SINGAPORE - Grameenphone - Pettersen Eriksen Groven Ã Shem Kohler

Grameenphone
A descriptive study of the factors influencing the youth`s usage of telecommunication services in Singapore and Malaysia.
Diploma Project
By Stefanie Aasheim Andreas Eriksen Ida Harstad Groven Mats Gunnar Opdal Koehler Marius Pettersen
Supervisor Associate Professor Olaf Rieck Academic Year 2007/2008
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Acknowledgements The outcome of our diploma project would not have been made possible had it not been for the help we received from several people that have been central throughout the whole process. With this, we would like to give our gratitude and thanks to everyone who has contributed with inputs throughout the duration of the project from the start in January till the end in late April 2008. There are a few key persons and organizations we specifically would like to thank:
Grameenphone, for giving us the opportunity to conduct this research project on their behalf. Thank you for providing us with the support and the help we needed throughout the process. In Grameenphone, we would especially want to thank Ms. Sumaiya Sadia Raihan, Mr. Espen Wiig Warendorph, and Mr. Shams Chowdhury for being our contact persons. Thank you for your support and help. We would also like to thank Mr. Arnfinn Groven; had it not been for your proposal, this project would not have started.
Associate professor Olaf Rieck; Thank you for being our supervisor. We would like to thank you for your support and guidance. Mr. Allampalli; Thank you for being of assistance to us by making the arrangements for our focus group interviews.
Finally, we would like to thank all the respondents that helped us attain a satisfying sample size for our surveys and focus groups. This project would not have been successful without your help.
Thank you very much.
Executive summary
This project is done to provide Grameenphone with a recommendation on whether to have a youth brand in Bangladesh or not. To gather our information, we have used both secondary and primary data. The problem definition for the research project is as follows:
To investigate the factors driving loyalty and the effects of corporate brand attributes on youth in the telecommunications industry.
Grameenphone the largest telecommunications provider in Bangladesh. As of today it has a market share of 47.7%, and approximately 15 million subscribers.
Based on the findings in this study, we recommend that Grameenphone should have a youth brand. A large proportion of developing countries have a very young population, and as of today the majority of the Bangladesh population is between 15 and 29 years of age, this will increase the companys chance of capturing young consumers. In addition to this the Bangladeshi telecommunication market shows a tremendous growth potential, with mobile penetration expected to rise from todays 20-25% to 80% within 2012.
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Grameenphone
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 COMPANY BACKGROUND INFORMATION ..................................................................................................... 5 1.2 OVERVIEW OF THE BANGLADESHI MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKET ............................................... 6 1.2.1 THE PROVIDERS ....................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.2 FORECASTS AND FUTURE TRENDS ............................................................................................................. 9 1.3 THE YOUTH SEGMENT .............................................................................................................................. 10 1.4 PROBLEM AREA AND DEFINITION .............................................................................................................. 11 1.5 ESTABLISH RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................ 12 1.6 DETERMINING RESEARCH DESIGN .............................................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH APPROACH ..................................................................................................... 14 2.1 FOCUS GROUPS ......................................................................................................................................... 16 2.2 RESEARCH QUESTION ............................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 MARKETING THEORIES.............................................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF LOYALTY ................................................................. 23 3.1 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................................ 23 3.2 BRAND LOYALTY ..................................................................................................................................... 27 3.3 WHAT DRIVES LOYALTY ........................................................................................................................... 28 3.4 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON CORPORATE BRAND ATTRIBUTES ....................................................................... 29 3.5 HOW TO MEASURE THE BEHAVIOR LOYALTY DRIVERS? (BLD) ................................................................. 30 3.7 HYPOTHESES FOR THE BEHAVIOUR LOYALTY DRIVERS MODEL (BLD) ....................................................... 31 3.7 HOW TO MEASURE THE CORPORATE BRAND ATTRIBUTES AS LOYALTY DRIVERS (CBALD-MODEL) ........... 33 3.8 HYPOTHESES FOR THE CBALD-MODEL ..................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 4 OPERATIONALIZATION .................................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER 5 EXPLANATION OF DATA ANALYSIS PERFORMED ..................................................... 39 5.1 EXPLANATION OF MISSING VALUE ANALYSIS............................................................................................ 39 5.2 EXPLANATION OF DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS ............................................................................................... 39 5.3 EXPLANATION OF FACTOR ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 40 5.4 EXPLANATION OF RELIABILITY ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 41 5.5 EXPLANATION OF DATA REDUCTION ......................................................................................................... 42 5.6 EXPLANATION OF PEARSON CORRELATION ................................................................................................ 42 5.7 EXPLANATION OF MULTIPLE-REGRESSION ANALYSIS (LINEAR) .................................................................. 43 5.8 T-TEST ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 6 RESEARCH FINDINGS ........................................................................................................ 45 6.1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................... 45
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6.2 MISSING VALUES ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 45 6.3 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS .......................................................................................................................... 46 6.4ANALYSIS OF THE BLD-MODEL ................................................................................................................. 46 6.5 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF THE DRIVERS BLD-MODEL .............................................................................. 54 6.6 ANALYSIS OF THE CBALD-MODEL ........................................................................................................... 61 6.7 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS CONCERNING THE CBALD-MODEL ................................................................ 68 CHAPTER 7 - RESEARCH LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................. 74 7.1 SAMPLING ERRORS ................................................................................................................................... 74 7.2 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN ........................................................................................................................... 74 7.3 RESPONSE BIAS ........................................................................................................................................ 75 CHAPTER 8 - STRATEGIC DISCUSSION ................................................................................................... 76 8.1 SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE .................................................................................................. 79 CHAPTER 9 - CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................ 85
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Table of Tables
Table 1 Operators Market Shares and Number of Subscribers................................................. 9 Table 2 Project Mandate ....................................................................................................... 12 Table 3 Key Figures ............................................................................................................. 15 Table 4 - Different Types of Loyalty ....................................................................................... 25 Table 5 - Factor Analysis for the BLD-model .......................................................................... 47 Table 6 - Descriptives for the Constructs of the BLD-model.................................................... 50 Table 7 - Pearson Correlation for the BLD-model ................................................................... 51 Table 8 - Path Coefficients for the First Regression Analysis for the BLD-model .................... 52 Table 9 - Path Coefficients for the Second Regression Analysis for the BLD-model................ 53 Table 10 - Path Coefficients for the Third Regression Analysis for the BLD-model................. 54 Table 11- Summary of the BLD-model ................................................................................... 59 Table 12 - Independent t-test, Group Statistics ......................................................................... 60 Table 13 - t-test Equality of Means .......................................................................................... 60 Table 14 - Factor Analysis for the CBALD-model................................................................... 62 Table 15 - Descriptive Analysis for the CBALD-model........................................................... 65 Table 16 - Pearson Correlations for the CBALD-model........................................................... 66 Table 17 - Path Coefficients for Behavioral Loyalty of CBALD-model ................................... 67 Table 18 - Path Coefficients for Attitudinal Loyalty in the CBALD-model .............................. 68 Table 19 Summary of the CBALD-model............................................................................. 73
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Table of Figures
Figure 1 - Subscriber Mix .......................................................................................................... 8 Figure 2 - Continuum for Mobile Penetration and Purchasing Power per Capita ...................... 14 Figure 3 Relationship of Customer Satisfaction to Profitability ............................................. 27 Figure 4 New Relationship of Customer Satisfaction to Profitability..................................... 27 Figure 5 - Proposed BLD-model.............................................................................................. 32 Figure 6 - Proposed Model for Corporate Brand Attributes as Loyalty Drivers (CBALD)........ 35 Figure 7- Reduced Model for the Loyalty Drivers ................................................................... 58 Figure 8 - Reduced CBALD-model ......................................................................................... 72
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Chapter 1 Introduction
The purpose of this study is to provide Grameenphone with a recommendation on whether they should have a youth brand or not, and to map the factors that influence usage and loyalty amongst the youth. Grameenphone sees great value in the youth segment in the Bangladeshi telecommunications market, in order to capture this market and create loyal customers, they are considering whether they should introduce a separate youth brand or not. To make a decision about this there is a need to conduct research to find out which factors influence loyalty in the youth market. Grameenphone provided us with a case text to help us better define our area of study, and this can be found in appendix I. Through this project we followed the eleven steps of the marketing research model, presented by Burns and Bush (2006), which can be found in Appendix II. 1.1 Company Background Information Grameenphone is a Bangladeshi telecommunication provider. It was founded in 1997 and is partly owned by the Norwegian telecom provider Telenor (62%) and Grameen Telecom Corporation (38%)1, which is a non-profit organization that was founded by the Nobel Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus2. The company was the first operator to introduce GSM mobile services in the Bangladeshi market and the first to introduce prepaid plans in 19993. As of today, Grameenphone has a market share of 47.7% and approximately 15 million subscribers4, making it the largest operator in Bangladesh5. In 2007 the company had an operating profit of NOK 1.24 billion which is a one-third fall in
1 2
http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=64 http://www.grameen-info.org/grameen/gtelecom/ 3 Business Monitor International, 2008, page 30 4 According to sources inside Grameenphone, as of April 2008, the company has 18.3 millions subscribers. 5 Business Monitor International, 2008, page 7
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operating profit from the 2006. In the fourth quarter of 2007 operating profits fell to NOK 292 million, which is a decrase of 43% from the same period the previous year. Despite this, the company managed to yield revenue of NOK 4.62 billion in 2007 compared to NOK 4.31 billion in 2006. 6
Grameenphone has invested heavily in network infrastructure. Their network coverage now reaches 98% of the countrys population with its cellular network which is EDGE /GPRS enabled. This is a technology that makes it possible to make use of high speed internet and data services throughout the cellular network.7 The company also emphasizes good customer service and is well represented in the market through service desks and Grameenphone Centers. The company currently employs around 5000 people in different parts of Bangladesh8. In 2008 Cell Bazaar, an innovative new service from Grameenphone which let users trade basic goods from their cellular phones was voted Asian Telecom Innovation of the Year in the Telecom Asia Awards 2008.9
1.2 Overview of the Bangladeshi Mobile Telecommunications Market Bangladesh has a population of over 150 million people, and is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The country suffers from a high degree of poverty with 45% of the population living below the poverty line, and as of today Bangladesh remains an overpopulated and inefficiently-governed nation.10
6 7
http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=21722 http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=63 8 http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=63 9 http://press.telenor.com/PR/200804/1207658_5.html?icid=feature-stories 10 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html
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The Bangladeshi telecommunication market is viewed as a fast growing market with potential for high growth. Forecasts predict that the countrys cellular phone penetration will rise sharply from todays 20-25%, something that is expected to result in a 65% annual growth and 123 million mobile subscribers within 2012. The telecom market is one of the major investors in and drivers of the Bangladeshi economy. The government therefore has an interest in the telecommunication markets further growth.11 An article from Bangladeshinfo.com summarizes the development of the telecom industry and the reasoning for the Bangladeshi governments interference; Bangladesh is just following the footprint of its big neighbors in Asia, who have propelled up the world growth of mobile telephony and made telecommunication a part of their people's day-to-day life and changed the lot of the people in their countries. Inspired by those instances and growth factor in Japan, China, India and Thailand, Bangladesh has opened up its economy for investment in most prospective energy and telecommunication sectors and already started reaping the benefits in terms of attracting foreign investment and economic growth.12
Due to the low penetration, most operators in the Bangladeshi market are focusing on increasing their subscriber base in order to exploit the high potential of the market. A challenge the telecom providers are facing in the market is that most of the subscribers are using prepaid subscription plans. For instance 96% of Grameenphone customer base uses prepaid plans. The prepaid-plan users generally create lower returns, or ARPU (Average Revenue per User) rates compared to postpaid-plan user. To compensate for
11 12
Business Monitor International, 2008, page 5 http://www.bangladeshinfo.com/news/feature19.php
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Figure 1 - Subscriber Mix
this, providers are trying to increase their subscriber base by lowering their prices to attract new customers. This has led to a high degree of price-erosion in the Bangladeshi market. To illustrate this erosion, Grameenphone has experienced a fall of ARPU of 28% on an annual basis since 200513. Because much of the market growth is coming from users which have an occasional usage pattern with low ARPU, the profitability of the companies operating in the market are reduced.14 The graphs below illustrate the subscriber base of Grameenphone and its largest competitor Aktel and shows that most of the subscribers have a prepaid plan. 15 1.2.1 The providers There are six major telecom providers in the Bangladeshi market, and this has lead to a fierce competition between the operators to acquire new subscribers. For Grameenphone this competition has resulted in a decline in market share recently, but the company still remains the market leader. The market share of Grameenphones largest competitor, Aktel also dropped from 30% to 22% at the end of 2007. A company experiencing
13 14
Business Monitor International, 2008, page 11 Business Monitor International, 2008 15 Business Monitor International, 2008
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growth on the other hand, is the provider Banglalink, who has a market share of 19%. Warid Telecom is a new entrant in the market as of 2007, and is currently experiencing a market share of 5%. Most analysts expect the Bangladeshi market to consolidate as there are too many providers in the market as of now. Grameenphone has stated that they believe there are too many providers in Bangladeshi market.16 In the table below, the market shares and number of subscribers are summarized; Operator Grameenphone Aktel Bangalink Warid Telecom CityCell Teletalk Total No. of Subscribers 15.14 7.006 6.02 1.56 1.32 0.68 31.725 Market Share (%) 47.7 22.1 19.0 4.9 4.2 2.1 100.0
Table 1 Operators Market Shares and Number of Subscribers
1.2.2 Forecasts and future trends It is forecasted that by 2012 the Bangladeshi market will yield 123 million subscribers leading to a penetration rate of 80% of the market 17. Most of this growth depends on the development of rural areas in Bangladesh, which account for around 74% of the population (2006 numbers)18. This is phase two in developing the Bangladeshi telecommunications market. The phase implies expanding network-coverage to include
16 17
Business Monitor International, 2008, page 6. Business Monitor International, 2008, page 16. 18 World Bank Group, 2007, page 1.
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the rural areas outside the major cities in Bangladesh as well as increasing both marketing and distribution for these companies. With the expected consolidation of the market, and the possible entrance of new competitors such as Warid Telecom, it is expected that the market will remain highly competitive.19 1.3 The Youth Segment Grameenphone have identified the youth segment as highly valuable segment to target, and wish to target them in order to capture future market shares within this segment. If successful this could lead to loyal customers, something that will be extremely valuable as the market grows more and more saturated.Studies show that the youth segment is much less brand-loyal than previous generations. 18- to 20-year-olds are more likely than other consumers to buy a product on the spur of the moment and to change brands if the mood strikes.20 A large proportion of developing countries today have a very young population, and as of today the majority of the Bangladesh population is between 15 and 29 years of age21. The high birthrates make the future potential and size of these markets important sources of income for businesses targeting the youth segment.
On a more general level, Wood (2004) conducted a study on young consumers in the age group of 18-24 years, and found that there is a significant difference in brand loyalty across product categories. The statement that all young consumers are less loyal than older age groups, as suggested by the studies of Wright and Sparks (1999) and McGoldrick and Andre (1997), is not necessarily true. Even though young consumers
22 20
Business Monitor International, 2008 Solomon, 2007, page 518. 21 www.nationmaster.com/country/bg/Age_distribution
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might not be as loyal as older consumers, they still represent a valuable segment in the telecommunication industry. Martensen (2007) states; It is reasonable to assume that relations established with the youth have a positive effect on loyalty later on in life. Creating a relation to tweens and youth is a long-term investment that should build on a profound understanding of their needs and motives.22 1.4 Problem Area and Definition The problem definition helps to set the research objectives and assists in determining the research process. Our problem definition was created through group discussions and advice from our supervisor. In order to acquire more information about the youth in the telecommunication industry, philosophies and choices, and factors that stimulate use and loyalty in the telecommunications industry need to be looked into. This information can be used to present a detailed business case and a clear recommendation on whether to have a separate youth brand or not. In this case it is advisable to make use of other countries with higher GDP and mobile penetration, and base our recommendation on this. Countries like India, China, Malaysia and Indonesia were interesting to look into, when comparing countries with the use of the analogy method. The information was acquired by using a mixed method described later in the methodology section. In the early phases of our research we found that it was difficult to study a youth plan directly. To gain a better understanding of the youth segment, we chose to focus on the factors that stimulate use and loyalty in the telecommunications industry. A recommendation will be given on whether to have a youth brand or not, based on literature review and a survey conducted in Singapore and Malaysia.
22
Martensen, 2007, page 113
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Diploma Project Project Mandate
Grameenphone
Project name: A descriptive study of the factors influencing the youth`s usage of telecommunication services in Singapore and Malaysia. Project owner: Grameenphone Project background: Bachelors Degree Diploma Project Project objective: To give a recommendation about whether Grameenphone should have a youth brand or not. Project goal: Measure the factors influencing loyalty and map the drivers of loyalty in the youth segment. Project scope and limitations: The project is done by five students as a part of their Bachelor Degree in International Marketing. The project is due on the 24th of April, 2008. External conditions: This project is to be carried out with the resources made available from Grameenphone. Economy: According to budget
Table 2 Project Mandate
Based on the mandate and help from our supervisor, Associate Professor Olaf Rieck, our problem definition is as follows; To investigate the factors driving loyalty and the effects of corporate brand attributes on youth in the telecommunications industry.
1.5 Establish research objectives The researches objectives state what the researcher must do, and when achieved they provide the information necessary to solve the problem the researcher is faced with23. Based on our problem definition and the tasks given to us by Grameenphone, our objectives in this project are:
23
Burns & Bush 2006, page28-29.
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Diploma Project 1. Examine the loyalty drivers among the young
Grameenphone consumers in the
telecommunications industry in Singapore and Malaysia. 2. Get a better understanding of what young consumers find important when they are choosing an operator or choosing to stay with an operator. 3. Examine the perception of the corporate brand attributes among the young consumers in the telecommunications industry in Singapore and Malaysia. 1.6 Determining research design Research design specifies the methods and procedures used to collect and analyze data24. Two types of research design were used for our project. Due to the lack of prior knowledge and understanding about the area we wanted to research, we first used exploratory design through the use of literature review and mini focus groups. After having gained the necessary knowledge and understanding through exploratory research, we used a descriptive design for the rest of the project. Here we used a questionnaire to empirically study the area we wanted to research.
24
Zikmund 2003, page 65
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Chapter 2 Research Approach

