Description
In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. It is like blood in the human body cellular phones have become an integral part of the growth, success and efficiency of any business
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
Online available at http://zenithresearch.org.in/
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CUSTOMER RESPOND AND SATISFACTION AGAINST MARKETING
STRATEGIES OF SELECTED CELLULAR SERVICE PROVIDERS IN
NANDED CITY
DR. SARIKA .R. LOHANA*
*Assistant Director (T &P),
Matoshri Pratishthan Group of Institutions Nanded,
Maharashtra.
ABSTRACT
In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. It is like blood in
the human body cellular phones have become an integral part of the growth, success and
efficiency of any business. This is the technology that gives a person the power to communicate
anytime, anywhere. Due to advancement in technology, now communication becomes easy and
faster. The dream of the attenuation world where the entire world is a global village is not far off.
Delicate communication requirements are changing rapidly as our society becomes more and
more mobile. The client does not want to miss any of his calls. Hence tremendous demand of cell
phones exists in developing country like India. But to study further the customers respond to the
marketing strategies and their satisfaction level for the same. This paper is empirical based study
based customer respond and satisfaction against marketing strategies of selected cellular service
providers in Nanded City.
______________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
The telecom sector reforms were undertaken in three phases. The first phase began in the 80’s,
when private manufacturing of customer promise equipment was given a go-ahead in 1984. A
proliferation of individual STD/ISD/PCO network also took place throughout the country by way
of private individual franchises. Maharashtra Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was created out of the
department of telecommunication (DOT) to handle the sectors of Mumbai and Delhi
respectively. A high powered telecom commission was set up in 1989. Later Videsh Sanchar
Nigam (VSNL) became the international service provider catering to telecom services
originating from India.
The second phase of reforms commenced in 1991 with the announcement of new economic
policy. The government delivered the manufacturer of telecom equipment in 1991. It also ahead
up radio services in 1992. In 1994, basic telephony was opened to the private sector by granting
operating licenses to six companies.
Also part of the second phase was the introduction of the National Telecom Policy 1994. It
emphasized universal service and qualitative improvement in telecom services among other
objectives. An independent statutory regulatory was established in 1997, Internet services were
opened up in 1998.
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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The third phase & reforms began with the announcement of the new telecom policy in 1999. The
theme of NTP was to usher in full competition through a restricted entry of private players in all
service sectors. The policy favored the migration of existing operators from the era of fixed
license fee regime to that of revenue sharing.
The policy further declined the strengthen of the regulator opening up of international long
distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) services to the private sector and corporation
of telecom services. The year 2001 witnessed the entry of private operators in offering basic
telephony and NLD services.
The telecom sector began witnessing a trend of growth with these reforms basic services were
opened for unlimited competition more licenses were issued to the private sector for cellular
services. There has also been a considerable increase in the rate of tale density. The telecom
sector has thus completely changed both in terms of coverage and efficiency of services.
Provision of landlines a demand, digital telephone, exchanges and the acceptability of optic fiber
and wireless technology are a few instances of the change that took instances of the change that
took place in the industry.
Cellular telephone services have achieved great commercial success; because users recognize the
mobile telephone access can improve productivity and enhance safety. A new subscriber is
opting for cellular services for personal security, safety and convenience. Increase in demand and
the poor quality of existing telecommunications landline services. Mobile service providers will
be benefited from the research, the ways to improve their quality of service and to support more
users in their system.
The present study has been made to identity the customer’s attitude towards cell phones services.
Many private operators have entered in to the cellular segment to provide services. It has brought
heavy competition in to the market. They have to find out the customers attitudes towards this
service which could be useful to formulate new strategies policy and market their services in a
better way.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. It is like blood in
the human body cellular phones have become an integral part of the growth, success and
efficiency of any business. This is the technology that gives a person the power to communicate
anytime, anywhere. Due to advancement in technology, now communication becomes easy and
faster. The dream of the shrinking world where the entire world is a global village is not far off.
Personal communication requirements are changing rapidly as our society becomes more and
more mobile. The customer does not want to miss any of his calls. Hence tremendous demand of
cell phones exists in developing country like India. Therefore government of India has accorded
the highest priority to investment and development of the telecom sector. There are different
cellular phone companies. Which provide the various communication plans with different rates
and facilities? Through there are many more potential customer wants to take the use of these
plan’s. But they are not aware of these plans with fair and fully capacity.
The area of study i.e. “Customer respond and satisfaction against marketing strategies of
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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Selected cellular service providers in Nanded City” This will be helpful to them to take
appropriate decision selecting the best among the available brand. This will increase the
customer base in the field of cell phones and Comparative picture will be available to the
customers.
After the liberalization of telecom sector in 1994 the Indian cellular market witnessed a surge in
cellular services. By 2005 there were a total 12 players in the market with the five major players
being.
1) Bharti – Tele -venture Limited (BHARTI)
2) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (B.S.N.L.)
A competition in the telecom arena intensified service provider took new initiatives to
woo customers prominent among these were celebrity endorsement locality rewards, discount
coupes business solutions and talk time schemes. The most important consumer segments in the
cellular industry were the youth segments and the business class segments. The youth segments
were largest and fastest growing segment and were therefore targeted most heavily by cellular
service provider. Mobile phone has become an essential and important device for communication
in the modern days. Mobile phone communication is a part of telecommunication which come in
the form of oral communication. Mobile device are growing popularly with reduction in prices
and improved functioning. Consumers prefer the flexibility and virility of mobile phone devices.
Mobile phone facility easy and faster means of communications and one can communicate with
family, friends, and the business. Any were anytime at a reasonable cost.
RATIONAL FOR SELECTION
Marketing strategy is a field of study in research, which is a subject of interest to many who
understand research. Here finds are based on the initiative taken by the companies to launch their
product in the market and analyzing the customer aware about those areas. The researcher being
a student of marketing has more interest in this marketing strategy research area. When
consumer preferences as the subject of study was chosen, his natural choice of product was
cellular phones. The final object of marketing strategy is the customer should avail the
opportunities provides by the companies in the forms of offers and promotional activities, but
this can be accomplishes only if customers are aware.
Data was collected from the reliable sources, from customers who are more experienced getting
customer’s services.
To be more precise, natural curiosity in the field and subject were the reasons behind the
selection of this topic. The researcher has chosen Nanded City as the place of study, being a
resident in Nanded City .
The population of the Nanded city is 9 lakhs approximately. The Literacy percentage of the city
is 48.17% and the per capita income the population is Rs. 2,123. People major occupation in the
city is agriculture and 60.3% of population is in this field. People residing in these areas belong
to middle income as well as upper middle income group.
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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Reliability refers to the degree to which data collected method or methods will yield consistent
finding similar observation would be made or steps taken the same type of questions was used
during all these sessions in order to increase the reliability.
Validity is defined as the extent to which data collection method or accurately measures what
they were intended to measure.
Steps taken for validity data was collected with open ended questions by structured
questionnaire.
OBJECTIVES
FOLLOWING ARE THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY
1. To Study the marketing strategy of BSNL cellular phone company and aware to the
customer in Nanded.
