CUSTOMERS SATISFACTION OF MOBILE PHONE VIVO MODEL

V3MAX IN THAILAND
CUSTOMERS SATISFACTION OF MOBILE PHONE VIVO MODEL
V3MAX IN THAILAND

Ruomei Ruan

This Independent Study Manuscript Presented to

The Graduate School Of Bangkok University
in Partial Fulfillment
Of The Requirements For The Degree
Master Of Business Administration

2019
 ©2019
Ruomei Ruan
All Rights Reserve
 iv

Ruomei, R. M. B. A. , January 2019, Graduate School, Bangkok University.

Customers Satisfaction of Mobile Phone Vivo model V3max in Thailand (53 pp.)
Advisor: Paul TJ James, Ph. D.

ABSTRACT

For each enterprise, customer is the biggest wealth, because only customers
are satisfied with the products and services provided by the enterprise, that can
enhance the competitiveness of the enterprise, and enterprise has the basis for survival
and development. In simple terms, only by winning customers, it is possible to
achieve long- term sustainable development of the company.
By studying customer satisfaction, Vivo can improve the accuracy of meeting
the needs of Thailand's target customers, and its products or services can better adapt
to market demands, thus improving the scientific and accuracy of Vivo marketing
decisions.
With the use of follow-up call interview of 300 V3Max Customer, and
analysis data with Excel Program, it found that V3Max customer satisfied with the
design the experiments, and service of model V3Max of Vivo. Overall, customer
satisfaction is still at a satisfactory level.

Keywords:Customer Satisfaction, Vivo Thai co.,th, V3Max,NPS, Likert Scale

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the
writing of this IS study research.
My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my advisor Dr. Paul TJ James,
for his constant encouragement and guidance. He has walked me through all the stage
of the writing of this work. Without his enlightening instruction, impressive kindness
and patience, I could not have completed my work. And this research could not have
reached its presents form.
Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Vivo for providing a
lot of relevant information for this IS study. Even help me to gather customer
information. I really appreciate my colleagues and Vivo company.
Last my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations
and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to
my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to
me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of this research.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................ v
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1
1.1 Background .................................................................................. 1
1.2 Statement of Problem ................................................................... 3
1.3 Intention of Research ................................................................... 4
1.4 Research Objective ...................................................................... 4
1.5 Major Research Questions and Sub-questions .............................. 5
1.6 Assumption .................................................................................. 5
1.7 Scope of Research ........................................................................ 5
1.8 Benefits of Research .................................................................... 5
1.9 Limitation of Research ................................................................. 6
1.10 Conclusion ................................................................................ 6
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................ 7
2.1 Customer ...................................................................................... 7
2.2 Customer Satisfaction .................................................................. 8
2.3 Consumer Behavior...................................................................... 13
2.4 Consumer Buying Process ........................................................... 15
2.5 Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) ................................... 16
2.6 Mobile Marketing in Thailand ..................................................... 17
2.7 Conclusion ................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY RESEARCH ............................................ 19
3.1 Research Methodology Review ................................................... 19
3.2 Method of Inquiry ........................................................................ 22
3.3 Data Collection ............................................................................ 23
3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................... 25
CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................... 26
4.1 Data Test ....................................................................................... 26
4.2 Introduction .................................................................................. 27
 vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS (Continued) Page

4.3 Data Analysis of Customer Satisfaction....................................... 35
4.4 Analysis of Data........................................................................... 43
4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................... 44
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION .......................................................................... 45
5.1 Customer Characteristics ............................................................. 45
5.2 Customer Buying Drive ............................................................... 46
5.3 Satisfaction performance ............................................................. 46
5.4 Conclusion ................................................................................... 46
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ...................... 47
6.1 Conclusion ................................................................................... 47
6.2 Recommendation ......................................................................... 48
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 49
APPENDIX .................................................................................................... 51
BIODATA...................................................................................................... 53
LICENSE AGREEMENT OF INDEPENDENT STUDY ............................ 54
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LIST OF TABLES

Page
Table 1.1: V3max specific Table .................................................................. 3
Table 3.1: Comparison of Descriptive, causal and ...................................... 21
predictive Research
Table 3.2: Samplings of Each Channels ....................................................... 24
Table 3.3: Likert Scale .................................................................................. 24
Table 3.4: NPS Scale..................................................................................... 25
Table 4.1: Average Age ................................................................................ 28
Table 4.2: The details of Student/White-collar workers ............................... 29
Table 4.3: Average Family Household Income (Baht) ................................. 31
Table 4.4: The final results of the year 2012, yield 8 classifications of ...... 31
SES for each area
Table 4.5: The Brand of Last Mobile Service Time over 2 Years ................ 34
Table 4.6: The series of last mobile .............................................................. 34
Table 4.7: Compared models ........................................................................ 36
Table 4.8: Dissatisfaction of Battery ............................................................. 38
Table 4.9: Customer Complains .................................................................... 40
Table 4.10: NPS Value .................................................................................. 41
Table 4.11: Dissatisfaction Aspects ............................................................... 42
Table 4.12: Competitors Model Details ........................................................ 44
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LIST OF FIGURES

Page
Figure 1.1: June,2016-June 2017 sales percentage ....................................... 2
Figure 2.1: Kano model ............................................................................... 9
Figure 2.2: ACSI model ............................................................................... 10
Figure 2.3: Level of Customer Satisfaction .................................................. 11
Fugure 2.4: Net Promoter Score Analysis ..................................................... 12
Figure 2.5: Customer Effort Score (CES) ..................................................... 13
Figure 4.1: Gender ........................................................................................ 27
Figure 4.2: Age ............................................................................................. 27
Figure 4.3: Education Background ............................................................... 28
Figure 4.4: Occupation .................................................................................. 29
Figure 4.5: Personal Monthly Income (Baht) ............................................... 30
Figure 4.6: Family monthly Income (Baht) .................................................. 30
Figure 4.7: Service Time of Last Mobile ...................................................... 32
Figure 4.8: The Brand of Last Mobile .......................................................... 33
Figure 4.9: Reasons for Purchase V3Max .................................................... 35
Figure 4.10: Compared mobile phone brands ............................................... 36
Figure 4.11: Satisfaction of Appearance Design Satisfaction of Function..... 37
Figure 4.12: Satisfaction of Function ............................................................ 38
Figure 4.13: Satisfaction of Experience Satisfaction of Service .................... 39
Figure 4.14: Satisfaction of Service .............................................................. 40
Figure 4.15: Overall Satisfaction of V3Max Customer................................. 41
Figure 4.16: Satisfactory Aspects .................................................................. 42
Figure 4.17: Ratio of Repurchase/Recommendation Intention ..................... 43
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the background, statement of problem, intention and

scope of the research. The benefits and limitations of this research will also be
included in this chapter.

1.1 Background
China's mobile phone industry has experienced more than 20 years of highly
rapid development, mobile and terminal market competition is very fierce, Chinese
market is saturated, the profit space in the field of traditional communication letter has
been difficult to support the company's long- term development. Therefore, many
Chinese companies choose to switch to international market to cope with the future
market competition and alleviate the pressure.
There is no lack of rapid economic development of southeast Asia countries
such as Thailand, Thailand is the association of southeast Asian nations member
states and one of the founders, as well as the Asia-pacific economic cooperation
organization, the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM), and the world trade organization
members. Thailand since by economic policies, the rapid development of economy in
the 1990 s, one becomes one of the "Asian tigers", is the emerging industrial countries
of the world and one of the emerging market economies in the world. Thailand is
Asia's only net food exporter and one of the world's top five agricultural exporters.
Thailand's electronic industry and other manufacturing industry development is rapid,
also auto industry is a pillar industry, is southeast Asia's automobile manufacturing
center and the east union's biggest car market, is southeast Asia's second-largest
economy, second only to India.
The sales of communications equipment, especially smartphones, are largely
influenced by the number of consumers and the ability to consume. In terms of
population, the total population of Singapore is 5.4 million, the total population of
Malaysia is 31 million, and the total population of Thailand is 68 million, and
the number of mobile phone users in China reaches 83 million (World Population
Distribution By Country, 2018).
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Vivo smartphone is a smartphone brand launched by BKK ELECTRONICS

CORP., LTD in 2009. The declaration of the brand is “Daring to pursue true
perfection, while continuously creating the surprising.” Its core values were pleasure,
energy, and professionalism. Vivo smartphone product series have Xplay series, X
series and Y series. In 2014 Vivo started to entering international market, except
Chinese domestic market, the overseas market included India, Thailand, Cambodia,
Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, Russia. Until now, vivo
has 7632 stores, 600 after-sales service centers in 600 Mainland–Chinese cities, and
has 373 stores in overseas cities. [1] There were 26 brand shops in Thailand. vivo
have 11 retail system partners, 3 operator partners, 5 online sales channels in
Thailand. Vivo has been entry the Thai market for nearly 4 years, its overall sales
rank still low. And the product sales are still in the mid - to low- end market; OPPO,
which has a similar positioning, has switched its product line in Thailand to the
medium- high price segment. According to the Thailand mobile phone marketing
share of June,2016 to June,2017, Samsung is the leading selling brand, followed by
apple and OPPO. Vivo is still in the third echelon team, which is far behind OPPO,
the volume of OPPO is 1.5 times that of vivo.

