A STUDY ON

“CUSTOMER PERCEPTION”
WITH REFERENCE TO

“OnePlus INDIA”
A Project report, submitted to the Department of Management Studies,
ADIKAVI NANNAYA UNIVERSITY, RAJAHMAHENDRAVARAM.
BY
BHARGAV D
[Reg No: 160378300050]
Under the Guidance of,
Smt. E. SUNEETHA
(MBA, M.COM, PGDM, Ph.D, B.ED)
Associate Professor

ADITYA DEGREE COLLEGE

(AFFILIATED TO ADIKAVINANNAYA UNIVERSITY)
(ACCREDITED BY NAAC WITH B++GRADE)
KAKINADA {2016-2019}
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2
 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION

The Marketing philosophy of business assumes that an organization can best service, prosper and
profit by identifying and satisfying the needs of its customer. This however is a recent thinking.
Various definitions of Marketing have been given from different perspectives, exchange and
utility being the two important ones.

The Marketing Concept, a philosophy of early 1950s gave marketing a much more important role
in business. To apply this concept, an organization must meet three basic needs. First, it must
believe in the Customer’s importance. Most of the companies give lip service to this idea; no
manager wants to be caught saying that customers are not important.

Second, marketing efforts must be integrated. Specific and measurable goals should be set; all
marketing activities should be coordinated. If various departments follow their own private
agendas in conducting marketing activities, the organization may lose sight of customer’s needs.

Finally, management must accept the assumption that profit goals will be reached through
satisfied customers. Clearly, the path to profit is not a simple one; all business firms compete
within a complex environment that demands astute management of organizational resources and
efforts

Marketing plays an important role in establishing relationships between customers and the
organizations offering to the market. It gives us the confidence to want to try a new product in
the market as opposed to situations where the products enter the market without publicity. This
makes the marketing function critical in every organization irrespective of whether the
organization is a profit or non-profit cantered. Marketing shapes the image of the organization,
how people associate the organizations products or services and indeed give people the
confidence about their products or services. When it come to the profit led organizations,
marketing is responsible for the increase in revenue and by extension increase in the
organizations profitability. In addition, the function also helps growing of the customer/clientele

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base for the organization. This is especially so when the organization is dealing with more of
corporate customers, and where decisions involve more than one party.

“Marketing is a management process whereby the resources of the whole organization are
utilized to satisfy the needs of selected customer groups in order to achieve the objectives of both
parties. Marketing them is first and foremost attitude of mind there than the services of
functional activities.”

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and
distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and
organizational objectives

-AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

“Marketing is the social process by which individuals and organizations obtain what they need
and want through creating and exchanging value with others.”

-PHILIP KOTLER

“Marketing is the management process for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably”

-CHARTED INSTITUTE OF MARKETING

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 OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING

1. Creation of Demand:
The marketing management’s first objective is to create demand through various means. A
conscious attempt is made to find out the preferences and tastes of the consumers. Goods and services are
produced to satisfy the needs of the customers. Demand is also created by informing the customers the
utility of various goods and services.

2. Customer Satisfaction:
The marketing manager must study the demands of customers before offering them any goods or
services. Selling the goods or services is not that important as the satisfaction of the customers’ needs.
Modern marketing is customer- oriented. It begins and ends with the customer.

3. Market Share:
Every business aims at increasing its market share, i.e., the ratio of its sales to the total sales in the
economy. For instance, both Pepsi and Coke compete with each other to increase their market share. For
this, they have adopted innovative advertising, innovative packaging, sales promotion activities, etc.

4. Generation of Profits:
The marketing department is the only department which generates revenue for the business.
Sufficient profits must be earned as a result of sale of want-satisfying products. If the firm is not earning
profits, it will not be able to survive in the market. Moreover, profits are also needed for the growth and
diversification of the firm.

5. Creation of Goodwill and Public Image:

To build up the public image of a firm over a period is another objective of marketing. The
marketing department provides quality products to customers at reasonable prices and thus creates its
impact on the customers.

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The marketing manager attempts to raise the goodwill of the business by initiating image- building
activities such a sales promotion, publicity and advertisement, high quality, reasonable price, convenient
distribution outlets, etc.

IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING

Marketing is all around us. It is vital concerning the link between producers and
consumers. So it has been playing important role in each and every sector of the society. It is primarily
responsible for keeping the wheels of production and consumption constantly moving or running at their
optimum speed.

1. Helpful in planning:

Marketing provides information to management related to planning for future

programmers. It provides valuable data and information by conducting research and many other
programmes

2. Helpful in making a profit:

Marketing can generate revenue at a cost which will leave some surplus in the form of net
profits. Through marketing system firms can earn revenue by selling goods and services to the consumers.
It earns profit through the creation of time, place and possession utilities.

3. Helpful in distribution:

In the business organization, the marketing department provides information about the
quantity, time, means and medium of transportation etc. of delivery of goods in different places. It provides
reliable information for distribution of finished goods.

4. Helpful in exchanging information:

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 Marketing plays an important role in exchanging information among consumers and firms.
That exchange is essential for business success because management can make effective plans and policies
by using those pieces of information.

5. Formation of goodwill:

Through marketing activities business organization can serve its customers

according to their demand, taste, and habits at the reasonable price. So, the firm can form its
goodwill.

Customer Perception

As we are being different individuals tend to see the world in our own special ways. Individual act and
react on the basis of their thinking, nature and philosophy of life not on the basis of reality. For
understanding consumer behavior, one must try to understand his perception.
 Every individual perceives the world through his own perception. “Because individual make
decision and take action based on what they perceive to be reality, it is important that marketers
should understand the whole implication of perception and its related concepts. So that can more
readily determine what factors influence consumers to buy.

 The world as we see is different than what it is in reality. Once year as per ones perception, not
what really set?

 People working in an organization differ in their action due to difference of opinion.

 It is a source of one’s knowledge about the world.

 Every individual perceives the world through his senses like hearing, touch, smell, and sight,
awareness of heat, cold, pain and pleasure.

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 People working in an organization differ in terms of physical feature like age and sex,
background characteristics like training and education and one’s personality traits like
aggressiveness, submissions, optimistic. All these factors helps in the formation of one’s
perception.

DEFINITION

Customer perception refers to the process by which a customer selects, organizes, and interprets
information/stimuli inputs to create a meaningful picture of the brand or the product. It is a three stage
process that translates raw stimuli into meaningful information.

Each individual interprets the meaning of stimulus in a manner consistent with his/her own unique biases,
needs and expectations. Three stages of perception are exposure, attention and interpretation.

In simpler terms, it is how a customer see's a particular brand with whatever he or she has been able to
understand by watching the products, its promotions, feedback etc. It is the image of that particular brand
in the mind of the customer

Importance of Customer Perception

When customers buy your products, they purchase much more than physical objects. Successful marketing
involves building a brand with sensory and emotional triggers and then working daily to reinforce the
image that your brand triggers in the hearts and minds of customers.

The consumer perception that can make or break your brand may be carefully cultivated through clever and
effective advertising. Changes in consumer perception of brands can also spring seemingly out of nowhere,
as when the Hush Puppies shoe brand became a fad during the '90s with little engineering from the
company itself.

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Whether your company has painstakingly fostered customer perception or had the great fortune to
unwittingly benefit from it, the importance of your brand's reputation should never be underestimated.