2. To study the marketing strategy of Airtel cellular phone company and aware to the
customers in Nanded
3. To study the comparative analysis of BSNL and Airtel cellular phone company.
HYPOTHESIS
1.Customers are unknown about Marketing strategy of BSNL and Airtel Cellular Phone
Companies.
2. Satisfaction level of the customers are different.
RESEARCH METHOLOGY
Developing marketing strategy in the Nanded city of Cellular phones selected for the study to the
level of customer , to up-keep the customer base and to increase cellular phone business . To
gain also better understanding of relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction,
qualitative, research is found more appropriate for study along with of a small qualitative study.
I. DATA COLLECTION
II. PRIMARY DATA
Primary data was collected through observation, questionnaires and interviews. Along with
Filling up of questionnaire interviews in local language with customer was done. The data is
selected as a major primary data collection method, since the aim of the study is the customers
perceived service quality and how it is related to customer satisfaction our main focus is thus the
customer.
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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The data sought range from beliefs, opinions, attitudes to general background information on
individuals such as gender age, education and income as these all characters will affect on
customers satisfaction feelings and marketing strategy of the companies.
III SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data has been collected by companies website, news papers journals and magazines.
Broachers and pamphlets provided by the companies at their outlets.
IV RESEARCH DESIGN
The emphasis here is on studying a situation or a problem on order to explain the relationship
between variables. Studies that establish causal relationship between variables may be termed
explanatory studies .
V RESEARCH APPROACH
Since the purpose is to given a better understanding of the relationship between services quality
and customers satisfaction, qualitative research is found to be more appropriate for this study.
Generalization is not the purpose of the study but rather a qualitative research is conducted to
gain a deeper and detailed understanding of regarding issue. Additionally, to support the
possible finding of the qualitative study, small quantitative study has been conducted. This helps
us in two ways, first to ensure validity of the qualitative data by seeing if we can reach similar
conclusion from the quantitative approaches and secondary we can confirm the presence of the
services quality variables in customers services.
VI RESEARCH AREA
The research area in Nanded city in which Airtel and BSNL are the major player of Cellular
phone companies.
VII RESEARCH STRATEGY
Research Strategy will contain clear objective, derived from research questions specify the
sources from which researchers intend to collect the data and consider the constraints that
researcher will in enviably have such as access to data , time , location, and money , ethical
issues.
Research strategy applied in this study is survey. The survey strategy is a popular and common
strategy in business research that is usually associated with the deductive approach. Survey
allows the collection of large amount of data from a sizable population in a highly economic
way. Questionnaire structured observations and structure interview are often falls into this
strategy in order to support the result of the case small quantitative survey was done as any way
of further confirming our findings. For the survey purpose a questionnaire is designed according
to the objectives developed based on the research questions and frame references.
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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VIII.SAMPLING
Convenient sampling method was used to select the households for the purpose of this study. The
size of the sample was restricted to 100 in this area.
LIMITATIONS
The study is an attempt to point out the cellular phone companies and their services in the
Nanded city, in this study to study about the customer satisfaction facilities to the customer. It
has gone into depth research to full fill the satisfaction level of the customers.
Following are the limitation of the study.
1. The usual limitations of resources in terms of money and time at the disposal of the
researcher have contributed to limit the scope of the study.
2. The present study is limited in Nanded city. In this city two major cellular phone
companies are provide their services.
3. All the information furnished by the customers was treated as correct
4. Considering the size of the universe the size of the sample users of cellular phones is not
adequate enough. Considering the time and other factors as constrains study was limited
to 100.
5. In study of this kind, the purpose could be better served by Using regression analysis.
But they have not been done.
On the topic of marketing strategy of cellular phone companies, a study with reference to
Nanded city. A cellular phone is a new trend in today's world. To get the based researcher has
collected some review literature published till date.
Gadepali Radhakrishna ( 2004 ) "Consumer Behaviour And Marketing Planning, A case study
of mobile communication system in Delhi State”. Consumer behavior and marketing planning of
mobile telecommunication system and mobile cellular phone services; in the process of making a
decision to purchase or are the mobile telecommunication services or mobile cellular phone
services, the consumer is exposed to varied sources of information on various handset available
in the market and the use of handsets and the various cellular operators who provide cellular
services to the customer.
S.Kalaivani (2003) - "Customers Attitude towards cell phone services in communication
system". Customer satisfaction is measuring the scale of the creditability of the services provided
by any organization cellular services are not an expectation to it. The survey gave an opportunity
to get the feedback of customer about the cell phone services offered by the service provider.
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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The results of the survey have created a good image for the service providers. Majority of the
responds have given a favorable opinion towards the service. The survey indicates that same
problem exists that deserve the attention of the service providers. They need to bridge the gap
between the service promised and services offered. BSNL must improve the quality of services
to comate with the private service provider. The overall customers attitude towards cell phone
services is that they are satisfied with the existing services but still they want more services to be
provided.
P.Ruthra Priya -"Satisfaction Derived by the Airtel Subscribers in Coimbatore". Airtel is one of
the leading mobile service providers and has a strong subscriber base in Coimbatore district.
Hence the present study has been carried on by the researches with a view to measure the level of
satisfaction derived by the subscribers of Airtel network on its various services and to find out
the factors that influence the satisfaction derived by subscribers of Airtel network in Coimbatore
City.
Mrs. B.Kalpana (2006 ) -"Promotional Strategies of cellular service : A customer perspective".
study the customer awareness about promotional tools and customer Idea's, opinion and
preferences about promotional tools.
L. Shashi Kumar Sharma & D.S. Chaubey – (2007) "Consumer Behaviour towards
mobile service providers; An Empirical Study". The communication service in Uttar
Pradesh, India have witnessed a phenomenal change over the last few years. The number of
competitors has increased significantly. The study indicates that the level of consumer
satisfaction depends on the demographic characteristics of the customers. Hence, there is a need
to improve their services in order to meet the expectations on the future generation. Almost all
the customers are of the opinion that mobile services have a bright future. Therefore it can be
concluded that there is a scope for mobile service providers in the city. Consumer’s perception
about the impact of mobile service in bringing the social change is not significant with their age,
education qualification and income level where as there is a significant about impact of mobile
service in bringing the social change and their sex category. Finally it is also suggested that
mobile service providers should excuse due care before introducing new services.
G. Radha Krishna (2006) :- Advertising companies strategies and issues; A case of mobile
service sector. The paper initially gives the platform for the discussion of promotional mix
elements such as personal advertising , sales promotion and advertising aspects in service sector
and its relative importance. Then the article explores the role of advertising in services and in
particular advertising of some of mobile telephone companies services offers, are discussed. This
article aims at identifying the issues and selling points that a cellular company wishes to include
in an advertising campaign.
Amandeep Singh Maewale (2004) :- Marketing strategies of cellular operators in Punjab and
Chandigarh. The study has been made for finding the marketing strategy adopted by the cellular
companies in Punjab and Chandigarh region, with the help of survey method the study was
made. It was concluded that there is impact of marketing strategy on the customer of cellular
operators.
