishing brand preference, consumers compare and rank different brands by focusing on their uniqueness. Brand preference is defined as “the extent to which the customer favors the designed service provided by his or her present company, in comparison to the designated service provided by other companies in his or her consideration set,” with a consideration set referring to brands that a consumer would consider buying in the near future (Jin & Weber, 2013). Also, customer’s advisory has a positive effect on establishing a positive effect on brand and consumer preferences (Güngör & Bilgin, 2011). Consumer perception is one of the leading variables when it comes to consumers buying process. Consumers as individuals make their own choices but in most of the times they are exposed to different kinds of stimuli.
Consumer perception is associated with brand recognition, where consumers are able to recall and differentiate the brand in variety conditions (Wonglorsaichon & Sathainrapabayut, 2008). Liz (2010) stated that “a brand is all about perception”, which mean that the potential customer is not easily influenced by a company to choose their brand. With a right focus on strategy, the company can certainly influence how the personal brand is perceived and bring satisfaction (Liz, 2010).
Keller (1998) stated that brand image is part of customer’s perception. A successful brand must able to offer a higher value to customer and distinguish the brand from the competitors Kotler and Keller (2009) and Asch and Wolfe (2001) conceptualized “perception” as a mind processing of consumer’s selection, organization and information interpretation. The attention is played out to satisfy the consumer needs. Noel (2009) claimed that prior to perceiving anything, the consumer has to be shown to the product and also pay attention to it. Moreover, it fails to give specific direction on how to improve customers‟ perceived value (Petrick, 2002). From the foregoing therefore, this study seeks to examine the effect of consumer perception on brand preference of mobile phone service providers by providers in Bori, Rivers State.
1.2 Statement of Problems
Increase competition with low product differentiation distorted consumers’ view that all products has comparable standard. Nowadays many companies offer similar product and service in the market. It has been long acknowledged that creating and delivering superior customers‟ perceived value is regarded as a strategic weapon in attracting and retaining customers and has become one of the most significant factors in the success of both manufacturing businesses and service providers (Wang, 2004). Brand effect plays a crucial role in developing brand preference (Gremler & Brown 1998).Brand trust is the confident expectations of the brands reliability and intentions (Delgado, Munuera, 2003) and the confidence a consumer develops in the brands reliability and integrity (Chatterjee & Chaudhuri, 2005). Problems that leads to this study is lost of confidence in a brand, poor perceived value and poor /low brand effect. Brand preference is argued to be stronger under the condition of low price perception and vice versa (Peng & Wang, 2006). Several studies have been conducted on consumer perception and brand preference. Petrick, (2002) studied consumer perception and brand preference in the airline context. Jin and Sternquist, (2005), also studied consumer perception and Brand preference of Jumia. But no study has been conducted on consumer perception and Brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State. Therefore this study is determined to examine the effect of Consumer perception on Brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to examine the effect of Consumer Perception on Brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State. The specific objectives are as follows:
1. To examine the relationship between familiarity and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
2. To examine the relationship between affective perception and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
3. To examine the relationship between perceived risk and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
1.4 Research Question
The following research questions are posed to guide the study:
1. What is the relationship between familiarity and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State?
2. What is the relationship between affective perception and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State?
3. What is the relationship between brand effect and perceived risk of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses are postulated to guide the study:
H01: There is no significant relationship between familiarity and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
H02: There is no significant relationship between affective perception and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
H03: There is no significant relationship between perceived risk and brand preference of mobile phone service providers in Bori, Rivers State.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The study will help mobile phone service providers to embark on good relationship marketing that will help them build confidence and enhance sales.
It will also be of great importance to Mobile Phone Service providers and other players in the telecommunication sector. At the end of the study, recommendations will be made on how Mobile Phone Service Providers will build customer trust and retain customers.
This study extends the knowledge of previous research by assessing the extent to which each dimension of consumer perception influence brand preference. The effect of consumer perception on brand preference cannot be overemphasized.
The study at its conclusion will contribute to literature on consumer perception particularly with reference to brand preference of mobile phone service providers.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study is delimited under the following heading: content scope, geographical scope and unit of analysis.
Content Scope: The content scope of this study involves an investigation to ascertain the effect of consumer perception on brand preference of Mobile Phone Service Providers. The dependent variable is brand preference; measured by brand image, brand value and consumer choice. While independent variable is consumer perception measured by familiarity, affective perception and perceived risk.
Geographical Scope: The geographical scope of the study is limited to Bori, Rivers State.
Unit of Analysis: The unit of analysis in this research involves selected Mobile Phone Service subscribers in Bori, Rivers State at the time of carrying out the study.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
The following limited the study:
The level of frankness in response to questions by the respondents was quite doubtful.
Finance: Assessing fund for the research work was difficult and this to a great extent limited the quality of research activity.
Time: The time allocated to the research work was not sufficient to give room for intensive study.
Also, the attitude of some mobile phone subscribers also limited the study as some of the respondents were reluctant in releasing information for the study.
1.6 Definition of Terms
Perception
It is the process through which we receive and interpret information from our environment and create a meaningful, word out of it.
Consumer
It is referred to the individual who purchase or has the capacity of purchasing goods and services offer for sale by marketing institution in order to satisfy personal or household needs and want or desire.
Brand preference
It is the result of consistently positive emotional experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and perceived value of an experience, which includes the product or services.
Price
A price is the quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for one unit of goods or services. In modern economies, prices are generally expressed in units of some form of currency.
Familiarity: It relaxed friendliness or intimacy between people.
Brand Image: It is the perception of the brand in the mind of the customer.
Brand Value: It is the financial amount your brand is worth.
Consumer Choice: It refers to the decisions that consumers make with regard to products and services.
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