An examination of different markets in countries outside Bangladesh were conducted, and these findings where compared to the market in Bangladesh. Ideally the countries used in a comparison like this should be somewhat similar in characteristics. However, even though these countries compared are not very similar in characteristics today, the comparison gives an indication of the possible future development of the market in Bangladesh, if given enough time. Despite the differences, many of the findings from Singapore and Malaysia can be transferred to Bangladesh. This form of comparison is often referred to as the analogy method, where one assumes that it is useful to compare different countries that have introduced new services or products to get a better insight into the effects it has had on these markets and to base our recommendation on this. As we illustrate in the graph below, there are significant differences between the three countries examined. The significant differences can be seen in both purchasing power per. capita, and penetration of the mobile market. MP
PP/Capita
Figure 2 - Continuum for Mobile Penetration and Purchasing Power per Capita
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In the table below some key numbers that are relevant for this study are presented. First of all, looking only at the population of Bangladesh, there is a huge potential for the telecommunication industry due to the fact that the country has a very large population. Approximately 150 million people live in Bangladesh, and currently the country has a low cellular phone penetration of 20-25%. Compared to Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia do not have as large populations, and their markets are beginning to become saturated as they have a cellular phone penetration of 88% and 110% respectively. However, they have much higher purchasing power than Bangladesh, which illustrates a higher level of development in these countries.
Bangladesh Population: Purchasing power nattyonwide Purchasing power per capita Education: Years compulsory Attendance primary Attendance secondary Market Penetration Telecom: Litteracy: Total population Male Female 43,10 % 53,90 % 31,80 % Table 3 Key Figures 88,70 % 92 % 85,40 % 92,50 % 96,60 % 88,60 % 25% 61 % 6 98,50 % 82 % 88% 110% 6 94 %26 150,448,339 $209.2 billion $1,400 Malaysia 24,821,286 $357.9 billion $14,400 Singapore 4,553,009 $222.7 billion $52,94425
25
26
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/economy/hist/gdp.html http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3452.htm
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Furthermore there are different levels of education and literacy when comparing the three countries. This has resulted in a somewhat wretched situation in Bangladesh where the use of SMS is lower than most other countries. There is a higher use of voice messageSMS in Bangladesh compared to most other countries in the world. This is a service where a voice recorded message is sent to a recipient without calling. The recipient receives a message that gives notices that he / she has received a new message, and it can be played whenever it is convenient. This value added service is not as popular in Singapore or Malaysia. It is also worth noticing that the literacy gap between the genders is higher in Bangladesh than in Malaysia and Singapore. These facts are presented in the table below, and are based on numbers from the CIA World Factbook27. 2.1 Focus groups In order to obtain a better understanding of the youth segment in Singapore, we started our research by conducting focus group interviews. Focus group interviews are unstructured sessions with a small group of people that encourage discussion among the participants. The primary advantages of focus group interviews are that they can be used to gain basic knowledge about a topic. This increased knowledge helped us shape our research model and methodology chosen. Another advantage is that focus groups are relatively brief, easy to execute, quickly analyzed and inexpensive way of acquiring the knowledge needed28. Unfortunately we did not have the resources to conduct focus groups in Malaysia. A transcript of the focus group interviews can be found in appendix IV.
27 28
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html Zikmund 2003, page 117-120
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We decided to conduct three mini-focus groups with 3-4 persons in each group. This was thought be the best size for the relatively inexperienced moderator in order for him to carry out the group interview and establish a good rapport. 3-4 persons are also the right amount of people for the respondents to feel comfortable. We chose to look for groups of friends for the focus group discussions as it would be easier to encourage them to discuss between each other. The respondents were students from Nanyang Technological University and were recruited through flyers posted around the campus. This was a convenient way for us to gather information, and students are representative for the youth segment that we were investigating. In total 11 respondents were interviewed in three focus groups. The participants of the focus groups were asked questions and encouraged to discuss the questions amongst themselves. The moderator used a moderator-scheme with questions prepared in advance when conducting the groups. The moderator scheme can be found in appendix III. 2.1.1 Findings From the focus groups we obtained useful information that was implemented into the later parts of our research. The important findings are as follows: Operator has products that target your age group, operator has positive reputation among your peers, customer service from operator, net coverage, price SMS, price MMS, price calls, price monthly fee, price games download, price ringtone download, price music download, and price data transfer.
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Diploma Project 2.2 Research Question
Grameenphone
From our general research and focus groups, we learned that there are no youth plans in Singapore, only student plans which most youth associate with a youth plan. As the situation is now, most youth chose to have a student plan as it offers them superior value for money compared to the regular plans therefore there is no element of a true decision as most consumers chooses it based on this. In addition it is very hard to measure how to capture new customers because of the saturated market, as youth most likely already possess a plan. Based on this setting, understanding the youth means understanding loyalty in this industry.
The only way to empirically test whether a youth brand creates higher loyalty among the youth or not, is to compare the level of loyalty among youth towards a youth brand and compare this to the youth's loyalty towards a regular brand. Currently there are no youth brands in Singapore or Malaysia making it impossible to measure this. The closest thing to a youth brand would be student plans that are offered in Singapore. These can however not be used as a comparison due to several reasons; there are no such plans in Malaysia, they are plans not separate brands, they are only offered to students not the whole youth segment and many people use these plans because they are students - not because what the plan offers them. Therefore it is not possible to give an answer to whether a youth brand will increase loyalty or not. The only option was therefore to measure the components that make up loyalty in the telecommunications market, and map loyalty drivers for the youth in the telecommunications industry, in order to find out which
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drivers are important to focus on in a youth brand. This is advisable as there are no new customers to capture as mentioned above.
What drives young consumers loyalty in the telecommunications industry, and what is the effect of the corporate brand attributes?
These questions are important to understand because we have not been able to locate literature that explains this in the context of youth and the telecommunication industry. They will give an indication of which factors of a youth brand a telecommunication company should emphasize on in order to increase customer loyalty towards their brand(s). This is especially important as the market develops, and the company cannot longer focus on capturing new consumers that have never used services from this industry. As of now there is a relatively low market penetration in Bangladesh, but as time passes, this is expected to change. 2.3 Marketing theories The following theories are important frameworks for companies that are going to launch or maintain a youth brand or any other brand. 2.3.1 STP marketing Segmenting, targeting and positioning are three very important tools in marketing. Segmentation is the process of identifying groups of buyers with similar characteristics that effectively can be served with the same set of marketing mix. It enables marketers to tailor marketing programmes to the segment`s needs and wants, and potentially create
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more satisfied customers. For segmentation to be effective, the segments must satisfy the following criteria; Differentiable- the different segments should respond differently to different sets of marketing stimuli. Measurable - it should be possible to indicate the potential profitability and size of the segment. Profitable the segment(s) should show good profitability. Accessible marketers must be able to reach and serve the segment. Actionable the company must be able to formulate marketing programmes that can serve the segments effectively. 29
After identifying segments in the market, the company targets one or more of them. This is often based on the segment(s) expected profit. The company positions their marketing mix in such a way that it appeals to the segment(s) chosen.30 The most used definition of marketing mix is the 4Ps framework; Product, Place, Price and Promotion. However, in the service context, it is common to include three additional Ps, namely People (the people involved in the service provided), Physical evidence (in form of infrastructure or the physical environment where the service is performed) and Process (Which is the actual service process delivered to the customer).31
29 30
Keh and Chiang, 2004, page 80. Keh and Chiang, 2004, page 70. 31 Zeithaml, Bitner, and Gremler, 2006, page 26-29
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Diploma Project 2.3.2 AIDA Awareness, interest, desire, action
Grameenphone
This framework suggests that all consumers need to go through certain steps before acquiring services and products. First there is a need to make the customer aware of the product which is a part of the service offered. Secondly, there is a need to make the consumer interested in what is being offered, and hopefully to arouse a desire for the service or product. Finally it is important that the customer ends up taking an action, ideally he or she chooses what is offered by the seller.32 This model together with the STP-model indicates what Grameenphone should keep in mind with regards to the consumer behavior and marketing communications. A newer version of this model also incorporates satisfaction at the end of the process. The importance of keeping the consumer satisfied, under the belief that a satisfied consumer is not as likely to turnover compared to as unsatisfied consumer, is being stressed in this newer version. 33 This model clearly illustrates the importance of a profound communication mix towards the segments chosen. The communication mix is the different sets of techniques used in order to reach out to the targeted segments, such as, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations34. 2.3.3 Sustainable competitive advantage The only way in which a company can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage is by having positions and processes that create value for them, in which their competitors are not able to imitate or duplicate these processes and positions. If the company achieves
32 33
http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-view119.php Jakobsson, 1995, page 87. 34 http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-view3707.php
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this, it will enjoy a long term advantage. There are four criteria a company has to satisfy in order to achieve such a sustainable competitive advantage. These are as follows: Valuable -Help a firm neutralize threats or exploit opportunities Rare - Are capabilities that few, if any, competitors possesses Costly to Imitate - Are capabilities that other firms cannot easily develop Nonsubstitutable - No strategic equivalent35
35
Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson 2007, page 85.
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Chapter 3 Conceptual Framework of Loyalty

We started out by collecting secondary data to get an insight into the relevant theories and concepts involving the subject. The secondary data was primarily collected through Nanyang Technological University's libraries and electronic database. The benefit of secondary data is that it can be gathered quickly and inexpensively36. The sources of secondary data used for this project were books, databases, journals, articles, research papers, and internet sites. We located several applicable studies such as the studies conducted by; Dick and Basu (1994), Jensen and Hansen (2006) Wood (2004), Martensen (2007), Anisimova (2007), and Martensen, Grnholdt and Kristensen (2000). Since there existed no previous studies or data collected concerning youth in the telecommunications market specifically, secondary data alone was not sufficient to answer our research questions. 3.1 Literature review Looking into loyalty and the factors influencing loyalty, there are some aspects that are common in most parts of the world, and these are presented in the following literature review. The following section present basic concepts and summarize previous research which has helped us to design our two research models. 3.1.1 Definition of Customer Loyalty and Churn Dick & Basu (1994) defines customer loyalty asthe strength of the relationship between an inviduals relative attitude and repeat patronage. Jensen & Hansen conceptualized relative attitude as a latent second order factor composed of two dimensions; purchase
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Zikmund 2003, page 63
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involvement and perceived brand differences37. There have been many studies conducted over the past twenty years that have proved that when customer loyalty increases, so does market share and profitability38. Reicheld and Sasser (1990) claim that a five per cent increase in loyalty could have 100% increase of profitability. The opposite of loyalty is called churn, and can be defined as follows; Churn is frequently spoken of in a communications context, where it refers to the tendency of Internet and cell-phone subscribers to switch providers.39 There are several reasons for churn, the most common being dissatisfaction with the current service provider, lower prices offered by a competitor, or better service offered by a competitor for the same price as offered by the current provider.40 The telecommunication industry uses several methods to try to deal with churn such as; higher exit barriers, loyalty programs, contractual binding periods, and the use of more advanced technologies than competitors. Another word for Churn is customer turnover.41 This means that churn is a direct consequence of lack of loyalty. 3.1.2 Different Types of Loyalty Dick and Basu (1994) proposed four different types of loyalty as shown in the table below. They take into consideration the strength of relative attitude and repeat patronage, and that loyalty has both a behavioral and an attitudinal element. This is summarized in the table below. Dick and Basu (1994) stated that the nature of relative attitude is likely to provide a stronger indication of repeat patronage than the attitude toward a brand
37 38
Jensen & Hansen, 2006, page 443. Buzzel et al., 1975 and Reicheld and Sasser, 1990 39 http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci939704,00.html 40 http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci939704,00.html 41 Richeldi and Perrucci, 2002
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determined in isolation.Relative attitude can be defined as the attitude a consumer has towards a brand based on the level of purchase involvement and the perceived brand differences within the industry.42 Repeat High Relative Attitude High Low Loyalty Spurious Loyalty Patronage Low Latent Loyalty No Loyalty
Table 4 - Different Types of Loyalty
In this table, loyalty indicates a positive link between relative attitude and repeat patronage making the consumer truly loyal to the brand or product. Latent loyalty occurs when there is a high relative attitude and low repeat patronage towards the brand or product. The third category is spurious loyalty which occurs if there is a low relative attitude combined with a high repeat purchase. Jones and Sasser (1995) refer to a situation like this as a hostage situation . This can often occur if there are little or no possibilities for the customer to switch to other providers due to factors outside the consumers reach, resulting in lower churn. The fourth and last form of loyalty called no loyalty occurs when there is low relative attitude combined with low repeat patronage.43 These customers are most likely to churn over to another company if there are other possibilities available.
42 43
Dick & Basu, 1994 Rowley and Dawes, 1999
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To get a better understanding of brand loyalty, we start by defining what a brand is. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.44 Combining brand with loyalty, Jackoby and Chestnut (1978) introduced brand loyalty as a form of repeat purchasing behavior where the consumer is reflecting a conscious decision to continue buying the same brand. The conceptual definition of brand loyalty by Jackoby and Chestnut is; the biased behavioral response expressed over time, by some decision-making unit with respect to one or more alternative brands which is a function of psychological processes.
The reason for the large amount of research done in the field of brand loyalty is because of the benefits it is believed to yield the companies. Loyal customers typically contribute to a firms performance by making additional purchases of services and accessories.45 In some industries only five per cent of the consumers that are loyal account for as much as 60 per cent of all sales46.
44 45
http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-view329.php Huber and Hermann, 2001 46 Solomon, 2007, page 9-10
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3.1.4 Discussion of Loyalty It is believed that; Customer Satisfaction Customer Loyalty Profitability
Figure 3 Relationship of Customer Satisfaction to Profitability
This model was confirmed by Heskett et. Al in 1994, however there are some researchers that have questioned it. Do you have to be satisfied to be loyal? And are loyal customers necessarily the most profitable for the company? A study conducted by Hallowell (1996) suggests that all of these factors have a strong correlating effect on each other and that the model should look like this; Customer Satisfaction Customer Loyalty Profitability
Figure 4 New Relationship of Customer Satisfaction to Profitability
3.2 Brand Loyalty Brand loyalty is widely accepted as one of the determining factors in a consumers choice of a brand, making it one of the most interesting aspects to investigate for many researchers. Over the years, researchers have tested the effect brand loyalty has, and concluded that firms with a large base of loyal customers usually have larger market shares. Market shares in turn lead to higher rates of return on investment47. More studies on brand loyalty have concluded that loyalty towards a brand is one of the most important predictors of long-term profitability48. A major discovery was made when Dick and Basu (1994) presented the positive link between brand loyalty and word of mouth, as well as greater resistance among loyal customers towards strategies from competitors seeking to
47 48
Buzzel et al., 1975; Raj 1985; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990 Deming, 1986; McCaslin 2001
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capture them. However, behavioral loyalty goes beyond this, and repurchase intention is one of the most important factors of measurement for the behavioral aspect of loyalty. 3.3 What drives Loyalty Because of findings like these, many researchers want to further investigate the aspects of loyalty and what breeds loyalty. Jensen and Hansen (2006) looked into aspects that had an influence on brand loyalty, with relative attitude as a composite of purchase involvement and the perceived brand differences within a category. They concluded that consumers are more likely to be loyal if the product or service bought requires a high level of involvement, and if there are perceived differences amongst the different brands in the market. We have chosen to look upon brand loyalty in the same deterministic way as Jensen and Hansen (2006) with a behavioral49 as well as an emotional /attitudinal50 aspect. Reicheld performed a study in 2003 that argued that recommendations from peers are the most important single indicator for repurchase and growth of a brand. 3.3.1 Customer Satisfaction It is believed that if a consumer is satisfied, it would increase the chance of him or her being loyal towards the firm51. It is also believed that for every new customer a company wants to acquire it needs to spend five times the amount of money compared to keeping a customer satisfied52. This is why customer satisfaction is one of the most important elements of loyalty. This importance factor was further empirically tested in several
49 50
Tellis, 1988; Ehrenberg, 1998; DuWors and Haines, 1990 Gremler and Brown, 1998; Kumar and Shah 2004; Traylor, 1981 51 Jackoby and Chestnut, 1978 52 Barsky, 1994; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990
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studies53. Findings in these studies suggest that customer satisfaction is positively related to customer loyalty, which in turn will result in repurchases intention, increased profitability, and reduced churn. These studies were confirmed in 1994 by Heskett et al. through the service profit chain study and by Hallowell in 1996. One of the many studies that question this, especially in the tweens segment, was conducted by Martensen in 2007. This study found that even though young consumers are highly satisfied with their products, they still are not bound to be loyal towards their choice of mobile phone (which was the focus in this study). The participants were satisfied, but were not sure if they would have chosen the same brand again if they had a choice. Furthermore they were not sure whether they would recommend the product to their friends. In this study Martensen stressed the importance for marketers to segment after interests and drivers, not the standard demographics, as they are not representative of the differing mindsets amongst young consumers. Wood (2001) also concluded that there is a significant difference in the degree of loyalty across different categories in the youth segment, indicating that more research is required on youth, to better assess which categories have the potential of stronger degree of loyalty than others. 3.4 Previous Research on Corporate Brand Attributes Martensen, Grnholdt and Kristensen performed a study in 2000, where they recognized the importance of finding loyalty drivers that had an impact on customer loyalty. This was done in a cross-industry setting, where they tested loyalty drives effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty. They found four major loyalty drivers for the mobile market; image, expectations, perceived quality of hardware, and perceived quality of human
53
Grnroos, 1984, 1991
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ware. All loyalty drivers except expectations were found to have a significant effect on both customer satisfaction and loyalty in the telecommunications market, with image as the most important factor across all industries researched. Anisimova (2007) studied the effects of corporate brand attributes on attitudinal- and behavioral consumer loyalty , and found that the image projected by a company through their corporate values, corporate brand personality and functional benefits have the most effect on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. Studies by Howard and Seth (1969) acknowledged that the social circle (friends, family etc.) have an influence on brand loyalty, as described above. Anisimova (2007) recognizes the effect strong brands have as a marketing tool, but on the contrary, little is known about the effect perception of brands has on loyalty and consumer behavior. There has been done research in this area recently; however the studies are somewhat limited since they only examine the effects partially.
Combining all the models and the study was not possible because it is only recently that researchers have begun to investigate the relationship between corporate brands and consumer behaviors. However, these studies only partially examine the impact of the corporate brand on consumer loyalty, and little is known about the impact of the effect of corporate brands on consumer perception and consumer loyalty54. This is why we ended up with a study that is divided into two models, the CBALD-model and the BLD-model. 3.5 How to Measure the Behavior Loyalty Drivers? (BLD) In part one, we combined parts of the models proposed by Dick & Basu (1994), presented in Appendix V, and Jensen & Hansen (2006), presented in Appendix VI, to make our
54
Anisimova (2007)
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own research model, since they were not suitable for our research. We believed that in combining the main elements of these two models; switching costs, level of involvement, and perceived difference between operators; we would better be able to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. As of today no study has been able to combine all these constructs into one research model. 3.7 Hypotheses for the Behaviour Loyalty Drivers model (BLD) Based on the literature review we derived the following hypotheses:
H1: Customer satisfaction is positively and related to attitudinal loyalty (H1a) and behavioral loyalty (H1b).
H2: Attitudinal loyalty is positively and related to customer satisfaction (H2a) and behavioral loyalty (H2b).
H3: The level of involvement is positively and related to attitudinal loyalty (H3a), behavioral loyalty (H3b) and customer satisfaction (H3c).
H4: Perceived differences amongst the different brands are positively and related to attitudinal loyalty (H4a), behavioral loyalty (H4b) and customer satisfaction (H4c).
H5: Higher switching costs is negatively and related to attitudinal loyalty (H5a), behavioral loyalty (H5b) and customer satisfaction (H5c)
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Diploma Project 3.7.1 Proposed Model for the Behaviour Loyalty Drivers (BLD)
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From the hypothesis we can make the following research model that sums all hypotheses we want to test. Percieved difference H4b (+) H4c (+) H4a (+) Attitudinal H3a (+) H3b (+) Loyalty H1a (+) H1b (+) Behavioral Loyalty
Level of Involvement H3c (+)
H2a (+) Customer Satisfaction H2b (+)
H5a (-)
H5c (-) H5b (-)
Switching Cost
Figure 5 - Proposed BLD-model
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Percived difference , customer perception of the degree of difference between providers. Customer satisfaction, whether there is match between the customer's expectations of the product/service and the actual performance of the product/service.
Switching cost, the costs that incurre when a customer changes from one provider to another. Attitudinal Loyalty, loyalty that is based in feelings instead of explict behavior (behavioural loyalty).
Level of involvement, refers to the degree of involvement a customer shows when adopting a product.
3.7 How to Measure the Corporate Brand Attributes as Loyalty Drivers (CBALDmodel) In part two of our questionnaire, we combined parts of the model proposed by Martensen et. Al (2000), presented in Appendix VII, and the study conducted by Anisimova (2007), to make our own research model. We combined the constructs; corporate values, dependable corporate personality, functional benefits, emotional benefits, and symbolic benefits, with the image-construct from Martensen et. Als model. We chose to do this because Martensens image-construct was a complex term, and therefore we added some extra variables in order to capture more of the aspects of the term image. 3.8 Hypotheses for the CBALD-model We have chosen only to present our hypothesis, not the null hypothesis, which is the opposite of the anticipated result.
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H6; There is a postive relationship between corporate values and attitudinal loyalty (H6a) and behavioral loyalty (H6 b)
H7: There is a postive relationship between a dependable corporate personality and attitudinal loyalty (H7a) and behavioral loyalty (H7b)
H8: There is a postive relationship between functional benefits and attitudinal loyalty (H8a) and behavioral loyalty (H8 b).
H9: There is a postive relationship between emotional benefits and attitudinal loyalty (H9a) and behavioral loyalty (H9 b).
H10: There is a postive relationship between symbolic benefits and attitudinal loyalty (H10a) and behavioral loyalty (H10b).
H11: There is a postive relationship between the prices of the core services offered and attitudinal loyalty (H11a) and behavioral loyalty (H11b).
H12: There is a postive relationship between the prices for value added services and attitudinal loyalty (H12a) and behavioral loyalty (H12b).3.8.1 Proposed Research Model Corporate Brand Attributes as Loyalty Drivers (CBALD) From the hypothesis presented in the previous section; the following model is suggested to help describe the loyalty drivers relationship with attitudinal and behavioral loyalty.
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Corp. Values H6 H7 Dependable H7
H6
H8 Functional H8 H9 Emotional H9 H10a Symbolic Benefits H10b H11a Core Services H11b
Attitudinal Loyalty
Behavioral Loyalty
H12a VAS H12b
Figure 6 - Proposed Model for Corporate Brand Attributes as Loyalty Drivers (CBALD)
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Explanation of the constructs presented in the model on the previous page;

Corporate values, represent what a operator stands for, as a business operating in an marketplace. Dependable, how dependable and thrustworthy the operator is. Functional, the functional benefits the provider offers, and the quality of these. Emotional, how much positiv or negativ emotion the customer has towards the operator Symbolic Benefits, the image of the provider. Core services, the basic services offered by the provider. VAS (Value Added Service), the services offered beyond the basic services.
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Chapter 4 Operationalization
An operational definition gives meaning to a concept by specifying the activities or operations necessary to measure it55
Primary data was collected through a questionnaire; this is a reliable tool that enabled us to reach a great number of people, inexpensively, in a short amount of time.
The questionnaire was developed based on the guidelines given in Gripsrud, Olsson and Silkoset (2006), and Zikmund (2003). We tried to use existing scales to measure our constructs as frequently as possible, and most of the questions and scales used, were taken from the Marketing Scales handbook56. As the constructs used for attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty were very similar, we chose to base our loyalty study on behavioral loyalty with attitude as an influencing factor. Each construct has been tested and has a reliability score of over .75 alpha value, ensuring that they would measure what we intended to measure. All the questions used in the questionnaire were of closed-ended character, and a Likert-type scale with seven response steps (1-7) was used to measure the answers.
In the last part of our questionnaire we included 12 questions developed from the findings of our focus groups. Even though we could not find published research journals that used these questions, we found them to be of such importance that it would be difficult to leave them out. These questions (q49 - q61) can be found in Appendix VIII and IX.
55 56
Zikmund, 2003 Bruner, Hensel and James, 2005
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The questionnaire was pilot tested on 15 randomly selected students at the NTU campus. A pilot-test is an initial run of a study (e.g. an experiment, survey, or interview) for the purpose of verifying that the test itself is well-formulated.57 Some minor adjustments were made based on discoveries made during the pilot-test. The questionnaire can be found in appendix VIII and IX.
To get a representative sample size of the population we chose to collect 190 responses from Singapore and 200 responses from Malaysia. We used convenient sampling in both countries. The literature defines convenient sampling as obtaining units or people who are most conveniently available.58 The survey was conducted over a total of four regular working days, two in Singapore and two in Malaysia. We selected a few locations where we believed there would be a good chance of encountering our target segment to distribute the survey. Random respondents thought to be within the target age were approached and asked to take part in the survey. In total 174 responses were collected in Singapore (of 190), and 160 (of 200) in Malaysia.
57 58
http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/term_1007.txl Zikmund 2003, page 380.
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Chapter 5 Explanation of Data Analysis Performed