Marketing and Action

Successful marketing is a process of reaching out to customers through advertising, selling strategies and
the product itself to create an impression that inspires loyalty. However, that impression is unlikely to
endure unless you work hard to maintain it. The outdoor apparel company L.L. Bean has a return policy of
replacing any product that a customer returns for any reason, regardless of how long it has been worn. This
policy surely costs the company extra when unscrupulous customers choose to take advantage and return
items that have been worn for a considerable period of time. Over the long term, though, this legendary
return policy has worked to the company's advantage by building trust and extraordinary loyalty.

Negative Perceptions

Negative consumer perceptions can be at least as powerful as positive ones especially in the era of social
media when stories about companies' bad behaviors spread quickly and can have devastating repercussions.
When United Airlines had a ticketed customer dragged off a flight in April 2017, the story spread through
both social and mainstream media, creating a backlash from consumers who boycotted the airline and
canceled credit cards affiliated with it. The negative publicity rippled among shareholders as well causing
the company's price to plummet by $1.4 billion.

Referrals

Referrals are a powerful way to foster positive consumer perception because they often come about
organically through customers telling their friends which products they buy and why they buy them.
Because they come from customers rather than from marketing or advertising, referrals give your company

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genuine credibility. Referrals grow out of brand loyalty and generate additional loyalty to your brand. You
can give customers incentives to make referrals such as by offering free products or services, but if you've
done a good job fostering positive consumer perceptions, you'll get customer referrals whether or not you
reward customers for them.

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 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To study the customer perception towards OnePlus.

 To understand factors affecting perception of customer while buying mobiles at OnePlus.

 To understand the perception process in general among customers towards one plus.

 To understand the pricing perception of brand OnePlus in the market.

 To understand the risk associated with perception.

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 CHAPTER - 2

COMPANY PROFILE

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OnePlus

OnePlus

Type Private

Industry Mobile phones

Founded 16 December 2013; 4 years ago

Founder Pete Lau, Carl Pei

Headquarters Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Area served Worldwide

Key people Pete Lau (CEO)

Carl Pei (co-founder)

Products Smartphones, Earphones, Powerbanks, Phone

cases, Shirts and bags, OxygenOS(Overseas), HydrogenOS(China),

Revenue US$1.4 billion (2017)

Number of 776[2]
employees

Website www.oneplus.com

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INTRODUCTION
In February 2016, Carl Pero, co-founder of the Shenzhen-based technology start-up, OnePlus,
announced that the company’s new flagship smartphone OnePlus 3 would be launched by the
end of the second quarter(june) of 2016. He said the company’s fourth smarftphone model with
its new design would captivate young tech enthusiasts, much like its predecessors. Since its
debut in 2013, OnePlus had grabbed the headlines for delivering smartphones with flagship
specifications at significantly lower prices than that of its rivals. The co-founders of OnePlus
Peter Lau(Lau) and Pie emphasized the “Never Settle” motto of OnePlus, which aimed at
providing the best possible technology to users globally by creating elegantly designed devices
with premium build quality and high performance hardware. The business model of OnePlus
was built around razor-thin margins. The company employed an unconventional invite-only
system that limited buyers to those who had received an invite from the company directly or
from someone who had already purchased the device.

History

OnePlus was founded on 16 December 2013 by former Oppo vice-president Pete Lau and Carl
Pei. According to the Chinese government's documentation, the only institutional stockholder in
OnePlus is Oppo Electronics. Lau denied that OnePlus was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oppo
and stated that Oppo Electronics and not Oppo Mobile (the phone manufacturer) is a major
investor of OnePlus and that they are "in talks with other investors" (although nothing has been
announced to date). The company's main goal was to design a smartphone that would balance
high-end quality with a lower price than other phones in its class, believing that users would
"Never Settle" for the lower-quality devices produced by other companies. Lau explained that
"we will never be different just for the sake of being different. Everything done has to improve
the actual user experience in day-to-day use." He also showed aspirations of being the "Muji of
the tech industry", emphasizing its focus on high-quality products with simplistic, user-friendly
designs. Continuing Lau's association with the platform from the Oppo N1, OnePlus entered into
an exclusive licensing agreement with Cyanogen Inc. to base its products' Android distribution
upon a variant of the popular custom ROM CyanogenMod and use its trademarks outside of
China.

The company unveiled its first device, the OnePlus One, on 23 April 2014.

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In December 2014, alongside the release of the OnePlus One in India exclusively through
Amazon, OnePlus also announced plans to establish a presence in the country, with plans to open
25 official walk-in service centres across India.

In April 2014, OnePlus hired Han Han as the product ambassador in mainland China.

On 9 March 2014, the company expanded its operations to the European Union. As of July 2018,
OnePlus serves to the following 34 countries and
regions Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong
Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Polan
d, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United
States.

The invite system, and its discontinuation

Early phones were only available through a system whereby customers had to sign up for an
invite to purchase the phone at irregular intervals. The system was claimed to be necessary for
the young company to manage huge demand. OnePlus ended the invite system with the launch
of OnePlus 3 on 14 June 2016. Announced via an interactive VR launch event, the OnePlus 3
initially went on sale within the VR app itself. OnePlus touted the event as the world's first VR
shopping experience. The phone was made available for sale later that day in China, North
America and the European Union on the OnePlus website, and in India on Amazon India.

"Smash the Past" campaign

On 25 April 2014, OnePlus began its "Smash the Past" campaign. The promotion asked selected
participants to destroy their phones on video in an effort to purchase the OnePlus One for $1
(US). Due to confusion, several videos were published by unselected users misinterpreting the
promotion and destroying their phones before the promotion start date.

The campaign was heavily criticized for environmental waste and safety concerns, due to
batteries and phone components posing potential hazards to participants destroying their

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phones. OnePlus allowed the winners to donate the old phone. There were 140,000 entrants in
the contest with 100 winners.

Warranty rejections

OnePlus One issue with yellow display band at the bottom of the screen which affected some
units were not covered under warranty. A similar issue was reported for Oppo Find 7 and Oppo
Find 7a and Oppo covered it under warranty.

Ladies First

On 13 August 2014, OnePlus hosted a contest to give invites, which were hard to come by at the
time, to their female forum members. Users were asked to post a photo of themselves with the
OnePlus logo, images would be shared in the forum and could be "liked" by other forum
members. Hours after being announced, the campaign was stopped because of the sexist
implications in the election process. OnePlus stated that a few "rogue" employees created the
campaign.

Ban in India

On 16 December 2014, The Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court banned the import
and sales of OnePlus One phones in India following a lawsuit by Micromax alleging it has
exclusivity for shipping phones with Cyanogen OS software in India.

As of 21 December 2014, the banning of import and selling of the device in India has been lifted.
The device continues to be shipped with Cyanogen OS; however, a customised version
of Android specially designed by OnePlus and named OxygenOS has been released, allowing
later OnePlus devices to be sold in India.

Cease of operations in Indonesia

OnePlus made its products available in Southeast Asia for the first time, partnering with Lazada
Indonesia. on 23 January 2015 and was expected to expand during that year throughout the
region.

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In June 2016, OnePlus made the decision to pull out of the Indonesian market due to local
regulations for imported 4G smartphones restricting sales of the OnePlus 2. After-sales support
such as warranty claims and repairs for the OnePlus One and X were taken over by PT Multi
Mobile Indonesia.