Figure 1.1: June,2016-June 2017 sales percentage

Source: Gfk data. (2017). GfK Point of Sales Tracking, Retrieved from
https://www.gfk.com/insights/press-release/smartphone-average-selling-price-
 3

sees-record-year-on-year-growth-in-3q/

Mobile phone vivo model V3max launched in April, 2016. As the flagship
phone for vivo in 2016, V3max sold about 64,100 since it has been launched. V3max
specific is following

Table 1.1: V3max specific Table

Source : SiamPhone. (n.d.). Vivo V3Max, Retrieved from https://www.siamphone.

com/spec/en/vivo/v3_max.htm

1.2 Statement of Problem

As China's mobile market becomes more saturated, many Chinese mobile
phone brands developed overseas markets in 2012, included vivo. Since now, there
have Huawei, OPPO, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Vivo that most famous Chinese mobile phone
brands in Thailand market. Reported by XURI data, in 2016, Thailand top ten mobile
brands were true, lava, Samsung, OPPO, iPhone, vivo, ASUS, Huawei, wiko and
Lenovo, Chinese mobile bands occupied six seats, but not in the top three. The top

one was Thailand Operator brands True that 22.57%，the second one was Lava, a

Indian brand had 20.68%, vivo only had 5.73%, ranked No.6. Relative to the low
price segments of smartphone Thailand, customers’ perceptions of vivo still low.
With the increasing competition, the competition among major mobile phone
manufacturers is no longer a pure technical competition, and the satisfaction of
customers becomes the main factor. For mobile phone company, they need to focus
on the quantifying customer satisfaction and its influencing factors. The necessary
condition to seize the market is to win customer’s satisfaction. To satisfy customers:
 4

1) . grasping the market trend and produce more popular mobile phones that can meet
customers' needs; 2). understanding the advantages of other rivals, to make up for
their shortcomings, and to improve deficiencies. From the perspective of customers, it
can not only effectively express all aspects of customers' needs, but also reflect their
aspirations. Therefore, for the whole mobile phone industry, the necessary condition
to compete for customers is to satisfy them and pay attention to the satisfaction of
customers, which is of great significance to mobile phone company. But for mobile
phone enterprises give more consideration to rigid indicators, such as turnover, profit
and market share, but neglects soft indexes such as customer satisfaction. For mobile
phone enterprises complete customer satisfaction strategy system are lacking,
customer satisfaction is not used as a competitive weapon, therefore, customers
satisfied with the product or service enterprise level is low.
There are too many similarities between Vivo and OPPO. Because they are the
same parent company in China, Vivo and OPPO have very similar appearance,
configuration, pricing strategy and promotion methods. OPPO entered Thailand
market 3 years earlier than Vivo, consumer awareness of OPPO is much higher than
that of Vivo. Products at the same price range consumer are more likely to buy OPPO.

1.3 Intention of Research

This study Research emphasis Vivo mobile phone model V3max’s customer
satisfaction investigation, and supplemented by influencing factors. Through this
study, vivo can understand customers' satisfaction with v3max, and this study will put
forward suggestions for vivo to improving customer satisfaction, and provide
guidance for subsequent products and services.

1.4 Research Objective

The objective of the research study as below:
1. To interview the customer who ever bought V3max, knowing customers’
satisfaction with V3max
2. To study the consumer characteristics of v3max users
3. To study the consumer behavior of v3max users
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1.5 Major Research Questions and Sub-questions

Major research question of this work is as bellowing：What is the
performance of v3max consumer satisfaction segmentation？ Sub-questions of this
work are as bellowing：
1. What kind of customers bought V3max？
2. How well do customers know Vivo？
3. What aspets of V3max do customers not like？

1.6 Assumption
This study is conducted under the following assumptions:
1. Customers bought V3Max only for their own use;
2. The information and sales numbers come from Vivo internal are reliable.

1.7 Scope of Research

This research by making the phone follow up for customer who have ever
bought model V3max, getting V3max users feedback on the product performance,
configuration and service. Then through the data analysis consumer characteristics
and consumption habits. Getting the phone number of interviewees from the
consumer information filled in by warranty card of v3max. The v3max consumers
selected are not limited to Bangkok, but to Thailand as a whole.

1.8 Benefits of Research

From the perspective of macro concept, the customer satisfaction can reflect
the customer's evaluation of products and services, as well as the customer
satisfaction. From the Angle of integration, quantifying the price of products and
services, acquiring accurate data information can provide a basis for mobile phone
enterprise decision- making.
From the perspective of micro concept, customer satisfaction is the key
indicator in the quality management system, which is of great importance to mobile
phone industry. As follows:
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1. It is beneficial to improve the prediction ability of mobile phone enterprise.

Customer satisfaction is the guide plate for customer behavior, which can provide
advice for vivo product planning and improvement.
2. Improving company’s competitive edge. The one who can satisfy the
customer is the one who holds the power of action.
3. Improving the profitability of company. Understanding customers'
consumption characteristics and habits, and formulate personalized corporate policies,
so as to find potential customers and bring higher benefits to enterprises.

1.9 Limitation of Research

Due to limited knowledge and lack of research experience, the depth of this
study is not enough. There is amount of researches studying about customer
satisfaction and behavior, but few research study such specific one, only one model of
production. This research only investigates the vivo v3max model of customer
satisfaction, no other models of Vivo and other mobile phone brands were
investigated, thus cannot be compared different types, different brands of mobile
phone customer satisfaction. It is impossible to determine the advantages and
disadvantages of V3max compared to other mobile phones. And also cannot propose
targeted strategies to improve customer satisfaction for different mobile phone models
and brands.

1.10 Conclusion
In recent years, the smartphone industry has seen explosive development. The
use of the phone is no longer limited to talk, but also to the Internet, reading, taking
photos and simple file processing. With the saturation of the mobile phone market in
Thailand, how to satisfy consumers has become the focus of this research.
V3Max was flagship mobile phones of Vivo in 2016, it is the representative
product of vivo two years after it entered Thailand. To study customers’ satisfaction
and characteristics of this product can provide useful suggestions for Vivo’s future
product development and product strategy. This is also the intention of this research
By interviewing the customer who have bought V3max, to analysis the factors
effect customers’ satisfaction.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Books, definitions, formulas and models will be reviewed in this chapter,

included the definition of customer, customer satisfaction, behavior, buying process,
customer relationship management and mobile phone market in Thailand.

2.1 Customer
Customers constitute the main body of market demand, and be divided into 2
types, one is internal customers, the other one is external customers.
2.1.1 Definition of Customer
Kotler (1931) defined Customers are people who have certain desires or
needs and willing to satisfy them through exchange. Chinese professional manager
Qu. yunbo and economics doctor Niu. haipeng in the book “ Service advantage and
overall customer service system planning” emphasized that customers are people who
will come on to buy goods, or customers are people with the ability to consume or
have consumption potential. Customer are defined from the size of purchasing power.
Johns (1942) strictly distinguishes users from customers, and point out that customers
are the people who use and pay for our products or services. This research defines the
customer as: the customer can be an individual, a group or a unit, whose needs
constitute the market.
2.1.2 Customer Segmentation
Geoff Tennant who is a six sigma consultant of UK categorizes
customers in 2 types. When marketers, market regulators and economists use
intermediate or final classifications, customers are more often divided into two
categories in the field of customer service:
1. Internal customer. Internal customers are customers who are directly
connected to the organization, usually (but not necessarily) customers have
relationship to the organization. Such as stakeholders, employees or shareholders, but
definitions also include creditors and external regulators (Tennant, 2001)
2. External customer. An organization's external customer is a customer
who has no direct contact with the organization (Kendall, 2007) . According to the
 8

relationship between external customers and organizations, external customers can be

divided into types：This research is intended for external customers, those who
purchase, use, or may use products or services.

