A Comparison Between Pakistani And British Consumers On Buying Moblies Marketing Essay

A Comparison Between Pakistani And British Consumers On Buying Moblies Marketing Essay Mobile phone has become an important part of human life .With the invention of new technology, along with computers, this technology has ease the work of human being in communicating with each others. Before the invention of mobile phones, there were land line telephones which also help human being to communicate with each others but at a limited scale. To use land line, person should be at one place where that phone is installed. But mobile phones remove this barrier by allowing customers to communicate with each others from any place where it has signals. AS this system is connected with the satellite, person can communicate without any hurdle. This is the only technology on the globe which is sold at highest numbers than any other technology. Out of 6.8 billion people on the earth, 5 billion use mobile phones (international telecommunication union, 2010).Two countries Pakistan and UK have been chosen for this dissertation because these two countries are very much different in many prospective. Pakistan telecommunication authority (PTA, 2010) shows that mobile phone in Pakistan enjoy a tremendous annual growth of 119% during 2000 to 2007. It is also being observed that between fiscal year 2006-07, mobile phone penetration increased by 15.5%. Whereas between years 2007-08, it was 55.6% which is 34.9% higher than Indias for the same period. Pakistans telecommunications industry maintains its growth trend in the coming years as well with the penetration rate in 2009 was 61.8% and in September this penetration rate reaches to 70%.On the other hand UK mobile phone market is different than Pakistani market. According to report presented by Ofcom (2007), the mobile phone market in UK grew by 41.3% between 2003 to 2007.In 2010, the penetration rate in UK was 84% which stay same till 2011.Mobile phone market is very competitive these days as there are number of companies who are trying to compete in this market to become the best in the business. It is very essential for the companies to better understand the buying behaviour of the customers.It gives them an edge on the competitors in targeting the right segment and getting market share. The purchasing decisions of consumers are mostly affected by factors that have direct or indirect impact on how we live and what we consume. Culture is one of the factors that impact on buying behaviour of consumers. Culture represents the behaviour, beliefs and, in many cases, the way we act learned by interacting or observing other members of society. In this way much of what we do is shared behaviour, passed along from one member of society to another. Culture play an important role in breaking target market into different segments and then targets the right segment. Blackwell et al., (2001) demonstrated that culture has a profound influence on how and why consumers purchase a range of products and services. The selection of products by consumer affect by the culture and it can help companies to design their marketing plan. Culture shapes the lifestyle of the consumer which affect directly on the buying pattern of the consumer. The cultural comparison between Pakistan and UK about mobile phone purchasing behaviour will provide a complete picture which will help understand these two countries mobile phone market. Culture defines the lifestyle of the people so it is very important for the manager to understand this factor and design a marketing plan by considering culture as a back bone of marketing. Companies these days are operating globally, marketing manager should divide the targeting segment into small sub segments on the basis of culture to market their product efficiently. Pakistani culture represent the most part of Asias culture and British culture represent the most of European culture. This purpose of this study to find the cultural impact on consumer buying behaviour of these two countries so that marketers of telecommunication industry use it to generalise it for the whole Asia and Europe. Literature Review Culture is defined in many different ways that can be used here for the sake of this paper. Culture is defined as ways of life like language, arts science, thoughts, spirituality, social activity and interaction (Roshan).By Hofstede (1991, 2001), culture is an identity that is used to distinguish one group from another.Keegan and schlegemilch (2001) state that culture is formed by people those are living in a community for many years and has a life that pass on from one generation to another. This mean that culture has a starting point and finish point. So its all about the life style of a group of people whom code of life is represented by culture.Doney etal(1998) defined culture as a system of values and norms that are shared among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design for living. So by Doney culture is the design of life. There are many different cultures exist and these cultures represents particular group of people who actually adapted that design. It also depend on the individuals whose life style effect on the culture.Doney Lowe (2008, 73) believe that culture is made up of three essentials components. Those are (1) Beliefs: refers to the mental and verbal processes that reflect peoples knowledge and assessments of things. (2) Values: used by people as guide for what is appropriate behaviour. (3) Customs: Overt modes of behaviour that constitute culturally approved or acceptable way of behaving in specific situations. To be very precise as far as this project is concerned, above definitions of culture are generalised. Actually theme of culture that is more suitable to this dissertation is that culture defined way of living, behaving, acting in a particular situation, dealing with others and organising oneself. That is way it is very important for the marketers who are dealing international business particularly should understand the importance of this phenomena. If they understand this concept and then