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CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of Cellular/Mobile phone

www.wikipediadefines cellular phone as:The

Cellular

telephone

(commonly "mobile phone" or "cell phone" or "handphone") is along-

range, portableelectronic deviceused for mobile communication. In

addition to thestandard voice function of atelephone, current mobile

phones can support manyadditionalservicessuch asSMSf or text

messaging, email, packet switchingf or access to theInternet, 

andMMS f or sending and receiving photosandvideo. Most current

mobile phones connect to acellular network  of   base stations (cellsites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone

network  (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones.Cellular telephone is

also define as a type of short-waveanalogor digital  telecommunication

in which a subscriber has awirelessconnection from a mobiletelephone

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

called acell.Generally, cellular telephone service is available in urban

areas and along major highways. As the cellular telephone user moves

from one cell or area of coverage toanother, the telephone is effectivelypassed on to the local cell transmitter. A cellular telephone is not to be

confused with a cordless telephone (which is simply a phone with avery

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

similar to cellular is personal communications services(PCS) 

.2 Brand preferences and advertisement

Students leant about cellular phone from many sources, mainly from

friends and families,through advertisement and from their ownexperience. Whether a promotion andadvertising hurt or help a brand is

under-researched (Mela, Gupta & Lehman, 1997). Inthe long-run,

advertisement help brands by making consumer less price sensitive

andmore loyal. Exposure of an ad is crucial to be effective in changing

consumer knowledge,attitude and behaviour (Evans,Moutinho & Van

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Raaj, 1996). And for the ad to be seen, itmust grab the attention of its

target audience. ‘Ads originality’ as defined from Pietes,Warlop and

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

byincreasing attention to it. This thus increased attention to the brand

beingadvertised.However, regardless of the content, ads for brandleaders are more successfuldue to the influence of the brand (Simon,

1970). Ads for less popular brands may be lesssuccessful even though

the content may be good.Liking towards the brand itself can influence

liking for the brand (Hawkins, Best &Coney, 1992). However according

to study by Biehal, Stephens and Curlo (1992)whether consumers like or

dislike an ad does not necessarily lead to brand acceptance or rejection.

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

necessarilymean that they will go out and buy the brandadvertised.Usually the consumer uses their attitude towards the ad (Aad)

in brand choice equaled that of attitude towards the brands(AB).

Advertisers must remember that advertising messages are interpretend

differently between different genders (Maldonando, Tansuhaj &

Muehling, 2003; Hogg & Garrow,2003; Putrevu, 2001).Prevoius study

have proven that females were more likely toengagae in elaboration than

men (Maldonado & Muehling, 2003). Hogg and Garrow(2003) foundthat women paid more intention about the details of the characters of an

adwhen asked to analyze advertising messages. They said that this may

be explained by thefact that females have a greater tendency than men to

consider external information andinformation related to others. Women

are ‘comprehensive processors’ who try to gather all available

information about the product.In building brand preferences, Alreck and

Settle (1999) proposed six strategies:1)Need association- the

product/brand linked to need through repeated messages.2)Mood

associations- brands should be associated with good feelings

throughslogans,songs.3)Subconscious motivation-use of symbol to

excite consumers’ subconsciousmotives.4)Behaviour

modification-consumers are conditioned to buy the brand

bycontrolling cues and rewards.5)Cognitif processing-penetrating

perceptual and cognitive barriers to createfavourable attitudes

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towards the brand/product.6)Model emulation- portraying idealized

lifestyles for consumers to imitate.

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

in influencing brand preference. It did not discuss tangible aspects (i.eproduct characteristics) of influencing brand preference. Advertisement

can change consumer’s perception of a product in terms of attributes

content and proportion and also influence consumer’s tastefor attributes

( Gwin & Gwin, 2003)

2.3 Brand preference and product attribute

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

haveand includes both intrinsic and extrinsic (Mowen & Minor, 1998)