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Marketing strategy is the course of action in achieving marketing objectives. If aims in allocating
the available resources in an optimum manner. The market is full of substitute products and
competitors. The marketing executives adopt different strategies in different segments. The
following are some of the marketing strategies.
1) AIRTEL
Bharati Tele ventures limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investment in
telecommunication services. Its subscribers operate telecom services across Idea. Bharati Tele
venture is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunication services based on stray
customer base consisting of approximately 10.20 million total customer which constitute
approximately 9.41 million mobile and approximately 787.000 fixed line customer.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Bharati Tele ventures strategic objectives is to capitalize on the growth opportunities that the
company b4live are available in the Indian telecommunication market and consolidate its
position to be the leading integrated telecommunications services provider in key markets with a
focus on providing mobile services.
Business line – THE HINDU New Delhi – Sep – 15 Bharati to bring all telecom services under
Airtel brand.
BHARATI Tele-ventures said that it was unifying all it telecom services under the flagship brand
Airtel. The move is aimed at protecting the company as an integrated telecom services, player
and offering Bharati customers a single window interface for all communication needs.
The company has developed the following strategies to achieve its strategies objectives:-
Focus on maximizing revenues and margins.
Capture maximum telecommunications revenue potential with minimum geographical
coverage.
Offer multiple telecommunications services to provide customers with a "are-stop shop"
solution.
Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data
services.
Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring high level of customer’s
satisfaction.
Coverage strength of its strategic and financial partners;
Emphasize on human resource development to achieve operator efficiencies.
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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Bharati Tele-ventures vision for its mobile business is, "To make mobile communications a way
of life and be the customers first choice".
The mission is to meet the mobile communication needs of the customer through –
1) Error free service.
2) innovative products and services and
3) cost efficiency
The company's strategic objective is to consolidate its leadership position amount the mobile
services providers in India.
2. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED (B.S.N.L.)
Established on October 1-200, Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNL) has grown into one
of the largest public sector undertaking with a turnover of $4.6 billion. With a network of 45
million lines with 35 million telephone connections BSNL accounts for more than 85% the
market share in telecom sector.
Keeping pace with the global trends, BSNL has been expanding its basic network to
provide affordable and affective communications. In addition, the BSNL has also providing a
variety of value-added services. Besides there has been enormous emphasis on rural connectivity
and various initial have been taken increase the Tele density of the country.
Considering the rising expectations of the customers, BSNL introduced intelligent
network (IN).
The (ITC) Indian Telephone cark is a smart prepaid facility for making local STD, or ISD
calls for any telephone all one need to do is dial access code and ID number from any BSNL
Telephone, and get connected. Among other intelligent Network services are virtual private
network, tale-voting to conduct opinion polls. Account calling card and universal number. This
provides a unique number nation wide.
Marketing strategy is inseparably interlinked with. Marketing objectives Each, objective
can be achieved in number of ways for example the objectives is to increase the sale revenue by
10% can achieved more frequently while formulating the marketing strategy are should be
carefully look in the segment proper selection of target market and assembling the marketing
mix. The target market shows to when the firm, broadly the fallowing strategies can be
effectively managed on.
Product Strategy
Price strategy
Promotional strategy
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Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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Physical distribution strategy
Thus depending upon the unique situation requirements feed by every firm may select
either confers nation strategy. Defensive strategy or niche strategy in the light of the following
broader marketing strategic could be fallowed in cellular companies marketing.
Most of the main mobile operators worldwide have been offering prepaid price plans for
customers, an alternative to the traditionally post paid (contract with monthly subscription) plan.
(Market Reshare.Com.)
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
In this chapter an attempt is made to the distribution of the sample respondent on the basis of
Education of the customers, Occupation of the customers, Annual income of the customers
cellular phone companies and their prepaid, post paid & Life user cellular phone cellular phone
companies & their call rates in prepaid, post paid & Long life.
Marketing strategy aware by the users of cellular phone depends upon the personal
characteristics of the consumer apart from various other factor stated in the previous chapter.
This chapter is an analysis on the impact of personal factors on consumer preference aligning
with the marketing strategy adopted by the companies to boost their product in the market.
TABLE-5.1
COMPETITION THREAT BY OTHER COMPANIES
Sr.No. Threats Airtel BSNL Total
Frequency
Percentage
1 Price 12 2 14 14%
2 Brand 24 1 25 25%
3 Customer
preference
21 1 22 22%
4 Advertisement 7 5 13 13%
5 After sales services 4 4 8 8%
6 Schemes 6 13 19 19%
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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TOTAL 74 26 100 100%
Source : primary Data
As evidence in table 4 -1 shows that Airtel is having much threat from BSNL i.e due to
brand 13% and BSNL is having threat of Airtel because of schemes 24% other areas are also
found to some extent.
CHI-SQUARE TEST FOR CELLULAR PHONE CONSUMER PREFERENCE BASED
ON COMPETITION THREAT BY OTHER COMPANIES
O E (O-E) ^2 (O-E)^2/E
12 10.36 5.57 0.54
24 18.50 30.25 1.64
21 16.28 22.28 1.37
7 9.62 6.86 0.71
4 5.92 3.67 0.62
12
24
21
7
2
1 1
5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Price Brand Customer preference Advertisement
Airtel
BSNL
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6 14.8 77.44 5.23
2 3.64 2.67 0.73
1 6.5 30.25 4.65
1 5.72 22.28 3.90
5 3.38 2.62 0.78
4 2.08 3.69 1.77
13 4.94 64.96 13.15
35.09
A NULL hypothesis on the preference of Cellular Phones by the consumers of different
Competition threat by other company was framed. So there is no significant difference between
the customer’s preference of cellular phone and Competition threat by other company.
The null hypothesis was tested by using chi-square (X)^2 test of significance. Calculated value
= 35.09
Critical value at 5% level of significance is 11.09 at (2-1)(6-1) degrees of freedom. Therefore
hypothesis is rejected. As the hypothesis has been rejected. It is concluded that there is
significant difference between the consumer preference of cellular phone and competition threat
between the companies.
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Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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TABLE – 5.2
CUSTOMER PREFERRING SERVICES PREPAID, POST PAID AND LONG LIFE
FREE OF THE CELLULAR PHONE COMPANIES
Sr.No. Cellular Phone Co. Prepaid Post paid Long life
1 Airtel 38 20 16
2 BSNL 10 9 07
3 Total Frequency 48 29 23
4 Percentage 48% 29% 23%
Source : primary Data
Table –4.2 show customer preferring services of the brand. The Airtel customer prefer
prepaid 38 %, Post paid 20 % and Long life 16 % and BSNL users 10 % prefer prepaid , 9%
postpaid , Long time 7 % to some extent.
