TOPIC : A STUDY ON THE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF SAMSUNG LAPTOPS( WITH SPECIAL

REFERENCE TO SULTHAN BATHERY TALUK)

CHAPTER.1
1. INTRODUCTION

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is the chief subsidiary of South Korea's giant
Samsung
Group and the largest electronics producer in Asia. Samsung Electronics operates
four main divisions including Digital Media,
SemiconductorsInformation&Communications, and Home Appliances. The company sells
televisions, video, and audio equipment; computers and related products; phones,
cellular phones, and fax machines; home appliances; semiconductors; network-related
products; factory automation products; fiberoptics products; closed circuit
security products; motors and compressors; and solar energy systems. In 2000,
Samsung Electronics held the leading market position in the code division multiple
access (CDMA) Handset, DRAM, SRAM, and color monitor markets.The business ideally
is continual seeking feedback to improve customer satisfaction "customer
satisfaction provides a leading indicator of cunsumer purchase intentions and
loyality ".customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected
indicators of market perceptions.their principal is aim is twofold.customer
satisfaction helps in building long term ,relationships as well as brand equity .it
is the valued outcome of good business practice
Market analysis identifies customer satisfaction as a key
determinations in a customers decition making relating to keeping ,dropping a given
product or service if a consumer has a good pleasent experience with use of a
product or service and this feels satisfied,then she/he will have a possitive
attitude towards that product or services .The product service will be accepted by
existing consumer and they will continue using it .on the country ,if the consumer
has a bad experience with use of product or service and this feels dissatisfied
,them he/she will have a negative attitude towards the product and services .so
that the product and services will be rejected by existing consumer and they will
discontinue it's use .
The project entitiled"customer of Samsung laptops with special reference
to Sulthan Bathery Taluk"is carried out with a objectives to determine the consumer
preference and satisfaction .we conducted this study to find out the level of
customer satisfaction towards Samsung Lpatops.There are many brands selling and
manufacturing laptops and computers are in the market bus Samsung laptops are
leading the race with over a dozen varieties and models lining up every
day.cunsumer left confusion as to what to buy.with market gearing up with new
companies and new products launch in Samsung manufacturing have accepted in the
challenge .They coming up with latest technologies being put to test and company
believes customer satisfaction and that is their success in the laptops in Sulthan
Bathery Taluk.we are using important statistical tool for collection ,tabulation
and collecting of data.

1.1 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Market analysis identifies customer satisfaction as a key determination in a

customer's decision making .relating to keeping , dropping a given product or
service if a consumer has a good pleasant experience with the use of a product or
services and this feels satisfied.Then she/he will have a possitive attitude
towards that product or services . The product service will be accepted by
existing cunsumer and they will continue using it .on the country , if the cunsumer
has a bad experience with use of product or services and this feels dissatisfied
,them she/he will have a negative attitude towards the product and services.So that
the product and services will be rejected by existing cunsumer and they will
discontinue it's use.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The Study focus on the effect of customer satisfaction of samsung laptops

with special reference to Sulthan Bathery Taluk .The study examines how many of
them are using Samsung laptops in their day to day life.it enable to understand the
customers openion regarding use benefits,features etc .of samsung mobiles.It will
also possible to identify what are the unique features of samsung laptop that it
differ from others

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

* To find out the satisfaction level of Samsung laptop users

* To study about level of awareness of Samsung laptops
* To study the complexity and complications regarding the use and availability of
the product in the market
* To assumes the customer loyality of Samsung laptops
* To suggest some improvements in the product and services offered by the Samsung
laptops

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

From this study performance and problem of the customer can be

analysed.This study helps to know the neccessory change in product features and
customer feeling about samsung laptops.The study will be useful for the company to
make neccessory change in Applications,utilities,network fecilities and design
style.
1.5.RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY
Reaserch is defined as a scientific and systamatic search for patient
information as a specific topic .it is an art of of scientific investigation
.research has its in special significance in solving various operational and
planning problem of business and industry .the scope of research methodology is
very wide .research methodology considers the logic behaind the method we use in
the cotext of our research study and explain why we are using a particular
method.the study is designed as a descriptive one as it describes the state of
affairs as it is ,the neccessory data has been collected from both primary and
secondary sources

1.5.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The most important part of a research is research design that has been adopted
in the study, which offers the firm a basis for drawing conclusions from the data
collected.The present study is descriptive in nature mainly based on primary data.
1.5.2 DATA COLLECTION
The data used in research can be classified into primary and secondary data.The
primary data was collected using questionnaires and researcher collected secondary
data from news,magazines and websites
1.5.3 SOURCE OF DATA
PRIMARY DATA
Primary data are those data
collected by the investigator himself for the first time.it is original in nature
in the shape of raw material for the purpose of collection of primary data ,a well
structured questionnaire was filled bythe respondents. the questionnaire comprises
of close ended questions

SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data are those which have been collected by some other person for the
purpose and published .they are secondary in nature and are in shape of finished
product .required data were collected from various published articles,newspapers
and internet

3.4 SAMPLE DESIGN

In sample design random sampling method is used to select the sample from the
people of Sulthan Bathery Taluk.
3.5 SAMPLE SIZE
The sample size of the 30 respondents were selected for this study
3.6 PERIOD OF THE STUDY
The study covers 30 days to complete the research
3.7 TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS
The researcher uses simple percentage and mean value as the tool for
analysis.sinmple percentage analysis refers to ratio with the help to absolute
figures.it will be difficult to interpret any meaning from the collected data.but
when percentages are found out it becomes easy to find the relative difference
between two or more attributes.
Percentage= Number of Respondents/Total number of Respondents * 10

2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Assaari and Karia1

(2000) in their paper titled, �Churn Management towards Customer Satisfaction; A

Case of Cellular operations in Malaysia� have viewed that customer satisfaction and
customer service have been critical factors of the cellular industry. Cellular
service providers need to ensure about the technology that provides customer
service best in the industry. It is stated that investment in people and in
technology helps in providing best customer service for today and for the future.
One common ground that most carriers and customers agree on is that good customer
service can have a key impact on how a customer views firm?s services and company.

Carsten Fink, Aaditya Mattoo and RandeepRathindran3(2001) in their study titled,

�Liberalizing Basic Telecommunications: The Asian Experience� have found that
despite the move away from traditional public monopolies, most Asian governments
are still unwilling to allow unrestricted entry, eliminate limits on private and
foreign ownership, and establish strong independent regulators. A comprehensive
reform including privatization, competition and regulation has been implemented and
there are significantly higher levels of main line availability, service quality
and labour productivity.

David M. Szymanski and David H. Henard4(2001) in their study entitled, �The New
Marketing Developing Long-term Interactive Relationships� have said that the
growing number of academic studies on customer satisfaction and the mixed findings
they report complicate the efforts among managers and academics to identify
theantecedents to, and outcomes of businesses having more against less-satisfied
customers. These mixed findings and the growing emphasis by managers on having
satisfied customers point to the value of empirically synthesizing the evidence on
customer satisfaction to assess current knowledge. To achieve this aim, the authors
conducted a meta-analysis of the reported findings on customer satisfaction. They
have documented that equity and disconfirmation are most strongly related to
customer satisfaction on average.

Jonathan, Lee, Janghyuk, Lee, Lawrence and Feick5(2001) in their article

titled,"The Impact of Switching Costs on the Customer Satisfaction-loyalty Link:
Mobile Phone Service in France� have analysed that moderating role of switching
costs in the customer satisfaction-loyalty link and to identify customer segments
and to retain them. Thus the purposes of this paper are to examine the moderating
role of switching costs in the customer satisfaction-loyalty link and to identify
customer segments and then analyze the heterogeneity in the satisfaction-loyalty
link among the different segments. An empirical example based on the mobile phone
service market in France indicates support for the moderating role of switching
costs. Managerial implications of the results are discussed.

Robert C. Ford, Cherill P. Heaton and Stephen W. Brown6 (2001) in their article
titled, �Delivering Excellent Service Lessons from the Best Firms� have stated that
many companies see investments in complaint handling as means of increasing
customer commitment and building customer loyalty.However, firms are not well
informed, on how to deal successfully with service failures or the impact of
complaint handlingstrategies. They have supported a quasi �brand equity�
perspective-whereas satisfaction with complaint handling has a direct impact on
trust and commitment, to a limited extent, on the effects of poor complaint
handling. Implications for managers and scholars have also been discussed.

Wilska7(2001) in his paper titled, �New Technology and Young People?s Consumer
Identities: A Comparative Study between Finland and Brazil� has found that among
young people aged 16-20, it was found that mobile phones choice and especially
usage is consistent with respondents general consumption styles. The research has
indicated that addictive use is common among females and is related to trendy and
impulsive consumption styles. Instead, males have been found to have more
technology enthusiasm and trend-consciousness. These attributes have been then
linked to impulsive consumption. The study concludes that genders are becoming more
alike in telecom service choice because individual differences in consumption
patterns are obviously identifiable.