The data analysis was done using SPSS for Windows. All the answers in the questionnaires were plotted directly into an SPSS data file on site, while the survey collection was in progress. Before any analysis was performed, the data was cleaned in three rounds, once for each country and then for a merged file containing all the data together. This was done to ensure as correct as possible information in regards to the data collected in our questionnaires. The data analysis was divided into two parts, one part for each of the two proposed research models.
The different tests performed in the first part of our research were Missing Values, Descriptive statistics, Frequencies with Bar Graphs, Factor Analysis, Data Reduction, Pearsons Correlation, Linear Regression and Path Analysis. It is common to have a minimum of 95% significance in all tests performed. 5.1 Explanation of Missing Value Analysis When surveys were answered they were not always completed. This could be due to several factors such as misunderstanding questions, finding the questions too personal, or simply reluctance to answer. To get a better overview of this problem, in the questionnaire, a missing values analysis was performed. 59 5.2 Explanation of Descriptive Statistics By performing a descriptive analysis it was easier for us to clean the data and to get an overview of the results. By adding Skewness and Kurtosis to the analysis, we got a better
59
Zikmund, 2003
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overview of the distribution of answers. These values should score under 1.96 to satisfy the five per cent significance level. Any values over 1.96 would indicate that many respondents provided relatively similar answers in the questionnaire.60 5.3 Explanation of Factor Analysis Even though we only used questions from the Handbook of Marketing Scales61, we still wanted to make sure that we were measuring what we intended to measure with our questionnaire. To make sure of this, we ran a factor analysis. The purpose of this analysis was to discover if there were commonalities in our questionnaire, and if the variables (questions) used were reflecting the constructs we had chosen for the questionnaire. This was measured with two types of validity, namely convergent and discriminant validity. It is common to follow the conservative rule presented in the following sections. A more liberal rule is saying that the difference between the highest scoring- and second highest scoring factor loading should be above 0.2. Factors satisfying the conservative rule are marked in bold in the factor analysis table, while factors satisfying liberal rule are underlined.62 5.3.1 Convergent validity This type of validity is used to measure to which extent the questions used is measuring one or more factors. In effect this implies that the respondents should systematically give
60 61
Zikmund, 2003 Bruner, Hensel and James (2005) 62 Zikmund, 2003
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equal answer for the same construct measured. A variable should load 0.5 or higher to have convergent validity in the analysis. 63 5.3.2 Discriminant validity This type of validity shows us to what extent our constructs measure different factors. This implies that the answers for questions from one construct are sufficiently independent of questions from another construct. In this way we can say that they represent measures for different constructs or phenomenons. A variable should not load higher than 0.3 in the second highest factor loading in the analysis.64 5.3.3 Rotation In our questionnaire and research model, we used constructs that was expected to be somewhat correlated to each other, especially for behavioral loyalty, satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. These constructs were, as described in the literature review, similar, and we expected that they would load somewhat similarly in the factor analysis. We therefore used Direct Oblimin rotation for the pattern in the factor analysis. To make the patterns more visual, we chose to have them sorted by size and to suppress values under 0.1. In order to examine the total variance explained by the different factors, we chose to only keep the factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. 5.4 Explanation of Reliability analysis After examining the different patterns in the questionnaires through the factor analysis, a reliability analysis was done to the different factor loadings. Each factor was analyzed
63 64
Pallant, 2007 Pallant, 2007
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separately to find out if it was reliable enough to be used as a construct. If it proved to be reliable, the questions could be transformed into a new construct or variable. The most usual method used for this is to examine the Cronbach's Alpha values (CA-value) (Cronbach, 1951), where the variables that load in a factor are put together to test their reliability. The most used rule of thumbs is that this value should be at least .7 in order for the construct to be reliable (Nunnally, 1978; de Vaus, 1995). 5.5 Explanation of Data Reduction Data reduction was done to reduce the amount of variables in the model to constructs that the factor analysis yielded. Ideally these factors should consist of the questions chosen to measure each construct, so that it can be used later to test the hypothesized model. In other words, the data reduction takes a large set of variables and reduces or summarized them using a smaller set of factors or components.65 5.6 Explanation of Pearson Correlation The Pearson Correlation test was done after the data reduction was performed. This gave us an idea as to whether there were any correlations between the independent variables extracted after the factor analysis. Ideally there should not be any multicollinearity between the independent variables. Multicollinearity exists when the independent variables are highly correlated (r = .9 and above) A rule of thumb says that the Pearson Correlation should not exceed .6 to.7 for the new variables. The significance value should not exceed .05.
65
Zikmund, 2003
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Diploma Project 5.7 Explanation of Multiple-Regression Analysis (linear)
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Multiple-regression was used to see if there were any relationships between the independent constructs from the factor analysis, and the dependent construct. The regression analysis was also used to analyze a path by conducting a series of multipleregression analysis. This was used to see if we had significance in our findings, and to get a basic idea of the explanation the different constructs had on each other. The explanatory power of the model itself was measured through R Square. Sannes (2004) proposes that a norm for a good model is to have greater value than .3 in social-science studies. The independent constructs explanation on the dependent variable is the Standardized Coefficient Beta. In a path analysis the Beta-value represents the path coefficient. It is also a rule of thumb to have the significance on the five per cent-level. The t-value is an indicator of the confidence we can place in the coefficient as a predictor of the dependent variable.66 5.8 t-test Independent t-tests were used to measure if there was a significant difference in loyalty, attitude and satisfaction between Singapore and Malaysia. A dummy variable was created where respondents from Singapore and Malaysia were given the values 1 and 2. The mean scores from the two groups were then compared to see if there was a significant difference. The Sig value (2-tailed) for the t-test should be below 0.05 in order to be significant at the 5% level. The magnitude of the difference can be calculated using the formula for eta squared (t2/t2 + (N1 + N2 2)). The resulting value can be interpreted
66
Zikmund, 2003
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using the guidelines proposed by Cohen 1988, where .01=small effect, .06= moderate effect and .14=large effect. 67
67
Pallant 2007 page 103, 232-236
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Chapter 6 Research Findings

This chapter presents the analysis of the data. 6.1 Introduction We started our analysis with a missing values analysis, followed by a descriptive analysis of the entire survey. Then a factor analysis, reliability analysis of the factor-loadings, and data reduction was performed on both models, one at the time. After this was completed, a descriptive analysis of the new constructs made in the data reduction was done. Lastly, several multiple regression analysis were performed on our proposed models. All tests were conducted in SPSS for Windows.
To get a better overview of the analysis, we chose to first run descriptive analysis on both parts of the questionnaire; factors influencing loyalty and loyalty drivers. In the remaining part of the analysis these parts have been separated. 6.2 Missing Values Analysis From the table in appendix VII we can see that there is not much missing data in our survey, with an exception of q3, q52 and q53. Q3 is only a control-variable and therefore missing data is not of high importance. It asks the respondents which cellular phone brand they prefer, and there were many respondents that misunderstood this question. Multiple options were selected where they should only choose one. We were therefore forced to treat many of the answers as missing values. Question 52 and 53 were only asked in Malaysia, and this is the reason why the table shows missing values for all the respondents in Singapore on these questions.
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From the table below we see that there were no problems with either skewness or kurtosis for any of the questions used in the survey, except for q2 which asked whether the respondents chose their plan themselves. We also see a tendency for kurtosis in q28 which asked about the participant`s race. Everything else is within the rule of thumb described earlier. 6.4Analysis of the BLD-model In this section we present the factor analysis for the factors influencing loyalty part of our questionnaire. All loadings in the factor analysis satisfy the conservative rule. (With one exception noted below). 6.4.1 Factor Analysis Measuring Loyalty Drivers As the table below indicates, there are four distinct patterns that emerged from the combined dataset for the two countries in the BLD-model. In component one, we find loadings for q15, q14, q25, q17 and q6, if we follow the conservative rule. Q5 is within the more liberal rule. This pattern explained 28.399% of the variance in the dataset, and consisted of questions meant to measure Attitudinal Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction.
In the second component we found loadings for q11, q18, q7 and q24, if we follow the conservative rule. All these questions represent the construct Perceived Difference between Operators. This pattern explained 12.316% of the total variance.
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The third component we found loadings for q12 and q20. This are two of the questions that represent the construct Switching costs and they explained 8.723% of the total variance.
The fourth and final component discovered loadings for q9, q10 and q19. These are three of the four questions used for the construct Purchase Involvement. This component explained 6.459% of the total variance in the survey. In total these four components of the pattern explained 55.897% of the variance.
a Pattern Matrix - Factors influencing Loyalty
Satisfaction3 (q15) Attitude2 (q14) Attitude4 (q25) Attitude3 (q17) Satisfaction2 (q6) Attitude1 (q5) Satisfaction1 (q4) Percieved2 (q11) Percieved3 (q18) Percieved1 (q7) Percieved4 (q24) SwitchingCost2 (q12) SwitchingCost3 (q20) Involvement1 (q9) Involvement2 (q10) Involvement3 (q19) Involvement4 (q21) SwitchingCost1 (q8) Involvement5 (q22)
1 ,888 ,840 ,815 ,795 ,719 ,683 ,541
Component 3 ,128
5 -,159
,117
-,129 ,140
,791 ,739 ,693 ,677
,124
-,178 ,290 ,339 ,366 -,205 ,132 ,105 ,109
-,116 ,819 ,719
-,185
,134 ,135 ,116
,266 ,392
,724 -,672 ,671 ,545 ,427
,200 ,374 ,664 ,485
,179
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 10 iterations.
Table 5 - Factor Analysis for the BLD-model
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After checking for validity in the factor analysis, it was important that we checked the reliability of the components before performing data reduction. When it comes to the factors influencing loyalty it is expected that the questions addressing the constructs of attitude and satisfaction to load somewhat similarly, but since the literature stresses the importance of treating them as separate factors, we chose to divide the first component into two different constructs.
6.4.2.1 Construct one - Attitude This construct was chosen to measure youth`s attitudinal loyalty in the
telecommunications industry. The reliability analysis showed that the three variables included in this construct resulted in a CA-value of .833. In the further analysis we chose to label this construct Attitude.
6.4.2.2 Construct two Satisfaction Customer satisfaction was the second construct from the first component in the factor analysis. It consisted of two variables; q15 and q6, and had a CA-value of .745. For further analysis we chose to label this construct Satisfaction.
6.4.2.3 Construct three Perceived The four questions for measuring perceived difference between operators loaded in the second component. It consisted of four variables; q7, q11, q18 and q24, and had a CAvalue of .710. This construct was labeled Perceived for the rest of the analysis.
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6.4.2.4 Construct four Switching Cost There were three variables originally intended to measure switching cost; q8, q12 and q20. Two of these, q12 and q20, were found in the third component. These two variables scored a CA-value of .492, a value that was somewhat low. This construct was labeled switching cost for the rest of the analysis.
6.4.2.5 Construct five Involvement Of the four variables q9, q10, q19 and q21 intended to measure the level of involvement, q9 and q19 were found in component four. These variables were tested for reliability and the result was a CA-value of .600, which is satisfactory. We chose to label this construct Involvement.
6.4.2.6 Construct six - Loyalty We also included a reliability analysis of the variables, q13, q16 and q23, which were intended to measure our dependent variable, behavioral loyalty. These variables were left out of the factor analysis because they had a strong correlation with the other variables, and would make the results of the analysis biased. In the first run we included all three variables, q13, q16 and q23, in the reliability analysis. However q16 brought down the total CA-value and was therefore excluded. This resulted in a construct with a CA-value of .578, which was lower than the proposed rule of thumb. However we still found this result satisfactory.
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Diploma Project 6.4.3 Data reduction of the BLD-model
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After completing the reliability analysis of the constructs, we performed data reduction for these. The new variables constructed were; Attitude, Satisfaction, Perceived, Switching Cost, Involvement and Loyalty. 6.4.4 Descriptive Analysis of the New Variables As the table below shows, there is no noticeable skewness or kurtosis for the new variables produced in the, as they are well within the norm described earlier (below 1.96). All values for skewness and kurtosis are treated as absolute-values.
Descriptive Statistics - Constructs N Statistic 335 335 335 335 335 335 335 Minimum Statistic 1,00 2,00 1,50 1,00 1,00 2,00 Maximum Statistic 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 Std. Deviation Statistic 1,13985 1,14144 1,13828 1,01085 1,28205 1,16329 Skewnes s Statistic -,269 -,257 -,226 -,393 -,285 -,194 Kurtosis Statistic ,044 -,396 -,331 ,590 ,044 -,595
Loyalty Attitude Satisfaction Perceived Switching_Cost Involvement Valid N (listwise)
Table 6 - Descriptives for the Constructs of the BLD-model
6.4.5 Correlation between the New Variables We expected that there was some form of correlation between the new variables loyalty, attitud e and satisfaction. A bi-variate correlation was performed to find out if there was any correlation. Any Pearson Correlation above .6 is to be looked upon as a strong correlation.
As the table below shows, there are correlations between several factors in our data. The variable loyalty correlates with attitude (.727***) and satisfaction (.641***), furthermore Page 50
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attitude is also correlated with satisfaction (.764***). This was expected since the variables that attitude and satisfaction consists of loaded together in the first component of the factor analysis. The other variables switching cost, involvement and perceived did not have a strong correlation.
Correlations - Factors influencing Loyalty Loyalty 1 Attitude ,727 ,000 335 1 Satisfaction ,641 ,000 335 ,764 ,000 335 1 Perceived ,175 ,001 335 ,127 ,020 335 ,160 ,003 335 1 Switching_ Cost ,093 ,089 335 ,109 ,047 335 ,169 ,002 335 ,138 ,011 335 1 Involvement ,423 ,000 335 ,392 ,000 335 ,376 ,000 335 -,009 ,864 335 ,185 ,001 335 1
Loyalty
Attitude
Satisfaction
Perceived
Switching_Cost
Involvement
Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation
Table 7 - Pearson Correlation for the BLD-model
6.4.6 Multiple Regression Analysis Path analysis In order to run a path analysis in SPSS, a series of multiple regression analysis were performed. This was done in order to get a better idea about the paths within the dataset. Therefore, all constructs in the initial model proposed were tested, so that the ones that were not significant could be removed from further analysis. For the proposed model based on Dick and Basu (1994) and Jensen and Hansen (2007) we needed three regression analyses to thoroughly test this path towards behavioral loyalty.
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Diploma Project 6.4.6.1 First Regression Analysis for BLD-model
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This model tested the relationship between behavioral loyalty and the other constructs made and as shown in our proposed model. As the model summary below in table 20 shows, the model has a good explanatory power with an R Square of .579*** while being significant at the one per cent level. We retrieved the different path coefficients (through the standardized coefficient Beta) that were significant towards behavioral loyalty. As the table shows several constructs had a positive effect, attitudinal loyalty had the highest positive influence on behavioral loyalty (Beta .521***) followed by customer satisfaction (Beta .177**), perceived difference between operators (Beta = .158*) and level of involvement (Beta .081***). Another interesting finding was that control variable 4, which measured age, had a significant negative effect on behavioral loyalty (Beta .092*). All these were significant. Switching cost was not significant and was removed from the model.
a Coefficients - R Square = .579 and Sig = .000
Model 1
Standardized Coefficients Beta (Constant) Attitude Satisfaction Perceived Involvement Control4 (q26) ,521 ,177 ,081 ,158 -,092
t 2,103 9,220 3,135 2,221 4,021 -2,566
Sig. ,036 ,000 ,002 ,027 ,000 ,011
a. Dependent Variable: Loyalty
Table 8 - Path Coefficients for the First Regression Analysis for the BLD-model
6.4.6.2 Second Regression Analysis for BLD-model In the second part of the path analysis, we tested the factors influencing attitudinal loyalty. Perceived difference between operators and switching cost did not have a
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significant relationship with attitudinal loyalty, and were therefore left out of the model. On the other hand, Customer satisfaction and level of involvement had significant relationships, with path coefficients of .719*** and .122** respectively (table 25). The model has an explanatory power of .597***, which we interpret as very good.
Model 1
Standardized Coefficients Beta (Constant) Satisfaction Involvement ,719 ,122
t 3,901 19,115 3,247
Sig. ,000 ,000 ,001
a. Dependent Variable: Attitude
Table 9 - Path Coefficients for the Second Regression Analysis for the BLD-model
6.4.6.3 Third Regression Analysis for the BLD-model The third regression analysis intended to measure the relationship of involvement, switching cost, and perceived difference between operators, towards customer satisfaction. The level of explanation is .597*** (R-square), and significant at the one per cent level. We could not find a significant relationship with perceived difference between operators and customer satisfaction. However we were able to find relationships for switching cost and involvement as well as for attitudinal loyalty. The path coefficients were positive with an effect of .076*, .077* and .726*** respectively, indicating that the main factor influencing customer satisfaction is attitudinal loyalty due to the high path coefficient.
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Coefficients - R Square = .597 and Sig = .000 Standardized Coefficients Beta (Constant) Switching_Cost Attitude Involvement ,076 ,726 ,077
a
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Model 1
t 2,816 2,141 19,116 2,011
Sig. ,005 ,033 ,000 ,045
a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
Table 10 - Path Coefficients for the Third Regression Analysis for the BLD-model
6.5 Summary of Findings of the Drivers BLD-model From our proposed model, which is primarily based on the studies by Dick and Basu (1994), and Jensen and Hansen (2007), several constructs have proven to be insignificant. In short, this section describes the constructs which were discarded, and the constructs that were kept, in accordance to our hypothesis. 6.5.1 Switching Costs In this study we found evidence of a positive relationship between switching costs and customer satisfaction. Even though this was not a strong relationship, it was significant. The relationship between switching costs and behavioral and attitudinal loyalty was not significant. The findings supported H3c, while H3a and H3b were not supported.
These findings were not in line with those of Dick and Basu (1994). Findings from our study suggest that this relationship is insignificant. An explanation for this could be that consumers in the telecommunications industry have, over time, accepted the switching barriers that exist within this industry. On the other hand, a possible explanation could be
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that answers given by our respondents were biased, indicating that there might have been some difficulties in understanding the questions asked. 6.5.2 Involvement This construct measures the degree of involvement the customers have, something that is believed to be related to attitudinal- and behavioral loyalty, as well as customer satisfaction. Findings in our study support this relationship, and this relates to the findings in the study of Jensen and Hansen (2006). Because of the significant positive path coefficients found, hypothesis H3a, H3b and H3c were supported. This clearly indicates that the level of involvement within the telecommunications industry has an effect on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, as well as customer satisfaction. The findings show that the young consumers in the telecommunications industry use a considerable amount of time and effort when choosing their operator. 6.5.3 Perceived Difference between Operators Jensen and Hansen (2006) proposed that perceived brand difference has a relationship with relative attitude, or attitudinal and behavioral loyalty in our research model. It was also expected to have a positive relationship with customer satisfaction. The analysis shows that the only significant relationship found is towards behavioral loyalty, and not attitudinal loyalty and satisfaction. Our findings did not support H5a and H5c, but they did support H5b.
According to the same study by Jensen and Hansen (2006), this could indicate that consumers in the telecommunications industry do not see big differences between the
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operators. This lack of differentiation could indicate that consumers are being held hostage, or in other words, consumers are not truly loyal to their operator, but stay with their operator because of high switching costs. This makes it harder for the operators to build a true loyalty around the brand they are selling. We believe that this explanation could be one of the reasons for the lack of significance in customer satisfaction. Since the consumers do not have any form of attitudinal loyalty, it is most likely that they are not satisfied. 6.5.4 Satisfaction As shown in the study by Hallowell (1996) it is expected that there is a strong correlating relationship between customer satisfaction and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. This was supported in our study through H2a and H2b. These findings imply that loyalty and customer satisfaction are very complex concepts, and the Pearson Correlation shows how these concepts are linked together. The satisfaction construct has the highest path coefficient effect on attitudinal loyalty and the second highest effect on behavioral loyalty. Findings indicate that companies should not just focus on one of these measured concepts, but rather focus on all of them. This will help companies to better target their marketing mix towards the youth segment. 6.5.5 Attitude As with customer satisfaction we expected to find a significant relationship between attitudinal loyalty and customer satisfaction and behavioral loyalty . This was also based on the study by Hallowell (1996), and supported in our survey through H1a and H1b.
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Both hypotheses are significant, and show direct positive relationship to customer satisfaction and behavioral loyalty . Attitudinal loyalty was the variable with strongest path coefficient effect on these two concepts. 6.5.6 Reduced Model for Factors Influencing Loyalty A model summarizing the findings is presented below, and shows the path coefficients as well as significance and model fit. From this reduced model, it is obvious that we have managed to isolate the different results from the various studies into a new model that better describes the complexity of the concept loyalty. Switching cost (path coefficient = .076), attitudinal loyalty (path coefficient = .713), and purchase involvement (path coefficient = .113) are the three influencers of customer satisfaction with an R Square of .597, indicating a relatively good model fit. This tells us that we have managed to isolate perceived difference as an influencing factor. We also found evidence that purchase involvement is the only factor that influences customer satisfaction as well as both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty in this study.
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,076* Satisfaction .597*** .726*** Involvement

.158*** .177**
.077*
Loyalty ***
.122*
.579***
.719*** Attitude .597***
.521***
-,092* ,081* Perceived Age
*sig. < 0.05; **sig. < 0.01; ***sig. < 0.001; n=335; Bold = R square
Figure 7- Reduced Model for the Loyalty Drivers
The model shows isolated perceived difference as the only construct influencing behavioral loyalty, but not customer satisfaction or attitudinal loyalty. The positive relationship discovered is in the respondents perception of switching cost found is very interesting. This suggests that the higher the perception of switching costs, the higher the level of customer satisfaction. We also obtained fairly high explanatory values for both behavioral (R square =.579) and attitudinal loyalty (R square = .603). The strong correlation between the three main concepts we wanted to test might be a reason for this
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strong explanatory power. It is also very interesting to see that age has a negative, significant negative relationship with behavioral loyalty indicating that consumers are less loyal as they age. This is in strong contrast to the findings of Martensen (2007).
Summary of the BLD-model

Customer Satisfaction Switching Cost Level of Involvement Perceived Difference Customer Satisfaction Attitudinal Loyalty
Table 11- Summary of the BLD-model
Attitudinal Loyalty No effect found
Behavioral Loyalty No effect found
Effect found
Effect found No effect found
Effect found No effect found
Effect found Effect found
N.A.
Effect found
Effect found
Efffect found
N.A.
Effect found
6.5.8 Difference in Loyalty across the Borders We used t-tests to see if there were any significant differences in loyalty, attitude and satisfaction between Singapore and Malaysia. The results are shown in Table 29 and 30. As we see from table 29, there is a difference in the means of all three variables, and in
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table 30 we can see the significance of the difference. We also used the figures presented to measure the impact of these differences
Group Statistics Nation Singapore Malaysia Singapore Malaysia Singapore Malaysia N 174 161 174 161 174 161 Mean 4,9224 5,2205 4,9397 5,1211 4,8966 5,1366 Std. Deviation 1,09879 1,16958 1,07283 1,20127 1,09026 1,18188 Std. Error Mean ,08330 ,09218 ,08133 ,09467 ,08265 ,09315
Attitude Satisfaction Loyalty
Table 12 - Independent t-test, Group Statistics