OnePlus 2 launch invite issue

In advance of the OnePlus 2 launch, OnePlus assured customers that obtaining invites would be
easier, and handsets would ship a lot quicker than with the OnePlus One. However, in a public
apology, Carl Pei admitted the company had "messed up" the launch, and that OnePlus "only
began shipping meaningful quantities [the week of 10 September 2015], nearly a month after
[the] initial targeted shipping date."

OnePlus customer support

In 2014 and 2015, OnePlus customer support was criticized on various tech communities on the
internet, including Reddit, XDA Developers and OnePlus' own forum. Many customers claim to
have had to wait days or even weeks for replies from the support staff once they opened a ticket.
Other customers were denied their warranty covered repairs due to water or other usage-related
damage, when in fact they could prove that there was no such damage before they shipped off
their phone for repair.

OnePlus improved customer support in 2017, by not only increasing the number of customer
service staff but by adding local language support.

OnePlus 2 software updates

Despite promising 24 months of software updates, and telling consumers that the OnePlus 2
would be updated to Android 7 "Nougat", it was eventually confirmed that this was not to
happen, leaving the device on the older Android 6.0.1.

OnePlus USB-C cable

After several weeks of customer complaints on OnePlus forums and on Reddit, Google engineer
Benson Leung showed that the USB Type-C cable and USB Type-C-to-Micro-USB adapter
offered by OnePlus do not conform to the USB specification. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei on 26
November 2015 admitted that the cable and adaptor indeed don't conform to the USB
specification, and offered refunds (although not for cables bundled with the OnePlus 2 phone).

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 Phones

OnePlus has manufactured eight phones:

 OnePlus One (codename "bacon"; unveiled on 23 April 2014; international release on 6 June 2014)
 OnePlus 2 (codename "oneplus2"; unveiled on 27 July 2015; international release on 11 August 2015)
 OnePlus X (codename "onyx"; unveiled on 29 October 2015; international release on 5 November
2015)
 OnePlus 3 (codename "oneplus3"; unveiled on 14 June 2016; international release on 14 June 2016)
 OnePlus 3T (codename "oneplus3t"; unveiled on 15 November 2016; international release on 28
November 2016)
 OnePlus 5 (codename "cheeseburger"; unveiled on 20 June 2017; international release on 27 June
2017)
 OnePlus 5T (codename "dumpling"; unveiled on 16 November 2017; international release on 21
November 2017)
 OnePlus 6 (codename "enchilada" unveiled on 16 May 2018; international release on 22 May 2018)

OnePlus One

The company's first product was the highly anticipated OnePlus One. It was unveiled on 22 April
2014, and was claimed as the "2014 Flagship Killer." The One had comparable, and in some
ways better, specifications to other flagship phones of the year, while being sold at a
significantly lower price at $299 for the 16 GB version or $349 for the 64 GB version. The One
also debuted the infamous invite system, which ensured that the company didn't take more orders
than it was capable of shipping.

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The OnePlus One had several minor hardware issues at launch, which reportedly was corrected
in later batches of the phone.

OnePlus 2

The OnePlus 2 was the successor to the company's highly successful first phone. It was unveiled
a little over a year after the One, on 27 July 2015. It was highly promoted as "2016 Flagship
killer". There were very high expectations for the second generation OnePlus phones, partly
because the company managed to create a high amount of hype for the upcoming phone. One of
the marketing channels used was YouTube tech reviewer MKBHD who was sent a unit, which
he covered in detail leading up to the launch.

The OnePlus 2 had specifications comparable to other flagship phones of the time, including the
highly criticized Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, though OnePlus had decided to leave out
an NFCchip, as it didn't see mobile payment being an essential feature at the time. The phone
was also one of the first Android devices to sport a USB Type-C port over the older micro
USB port.

OnePlus X
The OnePlus X was OnePlus' entrance to the budget phone market, at 5 inches instead of the One
and 2's 5.5 inches. The phone was unveiled on 29 October 2015. The phone was sold for $249,
and consisted mostly of the same internal components as the year and half old OnePlus One, but
had an AMOLED display.

OnePlus 3
The OnePlus 3 was unveiled on 14 June 2016. The 3 was the company's first "metal unibody"
phone. The phone launched with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB
of UFS 2.0 storage. The phone was well regarded amongst critics, mostly for its low price and
high specifications.

OnePlus 3T

The OnePlus 3T was unveiled on 15 November 2016 as a minor upgrade to the still relatively
new OnePlus 3. The upgrade consisted the use of a newer SoC; the Qualcomm Snapdragon
820 was replaced with the Snapdragon 821. Also introduced were a higher-capacity battery, 64

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 or 128 GB of storage and 16 MP front-facing camera. The phone launched in the US on 22
November 2016 and in the EU on 28 November 2016.

OnePlus 5

The OnePlus 5 was unveiled on 20 June 2017. It launched with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, a
dual-lens camera setup, up to 8 GB RAM, and up to 128 GB of storage. It was released in two
colours: Midnight Black and Slate Gray. A third limited edition colour, Soft Gold was released
on 7 August 2017. Another special edition colour was launched on 20 September 2017, in
collaboration with Castelbajac.

OnePlus 5T
The OnePlus 5T was unveiled on 16 November 2017, as the successor to the OnePlus 5.[46] It
features the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and storage options as its predecessor.
Notable features include a larger 6" 18:9 display, a new "Face Unlock" facial recognition
method, and an improved dual-lens camera.

OnePlus 6

OnePlus opened forums for the OnePlus 6 in April 2018 and launched the device on 17 May
2018 with sales starting on 22 May 2018. The phone notably features a display notch, water
resistance (although not IP Code rated) and an all-glass design. The smartphone was the first
from the company to offer a 256 GB inbuilt storage variant. At the launch event, OnePlus
announced it would be opening five new OnePlus Experience stores in India, as well as 10 new
service centres.

And Other

OnePlus Bullets Wireless

At the launch event of the OnePlus 6, the company also announced the OnePlus Bullets Wireless
earphones. The earphones have the company's Dash Charge technology with a USB Type-C port
that allows five hours of playback for 10 minutes of charging. The earbuds feature a weather-
resistant design and operates on Bluetooth connectivity with aptX technology. The Bullets

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 Wireless earphones also supports Google Assistant from a button click. They went on sale at
their website for $69.

OnePlus TV

In September, the company confirmed it plans to venture into the smart TVs market with the
OnePlus TV. The new division will be headed by the company CEO Pete Lau. An exact launch
date isn't available yet, but reports suggest the company will launch it first in India beginning Q1
2019.

OnePlus Competitive Set

Leadership Employees Revenue

OnePlus 2,640 $300M

Samsung 454,144 $173.2B

Motorola 1,745 $6.3B

Apple 116,000 $224.2B

HTC 17,575 $5.9B

LG 82,000 $54.7B

Sony 125,300 $68.7B

Huawei 170,294 $15B

Pricing Strategy

OnePlus offered devices with an industry leading design, superior build quality, and top-of-the-line
specifications at a disruptive price. The phones pricing appealed to those seeking a high-end device without

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having to spend too much on it. According to some industry observers, OnePlus kept its pricing strategy
very competitive and was not worried about costs while manufacturing devices. After adding up all the
costs, the start-up retained a small margin for itself in order to keep its operations running and passed on
the rest of the savings to the customer in the form of low prices, they added. OnePlus set the lowest feasible
price for its devices in each geographical market. The prices of OnePlus devices were different in each
country depending on operating costs, taxes, and other factors.