Balasubramanian, Paterson and S.L.Jarvenpaa8(2002) in their article

entitled,�Exploring the Implications of M-convenience for Markets and Marketing�
have identified that the unique intrinsic attributes mentioned by the end users are
unhindered time and space attributes of the mobile phone. The extrinsic attributes
are divided as direct and indirect network. Direct network is the effect of the
size, speed and capacity of the network, whereas, indirect network is the effect
originating from the information, transactionransaction, or machine interactive
services.

Bhave and Ashish9(2002) in their article entitled, �Customer Satisfaction

Measurement� have found that the opinion that customer?s perception towards service
and quality of a product determines the success of that product or service in the
market. With better understanding of customers? perceptions, a firm can determine
the suitable actions to meet the needs of customers. Firms can identify their own
strengths and
weaknesses in comparison with their competitors. Major attributes that influence
customer satisfaction are product quality, packaging, delivery commitments, price,
responsiveness and ability to resolve complaints and overall communication,
accessibility and attitude failing short creates dissatisfaction. Customer loyalty
is an important strategic objective for all organizations.

K.E. Lommeruda and L. Sorgard10(2003) in their study on �Entry in

Telecommunication: Customer Loyalty, Price Sensitivity and Access Prices� have
stated that telecommunication services are like undifferentiated products.
Therefore, customers are not price sensitive all the times and sometimes brand
loyalty takes a dominant part in brand preferences. This is because some consumers
are retained with old monopolists. They have pointed out that substantive role of
price fairness and quality service with customer satisfaction existing in the
communication sector.

Michael Draganska and Dipal Jain11(2003) in their article titled, �Consumer

Preferences and Product Line Pricing Strategies: An Empirical Analysis� have
analyzed that India is having 752.19 Million mobile subscribers and Informant
Mobile Intelligence reports claim that in Average Minutes Per User (AMPU) in India
is 25 to 30 minutes per day of active time on voice calls and almost 15 to 20
minutes per day of the active timeon messaging. Bharati the major mobile service
provider in India claimed as on November 2010 that Indian Monthly Average Revenue
Per User (ARPU) is 202 rupees which is reduced at 20 per cent on a year base and it
is expected to decrease further. As there is an increase in mobile subscribers and
increase in AMPU at the same time, there is a decrease in ARPU Mobile service
providers who are planning to attract Mobile subscriber to their service with less
affordable price.

J. Pakola, M. Pietila and R.Svento12(2003) in their article titled, �An

Investigation of Customer Behaviour in Mobile Phone Markets in Finland� have
indicated that price and properties are the major influential factors affecting the
purchase of a new mobile phone, whereas audibility, price and friends are regarded
as the most important in choice of the mobile phone operators. Customers have
certain amount of self-knowledge about telephone features, connection fee, access
cost, mobile-to-mobile phone rates, call rates and free calls which are related to
mobile phone purchasing respondents. He has stated that customers with prior
experience about a product can be able predict their choices relatively well but
tend to overestimate the importance of a monthly access fee, mobile-to-mobile rates
and connection fees.

Stephen Y. Walters13(2003) in his study on �The New Telephony-Technology,

Convergence, Industry Collision� has viewed that the telecommunication industry is
being rocked by change fueled by the advent of the tremendous success of the
internet and its technologies. For quite some time there has been competition in
the telephony business. Long-distance rates have seen continuous decreases for two
decades as new carriers seek to capture greater and greater market share. Local
carriers have seencompetition for interconnecting the networks of large corporate
customers and for providing them access to long-distance services. So, competition
and change are not new issues in telecommunications. But the internet has forced an
entirely new set of changes on the phone business. There are new carriers, new
business scenarios, new technologies, and new ways of thinking about end users and
the services they seek.

S.Krishnan14 (2004) in his survey titled, �Net Profit Surges 123 per cent in Q3�
has stated that Bharti had 31.9 million mobile users at the end of 2006 compared to
16 million at the end of 2005. Its broadband and telephone subscriber�s base grew
from 1.2 million to 1.7 million over the one year period. The revenues and net
profit for the nine months was 13,126 crores and 2,904 crores, a growth of 59 per
cent and 84 per cent respectively compared to the year 2004.

K. Maran, C. Madhavi and K.Thilagavathi15 (2004) in their article

titled,�Customer's Perception on Telephone: A Study with Special Reference to
Chennai City� have indicated that the consumer perceptions about fixed telephone
lines in Chennai. The objectivesbjectives of the study is (1) to find the most
influencing factor in selection of service provider, and (2) to measure customer
perception and satisfaction as regards the service provided. The study on a sample
of 550 telephone users indicate that some problems exist that deserve the attention
of the company. The company needs to bridge the gap between the services promised
and services offered. And to conclude, �Delivering service without measuring the
impact on the customer is like driving a car without a windshield�.