2.2 Customer Satisfaction

There are 3 models of customer satisfaction, ASCI, Kano and the customer
satisfaction model evolved from Maslow. Maslow model is the basic model of social
demand, the research will study customer satisfaction on the basis of Maslow. Three
measurements of customer satisfaction are main method to study customer
satisfaction.
2.2.1 Definition of Customer Satisfaction
People began to attach great importance to the idea and concept of
customer satisfaction in the middle of the twentieth century. The basis of the concept
of customer satisfaction is due to material excess. Due to overproduction, customers
are free choose to the products or services they satisfy. If a company wants to sell its
products or services, it must try its best to meet the needs of customers and make
them satisfied. American scholar Cardozo (1965) first introduced Customer
Satisfaction (CS) into the field of marketing. A large number of scholars and experts
have conducted in- depth studies on the " expect- difference" paradigm after Cardozo
proposed that improving customer satisfaction can stimulate customers' repeated
purchase behaviors. This theory takes the customer expectation as the reference
object, making judgment and comparison on products and services. Oliver & Linda
(1981) thinks that customer satisfaction is an emotional state, which is formed when
expectations are in line with past consumption experience. Tse & Witon (1988)
believed that customer satisfaction was a kind of differential evaluation, which was
formed when customers compare the expected quality before purchase with the
perceived quality after consumption. Westbrook & Reilly (1983) believed that
customer satisfaction was emotional reaction.
This emotional reaction is caused by the psychological influence of
product display and shopping environment in the process of purchasing. Philip Kotler
defines customer satisfaction as a person's feeling of pleasure or disappointment that
is formed by comparing their expectations value with the perceived effects of
 9

purchasing a product. This Research adopt the definition of Philip Kotler's.

2.2.2 Customer Satisfaction Model
The Kano model a theory put forward by Nariaki, Kano(1940) classifies
customer preferences into 5 categories: Must- be Quality(threshold attributes) , One-
dimensional Quality(performance attributes), Attractive Quality(excitement attributes)
, Indifferent Quality, and Reverse Quality. In Kano model, the relationship between
customer satisfaction and the characteristics of products or services is shown as
follows:

Figure 2.1: Kano model

Source : Wikipedia. (2019). Kano model. Retrieves from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model

As the Kano model shows if a product's features don't meet a customer's

Threshold Attributes, customer satisfaction levels will be very low.
Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) model developed by Claes Fornell
(1996), Donald C. Cook, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the
university of Michigan and chairman of the CFI group (Sipher- Mann, Leah). CSI is
 10

defined as an overall evaluation of the post consumption experience of products or

services in the minds of customers; latent variable indicated by customer satisfaction
scores in 2002, 2003, and 2004 (Xueming& Bhattacharya, 2006). Based on this
model, he customer satisfaction index model of their many countries are proposed.
Such as Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer (SCSB), American Customer
Satisfaction Index (ACSI), European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI), and
Chinese Customer Satisfaction Index (CCSI) (Xinyan, 2003). The classical ACSI
model is shown as Figure 2.2

Figure 2.2: ACSI model

Source : ACSI. (n.d.). The Science of Customer Satisfaction. Retrieves from
https://www.theacsi.org/about-acsi/the-science-of-customer-satisfaction

Maslow's theory divides need into physiological needs, security needs,

social needs, respect needs and self- actualization needs, from the lower level to the
higher level. This research according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs Divide customer

needs into the following three levels：

1. Product Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction is first of all satisfied with

the quality of the enterprise's products. The quality and internal design of the product
are the basic factors of customer satisfaction;
2. Service Satisfaction: it refers to the service measures taken before,
during, after sales and at different stages of the product life cycle to satisfy customers;
3. Social level Satisfaction: it refers to the customer safeguard social
 11

interests when they purchasing products and service.

Figure 2.3: Level of Customer Satisfaction

This research mainly discus product satisfaction and service satisfaction,

Social needs are not discussed.
2.2.3 Customer Satisfaction measurement
Customer Satisfaction, also known as the Customer Satisfaction index. It
is the abbreviation of customer satisfaction survey system in service industry.
Customer satisfaction is a relative concept, matches degree between customer
expectation and customer experience. In other words, it's an index that gets through
customer comparing the perceived effects with their expected value. There are three
mainly customer satisfaction measurements as fallows:
1. Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
This is the most classic indicator of customer satisfaction, which was
put forward by Cardozo “ An experience study of customer effect, expectation and
satisfaction” in 1965. Ask customers to assess their business, product or service
satisfaction. The CSAT score is the average score of customer response.

Customer satisfaction = Total Customer Scoring × 10 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙 𝑆𝑖𝑧𝑎

The ratio is usually between 1 and 10. A larger scale is not always
 12

better because of cultural differences in how people rate their satisfaction.

CSAT does have some downsides. The people who are most
motivated to do these kinds of surveys are either very happy or very unhappy, so you
can't truly measure the entire customer. CSAT is not always a good indicator of
customer loyalty; it's more about measuring how much customers trust the business
performance.
2. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS was first put forward by Frederick F. Reichhled who is founder
of Bain’s customer loyalty business in 2003 published "One Number You Need to
Grow". The article mentioned that there is no doubt that NPS can be seen as part of
the customer satisfaction, but the index is more intuitive, and it is not only direct
reaction to the customer to enterprise's loyalty or purchase intention, it also to some
extent to predict for current and some time to com of enterprise development trend
and sustainable

profitabNilPitSy.= 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 × 100 % − 𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 × 100%

NPS scale is 𝑆asamFipgluereSi2z.e4. 𝑆ample Size

Fugure 2.4: Net Promoter Score Analysis

 13

3. Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES was first proposed in a July 2010 article in the article “Stop
Trying to Delight Your Customers” by Mattew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas
Toma. CES measures the difficulties customers face when buying a product. CES
scores can be a wake-up call when enterprise make customers work too hard, they
might go somewhere else. Although this measure only focus on one aspect of your
business, it is important to check and make sure that customers still belongs to the
enterprise. In other worlds, CES can be understood as "how much effort does the user
have to make to be your customer and to remain your customer."

Figure 2.5: CES

CES excels CSAT and NPS in predicting consumer behavior, But CES is the
newest one. NPS will be used in this research.

2.3 Consumer Behavior

Consumer buyer behavior is considered to be an inseparable part of marketing
and Kotler (2009) states that consumer buying behavior is the study of the ways of
buying and disposing of goods, services, ideas or experiences by the individuals,
groups and organizations in order to satisfy their needs and wants. Hence, it is
imperative to grasp comprehensively consumer behavior in order to figure out how
prospective customers will react upon the development of the new product or service.
In addition, it also helps companies identify opportunities and contingencies which
are not presently integrated.
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2.3.1 Scope of Consumer Behavior

According to Rajneesh Krishna (2014) , Dean of FLAME School of
Communication Pune, to understand the process of consumer behavior holistically,
relies on significant contributions from sociology, anthropology, and psychology. In
this section, the study summarizes the three disciplines.
Under Sociology, it can be said that social groups impact on the
consumption behavior in two ways. First, they create internal preferences through the
process of internalization and second, they impose sanctions on deviant consumption
behavior. Meanwhile, Anthropology emphasizes the importance understanding the
impact of material and the non- material aspects of culture on consumer behavior.
Without any doubt, both sociological and anthropological perspectives explain the
impact of culture on consumer behavior. On the other hand, in Psychology, it is
evident that all forms of consumption are specific types of behavior and hence, the
theories such as Freud’s Psycho-analytical Theory of Personality and Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs, which were developed in the generalized context of psychology
can be easily applied to understand consumer behavior.
In short, consumer behavior is a complex and a multidimensional
process however, as a discipline it can be deduced that it has borrowed extensively
from other social sciences to fully understand the process of consumption.
2.3.2 The Influencing Factor of Consumer Behavior
Inferring from the previous discussion, it can also be concluded that
consumer behavior is mainly concerned with cultural, social, personal and
psychological as these four factor inevitably affect the marketing strategies of
individual companies.
Primarily, culture operates primarily by setting boundaries for individual
behaviors and by influencing the functioning of each institution as the family and
mass media (Chaudhry, 2014) . Thus, culture plays a very vital role in the determining
consumer behavior which can be subdivided in Culture, Sub- Culture and Social
Class. Secondly, it is explanatory to take into consideration the social factors in
consumer behavior, as they have great impact how people react into marketing
messages before making purchasing decisions. For instance, how using a prominent
figure can influence buyers. Social factors are also subdivided into the following;
Reference groups, Family and Role and status. Personal factors explain the unique
 15