38
10
20
9
16
7
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Airtel BSNL
Prepaid
Post paid
Long life
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TABLE – 5.3
USERS AWARENESS FOR MARKETING STRATEGY
Sr.No. Marketing strategy Airtel BSNL Total Frequency Percentage
1 Quality Product 6 8 14 14%
2 Cheap price 14 10 24 24%
3 Easy available 10 5 15 15%
4 Good services 14 3 17 17%
5 Product differentiate 30 4 34 34%
TOTAL 74 26 100 100%
Source: primary Data
Table –4.3 shows Marketing strategy aware by the customers. It is found customers are aware
about the Product differentiate of Airtel 30%, Good service 14% , Cheap price 14%where for
BSNL are aware about good service 3%, Cheap price 10%, Product differentiate 4% to some
extent.
6
14
10
14
8
10
5
3
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Quality Product Cheap price Easy available Good services
Airtel
BSNL
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CHI-SQUARE TEST FOR CELLULAR PHONE CONSUMER PREFERENCE BASED
ON MAREKTING STRATEGY AWARE BY THE CUSOMER
O E (O-E) ^2 (O-E)^2/E
6 10.36 19.01 1.83
14 17.76 14.14 O.86
10 11.10 1.21 0.11
14 12.58 2.02 0.16
30 25.16 23.43 0.93
8 3.64 19.01 5.22
10 6.24 14.14 2.27
5 3.9 1.21 0.31
3 4.42 2.02 0.46
4 8.84 23.43 2.65
14.12
A NULL hypothesis on the preference of Cellular Phones by the consumers of different
Marketing strategy aware by the customer was framed. So there is no significant difference
between the customer’s preference of cellular phone and Marketing strategy aware by the
customer.
The null hypothesis was tested by using chi-square (X)^2 test of significance. Calculated value
= 14.12
Critical value at 5% level of significance is 9.49 at (2-1)(5-1) degrees of freedom. Therefore
hypothesis is rejected. As the hypothesis has been rejected. It is concluded that there is
significant difference between the consumer preference cellular phone and Marketing strategies
aware to the customer.
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TABLES 5.5
REASONS FOR SELECTING THE BRAND
Sr.No. REASONS Airtel BSNL Total
Frequency
Percentage
1 Advertisement 24 5 29 29%
2 Family member 13 2 15 15%
3 friends 12 4 16 16%
4 Offers and
schemes
28 4 30 32%
5 Brand name 19 10 29 29%
6 Others 6 1 7 7%
TOTAL 74 26 100 100%
Table –III-5 shows reason for selection of brand cellular phone. The Airtel brand was mostly
influenced by brand at 6%, and it was followed by advertisement at 24%, family members at
12%, friends at 12%, Offers and schemes at 28% and other reasons with 6% respectively. The
BSNL brand was mostly influenced by brand at 1%, and it was followed by advertisement at
5%, family members at 2%, friends at 4%, Offers and scheme at 4% and other reasons with 1%
to some extent.
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CHI-SQUARE TEST FOR CELLULAR PHONE CONSUMER PREFERENCE BASED
ON REASONS OF SELECTINFG THE BRAND
O E (O-E) ^2 (O-E)^2/E
24 21.46 2.54 0.12
13 11.10 3.61 0.33
12 11.84 0.03 0.00253
28 23.68 18.66 0.79
19 21.46 6.05 0.28
6 5.18 0.67 0.13
5 7.54 6.45 0.86
24 3.9 3.61 0.93
4 4.16 0.03 0.01
4 8.32 18.66 2.24
10 7.54 6.05 0.8
1 1.82 0.67 0.37
6.86
24
13
12
28
5
2
4 4
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Advertisement Family member friends Offers and schemes
AIRTEL
BSNL
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A NULL hypothesis on the preference of Cellular Phones by the consumers of different Reasons
of selecting the brand by the customer was framed. So there is no significant difference between
the customer’s preference of cellular phone and Reasons of selecting the brand by the customer.
The null hypothesis was tested by using chi-square (X)^2 test of significance. Calculated value
= 6.86
Critical value at 5% level of significance is 11.07 at (6-1)(2-1) degrees of freedom. Therefore
hypothesis is accepted. As the hypothesis has been accepted. It is concluded that there is NO
significant difference between the consumer preference of cellular phone and Reasons of
selection the brand
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
1.Effective advertisement is the should be used to convey the product knowledge among the
area segment.
2. These operators have put the different tariff plans in the market, which are not clear and
transparent and having the much more confusion increases. This is affecting the decision making
ability of customer and increases ambiguity.
3. The awareness level of customer is very poor; therefore they are not able to put their
requirements clearly. So, modification of advertisement should used to cover the market.
4. While selecting the cell phone operator, the minimum rate of calling and the network coverage
plays an important role. The decisions of maximum number of customers are influenced by these
two factors.
5. Marketing strategy aware by the customers. It is found customers are aware about the Product
differentiate of Airtel 30%, Good service 14% , Cheap price 14%where for BSNL are aware
about good service 3%, Cheap price 10%, Product differentiate 4% to some extent.
5. Reasons for selection of brand cellular phone. The Airtel brand was mostly influenced by
brand at 6%, and it was followed by advertisement at 24%, family members at 12%, friends at
12%, Offers and schemes at 28% and other reasons with 6% respectively. The BSNL brand was
mostly influenced by brand at 1%, and it was followed by advertisement at 5%, family members
at 2%, friends at 4%, Offers and scheme at 4% and other reasons with 1%.
SUGGESTION
1) In the today’s competitive world all cellular phone companies have need the increase the
female cellular phone user. Give to the offer to female cellular phone user and increase the level
of female cellular phone user.
2) Cellular phone companies have needed the give the services in minimum rate. Overall
decrease the expenses of the cellular phone on monthly base.
3) BSNL has needed to introduce the talk time recharge coupons from Rs. 10.
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4) Cellular phone companies have needed the give post paid service in minimum rate.
5) Airtel have need the reduce the post paid plans price.
6) All cellular phone companies are needed to charge their strategy about the post paid user.
7) Give the offer the post paid user and improve the post paid user.
8) Effective advertisements: - It is found that majority of the customers are aware of cellular
services through T.V. advertisement. It is worthwhile to note that there are advertisements at
comparatively lower cost and hence the applicability and use such media can be thought of to
create awareness about the services of cellular companies.
9) Media selection: - It is found that the advertisement plays a dominant role not only in
influencing the customer but also remain as leady tool. Hence, irrespectively of the different
media the cellular companies have to make effective advertisement not only to attract more
customers but also to play significant role in the purchase decision of customers.
10) Disclosing full Information: - On the basis of the above complaint it is recommended to
cellular companies to take appropriate steps to provide all the information about the product and
service. Most of cell phone users have the problem in network coverage. To cover come this
problem, the service provider most install more towers where they are not having their where
service area coverage.
REFERENCE
1.www.airtel.in
2. www.bsnl.co.in
3. www.slideshare.net/rahulogy/marketing-strategy-comparison-of-airtel-and-hutch
4. www.slideshare.net/kedarp83/report-on-airtel-its-strategies
5www.alttc.bsnl.co.in/altzine/vol_29032006/marketing.html
doc_222836619.pdf
In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. It is like blood in the human body cellular phones have become an integral part of the growth, success and efficiency of any business
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CUSTOMER RESPOND AND SATISFACTION AGAINST MARKETING
STRATEGIES OF SELECTED CELLULAR SERVICE PROVIDERS IN
NANDED CITY
DR. SARIKA .R. LOHANA*
*Assistant Director (T &P),
Matoshri Pratishthan Group of Institutions Nanded,
Maharashtra.
