Customer Retention Strategies for Howie Smartphones

The provided assignment is an in-depth analysis of customer retention strategies for Howie Smartphones. It includes a survey with 55 respondents who are either satisfied or dissatisfied with their existing product. The findings suggest that 55% of customers are satisfied, while the rest feel that the product design is not up to the mark. Additionally, the assignment discusses customer opinion on promotional activities and brand awareness, with 31 respondents agreeing on its importance.

Retention or defection

Table of Contents
SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the Research..................................................................................................3
1.2 Research plan.........................................................................................................................3
1.3 Aims and Objectives..............................................................................................................4
1.4 Research question..................................................................................................................5
SECTION 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................5
SECTION 3 RESEARCH DESIGN...................................................................................................7
SECTION 4 DATA COLLECTION..................................................................................................8
SECTION 5 SAMPLING STRATEGY.............................................................................................9
SECTION 6 DATA ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY.......................................................................11
References..........................................................................................................................................16

SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION
This is first part of the research which provide a brief introduction of proposed study which is
very significant. This helps to understand the overall project and identify the issue faced by a
company or industry. This section can be categorising in to following parts:
1.1 Background of the Research
The role of consumer behaviour is plays a vital role in the success for each and every
business organization and its helps to provide a long term success for a company or industry.
Consumer behaviour is a systematic process of purchasing products and services among
different brand and their attitude towards brand and other related issue (Mizerski, 2013).
Chinese consumer is different prospective and there are more likely to prefer Western and
Japanese brand due to high quality and other aspects. But in the recent time, there are large
number of people who are also preferring its domestic products and services rather than other
company’s product. These numbers also growing which shows that customer are switching
their brand due to various element must be determined by the researchers. So that, companies
can make their strategy accordingly in order to provide competitive advantage in the market.
This report is helps to provide the overview of the industry (Ogechukwu, 2012).
1.2 Research plan
This is related with the project proposed plan which helps to provide a direction with a
limited time frame in order to achieve their research objectives. There are 6 section of this
study and required to plan in advance which is very critical to make them. There are various
tools and techniques which can be used by the researcher to make their plan effective and
suitable (O'Reilly and et. al., 2012). In the present study, project manager can use Gantt chart
which is a most appropriate tool to make them more effective so that they can meet their
research aims and objectives in a given period of time.
Gantt chart: It is most usable tools where a researcher is required to provide a suitable way
that how to implement a project and divide a large and complex project in to smaller project
in order to achieving their target in a limited time frame (Tsao, Matthews and Crittenden,
2012). There are following activities are involving in a research:

Figure 1: Activities
Figure 2: Gantt Chart
Figure 3: Network Diagram
1.3 Aims and Objectives
Aims: “Retention or defection? Chinese consumers ‘decision-making styles for domestic and
global brands” A Study on Huawei

Objectives: These are following research objectives
 To identify consumer attitude towards Western and Japanese brand
 To determine consumer attitude towards domestic brand
 To develop relationship between these brand on business performance
 To provide recommendation to increase domestic brand awareness
1.4 Research question
 What is consumer attitude towards Western and Japanese brand?
 What is consumer attitude towards domestic brand?
 What is the relationship in brand awareness on business performance?
 What is the recommendation for improve domestic brand awareness?
SECTION 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This section of research will be explaining about the past conducted research on the consumer
decision making of purchase and post purchase. Today, smart phone industry one of the
fastest growing industry due to technological advancement and its development in the wide
manner (Scherer, Wünderlich and Von Wangenheim, 2015). This is very significant for a
business firm is to maintain its position in the market in the longer run. There are two brands
in this industry Apple and Samsung leading firm in terms of market share. The Chinse people
are like such products due to its quality and other aspects. On the other hand, there are
various domestic brand also available in this market which is growing and change consumer
decision making also will be covered in this report.
2.2 Chinese consumer’s perceptions of local and international brands
A consumer brand perception is depending on the country size and its economic aspects.
There are two types of economies developing and developed are avail which having large
difference in the brand and their nature of choice. According to Sagar, and et. al., (2013),
consumer of developed countries is preferring quality rather than other elements whereas,
developing countries customer are wants product which cost is low and its life cycle also
large as compare to other. It shows that, people wants to choose their goods and services as
par the nature and economic situation of nation which is very significant. In the context of
China, which is developing country and prefer a low quality product. But, in recent years this