In a market like India, where a lot of the conversation is driven by talk around specifications, OnePlus has
played the card right. There’s a whole lot of RAM, 8GB on board the more expensive version, and it will
grab eyeballs. Sure most of us might not have any clue of why that 8GB RAM is needed on a smartphone.
Then there’s a dual camera with unique 16MP +20MP combo.

OnePlus has brought what can only be described as ‘insane’ specifications, at a nominal pricing. For the
Indian audience that wants the most out of every penny, this as a strategy is good enough to grab attention.
Now whether it converts into volume is what remains to be seen.

Marketing Strategy

Technology is the new rock ‘n roll hall of fame. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the recent
OnePlus India launch of OnePlus 6 the new flagship smartphone from a Chinese smartphone maker that
began operations just four years back. Since 2013, OnePlus has managed to release six premium
smartphones – OnePlus One, OnePlus Two, OnePlus X, OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, OnePlus 5, and OnePlus
5T – at non-premium prices.

As one of six co-founders Carl Pei, said in an interview in June 2017, “In the $400 plus space, we are
already No. 2. Last year, we were also profitable.”

After capturing 19 countries mostly in established markets such as US, China and Europe, the OnePlus
India journey began a year later in December 2014. OnePlus India has had a meteoric and challenging
journey, as compared to its European and East Asian counterparts. Yet, the company has managed to ink its
name in the annals of history, joining such premium smartphone makers such as Apple and Samsung
whose phones retail for almost twice the amount of what you pay for an OnePlus handset.

23
“Our value proposition has always been to make OnePlus products future-ready. Our philosophy revolves
around giving our users more than what they are looking for. And to do so in a cost-efficient manner,
which was why OnePlus will always be an online brand first and foremost,” begins Vikas Agarwal,
General Manager at OnePlus India, headquartered in Bengaluru.

One of the core differentiators of OnePlus was the way they launched the first smartphone OnePlus One
back in 2013. An invite-only launch with the phone available exclusively on the OnePlus website,
reminiscent of the early days of Facebook and Gmail, for ardent users who had followed the brand. The
markets they targeted were Europe, East Asia and the US.

Turning Its Gaze towards India: The Second-Most Viable Market after China

Vikas joined the company as OnePlus’ first employee in India in December 2014. He had passed through
the IIT+IIM rigmarole and even worked in the PE/investment sector for a while. Entrepreneurship soon
took over and he started a hyperlocal startup which folded up in 2013. After a brief stint with the Ibibo
Group managing their ecommerce entity, Vikas tried for the OnePlus position that had opened when the
company first thought of entering India. This was back in August 2014.

“OnePlus launched formal operations in December 2014 and I have been part of the journey since day
one,” he shares with a fond smile.

Data played a crucial role in how OnePlus takes steps forward in terms of geographical expansion, as most
of the user information available on social media and the OnePlus community forum is analyzed and taken
into account. So, one of the analyses showed that a large part of the OnePlus’ website traffic was coming
from India by April 2014. “OnePlus had no presence whatsoever in India back then. No promotion were
taking place too. Yet, India was ranking in the top seven countries in terms of website traffic.”

Vikas describes the Indian buyer behavior as users using a US-based address, ordering the phone through
the invite and jailbreaking it to be used in India. “When we analyzed this kind of user behavior, we refined
our core focus to include India.”

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Switching From Cyanogen to Oxygen OS

Cyanogen was an open source platform that could be customized by Android-facing OEMs. It offered more
than stock Android options in terms of design interface and the overall UI/UX experience. According to
Vikas, OnePlus was the first OEM to sign a partnership with CyanogenMod founder Steve Kondik. But,
after the company faced copyright infringement and breach of contract issues in India, they started building
their own OS viz. Oxygen Mod – which was rolled out in community beta in February 2015.

Incidentally, Cyanogen formally shut down operations in December 2016, after cofounder Steve Kondik
released a blogpost chronicling the problems facing the open source platform.

With the launch of OnePlus 2 in 2015, Oxygen OS too was rolled out on all phones. As Vikas says, “We
focus on solving one core customer problem with all our phones. If OnePlus One was focused on providing
a premium hardware experience, OnePlus Two was all about the software. Oxygen was stable, robust and
feature-ready.”

The OnePlus Core Vision: Breaking Down ‘Never Settle’

The company boasts of a total of 1500 employees based out of China and India. But, in comparison to
other mobile manufacturing behemoths such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, Google’s Motorola the
company is small. Both in terms of employees as well as the practices the OnePlus team has adopted. The
lean and agile startup mindset still prevails in the company majorly when it comes to major decisions.

“In the hardware business, inventory is the most major challenge for us. It takes up a chunk of the capex
(capital expenditure). It’s always balancing between too much and too little – demand and supply. We
adopted a new seller strategy that of exclusivity, to rationalize demand.”

Vikas decodes this cryptic statement: for one, the invite-only program was email based.

Plus, there was a two-day expiration date on the email invite so they could not be hoarded for months
together. And lastly, the company relied extensively on the OnePlus community and word-of-mouth to
generate awareness. They still follow the practice of publishing a weekly update on Saturday in the

25
OnePlus community forum in order to maintain proximity with the users, while keeping a pulse on what
the users wanted.

A basic lean startup strategy continues to be employed at this startup. And, while Vikas claims that the
invite-only strategy was more from a manufacturing standpoint, there was no denying the coolness bar was
raised a notch higher when the programme was first launched. Of course, as brand awareness reached peak
levels in 2015 and the launch of OnePlus 3, this invite-only programme has been permanently
discontinued.

But, considering that OnePlus plans on taking on Apple and Samsung at the premium smartphone game,
both of whom still hold strong in 2017 garnering 13.7% and 20.7% globally, it does seem like they have
their work cut out for them – in terms of increasing adoption in India through providing better after-sales
service, widening the ‘OnePlus India Never Settle’ experience to include offline retail and continuing to
understand what their community wants. For two friends who sat down anddecided to make a cheaper
iPhone, the world certainly seems to be theirs for the taking – one smartphone at a time.

Sales Strategy

OnePlus sticks to its online-only sales strategy, bucking the trend that has seen rivals such as Xiaomi and
LeEco increasing focus on brick-and-mortar stores in India for higher volumes.

It has also exited the lower-priced segment to focus on the premium space, demand for which it expects to
jump in the next couple of years, CEO Pete Lau said. OnePlus will also look at increasing local production
gradually, keeping pace with its forecast that India’s manufacturing scale could reach global levels in
around five years.

This strategy is also in stark contrast to its rivals’ moves to raise local manufacturing sharply. The world’s
fastest growing smartphone market currently contributes a third to the company’s global revenue.

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 CHAPTER - 3
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

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MARKETING

Marketing are activities of a company associated with buying and selling of product or service. It includes
advertising, selling and delivering products to people. People who work in marketing departments of
companies try to get the attention of target audiences by using slogans, packaging designs. Marketing is
everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. The ultimate goal
of marketing is to match a company’s products and services to the people who need and want them,
thereby ensures profitability.

Marketing is of vital importance to any business. It is the key process of researching, promoting and
selling products or services to your target market (people). It’s the strategy of assigning resources (time
and money) to activities that inform and attract consumers (people) to purchase your products or services in
order to achieve profitable sales. The bottom line of any business is profit. Profit is largely the result of
successful sales. Sales are the result of demand (in the form of purchases) from people who have had been
convinced by the value of a product or service (Marketing). Marketing is an important business process
through which you must inform, attract and convince people that your offerings are of value to them. It
follows then, that marketing is a vital means for any business to achieve sales and is the reason why
marketing is important for your business. Without Marketing, many businesses would fail to exist. You
could have the most amazing product with the most demand in the world but if no one knows it exists or
understands the value of your offering you won’t sell a single sausage. It’s important that you use
marketing to promote your business, brand and offerings. Without it, how will you make those sales? The
term marketing is catch-all concept for multiple processes. Broadly speaking, marketing consists of the
following.

