How Young Chinese Consumers Choose among Different Smartphone Brands: The Importance of Socio-cultural and Marketing Factors

Filieri, R

doi:10.1057/9781137469502_4

How Young Chinese Consumers Choose among Different Smartphone Brands: The Importance of Socio-cultural and Marketing Factors

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Raffaele Filieri

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Abstract

Consumers buy technology not just for the functional use but increasingly for the symbolic functions associated to its use. In this paragraph we examine Chinese consumer purchase intentions of smartphone brands. Smartphone is a new technology device of mobile phone communication which has become part of people lifestyle. Smartphone sales have registered a sharp increase in sales over the past decade in China, in particular the Apple iPhone has dominated the market for a long time. Consumers buy Apple iPhone not only for its technical functions, apps, and durability, but also because of the aesthetics of the product such as the style and design of the smartphone as well as the social status that the product can communicate. The study has adopted the qualitative method of investigation and interviews with Chinese Smartphone users as a research tool. The results highlight the importance of brand awareness, image and brand innovativeness for Chinese consumers.