CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of Cellular/Mobile phone www.

wikipediadefines cellular phone as:The Cellular telephone (commonly "mobile phone" or "cell phone" or "handphone") is alongrange, portableelectronic deviceused for mobile communication. In addition to thestandard voice function of atelephone, current mobile phones can support manyadditionalservicessuch asSMSfor text messaging, email, packet switchingfor access to theInternet, andMMS for sending and receiving photosandvideo. Most current mobile phones connect to acellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) (the exception is satellite phones.Cellular telephone is also define as a type of short-waveanalogor digital telecommunication in which a subscriber has awirelessconnection from a mobiletelephone to a relatively nearby transmitter. The transmitter's span of coverage is called acell.Generally, cellular telephone service is available in urban areas and along major highways. As the cellular telephone user moves from one cell or area of coverage toanother, the telephone is effectively passed on to the local cell transmitter. A cellular telephone is not to be confused with a cordless telephone (which is simply a phone with avery short wireless connection to a local phone outlet). A newer service similar to cellular is personal communications services(PCS) .2 Brand preferences and advertisement Students leant about cellular phone from many sources, mainly from friends and families,through advertisement and from their own experience. Whether a promotion andadvertising hurt or help a brand is under-researched (Mela, Gupta & Lehman, 1997). Inthe long-run, advertisement help brands by making consumer less price sensitive andmore loyal. Exposure of an ad is crucial to be effective in changing consumer knowledge,attitude and behaviour (Evans,Moutinho & Van

Raaj, 1996). And for the ad to be seen, itmust grab the attention of its target audience. Ads originality as defined from Pietes,Warlop and Wedel, (2002) were easier for customer to remember than ordinary ads byincreasing attention to it. This thus increased attention to the brand beingadvertised.However, regardless of the content, ads for brand leaders are more successfuldue to the influence of the brand (Simon, 1970). Ads for less popular brands may be lesssuccessful even though the content may be good.Liking towards the brand itself can influence liking for the brand (Hawkins, Best &Coney, 1992). However according to study by Biehal, Stephens and Curlo (1992)whether consumers like or dislike an ad does not necessarily lead to brand acceptance or rejection. So, even though consumers may like the ad that they see, it does not necessarilymean that they will go out and buy the brand advertised.Usually the consumer uses their attitude towards the ad (Aad) in brand choice equaled that of attitude towards the brands(AB). Advertisers must remember that advertising messages are interpretend differently between different genders (Maldonando, Tansuhaj & Muehling, 2003; Hogg & Garrow,2003; Putrevu, 2001).Prevoius study have proven that females were more likely toengagae in elaboration than men (Maldonado & Muehling, 2003). Hogg and Garrow(2003) found that women paid more intention about the details of the characters of an adwhen asked to analyze advertising messages. They said that this may be explained by thefact that females have a greater tendency than men to consider external information andinformation related to others. Women are comprehensive processors who try to gather all available information about the product.In building brand preferences, Alreck and Settle (1999) proposed six strategies:1)Need association- the product/brand linked to need through repeated messages.2)Mood associations- brands should be associated with good feelings throughslogans,songs.3)Subconscious motivation-use of symbol to excite consumers subconsciousmotives.4)Behaviour modification-consumers are conditioned to buy the brand bycontrolling cues and rewards.5)Cognitif processing-penetrating perceptual and cognitive barriers to createfavourable attitudes

towards the brand/product.6)Model emulation- portraying idealized lifestyles for consumers to imitate. However, this study focused only on the symbolic or tangible elements in influencing brand preference. It did not discuss tangible aspects (i.e product characteristics) of influencing brand preference. Advertisement can change consumers perception of a product in terms of attributes content and proportion and also influence consumers tastefor attributes ( Gwin & Gwin, 2003) 2.3 Brand preference and product attribute Attributes are the characteristic or features that an object may or may not haveand includes both intrinsic and extrinsic (Mowen & Minor, 1998) .Benefits is the positiveoutcomes that come from the attributes.People seek products that have attributes that willsolve their problems and fulfills their needs (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Understanding whya consumer choose a product based upon its attributes helps marketers to understand whysome consumers have preferences for certain brands (Gwin & Gwin, 2003). In the study by Gwin and Gwin (2003), the Lancaster model of consumer demand (1966, 1979), alsoreffered to as the product attributes model,was used to evaluate brand positioning.Thismodel assumes that consumer choice is based on the characteristics (or attributes) of a brand.Each product is abundle of attributes and that choice is based on maximizingutility/satisfaction from the attritubes subject to budget constraints. However there weretwo limitataions of the model: (1) the model is static and deterministic and (2) the modeldoes not explain how the preferences for attributes were formed.This article also also didinot mention if experience with the product played a part in influencing attributes preferences