Independent Samples Test t-test for Equality of Means
t Attitude Satisfaction Loyalty Equal variances not assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances not assumed -2,399 -1,454 -1,928
df 326,593 321,406 324,878
Sig. (2-tailed) ,017 ,147 ,055
Mean Difference -,29808 -,18146 -,24009
Table 13 - t-test Equality of Means
6.5.8.1 Behavioral Loyalty The t-test showed a t-value of -1.934 and a Sig. value of .054 for loyalty, meaning that there was a difference in loyalty between the two countries. This was significant at the 10% level, with loyalty being higher in Malaysia compare to Singapore. The magnitude was calculated using the formula for eta squared (3.740356/ 3.740356 + (174 + 161 2) = 0.011). According to the guidelines proposed by Cohen (1988), this value should be
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interpreted as a small effect. This means that there was significance at the ten percent level, with a small difference in loyalty between youth in Singapore and Malaysia.
6.5.8.2 Attitudinal Loyalty For attitudinal loyalty the t-test showed a t value of -2.406, and a Sig. Value of .017. This means that there was a significant difference at the five percent level in attitude towards operators, with attitude being higher in Malaysia compared to Singapore. The magnitude was calculated using eta square formula (5.788836/ 5.788836 + (174+161-2) = 0.017). As with loyalty, this should be considered a small effect. This means that there was a small, but significant difference in attitude towards the operators in Singapore and Malaysia.
6.5.8.3 Customer Satisfaction The t-test showed us that there was no significant difference in the level of customer satisfaction between Singapore and Malaysia (Sig. two tailed = .145). 6.6 Analysis of the CBALD-model The following section is the analysis of part two of our questionnaire, loyalty drivers. 6.6.1 Factor Analysis for Corporate Brand Attributes as Loyalty Drivers As the table below shows, four distinct components emerged from the factor analysis. Two of the components that were found included various elements from the Image construct proposed by Martensen et al. (2000). The elements were separated into the constructs proposed by Anisimova (2007), and due to the similarity of these constructs it was still important to separate them each other (as we did with the factors influencing
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loyalty in section 3.4). Even though the respondents might have perceived these questions as somewhat similar, they were intended to measure separate parts of image and their influence on both attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty.
a Pattern Matrix - Loyalty Drivers
Component 1 Corporate Values1 (q35) Dependable1 (q38) Corporate Values2 (q36) Functional Benefits1 (q41) Corporate Values3 (q37) Dependable2 (q39) Dependable3 (q40) Price6 (q59) Price7 (q60) Price5 (q58) Price8 (q61) Price3 (q56) Price2 (q55) Price1 (q54) Price4 (q57) Own4 (q53) Functional Benefits3 (q43) Functional Benefits2 (q42) Own3 (q52) Symbolic Benefits3 (q49) Own1 (q50) Emotional Benefits2 (q45) Own2 (q51) Symbolic Benefits2 (q48) Emotional Benefits3 (q46) Emotional Benefits1 (q44) Symbolic Benefits1 (q47) ,832 ,805 ,779 ,763 ,710 ,599 ,492 2 ,116 ,152 ,161 -,164 -,234 -,239 ,111 -,137 -,906 -,890 -,778 -,773 -,616 -,450 -,404 -,353 ,151 -,233 ,116 ,129 ,139 -,101 ,150 ,916 ,909 ,844 ,734 ,106 ,100 ,288 ,331 ,280 ,371 ,315 -,201 ,255 ,212 ,154 ,135 ,430 -,136 3 4
,227
,188 -,115 ,237 ,309 ,859 ,846 ,720 ,695 ,648 ,607 ,596 ,431
,123 ,113
-,161
-,279
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation converged in 10 iterations.
Table 14 - Factor Analysis for the CBALD-model
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Diploma Project 6.5.2 Reliability analysis
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Like in the previous part, a reliability analysis was done on the components that emerged in the factor analysis in this part. We chose to separate the variables that loaded in component one, as they measure different sides of an image.
6.6.2.1 Construct one - Corporate Values The first construct was made up of the three variables q35, q36, and q37. The intention was to measure the corporate values of a company. In the initial run we tried to include the variable q41, even though it was not intended to measure this part of image. It did not raise the CA-value, and was therefore left out. As table 32 shows, the CA-value was well within the norm.
6.6.2.2 Construct two - Dependable The second construct was made up of the three variables q38, q39, and q40. This measured how dependable a provider is, and how important this is for the respondents. As in the first construct, we tried to include the variable from functional benefits that loaded in this component. However, this did not raise the CA-value, and was therefore left out. All variables belonging to the dependable construct contributed to the CA-value, therefore we chose to keep them. The CA-value for this construct was relatively strong with a value of .817. We chose to leave out the variable q41, since it did not belong together with the other variables in this component.
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The four variables q58, q59, q60 and q61 loaded in component two. When these variables were tested for reliability, it forced us to leave out the last variable, q61, as it did not raise the CA-value. We were then left with three variables with a strong CA-value of .931
6.6.2.4 Construct Four - Core Service Offered. The variables loading in component three are questions we believed represented the core benefits of services offered within the telecommunications industry. They represent; prices SMS (q54), prices MMS (q55), prices call-time (q56), and monthly fee (q57), as well as net coverage (q53). As we can see from the table below, the CA-value is .894. However, net coverage might have a problem with discriminant validity due to the factor loading. We chose to keep it anyway, because it does not make the CA-value increase much, if it were to be removed.
6.6.2.5 Construct five - Symbolic Benefits As table 40 shows, this construct is made up of three variables from component four. One of the variables, q51, measures the reputation amongst peers. This question is similar to the three variables q47, q48 and q49 chosen to measure symbolic benefits. It is therefore included in this construct. We had to discard q47, because it was not valid enough. The three variables that were kept resulted in a CA-value of .795.
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Diploma Project 6.6.2.6 Reliability for Emotional Benefits
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This construct was tested with the three variables for emotional benefits, q44, q45 and q46 found in component four. The variables are similar those from the Anisimova study (2007). We tried to include q50, but it lowered the CA-value, therefore it was left out.
6.6.3 Data reduction A data-reduction was performed on the loyalty drivers to make them more manageable. These new constructs were made from the reliable constructs tested above. 6.6.4 Descriptive Analysis for the CBALD-model The table below shows that there is no noticeable skewness or kurtosis in the new constructs created above.
Descriptive Statistics N CorporateValues DependableCompany VAS CoreServicesOffered SymbolicBenefits EmotionalBenefits Valid N (listwise) Statistic 335 335 334 335 335 334 333 Minimum Statistic 1,67 2,00 1,00 1,00 1,00 1,00 Maximum Statistic 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 Mean Statistic 5,1458 5,2114 3,9526 5,2825 4,7020 4,7824 Std. Deviation Statistic 1,15926 1,15980 1,68751 1,30593 1,23239 1,13667 Skewnes s Statistic -,374 -,255 -,094 -,619 -,370 -,256 Kurtosis Statistic -,178 -,451 -,603 ,209 ,227 ,268
Table 15 - Descriptive Analysis for the CBALD-model
6.6.5 Correlation for Corporate Brand Attributes as Loyalty Drivers As expected, there was a correlation between corporate values and dependable corporate personality (.696***), indicating that many respondents may perceive these as one element when in fact they are measuring different parts of image. The remaining new
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variables did not have strong correlation, and since most of the constructs are somewhat similar the result was acceptable.
Correlations - Loyalty Driver Constructs Corporate Values CorporateValues Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson Correlation N **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). 1 335 ** Dependable Company ,696** ,000 335 1 335 * * Core Services Offered ,421** ,000 335 ,512** ,000 335 ,311** ,000 334 1 335 ** ** ** ** Symbolic Benefits ,429** ,000 335 ,409** ,000 335 ,320** ,000 334 ,403** ,000 335 1 335 ** ** ** ** ** Emotional Benefits ,479** ,000 334 ,518** ,000 334 ,259** ,000 333 ,390** ,000 334 ,596** ,000 334 1 334
VAS ,140* ,010 334 ,117* ,032 334 1 334
DependableCompany
VAS
CoreServicesOffered
**
**
**
SymbolicBenefits
EmotionalBenefits
Table 16 - Pearson Correlations for the CBALD-model
6.6.6 Multiple Regression Analysis of the CBALD-model Furthermore, we conducted a regression analysis as Anisimova (2007) and Martensen et al (2000) did, to check the driver`s effect towards attitudinal- as well as behavioral loyalty. The first model testes wanted to measure the different constructs of image and the relationship with behavioral loyalty. This model was significant but had a fairly low explanatory power through the R Square value of .095***, indicating that there are likely to be many other factors that are strong drivers of behavioral loyalty. However, we managed to identify two of the constructs of image that drive behavioral loyalty. These were dependable corporate personality which had a positive Beta-value of .194***,
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making it the strongest driver of behavioral loyalty, and significant at the one percent level. The second driver discovered in the analysis was the symbolic benefits driver with a positive Beta-value of .148*, which was significant at the five percent level. This is shown in the table below.
Model 1
Standardized Coefficients Beta (Constant) DependableCompany SymbolicBenefits ,194 ,173
t 10,795 3,385 3,016
Sig. ,000 ,001 ,003
a. Dependent Variable: Loyalty
Table 17 - Path Coefficients for Behavioral Loyalty of CBALD-model
In the second model tested we analyzed the different brand attributes relationship with attitudinal loyalty. There were found three constructs that had a positive effect on attitudinal loyalty, namely Corporate Values which had a positive beta-value of .121, Core services offered which had a positive beta-value of .183 and Emotional Benefits with a positive beta-value of.188. These are all well within the norm of significance of five percent. The explanatory power of this model is derived from the R Square of .150 which is fairly low, but satisfactory as it measures various sub-elements of a larger construct (image). This model was found to be significant.
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Model 1
Standardized Coefficients Beta (Constant) CorporateValues CoreServicesOffered EmotionalBenefits ,121 ,183 ,188
t 8,513 2,000 3,179 3,156
Sig. ,000 ,046 ,002 ,002
a. Dependent Variable: Attitude
Table 18 - Path Coefficients for Attitudinal Loyalty in the CBALD-model
6.7 Summary of the Findings concerning the CBALD-model From our proposed model, based primarily on the Anisimova study, several factors have proven to be insignificant. This section describes in short the constructs dropped and kept during the analysis in accordance with our hypothesis. 6.7.1 Functional Benefits In the proposed model, we expected the questions intended to measure the construct functional benefits, to have an effect on both attitude and loyalty. However this is not the case in the conducted survey. We therefore removed this construct from our model through the rejection of H8a and H8 b. This could indicate that the functional benefits offered through the product and /or service, is not important to youth in the telecommunications industry. 6.7.2 Value Added Services We expected that value added services would be of importance for the respondents, but this construct, as the construct above, turned out not to be significant towards either loyalty or attitude. The hypothesis proposed in H12a and H12 b was therefore rejected. This Page 68
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is an interesting finding as it implies that value added services are not of importance for the young consumers. It further suggests that the construct does not drive the behavioral or the attitudinal loyalty.
We could not measure the impact of voice SMS, a very popular feature in Bangladesh, as it is not a service offered in Singapore and Malaysia, 6.7.3 Corporate Values The corporate values construct was not significant when tested towards behavioral loyalty; therefore we could not find support for H6b. However, it was significant when tested against attitudinal loyalty, supporting H6a.
In effect, this indicates that the corporate values a company stands for through its statements and actions, might not have as big of an effect as suggested in Anisimova`s study. The fact that there are no significant relationship between corporate values and behavioral loyalty indicates that even though young consumers acknowledge these values, it still might not lead to behavioral loyalty the form of loyalty most companies want. 6.7.4 Dependable (Corporate Personality) This construct was made to check whether corporate personality has an effect on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. We did not find evidence of a link between corporate personality and attitudinal loyalty, but there was support towards a positive effect on behavioral loyalty. We found evidence for H7b but not for H7a and therefore rejecting it.
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We wanted to measure the relationship between feelings towards the brand and attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. We could not establish such a relationship between emotional benefits and behavioral loyalty. However there is a significant relationship with attitudinal loyalty. H9b was rejected, and H9a was supported as it had a significant effect.
This tells us that the emotional benefits offered by a telecommunication provider are a driver for attitudinal loyalty but not for behavioral loyalty. 6.7.6 Symbolic Benefits By testing the symbolic benefits relationship between attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, no significant relationship towards attitudinal loyalty was found. However we did find a significant relationship towards behavioral loyalty. This resulted in rejecting H10a while evidence of H10b.
This tells us that the symbolic benefits offered to youth in the telecommunications industry serves as a driver for behavioral loyalty , and not for attitudinal loyalty. This indicates that if an operator is to pursue behavioral loyalty, it should strive to increase the symbolic benefits offered. 6.7.7 Core Services Offered This construct consists of questions related to the prices of the main features offered in most plans, and net coverage. We could not establish a significant relationship between
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this construct and behavioral loyalty, not supporting H11b. However we did find a significant relationship with attitudinal loyalty, supporting H11a.
This is the second driver of behavioral loyalty found in our survey, and it is also the driver with the highest path coefficient, indicating that it is the strongest driver. For telecommunications companies this would indicate that this is a driver to pursue in order to gain behavioral loyalty. 6.7.8 Reduced Model The model below in figure 12 is the reduced models were all insignificant factors have been removed. As we can see, two of the constructs used to measure the image of a company were kept and they had a significant effect on loyalty. The model shows that the drivers of behavioral loyalty have a relatively low explanatory factor with an R-Square value of .095, and significance at the one percent level. This indicates that even though we have identified the drivers of behavioral loyalty as described earlier, there are still many other drivers that have a relationship towards this part of loyalty. From this study it is clear that if a company is interested in gaining higher levels of behavioral loyalty, they should invest resources into the development of a corporate personality that is perceived as dependable by the targeted segments as it is the strongest driver identified. Furthermore, symbolic benefits makes the consumer more confident about the choice he/she made as well as gaining social approval and status amongst their peers, would increase the level of behavioral loyalty amongst the consumers.
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There are also three significant drivers of attitudinal loyalty identified in this study, but they have a relatively low R- Square value of .150. From this we can deduce that there are other drivers that have a significant effect on attitudinal loyalty, as well as the drivers found in our study.
Company is Dependable .194** Loyalty .095*** Symbolic Benefits
.173**
Core Services Offered
.183**
Corporate Values
.121*
Attitude .150***
Emotional Benefits
.188**
*sig. < 0.05; **sig. < 0.01; ***sig. < 0.001; n=335; Bold = R Square
Figure 8 - Reduced CBALD-model
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As elements of the brand attributes this study shows the importance of pursuing a positive brand image for its customers. We have found evidence that there are five different brand attributes, especially image, have a positive and significant effect on both attitudinal- and behavioral loyalty.
Summary of the CBALD-model

Attitudinal Loyalty Corporate Values Dependable Corporate Personality Functional Benefits Emotional Benefits Symbolic Benefits Core Services Offered Value Added Services
Table 19 Summary of the CBALD-model
Behavioral Loyalty No effect found
Effect found
No effect found
Effect found
No effect found
No effect found
Effect found
No effect found
No effect found
Effect found
Effect found
No effect found
No effect found
No effect found
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Chapter 7 - Research limitations

This section contains limitations that could have had an influence on our research results. 7.1 Sampling errors The number of responses collected in Singapore was 174 (of 190) and 160 (of 200) in Malaysia. We used convenient sampling for our surveys in both countries. In Singapore we chose to distribute our surveys in the trafficked areas around Bugis MRT station, Orchard Road, and NTU campus, while the Golden Triangle in Kuala Lumpur was our base in Malaysia. By doing this we were aware of the fact that certain members of the population would not be represented in the samples. 7.2 Questionnaire design We pre-tested our questionnaire once in Singapore before conducting our survey. We had a sample of 15 respondents for the pre-test, and all of the respondents understood the survey, so we did not do any alterations to it after the pre-test. However, we did revise the questionnaire several times before the pre-test after feedback from our supervisor, Olaf Rieck. Even though the respondents answered the questions without our guidance, we cannot draw the conclusion that there were no misunderstandings. We saw a clear difference in the amount of time the respondents in the two different countries used to fill out the questionnaire. In Malaysia the tendency was that the respondents used about twice the amount of time to fill it out, compared to Singapore. This might have to do with the fact that the English proficiency level in Singapore is higher than that of Malaysia. Based
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on this, it is possible that the Malay respondents had more difficulties with understanding the questions in the questionnaire.
Another type of error would be the fatigue-related mistakes. Our survey consisted of all together 61 Questions, and this large amount could have led to making people tired, which again could have led to mistakes occurring. There is also a risk for falsehoods that occurs when respondents fail to tell the truth. Occasionally, some people deliberately give false answers. 7.3 Response bias Response bias may occur when respondents misrepresent answers in order to appear intelligent, to conceal personal information, to avoid embarrassment68 , and so on. One response bias that occurred was when some respondents claimed to have a PhD degree at an age where this would have been impossible. Other respondents might have answered what they thought we wanted to hear or what they thought would be the right answer, and not necessarily their own. Our survey was designed as an objective survey which did not lead the answers in a particular direction.
68
Zikmund 2003, page 179.
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Chapter 8 - Strategic Discussion