2.1 REFERENCES
1. Assaari, Muhammad Hasmi; Karia, Noorliza, �Churn Management towards Customer
Satisfaction: A Case of Cellular Operations in Malaysia�, Paper presented at
International Conference on E-Commerce (ETEC 2000): Emerging Trends in e-Commerce,
Kuala Lumpur, 2000, pp.21-23.

2. Bepko and Charlene Pleger, �Service Intangibility and its Impact on Consumer
Expectations of Service Quality�, Journal of Service Marketing,. Vol.14, No.2,
2002, pp.9-26.

3. Carsten Fink, Aaditya Mattoo and Randeep Rathindran �Liberalizing Basic

Telecommunicationselecommunications: The Asian Experience�, World Bank Policy
Research Working Paper 2718, 2001.
4. David M. Szymanski and David H. Henard, �The New Marketing Developing Long-
termong-term Interactive Relationships�, Long-range Planning, Vol.20, No.4, 1987,
pp.10-20.

5. Jonathan, Lee, Janghyuk, Lee and Lawrence, Feick, �The Impact of Switching Costs
on the Customer Satisfaction -Loyalty Link: Mobile Phone Service in France",
Journal of Services Marketing, 15 ISSN: 1, 2001, pp.35�48.

6. Robert C. Ford, Cherill P. Heaton and Stephen W. Brown, �Delivering Excellent

Service. Lessons from the Best Firms�, California Management Review, Vol.44, No.1,
Fall, 2001, p.19.

7. Wilska, �New Technology and Young People?s Consumer Identities; A Comparative

Study between Finland and Brazil�, Seminar Paper in Economic Sociology at the Turku
School of Economics, Finland, 2001.

8. Balasubramanian, Paterson and S.L. Jarvenpaa, �Exploring the Implications of M-

convenience for Markets and Marketing�, Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, Vol.30(3), 2002, pp.348-361

9. Bhave and Ashish, �Customer Satisfaction Measurement�, Quality and Productive

Journal, February 2002, pp-562-572, retrieved from www.symphonytech.com.

10. K.E. Lommeruda, and L. Sorgard, (2003), �Entry in Telecommunication: Customer

Loyalty, Price Sensitivity and Access Prices�, Information Economics and Policy,
Vol.15, 2003, pp.55�72.

11. Michael Draganska and Dilip Jain, �Consumer Preferences and Product line
Pricing Strategies: An Empirical Analysis�, Conference Paper, Marketing Science
Conference, Maryland, [Online] Accessed on 7 January 2011, 2003.

12. J. Pakola, M., Pietila and R. Svento, �An Investigation of Customer Behaviour
in Mobile Phone Markets in Finland�, Proceedings of 32nd EMAC. Conference, Track:
New Technologies and E-marketing, Accessed on September 2007. Retrieved from
www.oasis.oulu,fi/publications/emac03-jp.pdf

13. Stephen M. Watters, �The New Telephony-Technology, Convergence, Industry

Collision�, Prentice Hall, PTR, NJ07458.

14. S. Krishnan, �Net Profit Surges 123 percent in Q3, Business Line, January 27,
2004, p.4.

15. K. Maran, C. Madhavi and K. Thilagavathi, �Customer's Perception on Telephone:

A Study with Special Reference to Chennai City�, Journal of Marketing Management,
ICFAI Press, 2004, pp.1-12.
CHAPTER 3
INTRODUCTION

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is the chief subsidiary of South Korea's giant
Samsung Group and the largest electronics producer in Asia. Samsung Electronics
operates four main divisions including Digital Media, Semiconductors, Information &
Communications, and Home Appliances. The company sells televisions, video, and
audio equipment; computers and related products; phones, cellular phones, and fax
machines; home appliances; semiconductors; network-related products; factory
automation products; fiberoptics products; closed circuit security products; motors
and compressors; and solar energy systems. In 2000, Samsung Electronics held the
leading market position in the code division multiple access (CDMA) Handset, DRAM,
SRAM, and color monitor markets.Early History of Samsung GroupSamsung Electronics
was created in 1969 as a division of the mammoth Korean chaebol Samsung Group. The
unit was established as a means of getting Samsung into the burgeoning television
and consumer electronics industry. The division's first product was a small and
simple black-and-white television that it began selling in the early 1970s. From
that product, Samsung Electronics gradually developed a diverse line of consumer
electronics that it first sold domestically, and later began exporting. The company
also began branching out into color televisions, and later into a variety of
consumer electronics and appliances. By the 1980s, Samsung was manufacturing,
shipping, and selling a wide range of appliances and electronic products throughout
the world.