Consumers’ Behaviour Towards Telecom Services

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of this strategy. Lovelock (1996) stated that this customer driven quality replaced the traditional marketing philosophies which was based on products and process. Zeithaml and Bitner（2000） stated that services are intangible, perishable, produced and consumed simultaneously and heterogeneously. It seems as a major problem for the telecommunication service providers to deliver quality service consistently as market compositions and competing characteristics has an increasing change.

Promotion

Promotion is one of the channel which is used by telecommunication service provider to communicate with consumers with respect to their product offerings (Rowley, 1998). It is an important part for all companies, especially when the company penetrates new markets and makes more or new customer (Kotler et al., 1999). According to Root (1994), promotion ensures that consumers are aware about the company and its product that the organization makes available to them. More specifically, the promotion’s objectives are to increase sales, maintain or improve market share, create a favorable climate for future sales, inform and educate the market, create a competitive advantage, and improve promotional efficiency (Rowley, 1998). For Malaysian consumers, they are more respond to free sample, price discount, in-store display, and bonus pack than coupon (Ndubisi and Moi, 2006). According to Freo (2006), promotion can impact consumers’ purchasing behavior and decision towards the particular brand especially the sales promotion.

Price (Willingness to pay)

Kollmann (2000) states that price play a vital role in telecommunication market especially for the mobile telecommunication service providers. It not only includes the buying price, it also include the charges for the call and rental charges. Generally, for price-dominated markets, it leads customers having more choices and opportunities to compare the price offered by the different service providers. A company that offers lower charges can attract more customers to commit themselves to the telephone network. Kollmann (2000) also states that income from the number of call minutes determine the basic success of the network providers. He also added that the success of the telecommunication sector in a market place is depending on continuing usage and pricing policies which need to be considered on several levels. Munnukka (2008) indicated that there is a positive relationship between customers’ price perceptions and their purchase intentions, and the formation of price perceptions is significantly influenced by satisfaction with pricing and services.

Based on the literatures review, the following hypotheses referring to the consumers’ purchase intention towards the telecom services was proposed.

H1: Service quality has a significant influence on consumer behaviour in selecting telecommunication service.

H2: Promotion has a significant influence on consumer behaviour in selecting telecommunication services.

H3: Price has a significant influence on consumer behaviour in selecting telecommunication service.

Theoretical Framework

Contribution of the Research

This study contributes to the fields of consumer purchase intention. Moreover, it can provide marketers with a clearer understand as what are the factors that influence consumers to purchase the telecom services. More specifically, it provides how the marketing strategies could be tailored to utilise promotion, service quality and the price in order to accommodate for the market. As this is crucial to the marketers and companies to drive sales and increase market share through appropriate marketing strategies.

Limitations

In this research, there are some limitations. Firstly, the sample of this research was a no probabilistic sample from geographically diverse groups know to the researchers. The respondents were selected randomly and it may not represent to entire population. Secondly, this study was not conducted based on the social demographic area such as gender, age or income level. As the perception between different generations play a significant role in consumers’ purchase intention for the telecommunication services. Moreover, there is a correlation between intentions and actions. (Chandon et al., 2005) There is still a probability that intentions are not necessarily followed by actions. Therefore, after the marketers know the purchase intentions towards telecom services of consumers. It does not guarantee that they can make an effective marketing strategies towards it.

Methodology

Research Design

The purpose to conduct this research is to examine the determinants of consumers’ purchase intention of telecom services. The primary data that will be collected is through distributing the questionnaires to the consumers around telecommunication services centre. Moreover, online sellers are targeted as it could obtain more accurate data and better understanding on the determinants of online sellers to choose telecom services. The reason of using questionnaires is due to the potential of collect data from large pool of respondents and responses are gathered in standardized way. Besides, this method is inexpensive and do not need a lot effort if compared. As if we use telephone interview, it enquire high cost and high rejection rate. Therefore, convenience sampling was used. Ethical issues were taken into consideration for this study as the responses collected from the participants through questionnaires were kept confidential.

Data Collection

Questionnaires form had been completed and distributed to 200 household consumers randomly. The questionnaires form was distributed to the consumers around the telecommunication services center. Interviewees will be asked face to face or self-administered questionnaires. Self-administered means that consumers are asked to complete the questionnaires by themselves. The questionnaire are design clear and concise so that the data collected is the best from respondents. The main language for the questionnaire is English since the target sample for this study is public and from different races.

The questionnaire has divided into four parts. The first part is focus on consumers’ demographic profile, the second part is to test their level of