As mentioned in the marketing theories section, segmenting the market allows a company to better tailor its products and/or services and marketing to the needs and wants of the consumers. Telecommunications providers with only one standard brand for all segments risk losing consumers from the youth segment to competitors who can better suit the needs of this segment. As the literature review and the results from our survey show, satisfaction has a clear influence on both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. By offering services that are better tailored to the consumer segments, higher customer satisfaction can be achieved and potentially also higher loyalty. This relationship has been proven in our research done in the first part of the analysis, where we verified a relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty.
If we look at how the youth segment fits the criteria for effective segmentation, we can see that consumers needs and wants vary with age, and people of the same age tend to share similar values and cultural experiences. We can therefore assume that the youth segment would respond to sets of stimuli in a different way than other age groups would, and therefore is differentiable from other segments. Given that information about size and purchasing power of youth segments is usually publicly available, the youth segment is also measurable in terms of profitability. The youth segment makes up a large part of a country's population. In addition to this, people in the youth segment are among the most frequent users of mobile phones and telecommunications services, and are often more
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willing to try out new products and services69. Therefore the youth segment would most likely also be profitable.
There are no specific barriers against offering telecommunications services to the youth segment, except for network capacity and coverage. While launching a new youth brand would not require extra net-coverage compared to a global brand, an increase in customers might require additional net-capacity. Assuming that the provider has the necessary resources, the youth segment can be considered accessible. If the providers have the network capacity to serve the youth segment, and is capable of formulating marketing programmes, they should also be able to serve the youth market effectively, making it actionable.
The youth segment therefore satisfies all the four criteria, and a youth brand would enable providers to better suit the needs and wants of its young consumers. However, demographic segmentation might not always be effective. Helyar (2007) stated in his article that; segmentation should not be based on demographics and attitude alone, because people within the similar age groups can be quite different. In his study, 23 different types of youth groups were identified in the U.K. Even though this cannot be used to generalize about youth throughout the world, it gives an indication that there exists a lot of difference within the youth segment. If a company has a youth brand targeting one segment of all segments identified, it would constitute a concentrated approach. In other words a company chooses to go for a larger share of one or more
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smaller groups. Targeting multiple subgroups within a segment, would constitute a differentiated or multisegment approach where all niches within a segment are developed and the companys product is promoted to all differentiations. In other words different market subgroups are chosen and a separate market offer is produced for each subgroup. In the telecommunications industry targeting like this would most likely involve products with virtually identical functions, but with a customized marketing mix. The challenge with this approach is that the costs are likely to be high, but on the other hand sales would most likely be high as well. Findings in our study shows that products targeted towards the respondents age group, does not have a significant impact on loyalty in the telecommunications industry. (Shaw 2001) (Keh & Chiang 2004) A company that has a youth brand should position the brand so that it creates a competitive advantage through organizational and product characteristics. A competitive advantage helps to get a new or better foothold in either established or emerging markets. In the telecommunications industry the way a positioning strategy is accomplished is critical, because the nature of the industry is unpredictable in terms of constant innovations and uncertainty. This is especially the case for young consumers as they often like to experiment with their identity and adapt to rapidly changing trends70. People working with positioning in the telecommunication industry highlight the following factors71; 1. Product attributes; the advantageous characteristics the company has compared to competitors. (For example value added services such as voice SMS and net
70 71
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coverage) In our study, however, value added services were not found to be a significant driver of loyalty. 2. Solutions specifications; this particular service or product seeks to solve or satisfy a basic consumer or business need. (For example possibility for email and internet access in plan) Core Services offered and the price of these was found to be a significant driver of attitudinal loyalty 3. Product user, firms has position itself by linking celebrities or wanted personalities to its products / services. (cricket, soccer etc) Image was found to be a significant driver of loyalty in our study. 4. Quality, studies show that consumers are increasingly sensitive to quality and reliability. In our study we tried to measure this through a question about functional benefits, it was not significant towards neither behavioural nor attitudinal loyalty (q48 how important is it that you operator offers consistent quality). This finding is in contrast to the findings from the focus groups where several participants explained that reliable network coverage was of the utmost importance for them. 5. Multifunctionalism, defend market positions by designing products with several different functions. This could be the development of a separate youth brand and other brands especially targeted at segments that are differentiable from the total population. 8.1 Sustainable competitive advantage Sustainable competitive advantages are important because they strengthen a companys competitive position in the market, and enable a company to survive against its
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competitor(s) over a longer period of time. When assessing if an asset can be classified as a sustainable competitive advantage, there are four criteria that must be met; valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and non-substitutable. First of all an asset, or in this case, a youth brand must be valuable. This means that the youth brand should help the company make use of opportunities, or reduce the effect of threats in the external environment, which the company otherwise would not be able to. It can be said that a youth brand exploits opportunities in a market by attracting more consumers from the youth segment and by increasing the satisfaction of the targeted segment. This could potentially also increase customer loyalty, and equity of the brand. Higher customer loyalty also helps neutralize threats from competitors, by making the customers less prone to switching to competing operators. Second an asset must be rare, meaning that just a few, if any at all, of the companys competitors have the asset available. Although youth brands are not available in all markets, many markets have them and it can therefore not be considered rare. Third, an asset must be costly to imitate, meaning that the asset is difficult for competitors to duplicate. For a youth brand this is not the case, because it is fairly easy for competitors to imitate the functional aspects of a youth brand. However, if an operator is able to create a strong image of the youth brand, the image could be more difficult to imitate for the competitors. An example of a company that has managed to build a strong image and loyal customer-base, in spite of difficulties in differentiating products in its industry, is Coca Cola. The last criteria an asset must meet is that it is non-substitutable, meaning that the asset does not have a strategic equally valued substitute. A youth brand has a substitute in a normal brand, which could replace the youth brand because it often has the same basic functions. As our research on the BLD-model have shown, the youth
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segment have largely accepted the switching costs of changing operators, and therefore this does not have a negative effect on loyalty. We have also found support for the level of involvement as the only construct that have a positive effect towards both loyalty and customer satisfaction. This is a way that could be interesting to address through the marketing mix directed at young consumers. If there is an increased level of involvement, the loyalty would increase as well.
Because a youth brand only satisfies the first of the four criteria it cannot be classified as a sustainable competitive advantage. If launched it could provide a temporary competitive advantage, but would most likely be imitated quickly by competitors if it proved successful. However a sustainable competitive advantage could be created by building a strong image for the respective youth brand, as with the example of CocaCola. In our research we found that image is a significant loyalty driver and this is consistent with the findings of Martensen et al (2000). As Armstrong and Kotler pointed out in Principles of Marketing, companies should work to establish images that differentiate them from competitors72. This is especially true in the telecommunications industry, where services offered often are considered similar. Nevertheless, a favorable brand image takes a long time and considerable amounts of resources to build up. Findings from our research show, image is a weak driver of loyalty and this could indicate that it would require a considerate amount of resources to build an image that drives loyalty due to the low beta value (Research model in figure12). An increased
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percieved difference between the operators in the market has a positive effect on behavioral loyalty, as suggested in the BLD-model. This indicates that
telecommunication providers should strive to differentiate themselves, and one such way could be through image. In the CBALD-model we managed to find support that many corporate brand attributes have a positive effect on both attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. The company should decide which of these attributes they want to target according to which element of loyalty they want to target.
In our research we find that youth are most likely to be interested in low prices of the core services offered as well as good net-coverage as functional benefits. Since switching costs do not have a negative effect on loyalty, the company should continue to use churnbarriers like this in order to prevent customers from churning over to other operators. We also found it interesting that the youth do not find value added services very important when they are choosing their operator. Therefore this is something that the operators do not need to emphasize on now. This could however, be a trend, and companies should therefore monitor the market closely if this trend changes in the future. They should also try to build a strong brand image, and youth brand image. This could be achieved by focusing on being a dependable corporate citizen who offers consistent quality to the customers. It is also interesting to see that youth find it important to identify with the brand and the operator. Therefore an operator should strive to establish such a relationship.
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When marketing towards the youth segment a company should follow the four rules of engagement suggested by Solomon (2007). To create a successful marketing communication, companies can use the AIDA model, which stresses awareness as the most important factor is to create awareness. This can be a challenge in the youth segments because youths today are bombarded with different marketing stimuli every day, and companies must find a clever way to get their message to be heard. If a provider successful manages to stimulate awareness among the youth segment, it may lead to interest, which again may lead to desires and eventually an action.
In the telecommunication industry it is normal with contracts that bind customers to the operator. The contractual costs arise when a customer ends the relationship before the contract expires. In the study conducted by Dick and Basu (1994), they found switching cost to be one of the significant drivers of their construct conative antecedents, which leads to a relative attitude. However, in our study we could only find support for the relationship between switching costs and customer satisfaction. Even though this was not a strong relationship it is still significant. The relationship between switching costs and behavioral and attitudinal loyalty however, is not significant in our study. One explanation for this result might be because consumers in the telecommunications industry have accepted the contractual barriers, and therefore they expect these costs to be there. As suggested earlier this could indicate that the switching costs in the telecommunications industry could, to a large extent, be accepted by the consumers and that they therefore expect them to be present when they are choosing their operator. This
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indicates that the exit barriers the operators have created might have worked as indented to lower churn.
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Chapter 9 - Conclusion
On basis of the previous discussion and the findings in our study, we conclude that telecommunication providers should have a youth brand. Even though a youth brand itself is not a sustainable competitive advantage, the company can turn it into one if they develop a strong brand image to support it. This will increase the chance of capturing young consumers. As we have discussed through the STP and the AIDA model, the company should strive to have an effective communication mix towards the youth. By successfully implementing this, the result could potentially be higher customer satisfaction, which in turn will lead to higher loyalty and lower customer churn.
Grameenphone is operating in a market that has recently opened up for more competitors to enter, resulting in a substantial drop in profitability because of price erosion. This has resulted in a market where price itself can no longer be used as a mean to differentiate one company from the others. Furthermore the market of Bangladesh shows a tremendous potential, and the mobile penetration is expected to rise from todays 20-25% to 80% within 2012 resulting in 123 million subscribers. According to the internal database of Grameenphone, the company recruits 30-40,000 new customers every day, and they have a network coverage reaching 98% of the population. The population in Bangladesh is also fairly young with more than 50% of the countrys population below the age of 30, and a median age of 22.2 in 2005. In the literature many researchers have found youth to be the users that use their cellular phones the most, making this group highly profitable for Grameenphone.
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We believe that if Grameenphone is able to build a new youth brand and its image, this could lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. This was confirmed by our study that shows that image is one of the drivers of consumer loyalty. As of today, Grameenphone is one of the most known brands in Bangladesh. Therefore they should include their company logo to the new brand as it would let them leverage on this strength.
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DuWors, R.E.J., G.H.J. Haines. 1990. Event History Analysis Measures of Brand Loyalty. Journal of Marketing Research, Volume 24 Number 4.
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Hansen, Torben, Jan Mller Jensen. 2006. An Empirical Examination of Brand Loyalty. Journal of Product and Brand Management Volume 15 Number 7. University of Southern Denmark and Copenhagen Business School: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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Perucci, Alessandro, Macro Richeldi.2002. Churn analysis case study. Italy: Telecom Italia lab.
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Buildigbrands. Marketing Definitions - Loyalty Marketing. [Online] Available from URL: <http://www.buildingbrands.com/definitions/10_loyalty_marketing.php> [Accessed 2008 April 13 th]
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Grameenphone. about Grameenphone. [Online] Available from URL: <http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=64> [Accessed 2008 March 5th]
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GrameenTelecom.Introduction. [Online] Available from URL: < http://www.grameeninfo.org/grameen/gtelecom/> [Accessed 2008 March 5th]
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Referenceforbusiness.com. competitive advantage. [Online] Available from URL: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/CompetitiveAdvantage.html> [Accessed 2008 April 18th]
SearchMobileComputing.com. 2005. Definition Churn . [Online] Available from URL: < http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci939704,00.html > [Accessed 2008 April 10th]
Usability first. Usability Glossary: pilot test. [Online] Available from URL: <http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/term_1007.txl> [Accessed 2008 April 16th]
U.S DEPARTMENT of STATE. 2008. Background note: Bangladesh. [Online] Available from URL: < http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3452.htm > [Accessed 2008 April 1st]
U.S DEPARTMENT of STATE. 2007. Background note: Malaysia. [Online] Available from URL: < http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2777.htm > [Accessed 2008 April 1st]
U.S DEPARTMENT of STATE. 2008. Background note: Singapore. [Online] Available from URL: < http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2798.htm > [Accessed 2008 April 1st]
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Table of Contents
APPENDIX I CASE-TEXT FROM GRAMEENPHONE........................................................................... 2 APPENDIX II 11 STEPS OF RESEARCH ................................................................................................. 3 APPENDIX III MODERATOR SCHEME ................................................................................................. 4 APPENDIX IV FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS ....................................................................................... 7 3.1 FOCUS GROUP 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 FOCUS GROUP 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 14 3.3FOCUS GROUP 3...................................................................................................................................... 25 APPENDIX V RESEARCH MODEL BY DICK & BASU ....................................................................... 36 APPENDIX VI RESEARCH MODEL BY HANSEN & JENSEN ........................................................... 37 APPENDIX VII RESEARCH MODEL BY MARTENSEN ET AL. ........................................................ 38 APPENDIX VIII QUESTIONNAIRE SINGAPORE................................................................................ 39 APPENDIX IX QUESTIONNAIRE MALAYSIA .................................................................................... 44 APPENDIX X SUMMARY OF TESTS PERFORMED IN SPSS ............................................................ 49 7.1 MISSING VALUE ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................... 49 7.2 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................ 50 7.3 RELIABILITY FOR THE CONSTRUCTS FOR THE FIRST PART ..................................................................... 51 7.4 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS FOR THE CONSTRUCTS OF THE FIRST PART ......................................................... 52 7.5 REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST PART ............................................................................................ 53 7.6 RELIABILITY FOR THE SECOND PART ...................................................................................................... 54 7.7 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS FOR THE CONSTRUCTS OF THE SECOND PART ..................................................... 56 7.8 REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF THE SECOND PART ........................................................................................ 56
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Appendix I Case-text from Grameenphone

Youths, Separate Brand and a Business Case: Believing in the number of addressable market size of 9 million, GP launched only Youth brand djuice in Bangladesh in 2005. But in a market where price erosion is too fast making price not a demarcation factor between brands or operators (Bangladesh is the lowest price offer which is their flagship offer just like SMIle of GP). It is being strongly observed that Youth segment do posses distinctive features in choices and philosophy, but the option to express those choices are limited in Bangladesh which is a part of least developed countries (LDCs). At this point, it is very important to understand the youth segment, their philosophy and choices, factors stimulating usage and loyalty, total worth or equity and lastly have a detailed business case coming back with recommendations whether to have a separate brand for youth or not? Take input from other countries with higher GDP and penetration. Countries like India, China, Malaysia and Indonesia should be interesting to look into.
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Appendix II 11 Steps of Research
Source: Burns and Bush, 2006. Marketing Research 6th edition. U.S.A. Pearson Prentice Hall, page 24
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Appendix III Moderator Scheme

With these focus groups we would like to find out the reasons for what plan they use, and why they have chosen this plan. We would like to gain some basic insight into young consumers in Singapore in the telecom industry and their daily use of mobile telephones.
Part one; introduction. Welcome, and thank you very much for coming! Today we are here to talk about you as a young consumer and your use of mobile telephones and your plan. We are going to do a study based in Singapore and Malaysia as a part of our final year project. If you have any thoughts to any of the question, either the question at hand or a previous, please share with us your thoughts as they might give us valuable information for our study. Any thoughts and ideas are good, and we hope you stop and ask us if you have any questions for us. We expect this focus group to last about one hour, and for your time you will be compensated with 10 SGD. We are going to ask questions, and we want you to discuss them among yourself. And remember, no answers are stupid, so just say anything that comes in to your mind. Try to discuss with each other as much as possible. You will all be kept anonymous, but we are going to videotape this session for the ease of data processing.
Part two; warm up. Do you have a hand phone? Can you show it to the group and explain why you chose this hand phone model? Are there any particular features that made you chose it? Did you buy this telephone with a plan? What kind of a plan is this? (postpaid / prepaid) What is your main source of income? (Allowance, scholarship, part-time job etc)
Part three; Use of the mobile phone and the plan. How often do you use your phone? What do you use it for? (Calls, SMS, MMS, games, internet etc) o How many SMSs you send? (Per. Month?) o How much you call? (pr. month?) o Do you know how much you pay per month for telecom? Are you generally satisfied with your plan? Have you had many telephones and different plans? Page 4
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Do you change your plan often? o Why / why not? (why did you change the last time) Do you use you plan when you travel abroad?
Part four; What made you chose this plan? What service is the most important to you? (Call, SMS, MMS etc) What do you prefer, pre-paid or post paid (normal plan)? o Why do you prefer this? Did you choose this plan yourself? If not who did? Is it easy to top up / pay your bills? o Do they have many outlets where you can do this? o Are there any alternatives to get top up cards or paying the bills (pay online?)
Part five; what kinds of plans are available for you? Would you like to have more plans to choose from? Are there any plans especially made for young people? o If not, would you like there to be one? o If you could make a youth plan yourself, what features would it have? o Are they marketing any youth plan as of now? o What would make a youth plan attractive? (What features are important?) Are there any plans that offer you free SMS / call-time? o If there are, would this influence your choice of a plan?
Part six; Influence on your choice of plan? Do you pay your own bills? If no, who does? Is there anyone who influences your choice of plan? (celebrity, family, siblings etc) Do you have the same plan as your friends?
Part seven; Telecom providers. Who is the biggest telecom. providers in Singapore? Which of them do you considered as good providers? o What makes a good provider in Singapore? Is there anyone that is considered best? o Why? Is there any difference in providers net-coverage? Worst? Who are considered the cheapest and who is the most expensive?
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o Do the expensive providers offer something that the others do not? (Better service, insurance other aspects?) In other words, are there any reasons they are more expensive? Is the expensive one attractive for you? Do the providers offer other services than communicational? (games, internet, ringtones, MMS, TV-streaming) What do you think of the overall service of the provider? If you were to buy a new hand phone, does the provider offer a reduction in price? Are there any services / features you miss from your provider?
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Appendix IV Focus Group Interviews