 Market Research: Segmentation, Positioning, Targeting & The Marketing Mix

 Advertising: Print, Banner Ads, PPC, Paid Social Media, etc.
 Sales Promotions: Special Offers, Discounts, Cash back, Competitions, etc.
 Public Relations: Customer Relationship & Company Reputation.
 Sales: Attracting, Capturing, Nurturing, Converting, Delivering and, Up Selling.

Marketing plays an important role in establishing relationships between customers

and the organizations offering to the market. It gives us the confidence to want to try a new product in the
market as opposed to situations where the products enter the market without publicity. This makes the

28
marketing function critical in every organization irrespective of whether the organization is a profit or non-
profit centered. Marketing shapes the image of the organization, how people associate the organizations
products or services and indeed give people the confidence about their products and services. When it
come to the profit led organizations, marketing is responsible for the increase in revenue and by extension
increase in the organizations profitability. In addition, the function also helps growing of the
customer/clientele base for the organization. This is especially so when the organization is dealing with
more of corporate customers, and where decisions involve more than one party.

WHAT IS PERCEPTION?

Perception (from the Latin perceptio) is the organization, identification, and interpretation
of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information, or the environment.

All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system, which in turn result from physical or
chemical stimulation of the sensory system. For example, vision involves light striking the retina of
the eye, smell is mediated by odor molecules, and hearing involves pressure waves.

Perception is not only the passive receipt of these signals, but it's also shaped by the
recipient's learning, memory, expectation, and attention.

Perception can be split into two processes,

(1) processing the sensory input, which transforms these low-level information to higher-level information
(e.g., extracts shapes for object recognition),

(2) processing which is connected with a person's concepts and expectations (or knowledge), restorative
and selective mechanisms (such as attention) that influence perception.

Perception depends on complex functions of the nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless
because this processing happens outside conscious awareness.

Since the rise of experimental psychology in the 19th century, psychology's understanding of
perception has progressed by combining a variety of techniques. Psychophysics quantitatively describes

29
the relationships between the physical qualities of the sensory input and perception. Sensory
neuroscience studies the neural mechanisms underlying perception. Perceptual systems can also be
studied computationally, in terms of the information they process. Perceptual issues in philosophyinclude
the extent to which sensory qualities such as sound, smell or color exist in objective reality rather than in
the mind of the perceiver.

Although the senses were traditionally viewed as passive receptors, the study of illusions and ambiguous
images has demonstrated that the brain's perceptual systems actively and pre-consciously attempt to make
sense of their input. There is still active debate about the extent to which perception is an active process
of hypothesis testing, analogous to science, or whether realistic sensory information is rich enough to make
this process unnecessary.

The perceptual systems of the brain enable individuals to see the world around them as stable, even though
the sensory information is typically incomplete and rapidly varying. Human and animal brains are
structured in a modular way, with different areas processing different kinds of sensory information. Some
of these modules take the form of sensory maps, mapping some aspect of the world across part of the
brain's surface. These different modules are interconnected and influence each other. For instance, taste is
strongly influenced by smell.

Nature of Perception:-

In fact perception refers to the manner in which an individual experiences the world as every individual
approaches the life differently.
One hears, as per ones perception, not what really said. People buy what is best to them, not what is best. It
is due to perception that a particular job may appear good to one and bad to another.
An individual’s own needs, objectives, problems, interests and background controls his perception in each
situation. Every individual has a perceptual world that he’s selective and partially concentrating on his
interest and likings.
 Understanding the difference between the perpetual world and real world is important to the study
of consumer behavior as well as human relations.

 People’s perception is determined by their needs as for instance mirrors at amusement park distort
the world in relation to their tension.

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  In fact perception is more important for the manager who wants to avoid making errors. While
dealing with people and events in the work policies. In order to deal subordinates effectively, a
manager must understand their perceptions properly.

There is difference between perception and sensation. Sensation is the response of a physical sensory organ
but perception is more than just a sensation

Customer Perception

The ultimate aim of every business is to increase sales by finding out the factors that drive consumer’s
buying decisions. Consumer perception theory tries to analyze and explain consumer behavior. The
perception of the same product or service by different consumers would vary. This is exactly what
consumer perception theory analyses by finding out what exactly motivates or influences a consumer
behavior in purchasing or not purchasing a specific product.

In biology, perception refers to the senses that any organism uses to collect information about its
environment. Wade &Tavris (1987) note that the senses corresponding to the human sense organs have
been categorised at least since Aristotle's time as: vision (our eyes), hearing (our ears), taste (our
tongues), touch (our skin) and smell (our noses). Walters & Bergiel (1989) continue the biological
viewpoint by explaining that according to the modem outlook, our sense of smell and taste are our
olfactory senses due to the fact that our senses of smell and taste are so closely entwined. They
continue by stating that humans also perceive in a kinaesthetic mode (using muscles and joints) and in
a vestibular mode (through our internal organs). In consumer behaviour, however, perception refers to
much more than just the biological use of our sense organs. It includes the way stimuli are interacted
and integrated by the consumer. Although there are numerous definitions in literature explaining
perception from a consumer behaviour perspective, the one used by Walters et al (1989, p. 333)
provides particular clarity on the topic:

"The entire process by which an individual becomes aware of the environment and interprets it so that
it will fit into his or her frame of reference."

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Walters et al (1989) expand on the definition by stating that every perception involves a person who
interprets through the senses some thing, event, or relation which may be designated as the percept.
Van der Walt (1991 ) adds that perception occurs when sensory receptors receive stimuli via the brain,
code and categorise them and assign certain meanings to them, depending on the person's frame of
reference. A person's frame of reference consists of a/l his previous held experiences, beliefs, likes,
dislikes, prejudices, feelings and other psychological reactions of unknown origin.

Benefits of Customer Perception for businesses

With competition becoming more intense in the global economy making it difficult for products and
services to stand out get differentiated from other offerings in the market, even the production,
logistics, sourcing, and accessibility to information cost is also rising. Varied products end up facing
stiff competition from industry outsiders from new bundles or offerings and substitutes. The result is
decrease in prices as most companies want to win over consumers along with closing the product
differences.

The modern consumer is more of a mix. Being very sensitive to prices, the modern consumer is
constantly in search of discounts and bargains. They are also constantly on the lookout for branded and
other luxury products. Being very well-informed, they are also constantly on the lookout for branded
and other luxury products. Being very well-informed, they are even aware and conscious of their
powers. This awareness increases their expectations from companies. All these factors together make it
more complicated to segregate a product or service by traditional sorting by quality, pricing, and
function.

The only solution available to a business in such situations is strengthening the bond between the
company and the company and the consumers. This is likely to a give better competitive advantage as
this relationship is not limited to the aspect of price, quality etc. The better experience a consumer has
with the company at different stages of interactions such as efficiency and reliability and speed of the
process, higher are the chances that he or she is likely to come back again. A problem arising from a
single transaction is likely to damage the relationship forever.