characteristics (i.e. decision making process, habits and interest, and notions) of an
individual despite being part of the same group. The sub factors under personal factor
are listed as; Age and life cycle stage, Occupation, Financial or economic situations,
Lifestyle and Self concept and personality.
Psychological factors can include the relative perception of a person’s
personal needs, his learning or comprehension abilities, and attitude, as each
individual responds to a marketing message based on those components. The four
psychological factors that affect consumer behavior are; Motivation, Perception,
Learning and experience and Attitude and beliefs.
The study of consumer behavior helps marketers in analysis the
following factors; cultural, social, personal and psychological, which influence on the
buying decision of the consumers. If the marketers failed to understand these factors,
it is inevitable that they would also fail in their respective industries.
Overall, the importance of understanding the consumer behavior through
their decision making process is, to create value for consumers and more importantly
profit for the organization.

2.4 Consumer Buying Process

The customer buying process describes the experience of what customers go
through before purchasing a product. For this reason, understanding customer’s
buying process is necessary as it enables business stakeholders to align their sales
strategy accordingly. John Dewey first introduced the five stages in 1910 (as cited in
Johnston, 2016) namely; Problem/ need recognition, Information search, Evaluation
of alternatives, Purchase decision and Post-purchase behavior.
The first and most important step in the customer’ s decision process is
considered to the Problem/ need recognition. This is true because an individual cannot
make any purchase without recognizing its necessity which may be triggered by any
internal such as hunger, thirst, etc., or external stimuli like any forms of
advertisement.
Then, having recognized the need, the next step a customer may take is the
information search stage. This is when a customer seeks to find the best solution to
identify and evaluate information sources related to the central buying decision. For
most cases, a customer will evaluate different products or brands on the basis of
 16

alternative product attributes. At this stage, the customer’s attitude towards the
products heavily influences his decision making. The second-to-last stage is where the
purchase takes place. Kotler (2009) states that the final purchase decision may be
‘disrupted’ by two factors: negative feedback from other customers and the level of
motivation to accept the feedback. Finally, customers will make some comparison
with their previous expectations of the purchased produces, and thereupon, they will
be either satisfied or dissatisfied. On this basis, it is common for customers to
circulate their positive or negative feedback about the product which nowadays can be
through reviews on website, social media platforms or word of mouth advertising.

2.5 Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is basically an information
industry term for methodologies and software with the use of internet functions that
support any enterprise in handling customer relationships in an organized and
convenient way. Dr. Philip Kotler (2009) defines Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) as “the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer
relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction.”
Looking briefly at the two trends which have brought CRM to the forefront (as
cited in Berry, n.d. para. 6-7), Boston University professor Tom Davenport explains,
first, as global competition has increased and products have become harder to
differentiate, “companies have begun moving from a product-centric view of the
world to a customer-centric one,”. Second, technology has ripened to the point where
it is possible to put customer information from all over the enterprise into a single
system. In other words, with the advancement of cutting edge technology, it has
brought CRM software in the big picture.
In the past, CRM systems allowed marketers and salespeople to better focus
their marketing activities by mining the system for better business intelligence.
Nowadays, CRM system has become much more proactive. In fact, it puts more
emphasis on recording and interpreting data, creating, synthesizing, correlating and
displaying visual presentations to identify patterns, relationships and new sale
opportunities. For this reason, many companies are turning to customer- relationship
management systems to better understand customer’s wants and needs.
 17

In summary, CRM allows companies to gather and access information about

customers’ buying histories, preferences, complaints, and other informative data so
they can better anticipate what customers will want and at the same time, promote
customer loyalty through use of technological innovation.

2.6 Mobile Marketing in Thailand

It has been said that in the past few years, mobile technology has undeniably
become more and more pervasive in Thailand as smartphone’s popularity increases due to
its practical features in comparison with personal computer. However, this renown is not
just an occurrence in Thailand as it is true to other countries around the world.
In fact, according to statistics, smartphone is the fastest-selling gadget in
history outperforming the traditional desktop computer by a ratio of 4: 1 which means
that approximately 50% of the adult population globally own a smartphone. Assenting
to such information, it is inevitable that a number of people are looking at the
contemporary and potential impact of the technology on a developing nation like
Thailand in which this study ventures to explain comprehensively.
In January of 2014, Pew Research Centre reports that Thailand has 97 million
mobile subscriptions domestically, and most of which are availed through prepaid
plans. This simply puts emphasis on the idea that 23 million of Thai population use
the internet through their mobile devices regularly which consequently, increases
smartphone marketing convenience in the country. In addition, this data has put
Thailand as one of the top 10 of all the developing nations recorded in the survey for
acquiring smartphone gadgets.
On another note, Statista (2018) claims that the number of smartphone users in
Thailand from 2014 at 15.4 million, is estimated to get to 30.05 million in 2022
(Number of smartphone users in Thailand from 2013 to 2022). This data provides an
empowering information about Thailand’s mobile market for various smartphone
companies to have a detailed market analysis, and plan their corporate strategy.
To sum up, smartphone penetration to the Thailand’s mobile market is
predicted to continuously increase in the following years, providing a competitive
market to all smartphones providers in the country.
 18

2.6.1 Vivo’s Introduction to Mobile Marketing in Thailand

As Thailand’ s hyper- competitive smartphone market intensified its
popularity in 2014, Vivo the China's fifth- largest handset company was set to obtain
at least a 5- 8% share in the Thai smartphone market by 2017 according to Feng Lei,
vice-president and chief marketing of Vivo Communication Technology Co. (Leesa-
Nguansuk, 2014). At that time, a number of smartphone companies such as Samsung,
Apple, and other local brands already dominate Thai’s smartphone market share.
However, as it focused on strategizing its marketing and advertising in order to build
brand awareness and strengthen its reputation, Vivo now is one of the top competitor
of Thai’s largest market share.

2.7 Conclusion
The literature review has discussed definition of customer and customer
segmentation, and customer satisfaction, as well as customer buying process, CRM
and the current situation of the mobile phone market in Thailand. For Vivo, learning
and understanding the relative theory and the current state are conducive to develop
better products.
Firstly, by discussed the customer definition and segmentation of literature,
concluded that the main object of this study is an individual person whose needs
constitute the market.
Second, many scholars have defined customer satisfaction, in general most
scholars think customer satisfaction is a emotion to the product. Customer satisfaction
have 3 model to reflect, Kano model, ACSI model, and Maslow model. It is consistent
with this paper that Maslow model studies customer satisfaction from the perspective
of customer demand.
Third, by reviewing customer behavior, buying process, CRM, companies can
have a deeper understanding of consumers.
Finally, knowing the current market situation of Thailand can we better judge
the market trend.
 19

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY RESEARCH

This chapter will summarize the research methods used in this study, and
firstly review the literature on general research methods related to this study. After
that, the research methods used in this study will be described.