target particularly segment on the basis of culture then it will be easy for them to launch the product in the right segment. So culture is the medium for communication for marketers that transmit these beliefs, values, behaviour and norms into shaping the attitude and behaviour of human. It help the members of such group in deciding what, why, where, how and when to do different things and how to act in a particular situation. So it means that culture is not a static concept. Its dynamic and it can change with the passage of time and influence ones own behaviour although they also contribute to the culture. Customer buying behaviour is another factor that affects consumer choices and trends. Recognizing consumer behaviours importance to business, marketers attempt to develop means on assessing or measuring how a customer behaves (Bailey and Schultz, 2000). Consumer buying behaviour is said to be different from one business to another in a way that consumer buying behaviour tends to have different attitudes about the needs and purpose of buying while the business-to-business approach is one which is more on supplier-company relationship. So consumer buying behaviour is the procedure which shows what, how, when and where people buy the product as they do. Thus this is an attempt to understand the decision making process in buying the products. The first thing is trying to understand the buying behaviour of the individual from the same group. Then generalise it to the whole group because all the individuals in the group have same characteristics. But decision making process is not easy. Th ere are different levels of decision making forms. Some are low-involvement decision making process , some are high involvement decision making process. So it all depends on the product itself as well. Mobile phones are not high involvement decisions making products. But these decisions are also depend on consumer perception, attitudes and understanding of the given product based on the educational background, societal background, financial situation and more importantly social and cultural environment. Culture here play an important role on the consumer buying pattern as individuals can not live alone. They are part on culture and the way they behave all depend on the cultural environment in which they live. So it is very important that to understand the cultural to study the buying behaviour of consumer and this dissertation is all about this. Pakistan and UK are two different cultures. Both these cultures have strong influence on the buying behaviour of its consumers. Hofstede (1991, 2001) divide culture into two different types. One is called individualistic and other one is collectivist. According to this dissertation UK is highly individualistic country in which people mostly decide individually about the buying of products. On the other hand, Pakistan scores highly as a collectivists country where family, friends or group influence the buying behaviour. Individualist and collectivist are two out of five cultural dimensions which Hofstede find out when he was trying to find an explanation for the motivation of IBM employees around the world. Hall (1960, 1981, 1990) presented culture as high and low context cultures. He explains that culture can be divided into two groups. One is called high context culture and other one is called low context culture. The theme of difference between these two cultures according to Hall is the individual relationship. He stated that high context culture is based on the close tie between individuals personals relationships such as family, friends and colleagues etc. and in this group information and knowledge is share exclusively. People in this group are social and they care each other, listen to each others, sometime depend each others and discuss information between each others. Hall (1960. 1981, 1990) stated that high context culture is more common in East. And as far as this project is concerned, it represents Pakistan. On the other hand, low context culture is belonging to outer group. In this culture, people live their individual life. They belong to their personal network. Family, f riends and colleagues are all separate to each others. All of them live their individual life. Things are share less exclusively. People are more independent and make their own decisions.UK is the one in this dissertation which represents low context culture. Here society in not social enough to influence the decisions of others. People live their own life and they rarely involve in the decisions making process of others. Industry Background Telecommunication industry is the fastest growing industry in the world. This is because of the fast growth in technology sector and increasingly becoming part of human lifestyle. With 73% of the world population is using mobile phones , the network covers the 90% of the world area (mob thinking, Oct2010).Mobile phone industry started way back in 1970s when first mobile phone launched in Japan.After that this industry never look back and continuously grow with different transition period. During the last 40 years it have undergone a transition from technology focused for professional business to a mass consumer market and become an integral part of lifestyle. With the passage of time, it is not only used as a communication tool but also it is helping consumers in other businesses like of internet , financial transaction , tracking device , video conferencing and many more. Pakistan and UK mobile phone market is very strong in the sense that Pakistani market is still growing and it need to know more about consumer buying behaviour.UK mobile phone market is also growing but more effort is needed to do business with the existing customers. Culture of an important role in consumer buying behaviour in both these market which is why this research is being done to let marketers understand the depth in the market. The comparison between these two segments will help marketers understand that how to target the existing segment and how to create new segments within the existing segment. Research Aim Literature Review