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Companies should take steps towards making their consumers remain fully apprised about the different
offerings of the company and how the offerings are likely to improve the life of the consumers. The
companies have to make sure that they are able to convince the consumers about hoe their products if
purchased by the consumers can give more benefit than that of the competitors. This is short amounts
to expanding the consumer perception to appreciate the finer aspects of the company’s offerings. But
care to not overdo the same as it might affect the company adversely.

Need for Customer Perception theory

A consumer’s perception of a product or service offered may differ from what the
producer or marketer had intended to offer. This is neither helpful nor favorable for both the parties in
today’s competitive environment. Also, it is likely to have more serious result in seeking consuer
attention as today’s consumer have greater exposure to the minute, diverse and extensive information.
This makes it very difficult for the offering to gain the complete attention of the consumer especially
in situations where the consumer perception is not the same as that of the offering. Getting a second
innings to make a better influence becomes all the more difficult.

Merchants aim to increase their sales by determining what drives their customers'
purchase decisions. Consumer perception theory attempts to explain consumer behaviour by analysing
motivations for buying -- or not buying -- particular items. Three areas of consumer perception theory
relate to consumer perception theory: self-perception, price perception and perception of a benefit to
quality of life.

Customer Perception Theory

Consumer perception theory is any attempt to understand how a consumer’s perception of a product or
service influences their behavior. Those who study consumer perception try to understand why consumers
make the decisions they do, and how to influence these decisions. Usually, consumer perception theory is
used by marketers when designing a campaign for a product or brand. However, some people study
consumer perception in order to understand psychology in a much more general sense.

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Perception

In general psychological terms, perception is our ability to make some kind of sense of reality from the
external sensory stimuli to which we are exposed. Several factors can influence our perception, causing it
to change in certain ways. For example, repeated exposure to one kind of stimuli can either make us
oversensitive or desensitized to it. Additionally, the amount of attention we focus on something can cause a
change in our perception of it.

Branding

A brand, or a brand name, is the attempt to impose some kind of identifying feature on a product or service
so that it is easily recognized by the general public. A brand is oftentimes associated with an image, a set of
expectations or recognizable logo. The goal of a brand is to set a product or service apart from others of its
kind, and influence the consumers to choose the product over similar products simply because of its
associations.

Positioning, Repositioning or Depositioning

Positioning is the process whereby marketers attempt to build a brand. Marketers actively try to create an
image which is both recognizable and appeals to a certain group of people or target market. Repositioning
is the process of altering this image, usually in order to influence a larger target market and thereby
influence the behavior of a greater number of consumers. Depositioning is the practice of trying to devalue
alternative, competing brands in the perceptions of a shared target market.

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Value and Quality

Value refers to the perceptions a consumer has of a product's benefits when weighed against its cost. Value
can be measured both qualitatively--the emotional or psychological pleasure a consumer derives from a
product or service--and quantitatively, in terms of the actual financial gain it wins them. Quality can be
related to value, and may be taken into account when measuring the value of a product or service. More
formally, it refers to the way in which a product or service relates to its competitors, or else conforms to a
set of measurable standards.

Buyer’s remorse

Buyer’s remorse is a strong feeling of regret which occurs after a purchase has been made. It is a
specific case of cognitive dissonance, or the psychological state of worry or unease which comes about
when attempting to come to terms with conflicting ideas, perceptions or motives. Buyer’s remorse
usually occurs after a consumer has made a purchase he or she has come to regret. Generally, it
involves the realization that the opportunity of purchasing one product or service over another in some
way outweighs the value of the purchase. In this regard, it occurs when a consumer’s perception of a
purchase changes after he or she has already invested in it.

PROCESS AND TERMINOLOGY

The process of perception begins with an object in the real world, termed the distal stimulus or distal
object. By means of light, sound or another physical process, the object stimulates the body's sensory
organs. These sensory organs transform the input energy into neural activity—a process

35
called transduction. This raw pattern of neural activity is called the proximal stimulus. These neural signals
are transmitted to the brain and processed. The resulting mental re-creation of the distal stimulus is
the percept.

An example would be a shoe. The shoe itself is the distal stimulus. When light from the shoe enters a
person's eye and stimulates the retina, that stimulation is the proximal stimulus. The image of the shoe
reconstructed by the brain of the person is the percept. Another example would be a telephone ringing. The
ringing of the telephone is the distal stimulus. The sound stimulating a person's auditory receptors is the
proximal stimulus, and the brain's interpretation of this as the ringing of a telephone is the percept. The
different kinds of sensation such as warmth, sound, and taste are called sensory modalities.

Psychologist Jerome Bruner has developed a model of perception. According to him, people go through the
following process to form opinions:

1. When we encounter an unfamiliar target, we are open to different informational cues and want to
learn more about the target.
2. In the second step, we try to collect more information about the target. Gradually, we encounter
some familiar cues which help us categorize the target.
3. At this stage, the cues become less open and selective. We try to search for more cues that confirm
the categorization of the target. We also actively ignore and even distort cues that violate our initial
perceptions. Our perception becomes more selective and we finally paint a consistent picture of the
target.

According to Alan Saks and Gary Johns, there are three components to perception.

1. The Perceiver, the person who becomes aware about something and comes to a final understanding.
There are 3 factors that can influence his or her perceptions: experience, motivational state and
finally emotional state. In different motivational or emotional states, the perceiver will react to or
perceive something in different ways. Also in different situations he or she might employ a
"perceptual defence" where they tend to "see what they want to see".
2. The Target. This is the person who is being perceived or judged. "Ambiguity or lack of information
about a target leads to a greater need for interpretation and addition."
3. The Situation also greatly influences perceptions because different situations may call for additional
information about the target.

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 Stimuli are not necessarily translated into a percept and rarely does a single stimulus
translate into a percept. An ambiguous stimulus may be translated into multiple percepts, experienced
randomly, one at a time, in what is called multistable perception. And the same stimuli, or absence of them,
may result in different percepts depending on subject's culture and previous experiences. Ambiguous
figures demonstrate that a single stimulus can result in more than one percept; for example the Rubin
vase which can be interpreted either as a vase or as two faces. The percept can bind sensations from
multiple senses into a whole. A picture of a talking person on a television screen, for example, is bound to
the sound of speech from speakers to form a percept of a talking person.

THEORIES

Perception as direct perception

Cognitive theories of perception assume there is a poverty of stimulus. This (with reference to perception)
is the claim that sensations are, by themselves, unable to provide a unique description of the world.
Sensations require 'enriching', which is the role of the mental model. A different type of theory is the
perceptual ecology approach of James J. Gibson. Gibson rejected the assumption of a poverty of
stimulus by rejecting the notion that perception is based upon sensations – instead, he investigated what
information is actually presented to the perceptual systems. His theory "assumes the existence of stable,
unbounded, and permanent stimulus-information in the ambient optic array. And it supposes that the visual
system can explore and detect this information. The theory is information-based, not sensation-based." He
and the psychologists who work within this paradigm detailed how the world could be specified to a
mobile, exploring organism via the lawful projection of information about the world into energy
arrays. "Specification" would be a 1:1 mapping of some aspect of the world into a perceptual array; given
such a mapping, no enrichment is required and perception is direct perception.