3.1 Focus group 1 The introduction was read at first. All of the participants were girls and none had ever participated in focus groups before. Moderator: Do you all have a hand phone? All participants: Yes. Moderator: Can you show it to me? All participants lay their phone on the table. Participant 3: Nokia, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Moderator: Can you explain me the reason behind your choice of this particular model? Participant 1: I have chosen this phone because I have always had Nokia, so I dont adapt to a new model. The times I have tried different models I havent been very satisfied. Moderator: So it is the ease of use? Participant 1: Yes. Moderator: What about the rest of you? Participant 3: At the time I bought this phone I havent an Mp3 player, so that was the reason I bought a music phone. I actually wanted a flip phone, but I couldnt find a nice one, so I chose a slide phone instead. There is no particular reason why I chose Nokia. I have used many different phone brands before. Participant 2: I am quite used to Sony Ericsson, it is easy to use and the cameras size is 2.2 mega pixels. So the times I forgets my camera I can just use my phone. Participant 3: The design is also important when it comes to hand phones. Moderator: When you bought your phone, did you buy it with a plan? All participants: Yes. Participant 3: My phone was about S$138 with a two year plan. Moderator: What kind of plan? All participants: Postpaid. Moderator: What is your main source of income? Participant 2: For me its parents. Participant 3: Me too. Participant 1: Im on a scholarship.
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Moderator: What do you use the most? SMS, calls etc. Participant 1 and 2: SMS more that calling. Participant 3: For me it is both, this is because if calls it is free anyways. The student plan provides you with 300 minutes free outgoing calls on campus. And 300 minutes is like 5 hours, I dont think I call more than that when I am on campus. Moderator: Which telecom providers do you use? Participant 3: SingTel Participant 2: I have star hub. Participant 1: I have also star hub, this is because star hub have more free SMSs. Participant 2: A thousand per month. Participant 3: SingTel also have a thousand free SMSs for student plans. Participant 1: 500 for SingTel users and 500 for Star Hub users, for the SingTel plan. Moderator: Was free SMSs an important factor for you when you chose your plan? Participant 3: The student plans and the normal plans cost the same, but you get more for the student plans. You get an extra 500 SMS and you get free campus calls. Moderator: So, how does the free campus calls work? Participant 3: I am not sure, but I think that the SingTel network detect that you are on campus, and then they will not charge you. Moderator: Are you satisfied with your plans? All participants: Yes Participant 2: but maybe they could have more free SMS. Participant 3: I think they also should improve on the net coverage here at NTU, because it is a lot of dead spots where you cant get any reception. Participant 1: Especially SingTel, right? Participant 3: Yeah. Moderator: Do you change your plan often? Participant 3: No. Participant 1: No, because the contract is two years. Participant 3: If you terminate before the plan ends you have to pay extra.
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Moderator: But do you pay a deposit when you first buy the plan? All participants: No. Participant 3: When you first buy you plan you just pay your phone at the counter, after this they will charge you every month for you plan, thats all. Moderator: But if you want to get a new hand phone after one year, than you get a discount on the phone but you have to add S$100? Participant 1: Correct, if you stick to the same plan or another plan in the same company. Moderator: Did you choose the plan the plan youre self or did someone choose it for you? Participant 1: I chose it. Participant 3: Me too. Moderator: Did you buy your own phone? Participant 1: No my parents did, but they let me decide which phone and which plan. Participant 3: The final decision is up to me. Participant 2: Yeah, same for me. Moderator: Is it easy to top up the plan or pay the bills? Can you pay over internet, or do you get you bills in the mail? Participant 1: I get the bill in the mail, and then my mum pays the bills by using the send machine, which can be found island wise. It is quite convenient. Participant 3: Have you heard about it? It is called SAM; you can use it to pay utility bills. Participant 1: It is bigger that an ATM. Participant 2: It is in the size of a post box. Participant 3: It is one on campus. But for me I pay by giro, they charge from my bank account directly. But they still send me the bill. Participant 2: My mum pay by using the send machine. Moderator: when you chose the plan you have now, could you wish that there were more plans you could choose from? Participant 2: If you look at the main offers to students, I think the most important thing is the free incoming calls, free SMS and that was the reason I chose my plan which I have been using for quite a while. Moderator: Because that is what you use the most? All participants: Yes. When you chose the plan you have today, where there any plans that were specially made for young people? Participant 1: The student plans. Participant 2 and 3: Yes. Participant 1: just the student plans. Moderator: Is there any other plans for young people in general? All participants: No. Participant 2: Maybe the basic plans; because they have some fee SMS and some free incoming calls as well. Moderator: But if it was, would you like to have plan that is just for young people? Page 9
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Participant 3: If the deal is good, then I would go for it. Participant 2: But if the deal is the same then I think the student plan is more sufficient. Participant 1: Yes, I think so far the student plan is sufficient. Moderator: But if you were going to make a plan for young people what features would that plan have? Participant 2: I think the most important would be free SMS, because normally young people send SMSs a lot. Participant 1: And free incoming. Participant 3: Yeah free incoming. Participant 1: I think for music lover you could include free Mp3 music package. Participant 3: Yes because the thing is that you have to pay for every time you download. Participant 1: Yeah you have to, so maybe you could have included that in the package instead. Participant 3: So that you can download free five songs per month. Moderator: Do you download ring tones, music and etc often? Participant 3: No, actually I transfer from the computer or you can use Bluetooth to transfer files. Then you dont have to pay. Moderator: Is it expensive to download on the phone? Participant 3: Yeah I think so. Participant 1: To download songs? Yeah it is quite expensive. Participant 3: Because you dont have to pay for only the song you also have to pay for the data transfer, the GPRS. Moderator: Would cheaper downloads and stuff like that be a feature that you would use? All participants: Yes. Participant 2: Another feature should be checking of movie tickets, so that you can check on your phone which movie is showing and when. I think that is quite useful for youngsters. Participant 3: The plan is for youngsters, so we are looking at what the operators can offer us? But they dont really have anything much to offer, because we need more phone features I think. They only have video calls, Normal calls, SMS, GPRS, voice mail and MMS. Student plans actually gives you 20 free MMS per month. Moderator: Is that a feature you use? Participant 3: Sometimes. Participant 2: Sometimes, because now there is a 4G phone, right, so maybe you could add in free video calls. Because I think student sometimes might want to play around with it. Participant 3: I think a good feature which I think star hub or M1 have, is that you have for example 500 free SMS, but of you only use 300 SMS, you can change them to MMS, So 5 SMS is equivalent to 1 MMS. This way you can save charges if you want to send MMS instead of SMS.
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Moderator: What about price? Participant 3: Price is very important because we are still students. Moderator: Do you have the same plan as your friends, and is it important to have the same plan as your friends have? Participant 2: I think mostly it is not important, unless you are using her plan (participant 3) because she has animated SMS, but they are only for SingTel users. So if she is messaging me very often she will be charged since I am not using SingTel. Moderator: Does that influence you when you are sending SMS? Participant 2: Not really, because I am using Star Hub and then you can send to anyone. Participant 1: Does it influence you? (Talking to participant 3) Participant 3: I think that if I were to send an SMS I would prefer to send to and a SingTel customer. But I still have 500 free SMS that I can send to any operator. So I will still send SMS to people with other providers. Moderator: Which firm is the biggest telecom provider here in Singapore? Participant 3: I think it is SingTel. Participant 1: Yeah, SingTel. Participant 2: But I think Star Hub is gaining more market share. Participant 1: But SingTel is the biggest I think, but star hub is a strong competitor. But I think they are targeting different markets, because SingTel is more towards the business and executive side, but Star Hub is more targeted towards students. Participant 2: They are also into cables, TVs etc, so their range is wider. Moderator: But they all have student plans? Participant 1: Yes they all have student plans. Participant 3: Does M1 have? Participant 1: Yes, but SingTel student plan came out later; Star hub was the first one. Participant 3: SingTel actually copied star hub. But I think one good feature of star hub is that they bill by per second. So if you check your phone you have a record of the outgoing calls you make and what is shown in your bill is quite similar in what is shown in your phone. I am not sure how SingTel bill, but it is not by per second, so for example if I check my phone and it shows two hours of outgoing calls it would be more than that on the bill. And you dont know how they calculate it. Sometimes people think that they are overcharged, so they should consider converting to per second bill. Moderator: Are there any of the providers that are considered better than the others? Participant 2: I think most people think that SingTel have more net coverage, but I have been using Star hub quite long and I dont see the problem. Moderator: Which provider is considered the cheapest and which one is considered to be the most expensive? Are there any difference? Participant 1: Not really. Participant 2: I think it depends on the plan you use. Moderator: So there is no provider perceived as more expensive than the others? Page 11
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Participant 1: My mum us using SingTel and she is under the corporate plan, and the plan is actually S$25, the same as Star hub, but she only pays S$14. So it depends. Moderator: But do you think that if you go for a more expensive plan you will get something more? Like more free SMS, calls etc. Participant 2: I think that the more expensive the plan is the more features you will get. My uncle used to use a very expensive plan and he had free overseas calls which he used often. So it depends on the usage of the phone. Moderator: What if you were working full time would you change your plan? Participant 1: Maybe, depends on what it requires us to do. Participant 3: I think it depends. If you work in an office you would usually use the office phone then you can go and use you own mobile phone. If you are on the go and have to make a lot of overseas calls you would choose a better plan to save money. Moderator: Do you use your phone for overseas calls? All participants: No. Participant 2: It is very expensive. Moderator: Do your provider offer anything besides just communication, like games, internet etc.? Participant 1: Star Hub offers internet and cable TV. Moderator: Can you get anything of those services on your hand phone? Participant 2: No Participant 1: I thought that there were some people that could watch TV on their hand phones. Participant 2: Yeah the more advanced once. Participant 1: I think the plan is quite expensive. Participant 3: And I think if the net work is not very good it would be difficult to watch. Participant 2: Yes and the screen is too small. Moderator: If you could have that would you be interested? Participant 2: I think the screen is too small. Participant 1: Yeah too small. Participant 3: unless I could watch urgent news, but currently I dont need to watch news urgently. Participant 2: You can use PSP or iPod which has better sound and bigger image. I also think it has lower cost, because you can just transfer it from the computer. Moderator: Is there any features you miss in the plan you have now? Participant 3: A friend of mine who has a more expensive plan get an S$100-200 voucher every year which he can use to buy a phone to a cheaper rate. But I think this is only for the very expensive plans.
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Moderator: What do you think of the overall service of your provider? Participant 1: It is very bad, because when I call to ask a question they never pick up the phone or you have to wait very long. Moderator: Is the service you get important for you? Participant 1: Yeah because when I signed up they forgot to convert my original plan to student plan so I was paying for 500 SMS extra, so when I called them I got quite good service and they helped me to fix this within a few days. I think SingTel is the worst, right? Participant 3: Really? Participant 1: I have called SingTel may times and they always want to call you back, but they dont really call you back. Participant 3: Actually I have only called them once and they answered the phone quite fast. But I have never called because of my mobile before, because I have never faced any problems. Participant 2: I havent really had any problems. But for the cable TV maybe the call waiting time is a bit long. Moderator: how important was price for you when you chose your plan? I am asking this since two of you have Star Hub and one of you SingTel, are there any price differences? Participant 1: Ours is five dollars cheaper then hers. The features are the same, but the difference is five dollars. Participant 3: It is about the same. Participant 1: Yeah it is about the same. Moderator: But price is important for you? All participants: Yes. Participant 3: Yes because you have to pay the bill on a frequent basis, so you have to consider whether you really need the amount which they provide. For example, if you dont need 500 free SMS you buy a cheaper plan with fewer SMS. Moderator: when you choose you plan did anyone influence your choice of plan, like celebrity, family or friends etc? Participant 2: Maybe friends. If one of my friends have a plan she think is very good she might influence me. Participant 1: yes. In the beginning I actually used another star hub plan which only has like 500 free SMS, but then my friends signed up for the latest plan that has 1000 free SMS, so it was very natural for me to upgrade and go for that plan. Moderator: But where did you hear about your plan? Participant 1: From friends and then when we go to the store we actually asked the person there to recommend which one would be best for our needs. Moderator: Was that helpful? Participant 1: Yes.
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Moderator: Was it the same with you? Participant 3: Yes, I think the person at the shop is quite important. Because that person will be the one telling you what is the extra features of the different plans, like stuff you dont know if you dont read the brochure. Participant 1: They are actually quite honest and that is important. Moderator: What is the primary reason for using your phone? Is it the entertainment, to escape from the lectures or is it just because you want to communicate with your friends? Participant 1 and 3: Just to communicate Participant 1: Like after lesson you have to use the phone to ask where to go for lunch and such. Participant 3: Yeah that is the kind of stuff you can do after lessons, but you can also do it during lessons since you are bored. But its not for entertainment it is to communicate Participant 1: Yeah. Moderator: So it is mostly used to communicate? All participants: Yes. Moderator: Ok, I think thats all, thank you very much. 3.2 Focus group 2 The introduction was read first. Participant 1 and 2 were girls and participant 3 and 4 were boys, and none had ever participated in a focus group before. Moderator: Do you have a hand phone? Everyone: yeah. Moderator: Can you show it to me? Every one lays their phone on the table. Moderator: Is there any particular reason why you chose this particular model? Participant 3: Well actual for this phone I bought it because it was on offer, it was cheap, and it has quit a lot of functions. It has the function that helps me play games, I like to play games a lot. Basically thats why I chose this phone. Participant 2: I chose it because it is nice, that is one of the obvious reasons. Moderator: Is design important to you? Participant 2: Yeah, and it is touch screen, so I like it.
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Moderator: Is that a feature that you appreciate? Participant2: Yeah. Participant 4: I like the design Participant 2: I think most of the reason would be physical appear. When people see the phone it looks nice, so they go and buy it, rather than whatever is in it. Participant 3: Yeah. Basically, it was the design that attracted me first, and then I looked in on the functions. Participant 2: My phone actually has the same function as yours, right? Participant 3: Really? Participant 2: Really! It has got radio, it has got Mp3. Participant 3: Do you have Games. Participant 2: Im not a game player youre a boy, thats a different thing. Participant 3: Ok Participant 4: Brand plays a part also. Some prefer Nokia, some Motorola or Samsung etc. Participant 1: I have Nokia. Moderator: You were mentioning games; do you think thats a guy thing? Participant 2: Yeah. Participant 1: Yeah obviously. Participant 2: We dont need a phone thats has games, if you want to play games we use a game console, you dont have to use your phone. The phone is obvious to make a call or a message. Participant 3: I still need games on my phone. I cant have a game console in my pocket. Moderator: Do you girls use your phone more for text messaging? Participant 1 and 2: and calls. Participant 3: Music and pictures. Participant 1 and 2: Yeah. Moderator: Does all your phones have cameras. All participants: Yes. Moderator: When you bought your phones, did you buy it with a plan? Participant 1: Yes Participant 2: Yes Participant 1: Student plan. Participant 2: Student plan Participant 3: One of my phones has a student plan and the other one without. Moderator: So is it a post paid plan or a pre paid plan, the student plan? All participants: Post paid. Participant 2: It comes with a bill.
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Moderator: So, you get a bill in your mail? All participants: Yes, it comes in the mail. Participant 2: Pre paid is a bit bothersome. Participant 3: You can go online to top up your phone. Participant 2: But still you have to top up every time. Participant 4: I use a pre paid card for Malaysia. Participant 3: For Singapore you have Post paid? Participant 4: No pre paid in Singapore also. Both pre-paid. Moderator: Is it cheaper to call to Malaysia then? Participant 4: When Im in Malaysia I use the Malaysian line. But with my Singaporean card has hostel room rate, so I receive messages from Malaysia with my Singaporean phone and reply with the Malaysian. It is cheaper in Malaysia. Participant 2: So you have two phones? Participant 4: No, one phone. Moderator: What is your main source of income? Do you have like a scholarship or do you have a pat time job? Participant 2: Scholarship. Participant 1: Scholarship. Participant 3: Currently youre also working part time, right? Participant 2: Yeah, part time. Participant 1: Part time. Participant 4: yes. Participant 3: Part time and parents fee and pocket money. Participant 2: Yeah. Moderator: So it is allowance and part time? All participants nod their head and agree. Moderator: Where do you work? Can I ask you that? Participant 4: Im working as a trainer. Participant 3: Im working as a photographer and the job ended two weeks back. I was taking picture of kids for their easy link card. Participant 2: Im actually a teacher, I teach at primary and secondary school. I am teaching third language to Chinese students, as in first language, and I give private tuitions free lance also. Participant 1: Im working actually more as an intern in an accounting firm, just learning accounting skills and everything. Moderator: Is that for a Singaporean company? Participant 1: Yes, it is a Singaporean company.
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Moderator: Talking to the two girls: You said that you mainly use the phone for calls and SMS. Talking to the two guys: and you use it for games? Participant 3: yes, games. Participant 4: And Lottery functions. Participant 3: And the music functions. Moderator: Do you think guys are using more of the function of the phone than girls do? Participant 3 and 4: it is quite similar. Participant 3: Talking to the two girls: You all use the music function, right? Participant 2: I have a music addition phone why wouldnt I use the music function? Moderator: How much do you call each month and how much SMS do you send, just approximately? Participant 4: Various. Participant 2: Yeah, because it comes with a student plan, the student plan provides you with like a 1000 free SMS and free incoming calls. Participant 3: Sometime this does exceed, especially around Christmas and Chinese New Year etc. Moderator: Which telecom provider do you use? Participant 2: M1 Participant 1: SingTel. Participant 3: M1 and SingTel. Participant 4: SingTel. Moderator: Are you in general satisfied with your plan? Participant 2: Yes. Participant 1: I want to have more free SMS. Participant 3: You want to have more free SMS? Participant 4: You pay for what you get. Participant 1: No, I want it for free. Moderator: So youre not satisfied with your current plan? Participant 2: She isnt Participant 3: She needs more.
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Moderator: what about you, what makes you satisfied with the plan? Participant 2: price, right? Participant 3: Yeah, it is quite cheap. Even if you exceed the 25 cent per SMS, it is quite affordable. Then I usually dont exceed the talk time, the talk time is a bit more expensive. Participant 2: Normally we just ask people to call us back so that we get free incoming calls. Moderator: Do you change your telephones and plans often? Or do you stick with the same plans and the same phones? Participant 3: Normally you stick with the same plan for two years. Participant 2: actually 20 months, until the plan expire. Participant 3: Yeah, if not we are charge with a termination fee. Moderator: Because you have a two year contract? All of the participants: Yes. Moderator: Do you think you would have changed it more often if you werent on a contract? Participant 3: I dont think so. Participant 4: I dont think so. We remember by number, so if we keep changing all the time it will all be very confusing. Moderator: So your phone number is important? Participant 3 and 4: Yeah. Participant 3: If you keep changing number all the time, your friends will be irritated. Moderator: But what if you can transfer your number to another plan? If your number stayed the same, but you could change the plan? Participant 3: Yes, maybe then Participant 4: That would be ok. Participant 2: I dont think there is any plan that is better than the student plans so I dont need to change the plan. Participant 1: As long as we are students. Participant 4: But we are not going to be students for ever. Moderator: Would you say that since you have a student plan you are more loyal to your operator? Or doesnt the operator matter? Is it the student plan? Participant 2: Actually all operators got a student plan, but the packages are different. Participant 4: Yeah they have different package. Moderator: So what was the main reason for choosing the operator you have now? Participant 4: Free SMS.
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Moderator: So its the free SMS? Participant 4: Yes. Participant 3: My current operator provided me with half price offer. Normally it is around 25 dollar, now they only charge me 14 dollars per month for the first six months. That is if I dont exceed. Participant 1: That is so cheap. Participant 2: I thought it was 25 dollars. Participant 3: No, they only charge me only 14 dollars. Participant 1: Wow. Participant 3: They are charging me 12 dollars now. Moderator: Is that because you use the plan so much? Participant 4: It is a promotion. Participant 3: Yeah. Moderator: A promotion, oh ok. Participant 3: First I got a promotion and the phone was on offer. So, I got offers at one go. Moderator: So you dont choose the plan because of the operator? All of the participants: No. Participant 3: Not so much, actually for me it is the price. Participant 1: yes it is the price. Participant 3: Because we are student we chose the affordable operator. Participant 2: But I think the operators also got their own labels, people say: SingTel is the best and Star Hub is some of the lousiest, they say they have bad reception and all that. All of the participants: Yeah. Participant 3: So you dont see us using Star Hub. Participant 1 and 2: You use SingTel or M1. Moderator: So SingTel is perceived as the best operator? Participant 2: Supposedly yes. All participants agree. Participant 4: And Star Hub is the so-called worse. Participant 3: Like if you tell your friends that you are using Star Hub operator they would associate that you are very budget and very low class. Moderator: Do you think your friends influence what brand you choose or which plan you choose? Participant 3: For me no. All participants agree. Participant 2: More like the parents. All participants agree. Moderator: Did you choose this plan yourself? Participant 3: Yeah I did choose myself. Participant 4: Yes.
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Moderator: so when you are paying your bills yourself, do you find it easy? Can you go online? Participant 3: Normally it is quite convenient; there are many ways to pay. You can use check, mail and you can go to the post office Participant 1: It is easiest online. Participant 3: Yeah online is ok. Participant 2: I dont know what is easiest because my parents pay my bills. Participant 1: My parents told me that they pay online; I dont pay my own bills. Moderator: But is that something that matters when you choose youre operator, the ease of payment? Participant 3: It is easy for all operators. All participants agree. Participant 4: It is a very competitive market in Singapore. Moderator: What do you think of the available plans that you can choose from? Would you like to have more pans to choose from? Participant 4: Actually, SingTel have four student plans right now. Participant 3: For example if you choose the most basic one you get 400 SMS free, than free incoming, 100 minutes outgoing. Participant 4: And it cost 15 dollars Participant 3: Yeah for 15 dollars. More free SMS more free outgoing phone calls and the price will go up also. So you have to choose which one is most suitable for you. Plan vice I think there is a variety, we can choose the plans according to our needs. Moderator: Ok, what do you think it is enough plans to choose from? Participant 1: I dont know. Participant 2: You see it is our parents who are dealing with all these administrative stuff. As long as we have a phone, we dont really know what plan we have. Participant 1: We just want the nicest one when we look at the advertisements. Participant 3: Sometimes there is special offer, the most basic plan is actual 28 dollars but I got mine for 15 dollars. Participant 4: really, the cheapest is 14 dollars.
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Moderator: If you could make a youth plan or student plan yourself, what features would it have? Participant 3: More SMS Participant 4: I feel like for our age group you can just generalize that we SMS more than we talk. Participant 2: I talk also, I talk a lot. Participant 1: But for students, they always use SMS at school because they cant talk. Participant 3: Under the table. Participant 1: Its more convenient that way. Moderator: What about other contents? Ring tones, games and stuff like that? Participant 3: Normally all our phones is on silence. Participant 2: Yeah. Participant 4: But functions like cameras are more used by girls and for the guys it would be games. Participant 3: For me it is games. What do you use, SMS? Participant 2: I use the phone to talk. And I also use the function by M1 which is called; Buy buy ring ring. So when people call me they hear a song. Did you hear that song? It is so nice. Participant 4: The song is like 4 dollars a month Participant 2: No, 2 dollars and 70 cent. I dont pay my bills so I dont really care. Moderator: If you use the camera, do you use it to send the pictures taken or to download pictures? Participant 4: I think I got a lot of female friends who just like to take pictures of themselves. Moderator: Do you send or receive a lot of MMS? Participant 2: We dont send it we just take the pictures and then keep them. Participant 3: If we want to exchange we use Bluetooth, because Bluetooth is free. Moderator: Is there a reason why you dont send MMS? Participant 1 and 2: It is expensive. Participant 3: Yes it is quite expensive. Participant 2: Very expensive. Participant 4: I think it is 50 cent for one MMS. Participant 3: Yes. It is more common to use E-mail. Moderator: Are there anyone that influences your choice of plan? You mentioned friends earlier. Participant 1: Yeah and parents. Participant 3: No I chose myself. Participant 4: No. Moderator: Did you choose it yourself? Participant 3 and 4: Yes. Participant 2: My parents are paying for it so they have the right to choose the plan.
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Moderator: Before you chose the plan, did you ask your friends what they have and asked them for advice? Participant 4: I dont, I just see what I need before choosing a plan. Participant 2: Yeah. Participant 3: I go look around and then compare prices. Participant 2: Yeah, do some research. Moderator: Where do you do the research, do you go to the stores or do you look online? Participant 3: Yeah in stores and online. Online I check the phone packages, to see if whether the phone can last for quite long time. Participant 1: We check for reviews for the phones on the internet. Moderator: So what about the plans? Participant 1: It doesnt really matter. All participants agree. Moderator: But when you go to the stores, how important is the service and the advice you get from the sales personal? Participant 3: Do they give advice? Participant 2: The lady was very kind to me; I think it can have affected my choice also. Initially I wanted to buy the Nokia music express phone, but then she was saying that this phone was cheaper and that they had somewhat the same functions, so thats why I chose this phone. She was the one that introduced it to me, if not I would have gotten the other phone with another plan. Moderator: But do the people working in the stores influence which plan you chose, or which plan you use? Participant 4: I dont think so. Participant 3: I dont think so either, because normally we already have a plan when buying a phone. Moderator: Is there any difference in the providers net coverage? Participant 4: Net coverage? Participant 3: I think it is the same. Participant 4: It is about the same, but SingTels signal is stronger. Participant 1 and 2: Yes. Participant 4: It can reach to the basement, so the signal strength is stronger. Participant 3: It seems better also. Participant 4: And it can stretch further in to Malaysia. In Certain parts of Malaysia you can receive reception from SingTel. Moderator: How far? Participant 4: Along the Straits I can receive reception, and all the way to the middle of JB, before I lose my signal.
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Moderator: Is there any of the providers that are considered the cheapest and the more expensive than the others? Participant 3: All providers have a variety of plans, from cheap to more expensive. Moderator: So it depends on the plan, not the provider? Participant 3: Yeah, most of the providers have the same types of plans. Moderator: Are you likely to stay with the provider you use now when youre not able to use a student plan or do you think you will change? Participant 1: Stay. Participant 3: I think we will stay with the provider, because we can upgrade using the plan. Then when you upgrade you can buy a phone at a lower price. Participant 1: How do you know all of this? Participant 3: 100 dollar discount. Moderator: But with the plan you have now, do your provider offers other services than communications? Like Internet, games, Ring tones, TV streaming? Participant 3: Normally they provide services like 4D, lottery and we can ask for the lottery result. Every Wednesday, Saturday and Sundays they will ask us: Would you like to get the lottery results. And there is this phone number you can call to chose to disclose your phone number. Participant 2: They provide us with downloads of ring tones, music and pictures. Participant 4: The SMS to other SingTel users for free. Participant 2: And free call to three M1 numbers. Moderator: So you choose the numbers and then you can call them for free? Participant 2 and 3: Yes. Participant 3: For SingTel they have this only for SMS between every SingTel user, so you can send a lot of SMS. Moderator: So what do you think of the overall service of the provider? Have you had any service encounters with your provider? Participant 4: Not really. Participant 3: Not yet. Participant 4: They have done a quite good job. Moderator: So you are overall satisfied? All of the participants: Yes.
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Moderator: So if you want to buy a new hand phone today, would the provider offer reduction off the price? Participant 3: You have to fulfill your contract first and after that you will have offers on the phone you wish to buy. Participant 2: A discount of 120 dollars. Participant 3: Around there, about 100 dollars. Participant 4: And you can triad in your phone as well in exchange for another phone and get a price reduction. Participant 3: Different models have different prices, based on the market price on the phone and also the condition of the phone. My phone has a market price around 100 dollars. Participant 1: Are you sure? Participant 3: I asked them and they said that a phone in this condition is worth 100 dollars. Moderator: Is there any services or features you miss from your provider? You mentioned more free SMS, are there other things you miss. Participant 4: Maybe they could lower the price on International SMS. Because I think pre paid for SingTel is about 1 dollar for one International SMS. Participant 3: Only 1 dollar? Participant 4: If I send a message from my provider in Malaysia to Singapore it will only cost me 20 cent and that is in Malaysian currency, so the price difference is a lot. Participant 3: Last time I used SingTel sending SMS from Malaysia it cost 4 dollar pr SMS. So it is quite expensive. Moderator: Are there any other benefits you get because you use your plan or provider, like events etc. Participant 4: We can send free SMS on Mas Salamat. Participant 3: They give me this promotion for teen magazines, about 20 dollars off. They have also given me different types of promotion. Moderator: So how much time do you think you use playing games? Participant 3: On the phone? Moderator: Yes, on the phone. Participant 3: Half an hour each time, and about one time a day, seven days a week. Moderator: Are there any student plans for students in Malaysia or do they have different plans there then here in Singapore? Participant 4: they have to main providers in Malaysia, Maxis and Celcom. Maxis are the more widely used, and it is the cheapest as well. It is actually a pre paid plan; they buy a card and pay full price for the phones. I dont think they have student plans. Moderator: Have you heard about a company called DiGi? Participant 4: Yes I have, but its not really used widely. From what I know, DiGi signal strength I very low. The best signal strengths are usually for Maxis and Celcom. Participant 3: If you use DiGi the signal is quite unstable
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Moderator: You said that you are more likely to stay with you provider of the plans you have now in the following years. From a scale to 1 to 10, where 10 is very loyal, how loyal do you consider youre self towards the provider? Participant4: I would be around 5, because if other operators were to provide a better plan, I would just jump over. Moderator: Both here and in Singapore? Participant 4: For Malaysia I have a pre paid card witch I am quite satisfied with as it only cost me 20 cent to send a message to another maxis subscriber. Moderator: Ok I think thats it. Thank you for coming.
3.3Focus group 3 Participant 1, 2 and 3 were girls and participant 4 was a boy, none of them had participated in focus groups before. Moderator: Its just for the ease of the data processing later on. You will be kept anonymous, so dont worry about it. Have you participated in focus groups before? Participant 1: No Participant 2: No Moderator: OK, lets start. Do you have a hand phone? Participant 1: Yes Participant 2: Yes Participant 3: Yes Participant 4: Yes Moderator: Can you show it to the group? Nice phones. Thats a Samsung. Thats a Sony Ericsson. Participant 3: Sony Ericsson Moderator: And thats Nokia phones. Participant 1 and 2: Yeah Moderator: Is there any particular reason for why you chose this phone model? Participant 3: Because of the price. Moderator: Price? Participant 3: Yeah Participant 4: I like this phone Because of the fact that it slides up like this. Moderator: Yeah, so design is a feature. What about you? Participant 2: Function? Because it is a Cyber shot phone.
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Moderator: OK. When you bought the telephone, did you buy it with a plan? Participant 3: Yeah. I actually continued with my old plan. Moderator: So what about you? Participant 1: Yeah same with me too. Participant 4: I didnt. Moderator: Did you buy it without a plan, or did you Participant 4: (interrupts) Yeah, I bought it without a plan. I wanted to get the other phone that SingTel was having a promotion for. Moderator: When you chose the plan, did it matter which provider it was? Did you prefer one provider over another? Participant 3: When I chose the plan? See, I actually dont know why I chose Star-Hub. Moderator: You dont know? Participant 3: I dont remember why I chose Star-Hub. Yeah. Moderator: OK. Because there are three providers here in Singapore? Participant 2, 3 and 4: Correct. Moderator: Theres Star-Hub Participant 2 and 3: (interrupts) SingTel and M1 Moderator: Is there any one out of the providers thats considered to be the best to have? Better than the others? Participant 2: Not exactly best, but I would say SingTel is more popular. Participant 3: Yeah, because I think it gets cheaper as you continue their services. Yeah. Is it lah? Participant 2: Yeah, customer loyalty. Participant 4: I think M1 also have. But for SingTel I think you sign up for a hand phone, internet and mayo TV, as a package, you get it cheaper. Moderator: Oh OK. So, about your plans, are you satisfied with them? Participant 3: Yeah, currently. Are you? Participant 2: I am. Moderator: How about you? Participant 4: I am. Because what I do for this plan, I sign up with a plan so I can get more cash. Because at the time when I signed up for this plan it was to get a PDA phone right, so, instead of me getting the PDA phone, I sell the PDA phone to another person. So it was actually quite a good deal. Why I chose it is because this model had a promotion; only half. So Im quite happy with it. Moderator: OK. Do you change your plans and your phones often? Participant 3: No. Because its like the cheapest phone you can get right now. Yeah. Page 26
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Moderator: So you see yourself sticking with that plan for some time? Participant 3: Yeah, I cant even change my plan since I got a phone. Participant 2: Me too. Participant 2 and 3: Yeah. Participant 3: Its for convenience sake also. Because I think if you change a plan you need to have some processing fee if Im not wrong. Moderator: Because you have a contract or something like that? Participant 2 and 3: Yeah. Moderator: OK. Do you travel abroad? Participant 3: Not really. Participant 4: No. Moderator: OK. I was just wondering if you used your plan when you were travelling abroad. So what service that the plan offers is most important to you? What do you feel is most important with the plan? Participant 3: SMS and free incoming. Yeah. Because I do not call people that often. I prefer people to call me. Participant 2: Yeah same for me. Moderator: SMS? You send a lot of SMS? Participant 2: Yes. Participant 4: I think its price of the plan. Moderator: Price of the plan? Participant 4: Yeah, to me that is the most important thing, price. What I mean is price as in value for money. It must give me the lowest price and most SMS free and most outgoing calls free. Moderator: What about you? Participant 1: I think price, and whether it meets my requirements. Moderator: So price is an important factor for you? Participant 3: Yeah at this stage I would think. Because we are students so we do not have much income. All participants: Yeah. Moderator: Did you choose this plan yourself, or did someone choose it for you? All participants: I chose myself. Moderator: Does anyone influence your choice of plans, like your friends, your family, or some school buddies. Participant 3: No. Participant 4: For me, choice of plan? No, only choice of phone maybe.
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Moderator: OK. So how do you choose a plan? Do you go to a store or do you go on the internet? Participant 3: I think most of the plans are standard throughout the three tele companies, so actually theres not much variety to choose from. Moderator: So they mostly have the same plans? Participator 2, 3 and 4: Yeah. Participator 3: And almost the same price also. Participant 4: The only difference is the type of handset they offer at the promotional price. That is the only main difference. Moderator: So is it the same for you? Do you go to the internet to check out the plans, or do you go to the store? Participant 2: For me it was because at the time they were having a promotion, so yeah, I saw it in the newspaper. Moderator: OK. Would you like it if you had more plans to choose from? More variety? Participant 3: Yeah. If they can convey the number of outgoing minutes, and the number of SMS, because right now its all standard. Say 500 SMS and 100 minutes outgoing, so maybe they can make some variations with all this. Participant 2 and 4: Yeah. Moderator: OK. When you pay your bills, is that easy? Do you do it on the internet or? Participant 4: Normally I do it through the send machine. Participants 1, 2 and 3: Yeah. Moderator: Is that the internet? Participant 3: Its just a machine for us to pay bills. Because its a, what do you call it, an integrated machine. As in you can actually pay a lot of bills through that machine. Participants 1, 2 and 4: Yeah. Participant 3: Theres one here if Im not wrong. Moderator: Here on campus? All participants: Yeah Participant 4: Theres one machine where you can buy your movie tickets, pay off fines. Moderator: Oh I didnt know that. Participant 3: Yeah, its actually by can B. Moderator: Is it like an ATM? Participant 3: Its actually next to the ATM. Participant 2: Yeah it looks like an ATM. Moderator: OK. So you just bring your bills there and All Participants: Yeah, correct.
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Moderator: Ok. So you can do that with all service providers? All participants: Yeah. Moderator: OK. If you could make a student plan yourself, what features would it have? If you could choose among all the features of the plan and you can make it yourself, what particular features would it have? You can say everything you want, nothing is stupid. Participant 3: What features? Participant 2: SMS. Moderator: SMS? Participant 2: Free incoming. Participant 3: It was the same as what I was going to say. Maybe it should have outgoing also. Participant 2: Maybe it could have this conversion feature. So perhaps like, I didnt use up my 500 SMS last month, then it could roll over to next month, or can convert it to my talk time. Participants 1, 3 and 4: Yeah. Moderator: Yeah, thats a good idea. Participant 3: Actually they have the roll-over for Participant 2: (interrupts) For Star-Hub. Participant 3: Yeah, but I think its cancelled. As in I think they had it in the first few years when they started out. Yeah. Moderator: Is there anything else? Some contents, some ring tones you would like to have in the plan? Internet access? Participant 3: Internet? Not really, because I think its quite expensive. Participant 4: If they lower the price they charge for broadband on mobile, it would be better, because right now if I use my phone to surf the net, because mine is not 3G, so quite slow. So the connecting time will be quite long, then as the time is quite long they are charging by per second if Im not wrong, then the bill for the internet surfing will be actually quite a lot. So I rather they had cheaper. Moderator: Cheaper internet service, not SMS. But what about ring tones? Is that something you can have in a plan? Participant 3: Ring tones? Not necessarily right, because now we can download it and save it in our phone. So it isnt really an issue. Participant 2: Yeah. And theres MP3 player function in most phones. Participant 1 and 3: Yeah, correct. Moderator: Do you use that a lot? Participant 3: For mine, not really. Because it actually has very little capacity. Your phone? Participant 2: OK, I do listen to songs by using my phone. MP3s I just use to set the ring tones on my phone.
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Moderator: Is there any other features of your phone that you use a lot? Participant 4: Well maybe they can put some more free games inside the phone, because I would then use my phone to play games when Im bored. So I think maybe they can send you some free games, every time there is a promotion, I think that would be a good idea. Moderator: Is it important to have the same plan as your friends? All participants: No. Moderator: So you dont get a discount if you have the same plan? All participants: No Participant 3: They should definitely include that. They should give us discount if the hole family have the same subscription from the same company then they should have some discount. Family discounts. Participant 2: Family package Participant 4: Good idea. Moderator: So, are there any of the providers here that are considered better than the others? In term of net coverage, service and price Participant 3: I think it is about the same. Just for the coverage I think it depends on areas, because I know that in some areas the coverage is different from some areas. I think star hub has very bad coverage; you cant use the phone on the roof top. Moderator: What do you think about the service of the provider? Have you had any service encounters? Participant 3: So far it hasnt really bothered me, but with SingTel there is a problem right? Participant 1: Oh yeah previously, actually quite recently there have been some reception problems for 2G phones, because we couldnt receive. Because I think there was some net work distribution mainly in the west area, but after you upgrade to 3G it is ok. Moderator: So is that something that made you feel that you were not appreciated as a customer? Participant 1: I felt quite irritated, but SingTel actually compensated us by giving us a free phone, so its ok. Moderator: thats pretty good. Participant 1: Yeah. Moderator: But do the providers offer other services then communication? Like games, internet, MMS, ring tones or TV streaming? Participant 4: You mean if they offer this? Moderator: Yeah. Participant 4: Yeah they do, but they charge a price for it. Participant 3: Yeah they do.
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Moderator: So they offer it for the plans you have to? The student plans? Participant 3: Yeah, but they charge us a certain rate. For star hub they actually quite expensive and so are the music. Moderator: If you were to buy a new hand phone today to the provider offer reduction in price? Participant 3: Reduction in price? Participant: You mean? Moderator: If you went to the store today and chose a SingTel plan, do you get a reduction of the Hand phone price? Participant 4: If I would buy it? Yes. Moderator: But do they usually offer reductions in price if you buy their plans? Participant 4: Not really a reduction in price I think it is the availability of the hand phone model itself. Because right now for the newest models maybe only SingTel would get it or maybe M1 would get it. So they would get a particular model, so they that are interested in the phone can actually pay a lower price to get the latest model. Moderator: can you trade in your old hand phone to a new one? Participant 3: Can Participant 2: Can. But it depends on how much time you have on your contract. If its under one year you can get it at the promotion price, but if its more than one year then you cant, so you have to pay an additional 100 dollars Moderator: So if you didnt have a contract, what would make you change your plan to another provider? Participant 3: If I didnt have a contract.. Moderator: If you were free to choose whatever plan you wanted, what would make you change to another plan? Participant 4: Can I start first? Moderator: Yes, off course. Participant 4: First off all, the phone most is good. Normally the reason that I want to change is to get a profit of the phone because I sell it to other people. There must not be the one time registration charge because every time you get a new plan you have to register and they will charge you about S$ 30 ++ and if you want to do number porting I think they offer it for free, but it was quite troublesome for me when I did number porting. Moderator: I understand what you mean. Participant 4: Yeah. So, if they could get rid of this trouble for consumers I think it would be better.
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Moderator: So number porting is an important factor that you consider when you change your plan? Participant 4: Yeah Moderator: What about you? Participant 2: Since we are students, it still boils down to the plan. So if the price and the plan are ok I would go ahead. And SingTel and Star hub offers almost similar plan to similar price, so if I didnt have a contract today maybe I would change to Star hub. Moderator: So do you feel that you are loyal to the provider you have now? Participant 33: Not really loyal, its just a hassle to change. You actually have to pay an extra fee to change the plan and then the problems with the number porting also, but I think they have improved the system over the years. But right now if you change it is actually free, but for previous years you actually had to include an additional fee. Moderator: So the reason that you dont change is actually the problems with the number porting, that you have a contract and that there is no better offer? Participant 3: Correct. Moderator: So if there was a better offer, no problem with number porting, you would change? Participant 1 and 2: Yeah. Participant 3: Because right now Im considering the SingTel main plan to integrate to services in to one so its more convenient and its cheaper in that sense that we dont have to pay so many bills. I think they actually make some concessionary payments within the three services they offer. Moderator: can you tell me more about that? I havent heard about it. Participant 3: They actually include internet, TV and your phone. Then the pro plan is actually around S$60-70 depending on your services. Moderator: Have all of you heard about it? All the participants: Yes. Moderator: Is that something you consider? Participant 2: Yeah. Participant 1: Maybe not for me. Moderator: Do you think it is a difference in the way you use the phones form guys to girls? Do you think guys have a different way of using the phone then girls? Participant 4: I think guys call girls often, so guys have to have more outgoing calls and girls have to have more incoming calls because the guys calls the girls. Participant 2: Maybe the girls are shyer so we message more, so we need SMS more than outgoing calls.
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Moderator: What of other contents in your plan like MMS and games? Do you think guys use that in a different way? Participant 4: I think guys like to send a lot of MMS and playing games. Participant 3: I think guys use internet more than girls, because I have a few guy friends who like to the internet on their phones sometimes. Participant 2: I know they check the soccer. Participant 4: Yeah I check soccer result and every Saturday and Sunday Ill check for the lottery result. This is normally why I use the internet. Moderator: Which lottery is that? Participant 4: Singapore local lottery system. Moderator: Is it money prices? Participant 4: different ranges, so it depending on which one you plays. Sometimes the price can go up to S$10 million, sometimes S$ 2-3 million and sometimes S$60+. Moderator: Are there any service or features that you miss from your provider that you would like to include in your plan? Participant 3: Not really. But maybe they could have cheaper overseas calls and if you go on overseas trips it could be cheaper to call. Maybe they can incorporate this to their package, to certain countries. Moderator: What about the rest of you. Do you think there is something missing? Participant 1: Customer service could be better. Moderator: Better customer service? Participant 1: Yeah because if you have some problems you have to call they and very often you have to queue for a long time. Moderator: What do you think about the service in the outlets? Participant 1: long waiting time. Moderator: Is that a general perception? Do you all feel the same? Participant 4: Depends of what kind of outlet you are talking about. Moderator: I was thinking of the different outlets for the different providers. All telecom providers have their own outlets. Participant 4: SingTel have their own shop and they also have their own distributors. But normally for their outlets the queue will be very long, but in general they are quite ok. For the distributor side it really has to depend. Moderator: But when you go to an outlet like that do you listen to the advice the sales people give you? Participant 4: No, because I know when I go there they want to earn my money. There are some people who really know how to play around.
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Moderator: What do the rest of you think? Participant 3: I would ask the sales people to recommend a phone for me. I would have one in mind, than I have to see whether the features of the phone they recommend is the same as the one I have in mind, so I compare them. Because we are not as experienced as him, we do not know what the features are on the new models so I would like them to recommend. Moderator: But what about the plans, do you ask for advice on plans? Participant 3: I feel very comfortable with the current plan so I just keep continuing with that. Participant 2: Yeah. Participant 1: Same. Moderator: When you go to an outlet, do you think there is a difference the way the guys act and the way the girls act when getting advice for sales personal? Participant 2: Most of the counter staff is guys I think. Moderator: Do you think guys do more research before they go out to an outlet to choose a plan or a hand phone? Participant 3: Yeah I think so. Participant 2: Yeah I think guys discuss it more with their friends compared to girls who really dont talk about it. Participant 4: I think buying a new phone is quite exciting its like; Im going to buy this phone, and what about plan? Whats the latest promotion? Should I get it from this shop or should I get it from another shop? Moderator: So do you think girls trust the sale people more than guys? Participant 3: I would think so. Participant 2: We tend to be easily persuaded. Moderator: So you listen to the advice you get from the sales people. Is that important for you? Participant 2: depends on what the sales persons say. If they try to recommend me a plan or something and I feel that it really doesnt suites my needs I wouldnt go for it. Moderator: So its about trust? You trust what the sales people say and that they are giving you the right advice and that they say the honest thing? Participant 2: Its more like I want to know if the things I already know are correct, sp I will check with the sales people, just to make sure before take another plan or buying a new phone. Moderator: Is there any other benefits because you use the plan you use today outside telecommunication? Like events, or discounts in stores? Participant 1: I think for SingTel it is this internet you can use which is free of charge. So you can just log on to the internet as long as you have a SingTel card and send free SMS to another SingTel user.
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Moderator: Ok because I know that last time Zouk had a Halloween party SingTel was there and if you if you had a SingTel plan they would let you in front of the queue. Have you heard about anything like that? Participant 4: Yeah, because I always receive this kind of SMS from SingTel with promotions. I just got an SMS where I could get free entry. And they always got discount promotion. Moderator: Do you get that kind of promotions? Participant 3: I think Star hub has that also. Star hub has actually this point system were you can trait your point to certain goods, depending on what are the rates. Other than that I think they have exclusive right to some concerts, but Im not sure about that. Moderator: So is that something that you feel is important for your plan? Is this a thing you make use of? Participant 2: It is not exactly important, is just a bonus they have, its not a requirement. Moderator: have you heard of any telecom providers in Malaysia? Participant 3: Yeah there is one very obvious. Participant 2: DiGi Participant 3: You can see the billboard but I cant remember. Moderator: Ok I think thats it. Thank you for coming.
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Appendix V Research Model by Dick & Basu