performances. Similarly, Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity may be moreinfluenced by attribute knowledge more than consumer preference.For low-involvement products, consumers have more objective view of the natureof the attrinutes (eg. food, cosmetics) because they are constantly being advertised and promoted.Similarly

Rioo, Vasquez and Iglesias (2001) sugggeated that consumer evaluation of a product can be broken down into evaluation related to product (tangible or physical attributes) and brand name (intangible attributes, or images added to the productdue to its brand names). In his study on the relationship between human values andconsumer purchases, Allen (2001) found there was a significant association betweenhuman values (eg. hedonistic, achievement, self-direction, conformity, security etc.), product preference and tangible attribute importance with how consumers perceive the product (i.e tangible attributes) and how they evaluate the product (i.e symbolicmeaning,tangible/intangible attribute importance). Human values influence theimportance of the products tangible attribute importances that are already important toconsumers.However perception of product performance on the salient attributes are moreimportant than actual performance (Mason & Bequette, 1998).Mowen and Minor (1998)suggested that marketing managers should know the attributes that consumers expect in a product and how positively or negatively they rate these attributes to help develop and promote a successful product.Retailers need to be knowledgeable of the product attributes perceived as the most important by each individual consumer group in order to build andmaintain market share (Warrington & Shim, 2000). It is the consumer who determineswhich attributes matter to them. Different consumer groups place different importance on different attributes (Warrington & Shim,2000).It was found that consumers categoriez asLP/SB (low product involvement/strong brand commitment) placed greater importanceon product attributes and product orientataions than LP/WB (weak brand commitment)consumers, which placed the most importance on price.Markerters should consider using advertisement, which may play a role in makingattributee important to consumers that might not have been considered before (Gwin &Gwin, 2003),Romariuk & Sharp (2003) suggested two objectives of short-term and long-term brand building. In the short term, managers need to identify a specific attributes to be communicated to the market,based on which message gave the best execution.The keyaim is

to develop likeable advertisement.In the long-run,managers need to build up abank of consumer perception about the brand to make it the one most often thought of and make it difficult for competitors to have access to the minds of consumers (Romariuk & Sharp, 2003).The brand name of the product itself is an important attribute. Brands have bothfunctional (product-related) and symbolic dimensions (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz,2001), On the product related benefit side, consumer evaluate product performance basedon its capabilities, usage effectiveness, value for money and reliability. The purchase andconsumption of products is increasing regarded by consumers as an indirect way of communication to improve their self image and deliver certain impressions to other people in their environment (del Rio,Vasquez & Iglesiaz, 2001), Therefore the brandname benefits perceived by consumers is highly interrelated to the productbased benefits. Big brand means a better image and a better product (del Rio,Vasquez &Iglesiaz, 2001), Howevwer, as mention earlier, Mason and Bequette (1998) suggested that perceived product performance is more important than actual attribute performance.Similarly Myers (2003) concluded that brand equity might be influenced by attributeknowledge more than consumer preference. This may be due to consumer biasness and prejudice, Consumers product evaluations are influenced by memory. The biasness can be reduced by having current information, experience and knowledge (Mason andBequette ,1998). Therefore, its not surprising that brands that consumers believe offer superior value are most preferred brands chosen often (Myers, 2003). Brands with higher equity resulted in greater preferences and high market shares.Price is another form of attribute used by consumers to evaluate a product.Price cansometimes be an indicator of quality; with a higher price indicating higher quality(Mowen & Minor, 1998; Siu & Wong, 2002). Consumers perceive that a higher price can be attributed to the higher cost of quality control (Siu & Wong, 2002). Some consumersare highly price sensitive (elastic demand),whereby a high prices may shift consumers

tocompetitive brands (Mowen & Minor, 1998). Therefore price can have a positive or negative influence on customers.