Perception-in-action

An ecological understanding of perception derived from Gibson's early work is that of "perception-in-
action", the notion that perception is a requisite property of animate action; that without perception, action
would be unguided, and without action, perception would serve no purpose. Animate actions require both

37
perception and motion, and perception and movement can be described as "two sides of the same coin, the
coin is action". Gibson works from the assumption that singular entities, which he calls "invariants",
already exist in the real world and that all that the perception process does is to home in upon them. A view
known as constructivism (held by such philosophers as Ernst von Glasersfeld) regards the continual
adjustment of perception and action to the external input as precisely what constitutes the "entity", which is
therefore far from being invariant.

Glasersfeld considers an "invariant" as a target to be homed in upon, and a pragmatic necessity to allow an
initial measure of understanding to be established prior to the updating that a statement aims to achieve.
The invariant does not and need not represent an actuality, and Glasersfeld describes it as extremely
unlikely that what is desired or feared by an organism will never suffer change as time goes on. This social
constructionist theory thus allows for a needful evolutionary adjustment.

A mathematical theory of perception-in-action has been devised and investigated in many forms of
controlled movement, and has been described in many different species of organism using the General Tau
Theory. According to this theory, tau information, or time-to-goal information is the fundamental 'percept'
in perception.

Evolutionary psychology (EP) and perception

Many philosophers, such as Jerry Fodor, write that the purpose of perception is knowledge, but
evolutionary psychologists hold that its primary purpose is to guide action. For example, they say, depth
perception seems to have evolved not to help us know the distances to other objects but rather to help us
move around in space. Evolutionary psychologists say that animals from fiddler crabs to humans use
eyesight for collision avoidance, suggesting that vision is basically for directing action, not providing
knowledge.

Building and maintaining sense organs is metabolically expensive, so these organs evolve only when they
improve an organism's fitness. More than half the brain is devoted to processing sensory information, and
the brain itself consumes roughly one-fourth of one's metabolic resources, so the senses must provide
exceptional benefits to fitness. Perception accurately mirrors the world; animals get useful, accurate
information through their senses.

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Scientists who study perception and sensation have long understood the human senses as
adaptations. Depth perception consists of processing over half a dozen visual cues, each of which is based
on a regularity of the physical world. Vision evolved to respond to the narrow range of electromagnetic
energy that is plentiful and that does not pass through objects. Sound waves provide useful information
about the sources of and distances to objects, with larger animals making and hearing lower-frequency
sounds and smaller animals making and hearing higher-frequency sounds. Taste and smell respond to
chemicals in the environment that were significant for fitness in the environment of evolutionary
adaptedness. The sense of touch is actually many senses, including pressure, heat, cold, tickle, and pain.
Pain, while unpleasant, is adaptive. An important adaptation for senses is range shifting, by which the
organism becomes temporarily more or less sensitive to sensation. For example, one's eyes automatically
adjust to dim or bright ambient light. Sensory abilities of different organisms often coevolve, as is the case
with the hearing of echolocating bats and that of the moths that have evolved to respond to the sounds that
the bats make.

Factors affecting Perception:-

1) INTERNAL FACTOR:

a. Need and desire: Prof. Maslow has given needs hierarchy what effects individual perception like basic
need, safety and security needs, love and affection needs, ego and esteem needs and finally self-fulfillment
needs.

b. Personality: One’s personality has got deep impact on one’s perception like:-

 Individuals who have strong and secure personality perceive others as warm and secure.

 Individual weak in certain aspects tends to find faults in others.

 Self-accepting individuals perceive themselves as liked, wanted and accepted by others.

 Person having confidence and faith in their individuality perceive things favorably.

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2) EXTERNAL FACTOR:

a. Size: Size takes that larger the object, the more likely it will be perceived. Bigger machine, larger
building and pictures get more attention than smaller ones.

b. Intensity: Intensity, normally attracts to increase selective perception. Strong and high intensity likes
leads to high perception while doing “neon signs advertisements”.

c. Motion: The principle of motion states that people will pay more attention to moving objectives in the
field of vision.

d. Repetition: Generally repeated external stimulus attracts more attention than a single time.

e. Status: It is seen that one’s perception is also influenced by the status of perceiver.

f. Contrast: The contrast principle states that external stimuli which stand out against the background will
attract more attention.

3) STIMULUS FACTOR:

a. Similarity: The principle of similarity states that the greater the similarity of the stimuli, the greater
tendency to perceive them as a common group.

b. Proximity: Things being equal, things near to each other tend to be perceived as belonging together.

c. Principal of Continuity: The principle of closure and continuity emphasis that an individual tends to fill
gaps in complete pattern of stimuli in ways that make them meaningful.

d. Principle of Context: In the perception the principle of context is of immense importance. Different
words, symbols, gestures, pose, etc. have got different meaning in different context.

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Factors Influencing Perceptual Set

Internal Factors

Self-concept : The way a person views the world depends a great deal on the concept or image he has
about himself. The concept plays an internal role in perceptual selectivity.

Beliefs : A person's beliefs have profound influence on his perception. Thus, a fact is conceived not on
what it is but what a person believes it to be.

Expectations : These affect what a person perceives. A technical manager may expect ignorance about the
technical features of a product from non-technical people.

Inner Needs : The need is a feeling of tension or discomfort, when one thinks he is missing something.
People with different needs experience different stimuli. According to Freud, wishful thinking is the means
by which the Id attempts to achieve tension reduction.

Response Disposition: It refers to a person's tendency to perceive familiar stimuli rather than unfamiliar
ones.

Response Salience: It is the set of disposition which are determined not by the familiarity of the stimulus
situations, but by the person's own cognitive predispositions. Thus, a particular problem may be viewed as
a marketing problem by marketing personnel, a control problem by accounting people and human relations
problem by personnel people.

Perceptual Defence: It refers to the screening of those elements which create conflict and threatening
situation in people.

1. Denying the existence or importance of conflicting information.

2. Distorting the new information to match the old one.

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3. Acknowledging the new information but treating it as a non-representation exception. The factors that
influence perception may be broadly divided into three categories :

1. Factors that reside in the 'Perceiver' (i.e., attitude, motives, interests, past experiences and personality,
expectations)

2. Factors of the 'situation' and-factors connected with the 'Target'.

3. Factors that determine the preferred location of a brand on each of the relevant dimension in perceptive
MAPPING.

External Factors

1. Size : Bigger size attracts the attention of the perceiver

2. Intensity : A loud sound, strong odor or bright light is noticed more as compared to a soft sound, weak
odour or dimlight.

3. Repetition : A repeated external stimulus is more attention getting than a single one. Advertisers use
this principle.

4. Novelty and Familiarity : A novel or a familiar external situation can serve as attention getter.

5. Contrast : It is a kind of uniqueness which can be used for attention getting. Letters of bold types,
persons dressed differently than others, etc., get more attention.

6. Motion : A moving object draws more attention as compared to a stationary object. Advertisers use this
principle.

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Perceptual Process:-

Perceptual process is a complex concept through which people process information into decisions and
attention. It is a way of impression about oneself, other people and daily life experience.
It is process through which people receive, organize and interpret information from their
surroundings and environment. The perceptual process has got mainly 4 stages. They are:-

1. Input stage

2. Processing stage

3. Output stage

4. Behaviour stage

1) INPUT STAGE:
There are many things in the environment through which perceiver are effected like
information, objects, events and people and this is known as input.

2) PROCESSING STAGE:

It involves:

a) Confrontation

b) Registration

c) Interpretation

d) Feedback

e) Reaction
In fact perception starts when an individual is confronted with a stimulus situation.

Under second stage of registration there is involvement of physiological mechanism. To sensory

physiological ability is to see and hear which effect one’s perception.