ABSTRACT
In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. It is like blood in
the human body cellular phones have become an integral part of the growth, success and
efficiency of any business. This is the technology that gives a person the power to communicate
anytime, anywhere. Due to advancement in technology, now communication becomes easy and
faster. The dream of the attenuation world where the entire world is a global village is not far off.
Delicate communication requirements are changing rapidly as our society becomes more and
more mobile. The client does not want to miss any of his calls. Hence tremendous demand of cell
phones exists in developing country like India. But to study further the customers respond to the
marketing strategies and their satisfaction level for the same. This paper is empirical based study
based customer respond and satisfaction against marketing strategies of selected cellular service
providers in Nanded City.
______________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
The telecom sector reforms were undertaken in three phases. The first phase began in the 80’s,
when private manufacturing of customer promise equipment was given a go-ahead in 1984. A
proliferation of individual STD/ISD/PCO network also took place throughout the country by way
of private individual franchises. Maharashtra Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was created out of the
department of telecommunication (DOT) to handle the sectors of Mumbai and Delhi
respectively. A high powered telecom commission was set up in 1989. Later Videsh Sanchar
Nigam (VSNL) became the international service provider catering to telecom services
originating from India.
The second phase of reforms commenced in 1991 with the announcement of new economic
policy. The government delivered the manufacturer of telecom equipment in 1991. It also ahead
up radio services in 1992. In 1994, basic telephony was opened to the private sector by granting
operating licenses to six companies.
Also part of the second phase was the introduction of the National Telecom Policy 1994. It
emphasized universal service and qualitative improvement in telecom services among other
objectives. An independent statutory regulatory was established in 1997, Internet services were
opened up in 1998.
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The third phase & reforms began with the announcement of the new telecom policy in 1999. The
theme of NTP was to usher in full competition through a restricted entry of private players in all
service sectors. The policy favored the migration of existing operators from the era of fixed
license fee regime to that of revenue sharing.
The policy further declined the strengthen of the regulator opening up of international long
distance (ILD) and National Long Distance (NLD) services to the private sector and corporation
of telecom services. The year 2001 witnessed the entry of private operators in offering basic
telephony and NLD services.
The telecom sector began witnessing a trend of growth with these reforms basic services were
opened for unlimited competition more licenses were issued to the private sector for cellular
services. There has also been a considerable increase in the rate of tale density. The telecom
sector has thus completely changed both in terms of coverage and efficiency of services.
Provision of landlines a demand, digital telephone, exchanges and the acceptability of optic fiber
and wireless technology are a few instances of the change that took instances of the change that
took place in the industry.
Cellular telephone services have achieved great commercial success; because users recognize the
mobile telephone access can improve productivity and enhance safety. A new subscriber is
opting for cellular services for personal security, safety and convenience. Increase in demand and
the poor quality of existing telecommunications landline services. Mobile service providers will
be benefited from the research, the ways to improve their quality of service and to support more
users in their system.
The present study has been made to identity the customer’s attitude towards cell phones services.
Many private operators have entered in to the cellular segment to provide services. It has brought
heavy competition in to the market. They have to find out the customers attitudes towards this
service which could be useful to formulate new strategies policy and market their services in a
better way.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
In the today’s competitive world communication plays a very important role. It is like blood in
the human body cellular phones have become an integral part of the growth, success and
efficiency of any business. This is the technology that gives a person the power to communicate
anytime, anywhere. Due to advancement in technology, now communication becomes easy and
faster. The dream of the shrinking world where the entire world is a global village is not far off.
Personal communication requirements are changing rapidly as our society becomes more and
more mobile. The customer does not want to miss any of his calls. Hence tremendous demand of
cell phones exists in developing country like India. Therefore government of India has accorded
the highest priority to investment and development of the telecom sector. There are different
cellular phone companies. Which provide the various communication plans with different rates
and facilities? Through there are many more potential customer wants to take the use of these
plan’s. But they are not aware of these plans with fair and fully capacity.
The area of study i.e. “Customer respond and satisfaction against marketing strategies of
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Selected cellular service providers in Nanded City” This will be helpful to them to take
appropriate decision selecting the best among the available brand. This will increase the
customer base in the field of cell phones and Comparative picture will be available to the
customers.
After the liberalization of telecom sector in 1994 the Indian cellular market witnessed a surge in
cellular services. By 2005 there were a total 12 players in the market with the five major players
being.
1) Bharti – Tele -venture Limited (BHARTI)
2) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (B.S.N.L.)
A competition in the telecom arena intensified service provider took new initiatives to
woo customers prominent among these were celebrity endorsement locality rewards, discount
coupes business solutions and talk time schemes. The most important consumer segments in the
cellular industry were the youth segments and the business class segments. The youth segments
were largest and fastest growing segment and were therefore targeted most heavily by cellular
service provider. Mobile phone has become an essential and important device for communication
in the modern days. Mobile phone communication is a part of telecommunication which come in
the form of oral communication. Mobile device are growing popularly with reduction in prices
and improved functioning. Consumers prefer the flexibility and virility of mobile phone devices.
Mobile phone facility easy and faster means of communications and one can communicate with
family, friends, and the business. Any were anytime at a reasonable cost.
RATIONAL FOR SELECTION
Marketing strategy is a field of study in research, which is a subject of interest to many who
understand research. Here finds are based on the initiative taken by the companies to launch their
product in the market and analyzing the customer aware about those areas. The researcher being
a student of marketing has more interest in this marketing strategy research area. When
consumer preferences as the subject of study was chosen, his natural choice of product was
cellular phones. The final object of marketing strategy is the customer should avail the
opportunities provides by the companies in the forms of offers and promotional activities, but
this can be accomplishes only if customers are aware.
Data was collected from the reliable sources, from customers who are more experienced getting
customer’s services.
To be more precise, natural curiosity in the field and subject were the reasons behind the
selection of this topic. The researcher has chosen Nanded City as the place of study, being a
resident in Nanded City .
The population of the Nanded city is 9 lakhs approximately. The Literacy percentage of the city
is 48.17% and the per capita income the population is Rs. 2,123. People major occupation in the
city is agriculture and 60.3% of population is in this field. People residing in these areas belong
to middle income as well as upper middle income group.
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Reliability refers to the degree to which data collected method or methods will yield consistent
finding similar observation would be made or steps taken the same type of questions was used
during all these sessions in order to increase the reliability.
Validity is defined as the extent to which data collection method or accurately measures what
they were intended to measure.
Steps taken for validity data was collected with open ended questions by structured
questionnaire.
OBJECTIVES
FOLLOWING ARE THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY
1. To Study the marketing strategy of BSNL cellular phone company and aware to the
customer in Nanded.