3.1 Research Methodology Review

Marketing research can be separated into three functional categories:
descriptive studies, causal studies, and predictive studies (Wentz, 1972). Each of the
three functional categories has the same overall goal, and they must assist decision
markers, but they also have distinct functions.
3.1.1 Descriptive Research
Descriptive research, this type of research is the most common, and the
fundamental reason for completing descriptive research is to find out what happened
(Research methods). For descriptive research, also can be called "statistical", it
provides data about the population or the universe that is under studying, but it can
only describe a situation in which "who, what, when, how", cannot describe the cause
of this situation.
Therefore, descriptive studies are used when the goal is to provide as a
description of the system realistic and accurate as possible. It provides some number or
frequency of occurrences, and suitable for statistical calculation such as to determine
the average number or central tendency. For example, the descriptive study could be
used to find out which age group is buying a particular brand of product, or to find out
how many competitors a company has in the market (Research Methods,) . One of the
major limitations of descriptive research is that it does not help determine the cause of a
particular behavior and motivation. In simple terms, it cannot establish causation
(Descriptive Research) . The two most common descriptive study designs are
"observation" and "investigation". Descriptive research can be divided into two types
:1) quantitative descriptive research is to quantify the data and extend the sample results
to interested people, and measure the incidence of views and opinions in selected
samples; 2) qualitative descriptive research provides in-depth insight into the problem
 20

setup and provide ideas or assumptions for future quantitative research (Koul, 2009).
3.1.2 Causal Research
Causal studies are designed to determine the extent and nature of

causality，and can be conducted to assess the impact of specific changes on existing

norms, processes, etc ((Brains, 2011). Causal studies focus on the analysis of a
situation or a specific question to explain the pattern of causality between variables.
There are two objectives of causal research: 1) Find out from the variables which are
the cause and which are the result; 2) Determine the nature of the relationship
between causal variables and forecast effects. Causal studies play an important role in
identifying a range of underlying causes, and can provide the advantages of
replication if its necessary, and are more efficient internally due to the choice of
research subjects. But there are also some disadvantages of causal studies, such as it
would be difficult to draw proper conclusions from causal research, and to identifying
cause variables and the impact.
3.1.3 Predictive Research
Predictive analytics include a wide variety of statistical techniques, from
data mining, predictive models, and machine learning, to analyzing current and
historical facts and making predictions about future or other unknown events (Chales,
2007).
Predictive research is usually defined as forecasting at a more detailed
level of granularity, i. e. To generate a predictive score (probability) for each
individual organizational element. This is different from the prediction. For example,
"predictive analytics - techniques learned from experience (data) to predict individual
future behavior to drive better decision-making." (Siegel, 2013).
3.1.4 Comparison of Basic Research
Through the comparison (see Table 3.1), descriptive research is
described market market characteristics and functions, causal is determined cause and
effect relationship, and predictive is discovered ideas and insights. The methods of
three categories are different. Descriptive research main method is secondary data
analysis, i.e. quantitative research, causal used experiments, predictive almost is
qualitative research.
 21

Table 3.1: Comparison of Descriptive, causal and predictive Research (Bhatia, 2010)
Descriptive Causal Predictive
Describe market Determine cause
characteristics or and effect Discover ideas and
Objective functions relationships insights
Marked by prior Manipulation of
formulation of one or more Flexible; versatile;
specific independent often the front end
Characteristics
hypotheses; variables; control of total research
preplanned and of other mediating design
structured design. variables
Expert survey;
Secondary data pilot survey;
(analyzed
Methods quantitatively); Experiments Secondary data
(analyzed
survey; panels;
qualitatively);
observational and qualitative
other data.
research

This research adopts the method of quantitative research to study the

customer satisfaction implications for mobile phone Vivo model V3max in Thailand
market.
 22

3.2 Method of Inquiry

This research is an inductive study. The factors influencing Thai consumers’
satisfaction with v3max were examined through inductive reasoning. Some responses
can be estimated from the results and the most important factors can be determined.
The telephone follow- up calls survey was used in this study. The telephone
follow- up calls survey is a survey method in which the market research related staff
make inquiries to the respondents by telephone to understand the market situation. It
is a survey method in the access method. It is an indirect method of investigation
because it does not touch each other directly but takes place through the intermediary
tool of telephone (Luo, 2017).
The merits of follow-up calls survey:
1. Access to market information is fastest;
2. Save investigation time and money;
3. The coverage is broad and can be investigated by any region, unit or
individual with a telephone;
4. The interviewees can speak freely without the pressure.
As an investigator must note that the potential impact of the use method on the
error of the control and measurement coverage, the error of the no responses, and the
measurement method. Focusing concern on sampling error is an " incomplete and
unsatisfactory way" (Groves, 1989).
The error survey of follow-up calls survey:
1. Error with no response: Consumer calls changed, or for any other reasons can
not accept the interviews;
2. Error in the general range: The results of the telephone survey can only be
inferred from the general population of the telephonic objects, which has inherent
defects of the parent, which is not conducive to the comprehensiveness and integrity
of data collection.
3.2.1 Research Procedure
This research used telephone follow- up calls survey to study customers’
satisfaction of Vivo smartphone model V3Max. The content of telephone follow-up
calls included basic information of the respondents such as gender, age, education
background, occupation, personal and family monthly income. In addition to the basic
 23

information, the reason why the customer bought v3max, the model of the last mobile
phone, compared mobile phones when customer bought V3Max, and the function
customer likes and dislikes are also the information that needs to be learned through
telephone survey.

3.3 Data Collection

Primary data and secondary data are two parts of data. This research data
mainly from primary data. Zikmund (2003) pointed out that the primary data were
collected and recorded for the purpose of the project at hand.
3.3.1 Population and Sampling
V3Max has sold 49,935 units (not include employees buying) since it
started selling in whole Thailand, Organization group cooperation customers (CSC,
Jaymart, TG, Maxlink, and Banana IT) and Operator cooperation customers (True,
AIS) have sold 29,464 units, Bangkok dealer customers have selling 3,853 units,
online platform (Lazada, Shopee and 11Streets) have selling 711 units (data from
internal system). Because online platform easier to get customer information
(telephone number, name and gender), so this research adopts 711 units as the total
population. According to the sample size confirmation formula proposed by Taro
Yamane (Yamae, 1967):

n=N/(1+N*e2)

n: sample size
N: total population
e: the acceptable sampling error

Usually the confidence level and p= 0.05 are assumed (Fisher, 1925).
The total population of this research is 711, according to this formula sample size is
256. This research called 256 telephone number from the channel, and the results was
218 effective responses. That gives response rate of 85.33%.
 24

3.3.2 Data Collection

The customer of V3Max contact information from Lazada, 11 street and
Shopee online platforms. The sampling is 36% of population, randomly selected
interviewees from each online channel based on this ratio. The samplings of each
three online channels are as bellowing:

Table 3.2: Samplings of Each Channels

Channels Sales Units Sampling
Lazada 590 212
11 Street 109 39
Shopee 12 5
Total 711 256

3.3.3 Method and Data Analysis

The effective feedback survey is presented in the form of Microsoft
Excels chats, and the data analysis is mainly in the form of percentage.
The two scales adopted in this research as follows:
1. Likert scale: This scale is composed of a set of statements, each state
has "strongly agree", "agree", "not necessarily" or "disagree" or "strongly disagree"
five kind of answer, respectively to 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, each respondent's attitude score is
customers answer to the problem is the sum of scores, the total score reflex the
attitude strength customers or different states of this scale (Trochim, 2006). In this
research 5 points means absolute satisfaction, and 1 points means serious
dissatisfaction. Table 3.3: Likert Scale

Table 3.3: Likert Scale

Absolute Relative Low Dissatisfied Serious
Satisfaction Satisfaction Satisfaction Dissatisfaction
>90% 80%-89% 70%-79% 50%-69% <49%
 25

2. NPS: Net recommendation value (NPS), also known as net promoter

score, is an index that measures the probability that a customer will recommend a
certain enterprise or service to others (Jennymkaplan, 2016)
NPS= Percentage of Promoters – Percentage of Detractors
For example, the ratio of 5 points (absolute satisfaction) to 50%, and
the ratio of 3 points (dissatisfaction) and below to 20%, the NPS of satisfaction is
30%. Table 3.3 Table 3.4: NPS Scale

Table 3.4: NPS Scale

Excellent Good General Slightly less Poor
>40% 30%-39% 20%-29% 10%-19% <9%

I nterviewer survey has two kind of statistics analysis: content and

thematic analysis. Content analysis interview survey commonly used analysis
methods, the format can be a variety of formats of text, pictures, audio or video.
Social scientists use content analysis to examine patterns in communication in a
reproducible and systematic way (Alan, 2001). This research will adopt content
analysis, and use MicroCase convert qualitative data into quantitative statistical
analysis.

3.4 Conclusion
This research is a quantitative study. Data related to customer satisfaction are
collected by telephone return visit. The simple size of the research is 300, the
effective responses is 261.NPS and Likert scale are used to measure customer
satisfaction. The statistic analysis of this research is content analysis, the method of
this analysis is MicroCase.
 26

CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter will present the results of receipt collection and data analysis.
Data analysis will be discussed in two parts, one is basic characteristics of customers,
the other one is customer satisfaction.