In third stage of perceptual interpretation deal which interference has drawn observed meaning from
perceived events or objects?

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Then the fourth stage of feedback is important for interpreting the perceptual data. Psychological
feedback like facial expressions, change in tone of voice and rose eyebrow is likely to effect and
individual behaviour at work.

Finally perception ends in reaction which may be positive and negative.

3) OUTPUT STAGE:
Due to perceptual input and processing mechanism there is perceptual output which an
individual gets in the form of changes in one’s attitude, opinion, beliefs, feelings, etc.

4) BEHAVIOR STAGE:
The perceiver behaviour is shaped by the perceived outputs i.e. change in attitude, behavior,
opinions, belief and approach.

Characteristics of the Perceiver:-


One’s needs and motives: Perceiver’s needs and motives effect his perception. A need is a feeling of
tension when one thinks he is missing something.

One’s beliefs: An individual’s beliefs have got a deep effect on one’s perception. A fact is conceived
not on what it is but what a person believes it to be.

One’s past experience: One’s past experience good or bad, effects the one’s perception.

One’s expectations: It is the expectations which effect the perception of a person. In an organization
technical, non-technical, financial and non-financial people have got different expectations and perception.

Current psychological state: An individual psychological and emotional and mental setup may
influence how he perceives the things.

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One’s Self-concept: In fact one’s self concept plays an important role in perceptual selectivity.

Situation: The situation in which an individual sees the objects deeply effects one’s perception.

Dynamics of Perception:-

 Sensation – Immediate and direct response of the sensory organs to the stimuli.

 Stimulus – Any unit of input to any of the senses.

 Sensory Receptors – Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue and Skin.

 The Absolute Threshold -The lowest level at which an individual can experience a sensation.
[Detecting difference between “Something” and “Nothing”.

 Sensory Adaption:- Getting used to Senses.


 The Differential Threshold:-
 Minimal difference detected between two similar stimuli.
 Ernest Weber 19th Century.

 Marketing Applications:-
 Negative changes are not readily seen (price rise, reduce in quantity).
 Positive changes are clearly seen.

Elements of Perception:-


 Perceptual Selection
 Perceptual Organization
 Perceptual Interpretation

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Perception Selection:-

Consumers are by nature selective, they unconsciously exercise a great deal of selectivity as regards
different stimuli present in the environment. There are a number of stimuli in the environment and the
individual cannot perceive all of this.

Selective Perception:-

 Selective Exposure – People look for pleasant and sympathetic messages and avoid painful or
threatening ones.

 Selective Attention – People look into ads which will satisfy their need.

 Perceptual Defense – People avoid Psychologically threatening ones. Hence constantly change the ad
nature. [Smoking – warning with words, and now images]

 Perceptual Blocking – People block stimuli which is bombarded.

Perceptual Organization:-
 People see everything as a whole.

 Gestalt Psychology.

 Figure and Ground

 Grouping

 Closure

Perceptual Interpretation:-


 Stimulus are often highly ambiguous or weak.

 Stereotypes.

 Physical Appearances.

 Descriptive terms.
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  First Impression.

 Halo Effect.

Stereotypes:-


People carrying biased pictures in their minds of the meanings of various stimuli.

People hold meaning related to stimuli.

Stereotypes influence how stimuli are

Physical Appearances:-

People associate quality with people in the ads.

Attractive models have positive influence.

Colours of Juices.

Shape of the Package.

Descriptive Terms:-
Stereotypes are reflected in Verbal Messages.

 Accenture – High Performance, Delivered.

 KFC – Finger licking’ good!

 Mc Donald’s – Happy Meal! (targeting Indians who are price conscious)

First Impressions:-
First impressions are lasting.

The perceiver is trying to determine which stimuli are relevant, important or predictive.

Halo Effect:-

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Consumers perceive and evaluate product or service or even product line based on just one
dimension.

Important with spokesperson choice.

Tampering the Halo Effect is detrimental to the organization.

For Example:-

 Toyota – Quality.

 Ford – Safety.

 Sony – Music.

 Samsung – Android.

Consumer Imagery:-
Consumers perceived images about the product, services, prices, product quality, retail stores and
manufacturers.

People buy the product to enhance their self-image (relating themselves to the product).

Positioning:-
Image of the product in the minds of the customer is also called as POSITIONING.

Image of your product gear up your sales, but the product should also deliver its performance or
quality.

Product Benefits should be focused more than its physical attributes.

Umbrella Positioning:-
Nicolo Pome, UK marketing director for Nivea’s parent Company Beiersdorf, said “We wanted to
find a more relevant role for the Nivea brand in our target markets’ minds”. The awareness of the
Nivea brand is vast but we needed to find a way to engage with the audience to a greater degree.

An umbrella strategy is Marketing practice that involves selling many related products under a single
brand name.

For Example: LION.

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Positioning Products and Services:-
Model of Strategic positioning:

Positioning of Services:-
 It’s difficult to position a service because it’s intangible.

 Only image differentiation helps to position better among their competitors.

 Examples: - Flipkart.com – Reliable, Pizza Hut – Fast in Delivery.

Perceived Price:-


Perceived price should reflect the value that the customer receives from purchase.

Perceived price reflect on Purchase intentions and Purchase Satisfaction.

Reference Price:-

 Internal – From Customers Memory

 External – From Companies and Environment.

Perceived Quality:-

Intrinsic Cues – People actually experience the product here. Physical Attributes of the product.
E.g.: Shape, Size, and Color.

Extrinsic Cues – Absence of Actual Experience with a product.

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  Consumer often “evaluate” quality on the basis of factors quite external to the product itself, such
as its price, the image of the store(s) that carries it, or the image (that is, the reputation) of the
manufacturer that produces it.

Price/Quality Relationship:-

Most consumers rely on price as an indicator of product quality.

Consumers use price as a surrogate indicator of quality when they have less information of the
product. E.g.:- Purchase of apparels of a new brand.

When consumers are familiar with the product or have used it before price declines as a
determining factor in evaluation.

Perceived Risk:-

The uncertainty that consumers face when they cannot foresee the consequences of their purchase
decisions.
Types of Risk:-
1. Functional

2. Physical

3. Financial

4. Social

5. Psychological

6. Time

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Handling Risk:-
 Consumers seek information.

 Consumers are brand loyal.

 Consumers select by brand image,

 Consumers rely on store image.

 Consumers buy most expensive model/

 Consumer seeks reassurance.

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 CHAPTER - 4
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

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 FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

 It has been observed that OnePlus is taking the customer perception as a base in introducing
new mobiles frequently.

 It has been observed that stimulus factors influence the customers and attracts them towards
new model with it’s features.

 It has been observed that word of mouth plays a very important role in OnePlus.

 It is observed that low pricing strategies of Oneplus has established a positive perception in
customers.

 Every perception is associated with risk because perception maybe uncertain or may be
unreleased.

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Conclusion:

This study has helped me to understand the perception of customers towards brand OnePlus.
The company is succeeded in a very short span of time , by creating a positive impact in the minds of
people. This helped me to understand, identifying the customer perception towards the brand helps in
providing maximum satisfaction to the customers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marketing Management
- PHILIP KOTLER
Marketing Management
- RAJAN SAXENA
Marketing Management
- V.V.NAMA KUMARI AND RAMASWAMY

WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM
WWW.IRESEARCHSERVICES.COM
WWW.BUSINESSDICTIONARY.COM

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