2. Preliminary Research Study
2.3 Factors Affect TWN Consumer Laptop Purchase Behavior
2.2 Product Design Dilemma
Since price war is fierce in Taiwan PC market, the most important thing of product design stage for Taiwanese top two brands: ASUS and Acer is always cost, cost, and cost! Therefore, it is very important to make the best decision to utilize the limited resource and budget of product design. For instance, should we use Plastics or Metal? Should we use Plastics for laptop covers to save cost and enhance the panel type with better resolution? That is, there is always the trade-off between laptop specifications, materials for product design stage. And I am very curious to know the laptop cover material design. What if we could only use Metal on A cover (lid) or C cover (keyboard) due to cost constraint? What material type such as Plastics, Glass and Metal will be consumer’s preference? Will consumer willing to purchase a better material laptop with higher price band? Only the consumer could tell us the right answer and that will be the key part of the research.
2.3 Factors Affect TWN Consumer Laptop Purchase Behavior
From the observation of Taiwan laptop consumer purchase behavior, I conclude as below:
2.3.1 Situational Factors
Physical:
consumer touch the laptop and feel the texture, also the atmosphere and areas around such as the layout design, store decoration , the sales or representative, the music played, and the location of the store are all related. For example, people always attract by beautiful or special design or color laptops while they entering into a PC shops. Also, if the shop decoration could enhance the brand or laptop design image, it would really affect the consumer purchase
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behavior strongly.
Time:
Whether the consumer has the urgent need of the laptop would be a factor. If a consumer is in urgent needs, he may purchase for a very basic or select the top-sale model due to time constraint. Another good example will be limited time discount promotion or electronics exhibition, consumer not only is very price sensitive but also has strong demand triggered by finding the best deal.
The reason of the purchase:
Different purchase objective would affect consumer purchase behavior. For instance, to purchase a birthday present, the consumer will be very carefully chose a good quality laptop with higher price band. On the other hand, if it’s for home basic use only, consumer will aim for entry laptop with low cost accordingly.
Mood:
If consumer is in a good mood, they will be less picky and more positive to check the laptop products. Also, they would lower down the acceptance level of laptop quality and cost. But if consumer is in angry or negative mood, it is almost impossible for consumer to purchase the laptop and they will not feel satisfied even with a good laptop product.
2.3.2 Personal Factors
Self-concept:
Consumer will need to find the identity and feel connected with the product. For instance, some people choose white and premium look to represent their own style is elegant and
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high-class. Gamer would prefer powerful and battle- look design laptop with the backlit keyboard as professional gamer style.
Lifestyle:
Lifestyle would affect consumer’s criteria of laptop purchase behavior. That is, people who love to hang out with friends would prefer the portable slim design laptop. Also, they would care more about laptop design and look; for people who love to stay home would purchase for bigger screen size with good audio performance for entertainment and less care about laptop design and look; for people who are gamers would focus more on CPU performance and graphic rather than the look as well.
Gender:
Normally, females care more about laptop appearance whereas males care more about performance and price. Also, females prefer elegant look and colorful design but males prefer simple and mechanical design.
Age and stage of life:
Young people and students will aim for entry level with low cost laptop. Middle age people would aim for functional laptop with better quality such as entertainment or financial help.
Elder people may not purchase the laptop but get it from their children as second hand laptop.
2.3.3 Psychological Factors
Learning:
New technology such as touch panel, new apps, Cloud service, and social network would attract people to purchase the laptop if they think it could benefits their life. However, it could
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also make people avoid to use and purchase the laptop if they don’t like the new technologies at all.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory:
At lower level of Maslow theory, consumer will prefer low cost, entry level laptop; at middle level, consumer will prefer premium design, good quality and performance laptop. At the top of the pyramid, consumer will aim for luxurious laptop with extremely high level of specifications such as high resolution (Full HD), Dolby audio sound with premium home theater, special texture design and look like Acer Ferrari edition.
Attitude: (Mental positions)
How consumer value the laptop would be the attitude to position the laptop criteria they want.
For instance, 宅男 cares more about the quality and function of the laptop over the design and look since they always use it at home for long time. Furthermore, most of them are tech geeks and fevers. They will do the evaluation report of laptop performance analysis by themselves before the purchase. As for gamer group, they will aim for good graphic and performance laptop. On the other hand, for office lady, they tend to prefer the design and look over the specifications.
2.3.4 Social Factors
Consumer‘s culture:
Normally, Asian prefers colorful notebooks whereas European and Pan America consumer prefer dark and simple design look such as black and gunmetal laptops. In Taiwan, especially you can see Taiwanese females prefer to have pink laptop with cute and colorful design such as Hello kitty. You could also see males prefer to put some special stickers with colorful
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design laptop as well.
Reference group:
Taiwanese would be influenced strongly by celebrity endorsement of the product. For instance, very popular singer “A Mei” represents for ASUS for T100 product and got a great attention and sales. Also, if a laptop brand be used from popular actor or actress in Taiwanese popular drama series, it would also be a hot product easily.
Opinion leaders:
In Taiwan, people love to post their purchase laptop experience and evaluation insight on website such as mobile 01 (website). Also, many professional users such as gamer or geek would conduct the performance testing and release the report online for discussion. They usually are the key person to influence Taiwanese consumer purchase behavior.