2. To study the marketing strategy of Airtel cellular phone company and aware to the
customers in Nanded
3. To study the comparative analysis of BSNL and Airtel cellular phone company.
HYPOTHESIS
1.Customers are unknown about Marketing strategy of BSNL and Airtel Cellular Phone
Companies.
2. Satisfaction level of the customers are different.
RESEARCH METHOLOGY
Developing marketing strategy in the Nanded city of Cellular phones selected for the study to the
level of customer , to up-keep the customer base and to increase cellular phone business . To
gain also better understanding of relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction,
qualitative, research is found more appropriate for study along with of a small qualitative study.
I. DATA COLLECTION
II. PRIMARY DATA
Primary data was collected through observation, questionnaires and interviews. Along with
Filling up of questionnaire interviews in local language with customer was done. The data is
selected as a major primary data collection method, since the aim of the study is the customers
perceived service quality and how it is related to customer satisfaction our main focus is thus the
customer.
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The data sought range from beliefs, opinions, attitudes to general background information on
individuals such as gender age, education and income as these all characters will affect on
customers satisfaction feelings and marketing strategy of the companies.
III SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data has been collected by companies website, news papers journals and magazines.
Broachers and pamphlets provided by the companies at their outlets.
IV RESEARCH DESIGN
The emphasis here is on studying a situation or a problem on order to explain the relationship
between variables. Studies that establish causal relationship between variables may be termed
explanatory studies .
V RESEARCH APPROACH
Since the purpose is to given a better understanding of the relationship between services quality
and customers satisfaction, qualitative research is found to be more appropriate for this study.
Generalization is not the purpose of the study but rather a qualitative research is conducted to
gain a deeper and detailed understanding of regarding issue. Additionally, to support the
possible finding of the qualitative study, small quantitative study has been conducted. This helps
us in two ways, first to ensure validity of the qualitative data by seeing if we can reach similar
conclusion from the quantitative approaches and secondary we can confirm the presence of the
services quality variables in customers services.
VI RESEARCH AREA
The research area in Nanded city in which Airtel and BSNL are the major player of Cellular
phone companies.
VII RESEARCH STRATEGY
Research Strategy will contain clear objective, derived from research questions specify the
sources from which researchers intend to collect the data and consider the constraints that
researcher will in enviably have such as access to data , time , location, and money , ethical
issues.
Research strategy applied in this study is survey. The survey strategy is a popular and common
strategy in business research that is usually associated with the deductive approach. Survey
allows the collection of large amount of data from a sizable population in a highly economic
way. Questionnaire structured observations and structure interview are often falls into this
strategy in order to support the result of the case small quantitative survey was done as any way
of further confirming our findings. For the survey purpose a questionnaire is designed according
to the objectives developed based on the research questions and frame references.
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VIII.SAMPLING
Convenient sampling method was used to select the households for the purpose of this study. The
size of the sample was restricted to 100 in this area.
LIMITATIONS
The study is an attempt to point out the cellular phone companies and their services in the
Nanded city, in this study to study about the customer satisfaction facilities to the customer. It
has gone into depth research to full fill the satisfaction level of the customers.
Following are the limitation of the study.
1. The usual limitations of resources in terms of money and time at the disposal of the
researcher have contributed to limit the scope of the study.
2. The present study is limited in Nanded city. In this city two major cellular phone
companies are provide their services.
3. All the information furnished by the customers was treated as correct
4. Considering the size of the universe the size of the sample users of cellular phones is not
adequate enough. Considering the time and other factors as constrains study was limited
to 100.
5. In study of this kind, the purpose could be better served by Using regression analysis.
But they have not been done.
On the topic of marketing strategy of cellular phone companies, a study with reference to
Nanded city. A cellular phone is a new trend in today's world. To get the based researcher has
collected some review literature published till date.
Gadepali Radhakrishna ( 2004 ) "Consumer Behaviour And Marketing Planning, A case study
of mobile communication system in Delhi State”. Consumer behavior and marketing planning of
mobile telecommunication system and mobile cellular phone services; in the process of making a
decision to purchase or are the mobile telecommunication services or mobile cellular phone
services, the consumer is exposed to varied sources of information on various handset available
in the market and the use of handsets and the various cellular operators who provide cellular
services to the customer.
S.Kalaivani (2003) - "Customers Attitude towards cell phone services in communication
system". Customer satisfaction is measuring the scale of the creditability of the services provided
by any organization cellular services are not an expectation to it. The survey gave an opportunity
to get the feedback of customer about the cell phone services offered by the service provider.
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The results of the survey have created a good image for the service providers. Majority of the
responds have given a favorable opinion towards the service. The survey indicates that same
problem exists that deserve the attention of the service providers. They need to bridge the gap
between the service promised and services offered. BSNL must improve the quality of services
to comate with the private service provider. The overall customers attitude towards cell phone
services is that they are satisfied with the existing services but still they want more services to be
provided.
P.Ruthra Priya -"Satisfaction Derived by the Airtel Subscribers in Coimbatore". Airtel is one of
the leading mobile service providers and has a strong subscriber base in Coimbatore district.
Hence the present study has been carried on by the researches with a view to measure the level of
satisfaction derived by the subscribers of Airtel network on its various services and to find out
the factors that influence the satisfaction derived by subscribers of Airtel network in Coimbatore
City.
Mrs. B.Kalpana (2006 ) -"Promotional Strategies of cellular service : A customer perspective".
study the customer awareness about promotional tools and customer Idea's, opinion and
preferences about promotional tools.
L. Shashi Kumar Sharma & D.S. Chaubey – (2007) "Consumer Behaviour towards
mobile service providers; An Empirical Study". The communication service in Uttar
Pradesh, India have witnessed a phenomenal change over the last few years. The number of
competitors has increased significantly. The study indicates that the level of consumer
satisfaction depends on the demographic characteristics of the customers. Hence, there is a need
to improve their services in order to meet the expectations on the future generation. Almost all
the customers are of the opinion that mobile services have a bright future. Therefore it can be
concluded that there is a scope for mobile service providers in the city. Consumer’s perception
about the impact of mobile service in bringing the social change is not significant with their age,
education qualification and income level where as there is a significant about impact of mobile
service in bringing the social change and their sex category. Finally it is also suggested that
mobile service providers should excuse due care before introducing new services.
G. Radha Krishna (2006) :- Advertising companies strategies and issues; A case of mobile
service sector. The paper initially gives the platform for the discussion of promotional mix
elements such as personal advertising , sales promotion and advertising aspects in service sector
and its relative importance. Then the article explores the role of advertising in services and in
particular advertising of some of mobile telephone companies services offers, are discussed. This
article aims at identifying the issues and selling points that a cellular company wishes to include
in an advertising campaign.
Amandeep Singh Maewale (2004) :- Marketing strategies of cellular operators in Punjab and
Chandigarh. The study has been made for finding the marketing strategy adopted by the cellular
companies in Punjab and Chandigarh region, with the help of survey method the study was
made. It was concluded that there is impact of marketing strategy on the customer of cellular
operators.