country growth rate was good which increase the purchasing power of an individual. It leads
to increase their expectation in the Western product and its quality. On the other hand, Kaur,
Sharma, and Mahajan, (2012) argued that brand trust is a long term process which can be
gained in two ways direct or indirect. In the direct way, an individual use and trail these
products and in indirect contact they can get the information from different sources such as
advertising, words of mouth and so on. As par Singh, (2013), Chinese consumer brand
selection has been studied that, especially in the smart phone industry where domestic brand
failed to create awareness about its product and failed to meet the technological advancement
which is very crucial in the modern world. Therefore, people are preferring foreign products
specially the smart phone segmentation. As par the latest survey there are 55 percent Chinese
customer wants to buy Apple and Samsung smart phone which is a quite large number as
compare to other counties (Mecha, Martin and Ondieki, 2015).
2.3 Reason for switching
In the recent years there are various Chinese corporation are developing their product and
tries to meet the quality and design which is very significant for customers. Therefore, last
few years the growth rate of Chinese brand increase due to various reasons. Switching
intention is psychological tendency of a consumer one of the major reason for the customers.
There are various factors which plays a crucial role in sale of product and services of the
company in the market. According to Sun,, Wilcox, and Zhu, (2014), price one the key
element and it having a large influence on the consumer decision making. Customer is more
sensitive about the product and they investigate its goods with other brand in the same
category. As par the Becker, Spann,. and Schulze,(2015) Chinese product quality also
growing and they are able to meet the international standards which helps to increase the
sales of the domestic product in the economy. Howie is producing a high tech product where
its features are equal to the other multinational brand one of the cause for switching.
2.4 Decision making style
There are different types of consumers who purchase their product for its needs and other
elements. Brand conciseness is one of the factors which change consumer attitudes in the
longer run. Therefore, each and every company wants to become and global brand and for
this they also increase their spending on the various promotional activities in order to
promote its product at the global level (Ibok and Udofot, 2012). In the previous studies it has

been identifies that there are other factors such as advertising, price, product life cycle,
quality and innovation are plays a vital role in their decision making in an effective manner.
SECTION 3 RESEARCH DESIGN
Research means to collect the information about any topic on which we want to know in the
detail. So it is used to know about the information and the data of the company regarding its
products, services and the actual performance of the company. Research also provides the
information related to the customer’s satisfactions with the services of the company.
Research philosophy means a process which gives you the way to collect the information
from the different sources by conducting the market surveys. Research design helps in
finding the best way to collect the data and to provide the proper way to the research.
Research design is the major concept in the whole research process which gives the various
methods to collect the information’s from the market by using sampling, survey in the
market, collection of information and the analysis of data. All these methods are very helpful
in effective survey in the market and to collect the actual and the real information from the
customers. This will help to define the actual status of the company and their products.
Research design includes such various methods which are: case study, descriptive,
prescriptive, exploratory, experimental research and casual research design.
Research design are mainly of two types: exploratory and conclusive. In exploratory
research its aim is to explore the specific aspects of research area. But in conclusive research,
provides the end results related to the research topic and is very clear or well defined. It is the
research which provides the conclusion about some topic which is undergone in the research.
Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment
and services company. It is the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the
world. Firstly, the company is focused on manufacturing phone switches, but now it expands
their business to build the telecommunications networks, providing operational and
consulting services and equipment to enterprises inside and outside of china and also
manufactures the communication devices for the consumer market.
This type of research designs helps in providing the proper and relevant data and the
information about their products. This is also helps in determining the customer’s behaviour
that how they reacts on their products and services and how they can increase the trust level
of the customers towards their products and their organisation.

SECTION 4 DATA COLLECTION
This part of the study has been discussed about the data collection and its various approaches
crucial for the primary data. These data are the fresh hand information and help to make
develop an effective solution of a given problem. There are two types of methods primary
and secondary (Gordini and Veglio, 2017). Primary data one of the critical part of the
research which having different types of tools as mentioned below:
Questionnaire: This is one of the most suitable tool where researchers in which they need to
design a set of questionnaire. They distribute these among its customer and asking about the
opinion of various aspects. This is a time consuming approach which is based on their
perception also can be manipulated in different manners. The sample size on of the major
concern for project manager which influence its reliability and fairness of this report. There
are a set of questionnaire mentioned below:
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Email:
Q.1 Are you using smart phone?
A) Yes
B) No
Q.2 Which Brand are using at present time?
A) Apple
B) Samsung
C) Howie
D) Any other
Q.3 Which is the major factor influence your purchase decision?
A) Product quality
B) Price
C) Technology
D) Brand
Q.4 Which product you want to buy in the near future?
A) Apple
B) Samsung
C) Howie

D) Any other
Q.5 Are you satisfied with Howie smart phones.
A) Satisfied
B) Highly satisfied
C) Dissatisfied
D) Highly dissatisfied
Q.6 Why you are using Howie smart phones?
A) Product quality
B) Price
C) Technology
D) Brand
Q.7 Are you willing to continue with Howie smart phones?
A) Yes
B) No
Q.8 Do you thing Howie is a global brand?
A) Agree
B) Highly agree
C) Disagree
D) Highly disagree
Q.9 In your opinion Howie needs to spend more on brand awareness?
A) Yes
B) NO
Q.10 Please provide your recommendation?
SECTION 5 SAMPLING STRATEGY
Sampling strategy is related to the selection of few number of persons from the entire
population to know about the characteristics of the whole population. It helps to know about
the general idea that what entire group thinks on the basis of the sample of few from such
group. There are two advantages of the sampling which are, lower in costing and the process
of data collection is faster of the entire population.
Importance of sampling:

• Cost efficient: knowing results about the entire population by taking few samples
requires less manpower to collect the data requires the less cost.
• Fast results: It helps in proving the results faster from the large number of persons.
• Reliable: The results provided by the sampling are much reliable as they almost cover
the whole population same nature.
• Time saving: Getting results by sampling strategies saves the time. If the data is
collected from each and every person then it is not possible in large population and If the
population have limited number of persons then it is very time consuming.
Types of sampling strategies: There are two types of sampling strategies which are:
1. Probability strategies
• Simple random sampling: It is mainly used when the members of the population are
similar to each other.
• Systematic sampling: used when the members of the population are similar.
• Stratified random sampling: It is used when the population contains different groups.
• Cluster sampling: It is used for the sampling of units rather than the individuals.
2. Non probability strategies
• Convenience sampling: It is used in the situation where the members of the sampling
are convenient to sample.
• Quota sampling: It is used when the data is present but stratified sampling is not
possible.
In this case, Random sampling is used to know about the preferences of the
population of china on shifting their choice towards the domestic products. Random sampling
is used because it is very effective in case of sampling of the large number of populations.
Random sampling: Simple random sample is used when the part of population in which each
member has equal probability of being chosen. While choosing the samples they are not
biased otherwise it effects the validity of the result. It is used when all the persons present in
the group is similar to each other. In this case, random sampling is used because the data is

collected from the large number of population to know about their preferences on their
shifting from international products to domestic products. Only with the random sampling
strategy it is possible to take the samples otherwise it is not possible to know about the
results. It is also very cost efficient and saves the time too. It saves the time because the
samples selected from the few who are similar and on that basis the results will be determined
about the whole population.
SECTION 6 DATA ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY
This part of the research is related with the analysing collected data through various
approaches. There are two types of data analyse approach qualitative and quantitative. Both
are very significant in order to construct an effective interpretation (Rootman, 2011).
Thematic approach has been used for the evaluating responses which helps to overcome
given problem. These are:
Theme 1 Smartphone user in different brands
A) Yes B) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
40
0
Finding: From the above given information it has been interpreted that there are majority all
respondents are using smart phone of different brands. This shows that, in China there are
larger demand of smart phone company in the near future. It helps to provide a consistent
growth in the growth and development of their business.
Theme 2 Customer brand choice in smartphone.

A) Apple B) Samsung C) Howie D) Any other
0
5
10
15
20
25
22
10
6
2
Finding: According to the collected data, there are 22 respondents out of 40 which are using
Apple, 10 using Samsung, 6 prefer Howie and rest of them other brand. These data play a
vital role for a company in order to develop competitive position in the market.
Theme 3 Factor influencing consumer decision making?
A) Product quality B) Price C) Technology D) Brand
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
10
12
6
12
Finding: As par the above mentioned diagram it has been concluded that there are 10
respondents out of 40 which consider product quality, 12 customers price sensitive, 6 needed
technological advancement and rest of them brand conscious.
Theme 4 Brand choice for the future in customer choice.

15
10
10
5
A) Apple B) Samsung C) Howie D) Any other
Finding: When question was asked to customers about their future choice in brand, there are
majority of respondents are fever for Apple, 10 for Samsung, 10 for Howie and rest of them
other products. It shows that domestic brand is growing in terms of all aspects which help to
provide a substitute for the potential customers.
Theme 5 Customer satisfaction level of Howie smart phones
A) Satisfied B) Highly satisfied C) Dissatisfied D) Highly
dissatisfied
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
12
18
7
3
Finding: The customer satisfaction level about Howie smartphone very critical in order to
analyse the major issue and customer satisfaction level to provide competitive advantage in
the market.
Theme 6 Customer opinion about Howie smart phones.

A) Product quality B) Price C) Technology D) Brand
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
12 12
8 8
Finding: This question is related with the identify various aspects of product which having
large influence on the consumer decision making. There are 12 respondents who willing to
buy Howie product due to its quality, 12 for lower price, 8 for technology and rest of them
are brand conscious.
Theme 7 Customer opinion on the Howie smart phones and its future users.
A) Yes B) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
28
12
Finding: As par the above given data, it has been interpreted that there are 28 customers who
continue buy Howie smart phone in the near future. On the other hand, there are 12
respondents not interest to continue with their existing product.
Theme 8 Customer opinion on Howie as a global brand.

55%
20%
20%
5%
A) Agree
B) Highly agree
C) Disagree
D) Highly disagree
Finding: From the above given diagram, there are 55 percent customer are satisfied with
their existing products and rest of them arguing that product design not up to the mark.
Theme 9 Customer opinion on promotional activities and brand awareness.
A) Yes B) NO
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
31
9
Finding: This question is related with the promotional activities and its role in the brand
awareness. There are 31 respondents are agreeing with this statement.

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