Cognitive Antecedents -Accessibility -Confidence
Social Norm
Affective Antecedents -Emotion -Feeling States/Mood Relative Attitude Repeat Patronage
Consequences -Search Motivation -Resistance to Counter Persuasion -Word-of-Mouth
Loyalty relationship
Conative Antecedents -Switching Cost -Sunk Cost
Situational influence
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Appendix VI Research Model by Hansen & Jensen
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Appendix VII Research Model by Martensen et al.
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Appendix VIII Questionnaire Singapore
Dear Survey Participant, We are a group of marketing students who are conducting a research project at Nanyang Business School. Our project is about understanding consumers in the telecommunication market. The answers to the survey questionnaire will be combined with those of your peers, and analyzed by us. Your response is important to us and crucial for the success of this study. The results will be treated confidentially, and you will remain completely anonymous. This survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. Your time and honest answers are much appreciated. Sincerely, Stefanie Aasheim, Ida Groven, Andreas Eriksen, Marius Pettersen and Mats G. Kohler
1. What is your current operator? (If you have more than one operator, please answer the question related to the operator that you use the most): (Control1)
SingTel
StarHub
M1
2. Did you choose the operator yourself? (Control2)
Myself
Other
3. Most Preferred Hand Phone brand (Please tick only one): (Control3)
Nokia
Samsung Siemens Motorola Sony Ericsson
HTC
Panasonic Other Does not matter
4. My choice to purchase this operator was a wise one: (Customer satisfaction1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
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5. Towards my operator I feel: (Attitudinal loyalty1) 1 Unfavorable 2 3
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4 Neutral
7 Favorable
6. This operator provides me with exactly what I need: (Customer satisfaction2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
7. All the different operators are basically the same in quality: (Perceived difference between operators1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
8. In general, it would be a hassle changing operator: (Switching cost1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
9. The decision to choose an operator is: (Purchase involvement1) 1 Unimportant 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Very important
10. If I choose the wrong operator I have: (Purchase involvement2) 1 A lot to lose 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Little to lose
11. There are only minor variations among the different operators in terms of quality: (Perc. diff. bet. operators2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
12. It would take a lot of time and effort to change operators: (Switching cost2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
13. In the near future, I intend to use one of the services offered by my operator: (Behavioral loyalty1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
14. My feelings toward my operator are: (Attitudinal loyalty2) 1 Bad 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Good
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15. I did the right thing when I chose this operator: (Customer satisfaction3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
16. I am likely to make negative comments about my operator to my friends and family: (Behavioral loyalty2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
17. How much do you like the service of your operator? (Attitudinal loyalty2) 1 Not at all 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Very much so
18. I dont think that there are any significant differences among the different operators in terms of quality: (Perc. diff. bet. Operators3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
19. The decision to choose an operator: (Purchase involvement3) 1 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Requires a lot of thought
Requires little thought
20. The cost in time, money and effort to switch operator is high: (Switching cost3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
21. The decision to choose an operator is to me: (Purchase involvement4) 1 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7
Not mainly logical or objective
Mainly logical or objective
22. The decision is based on: (Purchase involvement5) 1 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7
Not mainly on functional facts
Mainly on functional facts
23. I would recommend my operator to my friends and family: (Behavioral loyalty3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
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24. Operators do not vary a lot in terms of quality: (Perceived difference between operators4) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
25. Towards my operator I have: (Attitudinal loyalty3) 1 Negative feelings Information questions: 26. Age group: 17 and below 18-20 21-23 24-26 27-29 30 and above 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Positive feelings
27. Gender: Male Female
28. Race: Chinese Malay Indian Caucasian Other______________
29. Are you employed? Yes No
30. Monthly income (SGD): None 0- 1000 1001-1500 1501-2000 2001-2500 2501-3000 >3001
31. Highest level of education: O-level Junior College Polytechnic Undergraduate Master Ph.D. Other
32. Plan type: Pre-paid 33. Service type: 2G 34. Are you a student? Yes No 3G Dont know Post-paid Post-paid student Business Other
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How important are the following factors when it comes to your current operator?
(Please circle around the appropriate number for each factor)
Very Unimportant Ope ra tor ha s cus tome r focus Ope ra tor i s cons i de red a n i nnova tor Ope ra tor ha s res pe ct for the i ndi vdua l Ope ra tor i s s oci a l l y re s pons i bl e Ope ra tor i s trus tworthy Ope ra tor i s perci ve d a s genui ne Ope ra tor offe rs cons i s tent qua l i ty Ope ra tor offe rs va l ue for mone y Ope ra tor offe rs pra cti ca l s ervi ce s Ope ra tor i s pl ea s ura bl e Ope ra tor ha s youthful s pi ri t Ope ra tor gi ve s you a s ens e of one nes s Ope ra tor ma kes you fe el you ma de a ri ght choi ce Ope ra tor gi ve s you s oci a l a pprova l Ope ra tor i s a s ta tus s ymbol Ope ra tor ha s products tha t ta rgets your a ge group Ope ra tor ha s pos i ti ve reputa ti on a mong your pee rs Cus tomer Servi ce from Opera tor Net Covera ge Pri ce SMS Pri ce MMS Pri ce Ca l l s Pri ce Monthl y fe e Pri ce ga me s downl oa d Pri ce ri ngtone s downl oa d Pri ce mus i c downl oa d Pri ce da ta tra ns fer Othe r______________________________________ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 Neutral Very Important 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Thank you for participating in this survey.