4.1 Data Test

In order to test the credibility and independence of data, this paper adopts
Cronbach’s Alpha Test and Chi-squared test.
4.1.1 Cronbach’s Alpha Test
Cronbach's alpha or Cronbach's is a statistic, which refers to the average
value of the half-fold reliability coefficient obtained by all possible item division
methods of the scale. It is the most commonly used reliability measurement method
(Cronbach, 1951). The value of usually between 0 and 1. If the coefficient does not
exceed 0.6, it is generally considered that the internal letter is insufficient; When the
scale reaches 0.7- 0.8, it indicates that the scale has considerable reliability; when the
scale reaches α 0.8-0.9, it indicates that the scale has very good reliability (Grorge,
2003). The research used Cronbach’s alpha to test the data’s reliability, and the
calculation result is 0.73, belongs the range of 0.8-0.7, it means the acceptable.
4.1.2 Chi-squared Test
The chi- square test is the deviation degree between the actual observed
value and the theoretical inferred value of the statistical sample. The deviation degree
between the actual observed value and the theoretical inferred value determines the
chi- square value. On the contrary, the deviation is smaller. If the two values are
exactly equal, the chi- square value is 0, indicating that the theoretical value is
completely consistent (Fisher R. A., 1922). The researcher used Chi- squared test to
test three different online channels and customer satisfaction have indicidual
connection. The P value of this test is 0.029, smaller than common P value 0.05, it
means 11 street and Lazada have no connect.
 27

4.2 Introduction
In chapter 3rd the study discussed about research methodology and pointed
out Excel Program is the main means of analyzing data. There are basic information
data of customers:

50% Male
V3max(Thaila…
50% Female
49%
Thailand
51%
47%
53%
Bangkok

Figure 4.1: Gender

The gender distribution of V3max consumers is basically the same as the ratio
of male and female in Thailand and Bangkok. The Male ratio of V3Max customer is
50%, and the female ration of V3Max is 50%, too.

V3max（Thailand）
15.5%
18-24 16% Thailand
14%
Bangkok
23.0%
25-30 13%
18%

19.5%
31-35 12%
14%

17.5%
36-40 12%
12%

24.5%
>40 47%
42%

Figure 4.2: Age

 28

As can be seen from the table, the age of v3max customers is mainly between
25 to 30 and above 40 years old, the ratios are 23% and 24.5%. The people aged 25 to
30 most are white- collar workers, and the people above 40 years old most are senior
supervisors. The proportion of v3max customers aged 25 to 40 is significantly higher
than the average in Thailand and Bangkok.

Table 4.1: Average Age

Average Age
Thailand 34.4
Bangkok 33.9
V3max Customer 32.7

The average age of V3Max customer is 32.7 years old which is lower than the
Thailand average age 34.4 years old and Bangkok average age 33.9 years old.

V3max (Thailand)
Thailand

Bachelor degree and 61%

above 10%

9%
Junior College
3%

High School/Technical 7%
School 13%

Junior High School and 22%

below 69%

Figure 4.3: Education Background

In Thailand, 70% of V3max users have received higher education (college

degree or above), far higher than the overall level of Thailand. among which 61%
have received bachelor degree and above. And the proportion of bachelor's degree and
above is as high as 61%.
 29

White-collar workers 65%

Individual Household 17%
Student 11% V3max（Thailand）
Front-line… 5%
Unemployed 1%
Retire 1%

Figure 4.4: Occupation

In the occupation distribution, V3max customers are mainly white- collar

workers, the rate is 65%, 47% of them are junior white- collar workers and 12% are
freelancers.

Table 4.2: The details of Student/White-collar workers

Student 19 11%
High school 9 5%
Bachelor degree 6 4%
Master degree 4 2%
White-collar workers 110 65%
Junior Staff 80 47%
Junior Manager 3 2%
Senior Manager 1 1%
Civil service/institution personnel 3 2%
Professionals 3 2%
Freelancer 20 12%
 30

Of the 65% of white- collar workers, 47% are junior employees and 12% are
freelancers. Of the 11% of student, 5% are high school students.

V3max（Thailand）

Above 80,000 3%
50,000-80,000 7%
30,000-50,000 19%
15,000-30,000 41%
10,000-15,000 15%
Below 10,000 9%
No Income 5%

Figure 4.5: Personal Monthly Income (Baht)

The average monthly income of V3max users in Thailand is 25,417 baht,

among which 70% of users earn more than 15,000 baht. There are 41% V3Max
customers’ income between 15,000 baht to 30,000 baht.

Above 55,000 49%

7%

33,001-55,000 13%
12%

22,501-33,000 18%
14% V3max（Thailand）

15,001-22,500 11% SEC

20%

10,001-15,000 7%
19%

Below 10,000 1%
28%

Figure 4.6: Family monthly Income (Baht)

 31

Nearly half of v3max consumers have a monthly household income above

50,000 baht, while only 1% of v3max consumers have a monthly income below
10,000 baht.

Table 4.3: Average Family Household Income (Baht)

Average Family monthly Income（Baht）

Average SEC 22,240 Baht

V3max Customer 52,573 Baht

The average family monthly income is 52,573 baht, it is twice as the average
SEC 22,240 baht.

Table 4.4: The final results of the year 2012, yield 8 classifications of SES for each
area
Class BKK UPC – URBAN UPC – RURAL
E 0 – 7,500 6% 0 - 5,000 7% 0 – 3,200 8%
5,001 –
D 7,501-18,000 32% 10,000 21% 3,201-6,500 23%
18,001 – 10,001 – 6,501 –
C- 24,000 14% 15,000 19% 11,000 26%
24,001 – 15,001 – 11,001 –
C 35,000 16% 22,500 20% 20,000 24%
35,001 – 22,501 – 20,001 –
C+ 50,000 12% 33,000 14% 24,000 5%
50,001 – 33,001 – 24,001 –
B 85,000 12% 55,000 12% 35,000 7%
85,001 – 55,000- 35,001 –
A 160,000 6% 85,000 5% 58,000 5%
A+ 160,000+ 2% 85,000+ 2% 58,000+ 2%
 32

As can be seen from this table, residents' monthly income in Thailand is

divided into 8 levels. Most Bangkok residents in the D levels which earn between
7,500 and 15,000 baht a month, and accounting for 32%. In urban area, the largest
proportion of residents with monthly income of 5,000- 10,000 baht is 21%. In rural
area, the highest number of people are in level c which monthly income is between
6,500 baht to 11,000 baht. 49% of v3max customers earn more than 55,000 baht a
month, this income rated level B in Bangkok, rated level A in urban area, and the
same level in rural area.

3 months
5%

4-6 months
8%

7-12 months
12
%

13-18 months
11
%

19-24 months
14
%

over 2 years
52
%

Figure 4.7: Service Time of Last Mobile

There are 52% of V3Max customers their last mobile phone had been used
over 2 years, and 14% their last mobile had been used 19-24 months. The average
service time of their last mobile was 18.9 months.
 33

SAMSUNG 46%

APPLE/IPHONE 23%

Vivo 8%

OPPO 6%

LG 4%

ASUS 4%

I-MOBILE 2%

MICROS./NOKIA 2%

LAVA 2%

Lenovo 2%

HUAWEI 2%

HTC 1%

SONY/S.ERICSSON 1%

DTAC 1%
V3max (Thailand)
Xiaomi 1%

Figure 4.8: The Brand of Last Mobile

The last mobile of V3Max customer mostly are Samsung, iPhone, Vivo and
OPPO, the proportions are 46%, 23%, 8%, 6%. 8% of the customers who have used
vivo mobile phone before still choose vivo, and the average service time of their last
vivo mobile phone is 15.2 months.
 34

Table 4.5: The Brand of Last Mobile Service Time over 2 Years

Brand Total Total number/ratio service time over

Number 2 years
Samsung 91 44 48%
Apple/iPhone 45 33 73%
OPPO 11 6 55%
Vivo 15 3 20%
LG 7 3 43%
ASUS 7 3 43%

Table 4.6: The series of last mobile

Brand Total Rati
Number o

Samsung：Total number 91

Galaxy Note 21 11%

Galaxy Grand 18 9%
Galaxy S 16 8%

Apple/iPhone：Total number 45

iPhone 4/4s 25 56%

iPhone 5/5s 17 38%

Over half of V3Max customers their last mobile phone service time over 2
years, the brand of mobile phone that used over 2 years most are Samsung and
iPhone.
The ratio of Samsung is 48%, and the ratio of Samsung Galaxy note, Grand
and S are 11%, 9% and 8%. The ratio of iPhone is 73%, mostly are iPhone 4/4s and
iPhone 5/5s.
 35

4.3 Data Analysis of Customer Satisfaction

The main factors influence customer satisfaction are the performance and
function of mobile phones and the brand. This research discussed V3Max customer
satisfaction with quality, design, using experience, service and overall satisfaction.
Reasons for purchase
Large memory and high cost performance are two factors that consumers pay
the most attention to when buying V3Max, accounting for 26%, far higher than other
indicators. Secondly, good photography and good appearance also play a key role in
driving consumers to purchase behaviors, accounting for 9% and 8% respectively.