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Marketing strategy is the course of action in achieving marketing objectives. If aims in allocating
the available resources in an optimum manner. The market is full of substitute products and
competitors. The marketing executives adopt different strategies in different segments. The
following are some of the marketing strategies.
1) AIRTEL
Bharati Tele ventures limited was incorporated on July 7, 1995 for promoting investment in
telecommunication services. Its subscribers operate telecom services across Idea. Bharati Tele
venture is India's leading private sector provider of telecommunication services based on stray
customer base consisting of approximately 10.20 million total customer which constitute
approximately 9.41 million mobile and approximately 787.000 fixed line customer.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Bharati Tele ventures strategic objectives is to capitalize on the growth opportunities that the
company b4live are available in the Indian telecommunication market and consolidate its
position to be the leading integrated telecommunications services provider in key markets with a
focus on providing mobile services.
Business line – THE HINDU New Delhi – Sep – 15 Bharati to bring all telecom services under
Airtel brand.
BHARATI Tele-ventures said that it was unifying all it telecom services under the flagship brand
Airtel. The move is aimed at protecting the company as an integrated telecom services, player
and offering Bharati customers a single window interface for all communication needs.
The company has developed the following strategies to achieve its strategies objectives:-
Focus on maximizing revenues and margins.
Capture maximum telecommunications revenue potential with minimum geographical
coverage.
Offer multiple telecommunications services to provide customers with a "are-stop shop"
solution.
Position itself to tap data transmission opportunities and offer advanced mobile data
services.
Focus on satisfying and retaining customers by ensuring high level of customer’s
satisfaction.
Coverage strength of its strategic and financial partners;
Emphasize on human resource development to achieve operator efficiencies.
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Bharati Tele-ventures vision for its mobile business is, "To make mobile communications a way
of life and be the customers first choice".
The mission is to meet the mobile communication needs of the customer through –
1) Error free service.
2) innovative products and services and
3) cost efficiency
The company's strategic objective is to consolidate its leadership position amount the mobile
services providers in India.
2. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED (B.S.N.L.)
Established on October 1-200, Bharat Sanchar Nigam limited (BSNL) has grown into one
of the largest public sector undertaking with a turnover of $4.6 billion. With a network of 45
million lines with 35 million telephone connections BSNL accounts for more than 85% the
market share in telecom sector.
Keeping pace with the global trends, BSNL has been expanding its basic network to
provide affordable and affective communications. In addition, the BSNL has also providing a
variety of value-added services. Besides there has been enormous emphasis on rural connectivity
and various initial have been taken increase the Tele density of the country.
Considering the rising expectations of the customers, BSNL introduced intelligent
network (IN).
The (ITC) Indian Telephone cark is a smart prepaid facility for making local STD, or ISD
calls for any telephone all one need to do is dial access code and ID number from any BSNL
Telephone, and get connected. Among other intelligent Network services are virtual private
network, tale-voting to conduct opinion polls. Account calling card and universal number. This
provides a unique number nation wide.
Marketing strategy is inseparably interlinked with. Marketing objectives Each, objective
can be achieved in number of ways for example the objectives is to increase the sale revenue by
10% can achieved more frequently while formulating the marketing strategy are should be
carefully look in the segment proper selection of target market and assembling the marketing
mix. The target market shows to when the firm, broadly the fallowing strategies can be
effectively managed on.
Product Strategy
Price strategy
Promotional strategy
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Physical distribution strategy
Thus depending upon the unique situation requirements feed by every firm may select
either confers nation strategy. Defensive strategy or niche strategy in the light of the following
broader marketing strategic could be fallowed in cellular companies marketing.
Most of the main mobile operators worldwide have been offering prepaid price plans for
customers, an alternative to the traditionally post paid (contract with monthly subscription) plan.
(Market Reshare.Com.)
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
In this chapter an attempt is made to the distribution of the sample respondent on the basis of
Education of the customers, Occupation of the customers, Annual income of the customers
cellular phone companies and their prepaid, post paid & Life user cellular phone cellular phone
companies & their call rates in prepaid, post paid & Long life.
Marketing strategy aware by the users of cellular phone depends upon the personal
characteristics of the consumer apart from various other factor stated in the previous chapter.
This chapter is an analysis on the impact of personal factors on consumer preference aligning
with the marketing strategy adopted by the companies to boost their product in the market.
TABLE-5.1
COMPETITION THREAT BY OTHER COMPANIES
Sr.No. Threats Airtel BSNL Total
Frequency
Percentage
1 Price 12 2 14 14%
2 Brand 24 1 25 25%
3 Customer
preference
21 1 22 22%
4 Advertisement 7 5 13 13%
5 After sales services 4 4 8 8%
6 Schemes 6 13 19 19%
EXCEL International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies
Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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TOTAL 74 26 100 100%
Source : primary Data
As evidence in table 4 -1 shows that Airtel is having much threat from BSNL i.e due to
brand 13% and BSNL is having threat of Airtel because of schemes 24% other areas are also
found to some extent.
CHI-SQUARE TEST FOR CELLULAR PHONE CONSUMER PREFERENCE BASED
ON COMPETITION THREAT BY OTHER COMPANIES
O E (O-E) ^2 (O-E)^2/E
12 10.36 5.57 0.54
24 18.50 30.25 1.64
21 16.28 22.28 1.37
7 9.62 6.86 0.71
4 5.92 3.67 0.62
12
24
21
7
2
1 1
5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Price Brand Customer preference Advertisement
Airtel
BSNL
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6 14.8 77.44 5.23
2 3.64 2.67 0.73
1 6.5 30.25 4.65
1 5.72 22.28 3.90
5 3.38 2.62 0.78
4 2.08 3.69 1.77
13 4.94 64.96 13.15
35.09
A NULL hypothesis on the preference of Cellular Phones by the consumers of different
Competition threat by other company was framed. So there is no significant difference between
the customer’s preference of cellular phone and Competition threat by other company.
The null hypothesis was tested by using chi-square (X)^2 test of significance. Calculated value
= 35.09
Critical value at 5% level of significance is 11.09 at (2-1)(6-1) degrees of freedom. Therefore
hypothesis is rejected. As the hypothesis has been rejected. It is concluded that there is
significant difference between the consumer preference of cellular phone and competition threat
between the companies.
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Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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TABLE – 5.2
CUSTOMER PREFERRING SERVICES PREPAID, POST PAID AND LONG LIFE
FREE OF THE CELLULAR PHONE COMPANIES
Sr.No. Cellular Phone Co. Prepaid Post paid Long life
1 Airtel 38 20 16
2 BSNL 10 9 07
3 Total Frequency 48 29 23
4 Percentage 48% 29% 23%
Source : primary Data
Table –4.2 show customer preferring services of the brand. The Airtel customer prefer
prepaid 38 %, Post paid 20 % and Long life 16 % and BSNL users 10 % prefer prepaid , 9%
postpaid , Long time 7 % to some extent.
