Impact of brand awareness on purchase intention of mobile phone brands: in case of Sri Lankan mobile phone consumers

Abstract

Mobile phone Market can be identified as one of the most growing markets in Sri Lanka with 115% of mobile-cellular penetration by 2015 (Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, 2016) .As a result, the brand competition among mobile phone marketers has increased. In order to be successful in this context, it is important to understand the levels of Brand Awareness (BA) as well as the impact of BA on Purchase Intention (PI).According to literature, the BA acts as a critical factor on the consumer PI, where certain brands will accumulate in consumers’ mind to influence the consumer purchase decision. Moreover it is argued that a product with a high level of BA will receive higher consumer preferences due to its higher market share and quality evaluation (Dodds et al., 1991). However it is evidenced that there is a lack of research conducted on the relationship between BA and PI in the context of the Sri Lankan mobile phone industry. Hence, the research problem of the present study is established to study the impact of BA on PI of mobile phone brands in relation to Sri Lankan mobile phone consumers. Accordingly the objectives of the study are to determine the level of BA and the level of PI of mobile phone brands and to determine the impact of BA of mobile phone brands on PI. The study is descriptive and correlation in nature. The population of the study was mobile phone users in Sri Lanka, while an individual consumer who is using mobile phone is the sampling element. A sample of 385 respondents has been selected based on judgmental and convenience techniques under the non-probability sampling technique. One sample T-test, mean values and regression analysis were performed to test hypotheses. Results indicate the level of BA on mobile phone brand as well as the level of PI on mobile phone brands among mobile phone customers is high. Further, it was found that there is a positive impact of BA on PI of mobile phone brands among consumers. R2 of 30.6 indicates that approximately 31% of variance of PI is explained by BA. However, it is evident that there are other important variables that contribute to PI of Sri Lankan mobile phone consumers and those variables would collectively account for approximately 69% of variance of the PI. Hence, it would be important to direct further research on identifying the other variables influencing the PI of mobile phone brands among Sri Lankan mobile phone consumers. Findings of this study can be used by the marketers when they set promotional strategies for the mobile phone market.