.Benefits is the positiveoutcomes that come from the attributes.Peopleseek products that have attributes that willsolve their problems and

fulfills their needs (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Understanding whya

consumer choose a product based upon its attributes helps marketers to

understand whysome consumers have preferences for certain brands

(Gwin & Gwin, 2003). In the study by Gwin and Gwin (2003), the

Lancaster model of consumer demand (1966, 1979), alsoreffered to as

the product attributes model,was used to evaluate brand

positioning.Thismodel assumes that consumer choice is based on thecharacteristics (or attributes) of a brand.Each product is abundle of 

attributes and that choice is based on maximizingutility/satisfaction from

the attritubes subject to budget constraints. However there weretwo

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

(2) the modeldoes not explain how the preferences for attributes were

formed.This article also also didinot mention if experience with the

product played a part in influencing attributes preferences

performances. Similarly, Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity may

be moreinfluenced by attribute knowledge more than consumer

preference.For low-involvement products, consumers have more

objective view of the natureof the attrinutes (eg. food, cosmetics)

because they are constantly being advertised and promoted.Similarly

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Rioo, Vasquez and Iglesias (2001) sugggeated that consumer evaluation

of a product can be broken down into evaluation related to product

(tangible or physical attributes) and brand name (intangible attributes,

or images added to the productdue to its brand names). In his study on

the relationship between human values andconsumer purchases, Allen(2001) found there was a significant association betweenhuman values

(eg. hedonistic, achievement, self-direction, conformity, security

etc.), product preference and tangible attribute importance with how

consumers perceive the product (i.e tangible attributes) and how they

evaluate the product (i.e symbolicmeaning,tangible/intangible attribute

importance). Human values influence theimportance of the product’s

tangible attribute importances that are already important

toconsumers.However perception of product performance on the salientattributes are moreimportant than actual performance (Mason &

Bequette, 1998).Mowen and Minor (1998)suggested that marketing

managers should know the attributes that consumers expect in a product

and how positively or negatively they rate these attributes to help

develop and promote a successful product.Retailers need to be

knowledgeable of the product attributes perceived as the most important

by each individual consumer group in order to build andmaintain market

share (Warrington & Shim, 2000). It is the consumer whodetermineswhich attributes matter to them. Different consumer groups

place different importance on

different attributes (Warrington & Shim,2000).It was found that

consumers categoriez asLP/SB (low product involvement/strong brand

commitment) placed greater importanceon product attributes and

product orientataions than LP/WB (weak brand commitment)consumers,

which placed the most importance on price.Markerters should consider

using advertisement, which may play a role in makingattributee

important to consumers that might not have been considered before

(Gwin &Gwin, 2003),Romariuk & Sharp (2003) suggested two

objectives of short-term and long-term brand building. In the short term,

managers need to identify a specific attributes to be communicated to the

market,based on which message gave the best execution.The keyaim is

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to develop likeable advertisement.In the long-run,managers need to

 build up a‘bank’ of consumer perception about the brand to make it the

one most often thought of and make it difficult for competitors to have

access to the minds of consumers (Romariuk & Sharp, 2003).The brand

name of the product itself is an important attribute. Brands havebothfunctional (product-related) and symbolic dimensions (del

Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz,2001), On the product related benefit side,

consumer evaluate product performance basedon its capabilities, usage

effectiveness, value for money and reliability. The purchase

andconsumption of products is increasing regarded by consumers as an

indirect way of communication to improve their self image and deliver

certain impressions to other people in their environment (del

Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz, 2001), Therefore the brandname benefitsperceived by consumers is highly interrelated to the product-

based benefits. Big brand means a better image and a better product (del

Rio,Vasquez &Iglesiaz, 2001), Howevwer, as mention earlier, Mason

and Bequette (1998) suggested that

perceived product performance is more important than actual attribute

performance.Similarly Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity might

be influenced by attributeknowledge more than consumer preference.This may be due to consumer biasness and prejudice, Consumers’

product evaluations are influenced by memory. The biasness can be

reduced by having current information, experience and knowledge

(Mason andBequette ,1998). Therefore, it’s not surprising that brands

that consumers believe offer superior value are most preferred brands

chosen often (Myers, 2003). Brands with higher equity resulted in

greater preferences and high market shares.Price is another form of 

attribute used by consumers to evaluate a product.Price cansometimes be

an indicator of quality; with a higher price indicating higher

quality(Mowen & Minor, 1998; Siu & Wong, 2002). Consumers

perceive that a higher price can be attributed to the higher cost of quality

control (Siu & Wong, 2002). Some consumersare highly price sensitive

(elastic demand),whereby a high prices may shift consumers

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tocompetitive brands (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Therefore price can have

a positive or negative influence on customers.