26%26%

Purchase reason
9%8%
4%4%3%3%
2%2%2%1%1%1%1%1%1%1%1%1%

Figure 4.9: Reasons for Purchase V3Max

Compered mobile phone brand and models Samsung, OPPO, iPhone and
HUAWEI are the major mobile phone brands that v3max customers have compared
when buying v3max, accounting for 60%, 27%, 17% and 11% respectively. Only 6%
V3Max customer compared other models of Vivo (Figure 4.10).
 36

Samsung 60%

OPPO 27%

iPhone 17%

HUAWEI 11%

Vivo 6%

LG 4%
Lenovo 3%

SONY 3%

Asus 2%

Acer 1%

ZTE 1%

HTC 1%

Xiaomi 1% V3max…

Figure 4.10: Compared mobile phone brands

When buying v3max, customers compare the models of Samsung galaxy J7,
A7 and Grand, OPPO F1 Plus, iPhone 6 and HUAWEI P8. Customers compared the
V3Max with Samsung galaxy J7 the most, at 11% (Table 4.7).

Table 4.7: Compared models

Compare Models

Brand Models Ratio

Samsung Galaxy J7 11%
Samsung Samsung Galaxy A7 9%
Samsung Galaxy Grand 7%
OPPP OPPO F1 Plus 7%
Apple iPhone 6 7%
HUAWEI HUAWEI P8 3%
 37

Satisfaction of V3max Customer

This research only discusses four indicators that effect customer satisfaction:
appearance design, function, using experience and service. And use Likert scale and
NPS this two method to measure V3 Max customer satisfaction.
Appearance Design
V3 max customers' satisfaction with the overall appearance design and feels in
hand is more than 90% , which is in an absolutely satisfactory range. Using NPS
evaluation, the NPS values of appearance design and feels in hand are both more than
60%, are excellent performance (Figure 4.11).

96% 99%

62% 64%
likert scale
NPS

Feels in hand Appearance design

Figure 4.11: Satisfaction of Appearance Design Satisfaction of Function

From Likert scale index, the basic functionality of the v3max is in a

satisfactory range, except for battery performance. In terms of the NPS is the same
consequence, except battery only 35%, other four factors in a excellent range (Figure
4.12).
 38

Charging Time 98%

78%
Memory capacity 97%
70%
Call quality 95%
48%
System stability 94%
44%
Battery 89%
35%
likert scale

Figure 4.12: Satisfaction of Function

V3Max customer dissatisfaction with battery performance because of battery

consumption too fast, and easy to hot. Especially power consumption rate was
mentioned 22 times (Table 4.8).

Table 4.8: Dissatisfaction of Battery

Dissatisfaction/ battery Feedback times

Battery consumption too fast 22
Easy to hot 2

合计 24

Satisfaction of Experience
In general, V3Max customer are satisfy with function experience. Whether
using Likert Scale or NPS index, customer satisfaction belongs to the scope of
absolute satisfaction and excellence. Relatively speaking, front-facing camera,
headset, network speed performance is weaker (Figure 4.13).
 39

Rear camera 98% likert scale

performance of OSD 67% NPS
video display 96%
65%
98%
64%
App speed 97%
63%
easy to use 94%
60%
Operational fluency 96%
60%
Speaker performance 96%
58%
Gaming experience 94%

Front-facing camera 55% 95%

54%
headset 93%
52%
Network speed 93%
50%

Figure 4.13: Satisfaction of Experience Satisfaction of Service

From Likert Scale，V3Max customer are satisfy with shopping service while
after sale service in a range of relative satisfaction. In NPS evaluation, both shopping
service and after sale service (Figrue 4.14). Because only 80 V3Max customers of
total example have experienced after sale service, the satisfaction of after sale service
for reference only.
 40

96%

83%

64%

42%

likert scale
NPS

shopping service after sale service

Figure 4.14: Satisfaction of Service

This below table are complain about after sale service (Table 4.9).

Table 4.9: Customer Complains

Mainly mentioned after-sales service related issues
It takes too long to repair
There is no solution to the problem
The problem was dealt with so slowly that the warranty expired
After-sales attitude is not good enough, not enthusiastic enough
After - sales do not ask clear situation directly to inform the ask headquarters to
solve the problem
Not examining problems carefully enough, especially for sometimes good and bad
No detailed solution was given and no response was received after waiting for a
long time
 41

Overall Satisfaction
In terms of Likert scale, V3Max customer satisfaction are absolutely
satisfaction while NPS value equals 37%, in the range of good (Figure 4.24). The
reasons of NPS value below 40% is customer recommendation rate and repurchase
rate, this two factors rate are 36% and 15%. The charging time, memory capacity, rear
camera and OSD are in a range of excellence (Figure 4.15).

Figure 4.15: Overall Satisfaction of V3Max Customer

Table 4.10: NPS Value

Category Indicator NPS Satisfaction
Charging time 78% Excellent

NPS>=65% Memory Capacity 71% Excellent

Rear camera 67% Excellent
OSD 66% Excellent
Recommendation 36% Good
NPS=<40%
Repurchase 15% Slightly less

V3max (Thailand) customers' satisfaction with mobile phones mainly focuses

on good photo taking effect, smooth system and fast operation speed. However, the
dissatisfaction mentioned above mainly focuses on low external sound and poor voice
signal (Table 4.10 and Figure 4.16).
 42

Photograph good-looking 33%

smooth system 27%
High running speed 23%
Good sound quality
12%
Beautiful design
Touch ID 11%
Fast charge 11%
large memory 8%
Large memory capacity 8%
High screen resolution 7%
Easy to use
6%
Durable battery
6%
High cost performance
thin and light 5%
5%
5% V3max (Thailand)

Figure 4.16: Satisfactory Aspects

Table 4.11: Dissatisfaction Aspects

Reason mentions
Speaker sound is low 3
Poor voice signal 2
Weak network signal 1
Camera automatically focuses slowly 1
Low contrast 1
Cannot save images from Google 1
No system update alert 1
OTG cannot send sound to mobile phone 1
Little accessories 1
Small screen 1
Screen is dark/blue 1
Have echo in the sound 1
Too thick 1
suddenly shut down 1
Speaker instability 1
Camera can’t record all the sounds 1
 43

Repurchase/Recommendation Intention V3max customer repurchase intention

and recommendation intention fall into the range of relatively satisfactory and
absolute satisfaction, but the NPS value performs poorly, with the recommendation
intention of 36% , performing well; Repurchase intention is only 15%, slightly worse
performance. Mainly comes from the lack of confidence in the brand (Figure 4.17).

93%
82%

36%

15%
Likert scale
NPS

Repurchase Recommendation

Figure 4.17: Ratio of Repurchase/Recommendation Intention

4.4 Analysis of Data

This section summarizes the data analysis of the follow-up call survey.
From all the demographic information about the interviewer, it is found that
most V3Max customer aged 25 to 30 and above 40. The customer aged 25 to 30
basically conform to v3max target population positioning. The ratio of customer aged
above 40 is 25.4%, because there are so many people of this age range in Thailand
and Bangkok. From table 4.5, up to 65% of V3Max customers are white-collar
workers, this is consistent with the age of V3max customers.
From table 4.14, the most important two reasons for V3Max customer bought
V3Max are large memory capacity and high cost performance. The large memory
refers to RAM, ROM and supported memory card. Today's mobile phone is not only a
communication tool, it is also a computer, a camera, an mp3 player, a game machine,
it takes a lot of memory to support these features. As a result, 26% of V3Max
 44

customers care about the storage size of their phones. No matter what things are
purchased, high cost performance is consistent with what consumers are pursuing, so
the high cost performance accounting for 26%, the same as large memory.
As the result shown in tables 4. 15 and 4. 16, V3Max main competitors are
Samsung galaxy J7 and A7, OPPO F1 Plus and HUAWEI P8. Samsung galaxy A7,
OPPO F1 Plus and HUAWEI P8’s price, function is similar with V3Max (Table
4.12).

