Consumer Behaviour Analysis of Telstra in the Telecom Industry of Australia

Marketing Consumer Behaviour
1

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Nature of industry/ Market and buyer decision making behaviour............................................3
Company overview of Telstra....................................................................................................4
The target market.......................................................................................................................4
Situational issues influencing consumer decision making and brand switching behaviour......4
Recommendations of sustainable marketing solution to Telstra................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6
Appendix....................................................................................................................................7
Appendix A : Questionnaire for survey on consumer decision making and brand switching in
telecom sector in Australia.........................................................................................................7
Appendix B: Data analysis of the responses of the survey.......................................................7
2

Introduction
Consumer buyer behaviour analyses is the process of understanding the buying pattern of the
final customer of a firm (Kengtho, 2011). A firm needs to understand buyer behaviour in
order to create a marketing strategy to target the customer in a particular way.
Telecommunication and mobile phone industry is rapidly growing and major players need to
understand determinants of buyer behaviour to increase their market share and to generate
greater demand for their product.
Nature of industry/ Market and buyer decision making behaviour
Major tool through which marketers identify consumer behaviour is through the consumer
decision making process (Ammi, 2013) . As per consumer behaviour theory, consumer first
identifies a need. Then he seeks information. Further, various alternatives are evaluated, then
the purchase is made. This is followed by post purchase assessment of the product.
Telecommunication and mobile phone industry is a growing industry in Australia. (ACCC
report, 2018) Telecommunication has become a basis need of business and public throughout
the world. Therefore, this sector has seen unprecedented growth in the last decade due to
huge consumer need identification.
Revenues from the Telecom industry were reported to be around $43 Billion in 2017 (IBIS,
2018) . The telecom operators are growing at a rate of 1% and are expected to grow steadily
over the next five years. Industry operates in price-based competition with maximum players
offering additional value-added services over capped plans (IBIS, 2018).
Telstra is the market leader with 50% market share in local market (IBIS, 2018). However,
the market is homogenous in nature where there is not much difference in the service
provided by all operators (IBIS, 2018). Additionally, high technology cost poses as an entry
barrier making the industry oligopolistic in nature (IBIS, 2018). Therefore, there is very high
competition between a few firms like Telstra, Vodafone and Optus.
Consumer decision making process in service industries is determine by service quality,
service delivery speed, price, offers and peer group preferences (Altinay, 2015).As per
studies conducted on the telecommunication sector of Australia, the major factors which
decides buying patterns are service quality, data speed and price. Customers also focus on
offers while purchasing telecom products (Bhatti, Abareshi, & Pittayachawan, 2016)
Additionally, peer group pressures cause brand switching. This happens mostly among
3