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Appendix IX Questionnaire Malaysia
Dear Survey Participant, We are a group of marketing students who are conducting a research project at Nanyang Business School. Our project is about understanding consumers in the telecommunication market. The answers to the survey questionnaire will be combined with those of your peers, and analyzed by us. Your response is important to us and crucial for the success of this study. The results will be treated confidentially, and you will remain completely anonymous. This survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. Your time and honest answers are much appreciated. Sincerely, Stefanie Aasheim, Ida Groven, Andreas Eriksen, Marius Pettersen and Mats G. Kohler
35. What is your current operator? (If you have more than one operator, please answer the question related to the operator that you use the most): (Control1)
Maxis
DiGi
Celcom
36. Did you choose the operator yourself? (Control2)
Myself
Other
37. Most Preferred Hand Phone brand (Please tick only one): (Control3)
Nokia
Samsung Siemens Motorola Sony Ericsson
HTC
Panasonic Other Does not matter
38. My choice to purchase this operator was a wise one: (Customer satisfaction1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
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39. Towards my operator I feel: (Attitudinal loyalty1) 1 Unfavorable 2 3
Appendix
Grameenphone
4 Neutral
7 Favorable
40. This operator provides me with exactly what I need: (Customer satisfaction2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
41. All the different operators are basically the same in quality: (Perceived difference between operators1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
42. In general, it would be a hassle changing operator: (Switching cost1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
43. The decision to choose an operator is: (Purchase involvement1) 1 Unimportant 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Very important
44. If I choose the wrong operator I have: (Purchase involvement2) 1 A lot to lose 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Little to lose
45. There are only minor variations among the different operators in terms of quality: (Perc. diff. bet. operators2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
46. It would take a lot of time and effort to change operators: (Switching cost2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
47. In the near future, I intend to use one of the services offered by my operator: (Behavioral loyalty1) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
48. My feelings toward my operator are: (Attitudinal loyalty2) 1 Bad 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Good
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49. I did the right thing when I chose this operator: (Customer satisfaction3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
50. I am likely to make negative comments about my operator to my friends and family: (Behavioral loyalty2) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
51. How much do you like the service of your operator? (Attitudinal loyalty2) 1 Not at all 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Very much so
52. I dont think that there are any significant differences among the different operators in terms of quality: (Perc. diff. bet. Operators3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
53. The decision to choose an operator: (Purchase involvement3) 1 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Requires a lot of thought
Requires little thought
54. The cost in time, money and effort to switch operator is high: (Switching cost3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
55. The decision to choose an operator is to me: (Purchase involvement4) 1 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7
Not mainly logical or objective
Mainly logical or objective
56. The decision is based on: (Purchase involvement5) 1 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7
Not mainly on functional facts
Mainly on functional facts
57. I would recommend my operator to my friends and family: (Behavioral loyalty3) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
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58. Operators do not vary a lot in terms of quality: (Perceived difference between operators4) 1 Strongly Disagree 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Strongly Agree
59. Towards my operator I have: (Attitudinal loyalty3) 1 Negative feelings Information questions: 60. Age group: 17 and below 18-20 21-23 24-26 27-29 30 and above 2 3 4 Neutral 5 6 7 Positive feelings
61. Gender: Male Female
62. Race: Chinese Malay Indian Caucasian Other______________
63. Are you employed? Yes No
64. Monthly income (MYR): None 0- 1000 1001-1500 1501-2000 2001-2500 2501-3000 >3001
65. Highest level of education: O-level Junior College Polytechnic Undergraduate Master Ph.D. Other
66. Plan type: Pre-paid 67. Service type: 2G 68. Are you a student? Yes No 3G Dont know Post-paid Post-paid student Business Other
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How important are the following factors when it comes to your current operator?
(Please circle around the appropriate number for each factor)
Very Unimportant Ope ra tor ha s cus tome r focus Ope ra tor i s cons i de red a n i nnova tor Ope ra tor ha s res pe ct for the i ndi vdua l Ope ra tor i s s oci a l l y re s pons i bl e Ope ra tor i s trus tworthy Ope ra tor i s perci ve d a s genui ne Ope ra tor offe rs cons i s tent qua l i ty Ope ra tor offe rs va l ue for mone y Ope ra tor offe rs pra cti ca l s ervi ce s Ope ra tor i s pl ea s ura bl e Ope ra tor ha s youthful s pi ri t Ope ra tor gi ve s you a s ens e of one nes s Ope ra tor ma kes you fe el you ma de a ri ght choi ce Ope ra tor gi ve s you s oci a l a pprova l Ope ra tor i s a s ta tus s ymbol Ope ra tor ha s products tha t ta rgets your a ge group Ope ra tor ha s pos i ti ve reputa ti on a mong your pee rs Cus tomer Servi ce from Opera tor Net Covera ge Pri ce SMS Pri ce MMS Pri ce Ca l l s Pri ce Monthl y fe e Pri ce ga me s downl oa d Pri ce ri ngtone s downl oa d Pri ce mus i c downl oa d Pri ce da ta tra ns fer Othe r______________________________________ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 Neutral Very Important 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Thank you for participating in this survey.

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Grameenphone
Appendix X Summary of tests performed in SPSS

7.1 Missing Value Analysis
Univariate Statistics Q1_Control1 Q2_Control2 Q3_Control3 Q4_Satisfaction1 Q5_Attitude1 Q6_Satisfaction2 Q7_Perceieved1 Q8_SwitchingCost1 Q9_Involvement1 Q10_Involvement2 Q11_Perceieved2 Q12_SwitchingCost2 Q13_Loyalty1 Q14_Attitude2 Q15_Satisfaction3 Q16_Loyalty2 Q17_Attitude3 Q18_Perceieved3 Q19_Involvement3 Q20_SwitchingCost3 Q21_Involvement4 Q22_Involvement5 Q23_Loyalty3 Q24_Perceieved4 Q25_Attitude4 Q26_Control4 Q27_Control5 Q28_Control6 Q29_Control7 Q30_Control8 Q31_Control9 Q32_Control10 Q33_Control11 Q34_Control12 Q35_CorporateValues1 Q36_CorporateValues2 Q37_CorporateVaules3 Q38_Dependable1 Q39_Dependable2 Q40_Dependable3 Q41_FunctionalBenefits1 Q42_FunctionalBenefits2 Q43_FunctionalBenefits3 Q44_EmotionalBenefits1 Q45_EmotionalBenefits2 Q46_EmotionalBenefits3 Q47_SymbolicBenefits1 Q48_SymbolicBenefits2 Q49_SymbolicBenefits3 Q50_Own1 Q51_Own2 Q52_Own3 Q53_Own4 Q54_Price1 Q55_Price2 Q56_Price3 Q57_Price4 Q58_Price5 Q59_Price6 Q60_Price7 Q61_Price8 N 331 335 315 332 335 335 334 333 335 335 332 334 334 335 334 333 333 333 333 334 335 335 335 335 335 331 333 334 331 334 328 331 332 335 330 330 333 329 330 326 330 334 326 330 330 330 330 331 330 331 160 160 323 332 327 332 329 332 332 328 Mean 3,12 1,11 2,84 4,95 4,89 4,98 4,08 4,83 5,39 3,26 4,44 4,53 4,96 5,04 5,07 3,40 4,99 4,13 4,77 4,51 5,07 5,27 5,07 4,33 3,05 5,17 1,45 1,77 1,54 2,74 3,64 2,09 2,05 1,35 5,30 4,87 5,29 5,22 5,29 5,13 5,37 5,28 5,22 4,95 4,72 4,70 5,21 4,77 4,38 4,90 4,99 5,29 5,38 5,42 5,01 5,44 5,34 3,99 3,87 3,99 4,45 Count Missing Percent 4 1,2 0 ,0 20 6,0 3 ,9 0 ,0 0 ,0 1 ,3 2 ,6 0 ,0 0 ,0 3 ,9 1 ,3 1 ,3 0 ,0 1 ,3 2 ,6 2 ,6 2 ,6 2 ,6 1 ,3 0 ,0 0 ,0 0 ,0 0 ,0 0 ,0 4 1,2 2 ,6 1 ,3 4 1,2 1 ,3 7 2,1 4 1,2 3 ,9 0 ,0 5 1,5 5 1,5 2 ,6 6 1,8 5 1,5 9 2,7 5 1,5 1 ,3 9 2,7 5 1,5 5 1,5 5 1,5 5 1,5 4 1,2 5 1,5 4 1,2 175 52,2 175 52,2 12 3,6 3 ,9 8 2,4 3 ,9 6 1,8 3 ,9 3 ,9 7 2,1
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Appendix 7.2 Descriptive Analysis

N Statistic 331 335 315 332 335 335 334 333 335 335 332 334 334 335 334 333 333 333 333 334 335 335 335 335 335 335 331 333 334 331 334 328 331 332 335 330 330 333 329 330 326 330 334 326 330 330 330 330 331 330 331 160 160 323 332 327 332 329 332 332 328 104 Minimum Statistic 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Maximum Statistic 6 2 9 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 6 2 5 2 7 7 5 3 2 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 Skewnes s Statistic ,048 2,546 ,890 -,409 -,378 -,290 ,044 -,294 -,497 ,324 -,304 -,330 -,135 -,235 -,300 ,369 -,558 -,111 -,427 -,228 -,305 -,530 -,600 -,264 -,378 ,720 ,201 1,838 -,169 ,864 ,468 1,032 -,055 ,635 -,602 -,276 -,332 -,483 -,483 -,448 -,720 -,715 -,694 -,340 -,359 -,228 -,481 -,404 -,362 -,289 -,566 -,507 -,420 -,824 -,508 -,833 -,819 -,116 -,086 -,098 -,312
Grameenphone
Control1 (q1) Control2 (q2) Control3 (q3) Satisfaction1 (q4) Attitude1 (q5) Satisfaction2 (q6) Percieved1 (q7) SwitchingCost1 (q8) Involvement1 (q9) Involvement2 (q10) Percieved2 (q11) SwitchingCost2 (q12) Loyalty1 (q13) Attitude2 (q14) Satisfaction3 (q15) Loyalty2 (q16) Attitude3 (q17) Percieved3 (q18) Involvement3 (q19) SwitchingCost3 (q20) Involvement4 (q21) Involvement5 (q22) Loyalty3 (q23) Percieved4 (q24) Attitude4 (q25) Control4 (q26) Control5 (q27) Control6 (q28) Control7 (q29) Control8 (q30) Control9 (q31) Control10 (q32) Control11 (q33) Control12 (q34) Corporate Values1 (q35) Corporate Values2 (q36) Corporate Values3 (q37) Dependable1 (q38) Dependable2 (q39) Dependable3 (q40) Functional Benefits1 (q41) Functional Benefits2 (q42) Functional Benefits3 (q43) Emotional Benefits1 (q44) Emotional Benefits2 (q45) Emotional Benefits3 (q46) Symbolic Benefits1 (q47) Symbolic Benefits2 (q48) Symbolic Benefits3 (q49) Own1 (q50) Own2 (q51) Own3 (q52) Own4 (q53) Price1 (q54) Price2 (q55) Price3 (q56) Price4 (q57) Price5 (q58) Price6 (q59) Price7 (q60) Price8 (q61) Valid N (listwise)
Kurtosis Statistic -1,012 4,511 -,126 ,000 ,169 -,040 -,174 -,315 -,200 -,262 ,040 -,312 -,073 -,316 -,350 -,440 ,236 -,007 ,085 -,250 -,117 ,113 ,145 ,164 -,293 -,114 -1,971 2,517 -1,983 -,517 ,133 ,057 -,749 -1,607 -,012 -,044 -,381 -,271 -,342 -,084 -,132 ,108 ,083 -,044 ,100 -,148 -,052 ,118 -,291 -,306 ,333 -,620 -,603 ,159 -,330 ,050 ,091 -,617 -,790 -,899 -,689
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7.3 Reliability for the Constructs for the First Part 7.3.1 Attitudinal Loyalty
Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 10,17 10,03 10,22 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 5,725 5,746 5,549 Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,689 ,680 ,708 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted ,771 ,780 ,753
Reliability Statistics - Attitude Cronbach's Alpha ,833 N of Items 3
Attitude2 (q14) Attitude4 (q25) Attitude3 (q17)
7.3.2 Customer Satisfaction

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 4,97 5,07 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 1,438 1,817 Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,598 ,598 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted .a .a
Reliability Statistics - Satisfaction Cronbach's Alpha ,745 N of Items 2
Satisfaction3 (q15) Satisfaction2 (q6)
a. The value is negative due to a negative average covariance among items. This violates reliability model assumptions. You may want to check item codings.
7.3.3 Perceived Difference between Operators

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 12,54 12,86 12,92 12,67 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 9,676 9,946 9,948 9,972 Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,515 ,508 ,466 ,494 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted ,635 ,640 ,666 ,648
Reliability - Perceived Difference Cronbach's Alpha ,710 N of Items 4
Percieved2 (q11) Percieved3 (q18) Percieved1 (q7) Percieved4 (q24)
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Appendix 7.3.4 Switching Cost

Item-Total Statistics
Grameenphone
Reliability - Switching Costs Cronbach's Alpha ,492 N of Items 2
SwitchingCost2 (q12) SwitchingCost3 (q20)
Scale Mean if Item Deleted 4,51 4,52
Scale Variance if Item Deleted 2,389 2,485
Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,327 ,327
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted . .
7.3.5 Level of Involvement

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 4,77 5,39 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 2,035 1,709 Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,430 ,430 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted . .
Reliability Statistics - Involvement Cronbach's Alpha ,600 N of Items 2
Involvement1 (q9) Involvement3 (q19)
7.3.6 Behavioral Loyalty

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 5,07 4,96 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 2,172 1,527 Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,413 ,413 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted . .
Reliability Statistics - Loyalty Cronbach's Alpha ,578 N of Items 2

Loyalty1 (q13) Loyalty3 (q23)
7.4 Descriptive Analysis for the Constructs of the First Part

Descriptive Statistics - Constructs N Statistic 335 335 335 335 335 335 335 Minimum Statistic 1,00 2,00 1,50 1,00 1,00 2,00 Maximum Statistic 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 Std. Deviation Statistic 1,13985 1,14144 1,13828 1,01085 1,28205 1,16329 Skewnes s Statistic -,269 -,257 -,226 -,393 -,285 -,194 Kurtosis Statistic ,044 -,396 -,331 ,590 ,044 -,595
Loyalty Attitude Satisfaction Perceived Switching_Cost Involvement Valid N (listwise)
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Appendix 7.5 Regression analysis of the First Part 7.5.1 First Model
Model Summary Model 1 R R Square ,756a ,571 Adjusted R Square ,566
Grameenphone
Std. Error of the Estimate ,75119
a. Predictors: (Constant), Involvement, Perceived, Satisfaction, Attitude
ANOVAb Model 1 Sum of Squares 251,391 182,562 433,952 df 5 329 334 Mean Square 50,278 ,555 F 90,608 Sig. ,000a
Regression Residual Total
a. Predictors: (Constant), Control4 (q26), Perceived, Involvement, Satisfaction, Attitude b. Dependent Variable: Loyalty
7.5.2 Second Model

Model Summary Model 1 R R Square ,773a ,597 Adjusted R Square ,595 Std. Error of the Estimate ,72663
a. Predictors: (Constant), Involvement, Satisfaction
a. Predictors: (Constant), Involvement, Satisfaction b. Dependent Variable: Attitude
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Appendix 7.5.3 Third Model

Model Summary Model 1 R R Square ,773a ,597 Adjusted R Square ,593
Grameenphone
Std. Error of the Estimate ,72603
a. Predictors: (Constant), Involvement, Switching_Cost, Attitude
a. Predictors: (Constant), Involvement, Switching_Cost, Attitude b. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction
7.6 Reliability for the Second Part 7.6.1 Corporate Values

Reliability - Corporate Values Cronbach's Alpha ,801 N of Items 3

Corporate Values1 (q35) Corporate Values2 (q36) Corporate Values3 (q37)
7.6.2 Dependable Corporate Values

Reliability - Dependable Cronbach's Alpha ,817 N of Items 3
Dependable1 (q38) Dependable2 (q39) Dependable3 (q40)
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7.6.3 Value Added Services (VAS)

Reliability - Price VAS Cronbach's Alpha ,931 N of Items 3
Price5 (q58) Price6 (q59) Price7 (q60)
7.6.4 Core Services Offered

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted 21,95 22,03 21,85 22,10 22,11 Scale Variance if Item Deleted 27,551 27,330 26,685 27,753 31,007 Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,751 ,799 ,859 ,684 ,623 Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted ,869 ,858 ,845 ,886 ,895
Reliability - Core Services Cronbach's Alpha ,894 N of Items 5
Price1 (q54) Price2 (q55) Price3 (q56) Price4 (q57) Own4 (q53)
7.6.5 Symbolic Benefits

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Reliability - Symbolic Benefits Cronbach's Alpha ,795 N of Items 3
Scale Variance if Item Deleted 6,811 5,986 7,218
Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,667 ,665 ,590
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted ,693 ,695 ,770
Symbolic Benefits2 (q48) Symbolic Benefits3 (q49) Own2 (q51)
9,42 9,79 9,19
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Appendix 7.6.6 Emotional Benefits

Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Item Deleted Scale Variance if Item Deleted 5,921 5,516 5,958
Grameenphone
Corrected Item-Total Correlation ,636 ,691 ,600
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted ,731 ,671 ,768
Reliability - Emotional Benefits Cronbach's Alpha ,798 N of Items 3
Emotional Benefits1 (q44) Emotional Benefits2 (q45) Emotional Benefits3 (q46)
9,45 9,67 9,72
7.7 Descriptive Analysis for the Constructs of the Second Part

Descriptive Statistics - Constructs N CorporateValues DependableCompany VAS CoreServicesOffered SymbolicBenefits EmotionalBenefits Valid N (listwise) Statistic 335 335 334 335 335 334 333 Minimum Statistic 1,67 2,00 1,00 1,00 1,00 1,00 Maximum Statistic 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 7,00 Std. Deviation Statistic 1,15926 1,15980 1,68751 1,30593 1,23239 1,13667 Skewnes s Statistic -,374 -,255 -,094 -,619 -,370 -,256 Kurtosis Statistic -,178 -,451 -,603 ,209 ,227 ,268
7.8 Regression Analysis of the Second Part 7.8.1 First Model Drivers of Behavioral Loyalty
Model Summary Model 1 R R Square ,308a ,095 Adjusted R Square ,089 Std. Error of the Estimate 1,08785
a. Predictors: (Constant), SymbolicBenefits, DependableCompany
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Appendix
ANOVAb Model 1 Sum of Squares 41,056 392,896 433,952 df 2 332 334 Mean Square 20,528 1,183
Grameenphone
F 17,346
Sig. ,000a
a. Predictors: (Constant), SymbolicBenefits, DependableCompany b. Dependent Variable: Loyalty
7.8.2 Second Model Drivers of Attitudinal Loyalty

Model Summary Model 1 R R Square ,388a ,150 Adjusted R Square ,143 Std. Error of the Estimate 1,05749
a. Predictors: (Constant), EmotionalBenefits, CoreServicesOffered, CorporateValues
ANOVAb Model 1 Sum of Squares 65,258 369,033 434,291 df 3 330 333 Mean Square 21,753 1,118 F 19,452 Sig. ,000a
a. Predictors: (Constant), EmotionalBenefits, CoreServicesOffered, CorporateValues b. Dependent Variable: Attitude
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Supervisor Associate Professor Olaf Rieck Academic Year 2007/2008

Thank you very much.

http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=21722 http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=63 8 http://www.grameenphone.com/index.php?id=63 9 http://press.telenor.com/PR/200804/1207658_5.html?icid=feature-stories 10 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html

Business Monitor International, 2008, page 5 http://www.bangladeshinfo.com/news/feature19.php

Figure 1 - Subscriber Mix

Table 1 Operators Market Shares and Number of Subscribers

Business Monitor International, 2008 Solomon, 2007, page 518. 21 www.nationmaster.com/country/bg/Age_distribution

Martensen, 2007, page 113

Diploma Project Project Mandate

Burns & Bush 2006, page28-29.

Diploma Project 1. Examine the loyalty drivers among the young

Grameenphone consumers in the

Zikmund 2003, page 65

Chapter 2 Research Approach

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html Zikmund 2003, page 117-120

Diploma Project 2.2 Research Question

Diploma Project 2.3.2 AIDA Awareness, interest, desire, action

http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-view119.php Jakobsson, 1995, page 87. 34 http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-view3707.php

Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson 2007, page 85.

Chapter 3 Conceptual Framework of Loyalty

Zikmund 2003, page 63

Table 4 - Different Types of Loyalty

Dick & Basu, 1994 Rowley and Dawes, 1999

Diploma Project 3.1.3 Brand Loyalty

http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-view329.php Huber and Hermann, 2001 46 Solomon, 2007, page 9-10

Grnroos, 1984, 1991

Level of Involvement H3c (+)

H2a (+) Customer Satisfaction H2b (+)

H5c (-) H5b (-)

Corp. Values H6 H7 Dependable H7

H12a VAS H12b

Explanation of the constructs presented in the model on the previous page;

Zikmund, 2003 Bruner, Hensel and James, 2005

http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/term_1007.txl Zikmund 2003, page 380.

Chapter 5 Explanation of Data Analysis Performed

Zikmund, 2003 Bruner, Hensel and James (2005) 62 Zikmund, 2003

Pallant, 2007 Pallant, 2007

Diploma Project 5.7 Explanation of Multiple-Regression Analysis (linear)

Pallant 2007 page 103, 232-236

Chapter 6 Research Findings

Diploma Project 6.3 Descriptive Statistics

1 ,888 ,840 ,815 ,795 ,719 ,683 ,541

,791 ,739 ,693 ,677

-,178 ,290 ,339 ,366 -,205 ,132 ,105 ,109

-,116 ,819 ,719

,134 ,135 ,116

,724 -,672 ,671 ,545 ,427

,200 ,374 ,664 ,485

Table 5 - Factor Analysis for the BLD-model

Diploma Project 6.4.2 Reliability analysis of the BLD-model

Diploma Project 6.4.3 Data reduction of the BLD-model

Loyalty Attitude Satisfaction Perceived Switching_Cost Involvement Valid N (listwise)

Table 6 - Descriptives for the Constructs of the BLD-model

Table 7 - Pearson Correlation for the BLD-model

Diploma Project 6.4.6.1 First Regression Analysis for BLD-model

t 2,103 9,220 3,135 2,221 4,021 -2,566

Sig. ,036 ,000 ,002 ,027 ,000 ,011

a. Dependent Variable: Loyalty

Standardized Coefficients Beta (Constant) Satisfaction Involvement ,719 ,122

t 3,901 19,115 3,247

Sig. ,000 ,000 ,001

,076* Satisfaction .597* .726* Involvement

.719* Attitude .597*

Company is Dependable .194 Loyalty .095* Symbolic Benefits