Change 4 Life Essay

Change 4 Life is a scheme which aims to help everyone, but especially children, to eat well, exercise and therefore hopefully live longer. One of the main principles is to reduce the amount of obesity in the UK. It is a fact that people today are a lot less active than they should be and rather than exercising, people are opting to use their free time watching television and playing the latest computer games. This is proven as only 37% of men and 25% of women in the UK currently achieve the levels of physical activity recommended by the Department of Health. Not only has our daily exercise fallen but how we eat and the type of food we eat has also declined. People are now choosing the easy and more ‘convenient’ option of fast food. Change 4 Life are trying their best to react to peoples new ‘modern day life’, by encouraging people to exercise more frequently and reduce the fat intake in their diet. Physical activity helps to reduce the amount of fat stored in the body and this in turn reduces the risk of contracting life threatening illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Change 4 Life promotes the idea of many different activities, ranging from walking and running to skipping and jumping. They believe that any exercise is better than none. They realise that it is important to have a healthy balanced lifestyle, which should consist of the following, nutritious diet, social life, rest/sleep, free time, physical exercise and control of stress and pressure. Change 4 Life hope to do what their name suggests. Up and About† is the slogan for children with the idea of encouraging them to be active whenever possible. On their website they give suggestions of how this can be done. Many are just simple ideas such as rather than driving to school, walk instead. This not only helps the children but the environment at the same time. They also give tips such as having a disco in the lounge, skipping, hide and seek and dancing. They have also tried to introduce a ‘2 hour maximum TV time’, meaning kids have to try new things out. This would then hopefully encourage children to be more active. On the website they have even created indoor and outdoor games, which can be played by everyone, e. g. the lamp post game that involves racing between each set of lamp posts on the way to school or the shops. Not only does exercise keep you fit and healthy it can help your sleeping pattern, relieve stress so that you feel more relaxed. This is why Change 4 Life recommends that as a family you should try to do sixty minutes of ctivities per day. They say that â€Å"active kids are happy kids†. They also say that it is important to have a well balanced and nutritious diet incorporating at least 5 fruit and vegetables a day. The scheme has loads of suggestions on which items actually count as one of your 5 fruits and veg such as smoothies and frozen and canned vegetables. They also give tips on how to compare food labels so that you become aware what the food contains e. g calories, sugar, salt etc. The way people cook/prepare the food is also essential, as this can increase the amount of fat in someone’s body, especially if it’s cooked in a lot of oil. There are many examples that Change 4 Life give to families to help them, sugar swaps being one of them, so rather than having food and drink with added sugar, they should swap for versions that are either sugar free or have very little sugar. Lastly they have loads of fun family activities such as Swim4Life, Bike4Life, Play4Life and Walk4Life, which are lots of fun and get the whole family involved in an active lifestyle.

Interpretation of Where Are You Going, Where Have You...

Joyce Carol Oatess â€Å"Where are you going, Where have you been?† tells the story of a young girls journey to find her own identity. Along the way she uses her beauty and sexuality to create, in her mind, a feeling of maturity which ultimately becomes her downfall. She believes that by spending her summer days in the mall, dressing in a way that is different than what she would wear at home, and flirting with older boys, while finding pleasure in ignoring boys she knows, she is being her own person and is creating her own identity—one that is different from that of her mothers or sisters. It is not until the end of the story, when Arnold Friend comes into her house, that she begins to realize what is truly important. The title of the†¦show more content†¦As someone who was very pretty in her own youth, but then had to grow up, she knew that beauty fades and it is not what is truly important in life. It seems as though the mother wants Connie to understand that as well, but does not know how to convey her message and so it comes out in other ways. â€Å" Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think youre so pretty?[...] Why dont you keep your room clean like your sister? Howve you got your hair fixed—what the hell stinks? Hair spray? You dont see your sister using that junk.† (Oates) She always compared Connie to her sister, June. June is described as â€Å" twenty-four and still lived at home[...] she was so plain and chunky and steady that Connie had to hear her praised all the time by her mother and her mothers sisters. June did this, June did that, she saved money and helped clean the house and cooked and Connie couldnt do a thing, her mind was all filled with trashy daydreams.†(Oates) The two sisters got along with each other on some days, but mostly they seemed to resent each other. 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Culture Clash in Groups Free Essay Example, 2500 words

The youth was typically well-adjusted and the group was to come up with social strategies, or a blend of them both. The person in the group was to take on the role of a trusted friend who happens to be visiting the house during a period where the father is harassing the son in front of the polite company and obviously belittling his talents. To add further fuel to the fire, the mother begins the same tirade and the arguments turn into a heated explosion where the entire group is at each other s throats. In the group, there were primarily white Americans. However, there was one female Chinese group member, one obviously Middle Eastern individual, and an African-American male. The solution offered by the author involved taking a passive stance and just allowing the argument to continue unless the arguing family members asked for an opinion or directed comments in the guest s direction. This was to ensure neutrality in the case. When the group members gave their opinions and emotional responses to how I had chosen to handle this issue, most of the responses from virtually all cultures were criticizing. We will write a custom essay sample on Culture Clash in Groups or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now They seemed to believe that in order to end the chaotic environment that was leading to what looked like physical hostility, it was my responsibility to intervene and try to calm the situation. Conflict negotiation, in this case, was deemed best to be disruptive and preventative using appropriate soft language. I wholeheartedly disagreed with the group. Most of the responses from the white Americans involved a more passive stance in the situation. This could be due to the sociological norms that exist in the United States in relationship to image protectionism or the lure of curiosity to remain during this period of heated argument so as to gain information or simply to act as a trusted resource that can remain focused in the event of any genuine threats as a result of the activity. There seemed, especially in the white women from the U., to be an attitude of celebrity and uncertainty about the proper or practical methods of dealing with this situat ion.