38
10
20
9
16
7
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Airtel BSNL
Prepaid
Post paid
Long life
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TABLE – 5.3
USERS AWARENESS FOR MARKETING STRATEGY
Sr.No. Marketing strategy Airtel BSNL Total Frequency Percentage
1 Quality Product 6 8 14 14%
2 Cheap price 14 10 24 24%
3 Easy available 10 5 15 15%
4 Good services 14 3 17 17%
5 Product differentiate 30 4 34 34%
TOTAL 74 26 100 100%
Source: primary Data
Table –4.3 shows Marketing strategy aware by the customers. It is found customers are aware
about the Product differentiate of Airtel 30%, Good service 14% , Cheap price 14%where for
BSNL are aware about good service 3%, Cheap price 10%, Product differentiate 4% to some
extent.
6
14
10
14
8
10
5
3
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Quality Product Cheap price Easy available Good services
Airtel
BSNL
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Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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CHI-SQUARE TEST FOR CELLULAR PHONE CONSUMER PREFERENCE BASED
ON MAREKTING STRATEGY AWARE BY THE CUSOMER
O E (O-E) ^2 (O-E)^2/E
6 10.36 19.01 1.83
14 17.76 14.14 O.86
10 11.10 1.21 0.11
14 12.58 2.02 0.16
30 25.16 23.43 0.93
8 3.64 19.01 5.22
10 6.24 14.14 2.27
5 3.9 1.21 0.31
3 4.42 2.02 0.46
4 8.84 23.43 2.65
14.12
A NULL hypothesis on the preference of Cellular Phones by the consumers of different
Marketing strategy aware by the customer was framed. So there is no significant difference
between the customer’s preference of cellular phone and Marketing strategy aware by the
customer.
The null hypothesis was tested by using chi-square (X)^2 test of significance. Calculated value
= 14.12
Critical value at 5% level of significance is 9.49 at (2-1)(5-1) degrees of freedom. Therefore
hypothesis is rejected. As the hypothesis has been rejected. It is concluded that there is
significant difference between the consumer preference cellular phone and Marketing strategies
aware to the customer.
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Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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TABLES 5.5
REASONS FOR SELECTING THE BRAND
Sr.No. REASONS Airtel BSNL Total
Frequency
Percentage
1 Advertisement 24 5 29 29%
2 Family member 13 2 15 15%
3 friends 12 4 16 16%
4 Offers and
schemes
28 4 30 32%
5 Brand name 19 10 29 29%
6 Others 6 1 7 7%
TOTAL 74 26 100 100%
Table –III-5 shows reason for selection of brand cellular phone. The Airtel brand was mostly
influenced by brand at 6%, and it was followed by advertisement at 24%, family members at
12%, friends at 12%, Offers and schemes at 28% and other reasons with 6% respectively. The
BSNL brand was mostly influenced by brand at 1%, and it was followed by advertisement at
5%, family members at 2%, friends at 4%, Offers and scheme at 4% and other reasons with 1%
to some extent.
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Vol.2 Issue 3, March 2012, ISSN 2249 8834
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CHI-SQUARE TEST FOR CELLULAR PHONE CONSUMER PREFERENCE BASED
ON REASONS OF SELECTINFG THE BRAND
O E (O-E) ^2 (O-E)^2/E
24 21.46 2.54 0.12
13 11.10 3.61 0.33
12 11.84 0.03 0.00253
28 23.68 18.66 0.79
19 21.46 6.05 0.28
6 5.18 0.67 0.13
5 7.54 6.45 0.86
24 3.9 3.61 0.93
4 4.16 0.03 0.01
4 8.32 18.66 2.24
10 7.54 6.05 0.8
1 1.82 0.67 0.37
6.86
24
13
12
28
5
2
4 4
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Advertisement Family member friends Offers and schemes
AIRTEL
BSNL
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A NULL hypothesis on the preference of Cellular Phones by the consumers of different Reasons
of selecting the brand by the customer was framed. So there is no significant difference between
the customer’s preference of cellular phone and Reasons of selecting the brand by the customer.
The null hypothesis was tested by using chi-square (X)^2 test of significance. Calculated value
= 6.86
Critical value at 5% level of significance is 11.07 at (6-1)(2-1) degrees of freedom. Therefore
hypothesis is accepted. As the hypothesis has been accepted. It is concluded that there is NO
significant difference between the consumer preference of cellular phone and Reasons of
selection the brand
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
1.Effective advertisement is the should be used to convey the product knowledge among the
area segment.
2. These operators have put the different tariff plans in the market, which are not clear and
transparent and having the much more confusion increases. This is affecting the decision making
ability of customer and increases ambiguity.
3. The awareness level of customer is very poor; therefore they are not able to put their
requirements clearly. So, modification of advertisement should used to cover the market.
4. While selecting the cell phone operator, the minimum rate of calling and the network coverage
plays an important role. The decisions of maximum number of customers are influenced by these
two factors.
5. Marketing strategy aware by the customers. It is found customers are aware about the Product
differentiate of Airtel 30%, Good service 14% , Cheap price 14%where for BSNL are aware
about good service 3%, Cheap price 10%, Product differentiate 4% to some extent.
5. Reasons for selection of brand cellular phone. The Airtel brand was mostly influenced by
brand at 6%, and it was followed by advertisement at 24%, family members at 12%, friends at
12%, Offers and schemes at 28% and other reasons with 6% respectively. The BSNL brand was
mostly influenced by brand at 1%, and it was followed by advertisement at 5%, family members
at 2%, friends at 4%, Offers and scheme at 4% and other reasons with 1%.
SUGGESTION
1) In the today’s competitive world all cellular phone companies have need the increase the
female cellular phone user. Give to the offer to female cellular phone user and increase the level
of female cellular phone user.
2) Cellular phone companies have needed the give the services in minimum rate. Overall
decrease the expenses of the cellular phone on monthly base.
3) BSNL has needed to introduce the talk time recharge coupons from Rs. 10.
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4) Cellular phone companies have needed the give post paid service in minimum rate.
5) Airtel have need the reduce the post paid plans price.
6) All cellular phone companies are needed to charge their strategy about the post paid user.
7) Give the offer the post paid user and improve the post paid user.
8) Effective advertisements: - It is found that majority of the customers are aware of cellular
services through T.V. advertisement. It is worthwhile to note that there are advertisements at
comparatively lower cost and hence the applicability and use such media can be thought of to
create awareness about the services of cellular companies.
9) Media selection: - It is found that the advertisement plays a dominant role not only in
influencing the customer but also remain as leady tool. Hence, irrespectively of the different
media the cellular companies have to make effective advertisement not only to attract more
customers but also to play significant role in the purchase decision of customers.
10) Disclosing full Information: - On the basis of the above complaint it is recommended to
cellular companies to take appropriate steps to provide all the information about the product and
service. Most of cell phone users have the problem in network coverage. To cover come this
problem, the service provider most install more towers where they are not having their where
service area coverage.
REFERENCE
1.www.airtel.in
2. www.bsnl.co.in
3. www.slideshare.net/rahulogy/marketing-strategy-comparison-of-airtel-and-hutch
4. www.slideshare.net/kedarp83/report-on-airtel-its-strategies
5www.alttc.bsnl.co.in/altzine/vol_29032006/marketing.html
doc_222836619.pdf