Table 4.12: Competitors Model Details

Price(Baht) Memory Front Digital
Model
(RAM+ROM+Memory Card) Camera Camera
Vivo V3Max 12,990 4G+32G+128G 8MP 13MP
Samsung Galaxy A7 15,900 3G+16G+128G 5MP 13MP
OPPO F1 Plus 15,990 4G+64G+128G 16MP 13MP
HUAWEI P8 15,990 3G+16G+128G 8MP 13MP

V3max customers have low loyalty to vivo brand. This can be seen from
tables 4. 24 and 4. 27. Both two tables show that V3Max customer have low intention
to recommend or repurchase Vivo, this comes from a lack of confidence in the brand.
In general, V3Max customer satisfaction falling is mainly caused by the
battery consumption is too fast, the speaker sound is too small, and the voice signal is
not good.

4.5 Conclusion
This chapter analyzes the data, the data shows the customer of V3Max gender
balance, the average age is 32.7, most of the customers are white- collar workers, and
the highest degree in the majority with a bachelor's degree. Customer satisfaction
from the perspective of appearance design, experience, service and overall, V3Max
satisfies customers.
 45

CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION

In this section, the author will summaries from data analysis, and make
discussion for this research.

5.1 Customer Characteristics

In general, V3max customer are junior white- collar workers, private owners/
self- employed and students with higher education. They are mainly converted from
Samsung and iPhone, and their family income is relatively high. Photography,
appearance, memory and cost performance are the main drivers for purchase; High
degree of product satisfaction, but lack of confidence of Vivo. The average use time
of the last mobile phone was 18.9 months, while the average use time of Vivo was
15.2 months, slightly lower than the overall level.
V3Max Customer Characteristics:
1. The ratio of male and female buyers of V3max is 1: 1, which is neutral,
basically consistent with the overall distribution in Thailand and Bangkok;
2. The average age was 32.7 years old, lower than that of Thailand (34.4 years
old) , and the proportion of 25- 40 years old was significantly higher than that of
Thailand;
3. The main occupations are white-collar workers (65%, 47% of whom are
junior white- collar workers and 12% are freelancers) , private owners/ self- employed
people (17%) and students (11%);
4. The majority of V3Max customer accept higher education, 70% of them
have college degree or above, and 61% of them have bachelor degree or above;
5. Income is much higher than Thailand's overall level, with nearly half of
users (49%) earning more than 55,000 baht a month;
6. More than half (52%) of users have used their last mobile phone for more
than 2 years. V3max (Thailand) users are mainly converted from Samsung (46%),
iPhone (23%) and OPPO (6%), with an average use time of 18.9 months. Vivo was
the last mobile phone brand used by 8% of the users, and the average usage time was
15.2 months.
 46

5.2 Customer Buying Drive

The reasons why customer bought V3Max were shown as 4th chapter, the top
four reasons are large memory, performance is better than that of other products at the
same price, pictures taken by V3Max is beautiful, nice design. Besides this, the author
found two features of V3Max customer when the buying V3Max:
1. The main competitors of V3max in Thailand are Samsung (60%), OPPO
(27%), apple (17%) and HUAWEI (11%). Only 6% of users will compare Vivo with
other models;
2. V3max customer main purchasing drivers are high memory (26%), high
cost performance (26%), photo effect (9%) and appearance (8%).

5.3 Satisfaction performance

To sum up, V3Max customer totally satisfied with V3max, the concrete
performance is as follows:
1. Customer have high overall satisfaction with V3max, but the NPS value of
repurchase intention and recommendation intention is low, mainly due to insufficient
confidence in the brand;
2. V3max customer satisfaction with their mobile phones mainly focuses on
good photo taking effect, smooth system and fast operation speed;
3. V3max customer dissatisfaction with mobile phones mainly focuses on low
external sound, poor voice signal, fast battery consumption, etc;
4. In terms of detail, most of the indicators in the category of absolute
satisfaction and excellence, while only the battery in the category of good.

5.4 Conclusion
This chapter summarized 4th chapter from 3 aspects: customer characteristics,
buying reasons and customer satisfaction. The V3Max customer are about 30 years
old white- collar young people, because of the V3Max high performance both in price
and function they bought it. After purchase, V3Max customer satisfied with V3max.
 47

CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter will summarize the findings of 4th and 5th chapters, and give
recommendation for Vivo.

6.1 Conclusion
Nowadays, the mobile phone market competition is fierce, different brands of
different models of mobile phones are countless. Understand the customer
satisfaction, according to customer satisfaction to adjust the characteristics of future
mobile phone, and market strategy. The “Customer- Oriented” concept is becoming
an indicator of business daily operation, and obviously, customer satisfaction has
become a key indicator of business results ((Qing-jie, 2010).
This research provides a direction for the development of other mobile phones
under Vivo by studying the characteristics, buying driven and satisfaction of V3max
customer. From 4th chapter, V3Max customer satisfied with the photograph function,
the smooth system and high running speed, but dissatisfied with the speaker sound,
voice signal, battery of V3Max. This data provides a strong basis for the improvement
of the next Vivo phone. HanSung H. pointed user satisfaction can use a conceptual
model to evaluation: User Satisfaction = f (design features)
Customer satisfaction not only linked with the service but also in close
connection with phones colors, shapes, materials and functions (Han, 2003) . Data
analysis shows highly cost effective (26%) and large memory (26%) are the key
factors when customer to choose a new phone. Phones on the market generally have
the same memory, especially android phones, most of which support memory card
expansion, so another factor, the price becomes particularly important.
In general, V3Max customer satisfied with V3Max, that is a good information
for Vivo, but at the same time it also exposed some problems. Such as brand
cognitive, customer loyalty.
This research only discuss V3Max customer satisfaction, can not represent
customer satisfaction with Vivo full product line, and band itself. And this research
focuses on v3max customer satisfaction, as well as the factors of customer
 48

satisfaction, the factors of customer dissatisfaction are only slightly understood, and
no in- depth investigation and percentage analysis.
In the 21st century, the mobile phone industry is still a rapidly developing
industry, market demand, industry trends are changing very quickly. Grasp customer
needs, study customer satisfaction with product, then adjust product timely to that can
keep a position in the industry.

6.2 Recommendation
For Vivo, V3Max is a good product that win high satisfaction score of
customer. However, due to consumers' lack of confidence in the brand, customer
loyalty decreases, which indicates that Vivo still lacks in brand promotion. In this two
years, Vivo in order to improve brand awareness, launched many advertisements in
mark.
Such as Suvarnabhumi Airport billboard, BTS Busco advertisement and BTS
station advertisement. Online launched YouTube and Google. As for mobile phones
function that impact user experiments, Vivo in constant adjustment. Because of
customer dissatisfaction with battery, Vivo launched fast charge in 2017. But this is
not enough, through this research to know Samsung, OPPO, HUAWEI that the three
main competitor of Vivo, always pay attention to the new products of the competitors,
competitive products with the same price segment, adjust the marketing promotion
strategy at any time that can achieve better sales.
 49

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 51

APPENDIX
 52

All interviews were conducted in Thai, the following interview questions were
translated from Thai. Because this research adopts call- back interview, all answers
are recorded and presented in chapter 4.
Interview Main Questions are fallows:
1. Could you tell me how old are you?
2. What’s your highest degree?
3. What’s your occupation?
4. Could you tell me your monthly income?
5. Could you tell me your family monthly income?
6. How long did you use your last mobile phone?
7. What’s brand of your last mobile phone?
8. Why are you choosing V3Max?
9. What other phones do you compare to when you buy V3Max?
10. What do you think of the overall design and hand feels of the V3Max?
11. What do you think the basic quality of V3Max?
12. How do you feel while using V3Max, especially the using experiments,
such as camera, video display, headset, etc?
13. How do you feel with the service?
14. How do you think of V3Max in general?
 53

BIODATA

Name-Surname: Ruomei Ruan

Adress: 772/832 U Delight Riverfront, Rama 3,
Bangphongphang, Yannawa, Bangkok, 10120
Contact Number: 09-5678-3501
Email: ruomei.ruan@bu.mail.net
Educational Background: MBA, Bangkok University, Thailand Major:
Marketing