ID 10115788
Name Sophia / jiahui.shen
Stream A1
Introduction
Background: Over the past two decades, the Chinese economy has been
developed at a tremendous speed. The rapid growth in disposable income in
China, coupled with a large population that longs for fashion products,
provides the world’s largest potential consumer market for companies all over
the world. With China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, it is
important for foreign companies to understand the opportunities, risks and
strategies necessary to succeed in China.
The Japanese company, SONY, has actively sought opportunities for business
expansion. It is increasingly recognized as a growth opportunity for SONY
Company to expand markets for consumer goods.
It is obviously that the price of a laptop has been decreased substantially with
the rapid improvement of high technology. People use them to work, study
and entertainment. As a result, it seems that laptops are referred as a
necessity nowadays. It is particularly typical for college students to buy a
laptop after they graduated from high school. In this context, it is important
to examine how Chinese perceive the SONY laptop because SONY Company
must concentrate on developing brand and company identities if they want to
succeed in the market competition.
Aims: In this study, Chinese consumer’s perceptions of the SONY laptop were
assessed and the perceptions of the composition of an ideal laptop were
examined in a multi-cue, multi-dimensional setting as well. It was
hypothesized that Chinese perceptions of SONY are generally positive as to
the quality and appearance. The object of this study was to provide some
guidance to the SONY Company interested in marketing their laptops in China.
Methodology
Sample: This survey included thirty participants. All of them are year 1 xjtlu
students from different provinces in China. Most of the interviewees are
nineteen years old and the ratio of boy and girl is three to two. It is a good
balance.
Materials: The questionnaire consisted of various kinds of question types
including demographic, multiple choice, dichotomous, bi-polar scale and
Page 1 of 6
ID 10115788
Name Sophia / jiahui.shen
Stream A1
open-ended questions. In total twenty first questions is shown in the
questionnaire. We first asked questions about the demography of the
respondents and then asked their broad idea of the laptops on the market.
Finally we especially asked them their perception of the Sony laptop.
Procedure: On Feb 28th, we conducted a pilot study first. During the
process, we found our questionnaire was not very oral and it was difficult to
pronounce some words. Some question is confusing. So we later made a
change on the questionnaire. We deleted those difficult words and use more
simple sentences. In the main study, our group was sent to five different
places and each of us interviewed 6 respondents. We asked them questions
on the questionnaire and they were no allowed to look at the questionnaire. If
they didn’t understand the question, we explained them in English. Teachers
were walking around at that time and gave help when necessary. The
interview lasted for about one and a half hours and when we finished asking
other students, all of us returned the EAP class and tried to collect the
information.
Data handling: To make it easier for us to analyze the results, we decided
to use EXCEL as our tool. We input all the information we got and draw some
charts to analyze the data.
Results and analysis
In general, the results show that respondents appeared content with the Sony
laptop. A Likert Scale(1 is the lowest and 7 is the highest) question here
presents the respondent’s broad perception of Sony laptop.
Page 2 of 6
ID 10115788
Name Sophia / jiahui.shen
Stream A1
From figure 1, we can see that most respondents ranked Sony lap as five (4 is
neutral). That means most of the responds regarded Sony laptop as good
Figure1: Respondents' perception of Sony laptop
Number
Responding
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
2
3
4
products.
5
6
7
Likert rating
A survey question was designed to examine what the most popular style of a
laptop is. The investigation shows that more than one third of the
interviewees like fashionable laptops (43.33 percent). And another one third
of them prefer general laptops. And the others prefer classical ones. That
means the appearance of a laptop is an important factors when consumers
are purchasing a laptop. They hope it is fashionable and practical.
This survey also reveals that most of the respondents got the information
from websites (43 percent), which means producers should pay more
attention on the internet advertisements.
In order to know the main problems the laptops have nowadays, a question
related to this was asked. Figure 2 indicates that 16 respondents complained
of the weight of their laptop while another 16 were not satisfied with the
battery. Eight respondents thought the picture quality of a laptop is
respectively low and four interviewees regarded most of the laptop nowadays
as old style. This survey reveals that producers should focus on the
development of the battery and try to decrease the weight of a laptop so that
Page 3 of 6
ID 10115788
Name Sophia / jiahui.shen
Stream A1
the product will be more popular.
Figure 2: The deficiency of a lap nowadays
number
responding
others
old style
low picture quality
slow running
low battery use
too heavy
0
5
10
15
20
deficiency
As to Sony laptop, when respondents were asked how much they knew about
it, a majority of them answered as”a little”. This reveals the lack of
advertisements of Sony laptop which contribute to the establishment of brand
image and brand recognition. However, when referring the country of design,
80 percent of the respondents claimed that they knew it was Japan.
Figure 3 compares the product image from China and that from Japan. A biopolar question was designed to find respondents’ content with the following
sentence: “Japan’s product is more trustful than China’s”.
Figure 3: Product image
Strongly disagree
7%
Strongly agree
13%
Disagree
17%
No idea
10%
Agree
53%
It is obvious
that most of the interviewees showed a positive attitude towards Japanese
products. Adding the section for “strongly agree” to the section for “agree”
Page 4 of 6
ID 10115788
Name Sophia / jiahui.shen
Stream A1
reveals that substantially most of respondents prefer Japanese product to
Chinese’s product. They seem to associate the Japan brands with the positive
image they have towards Japanese culture, such as high technology and high
fashion. The survey also indicates that respondents were aware of the brands
from Japan such as Toshiba and Panasonic. These means Japanese products
are more favorable under the same conditions.
A total of six broad attributes or concepts were identified through a content
analysis of this question: “what attracts you to buy (or prevent you from
buying) a Sony laptop”. Most subjects responded they were willing to buy a
Sony laptop because of its brand. It seems it is a guarantee for good quality.
Five respondents said they are fond of purchasing a Sony laptop because of
its appearance and another four said they would buy it given its function. In
addition, three respondents claimed that they would buy it for its quality. With
regarding to those who were unready to buy one, price was their most
concern. They complained that the price is too high for them to afford one in
comparison with other brands. One factor which could account for this
phenomenon is that it seems Sony aims at high-end market while ignoring the
burgeoning middle class. This investigation implies that the producer should
make full use of its positive brand image and try to cut down on price to meet
the demand of most potential customers.
Conclusion
As hypothesized, Chinese consumer’s perceptions of SONY were generally
positive. However, when it came to the prices, most Chinese thought the
price is slightly high and it was not economical to buy a SONY laptop
comparing to other laptops of the same level.
Limitations: This research suffers from a number of methodological
limitations. It was carried out only in XJTLU, with 30 samples, using response
to SONY with only one product which is easy to design and assemble. Besides,
only students were interviewed and thus the sample was not large and
diverse enough.
Despite these limitations, the results presented in this paper appear to have
strategic implications for the SONY Company.
Page 5 of 6
ID 10115788
Name Sophia / jiahui.shen
Stream A1
Further Research: Further research should be conducted with larger
probabilistic samples of different ages from various parts of China and use
different categories of electronic products simulating actual behavior.
Investigating the perception of the SONY products via the internet could also
be a worthwhile direction.
Besides, future research can be devoted to consumer’s perceptions of the
SONY products when consumers had experience of purchasing or
consumption of SONY products. Consumer’s perceptions of SONY products
might change when they had actual experience of these products.
These studies would be useful to the SONY marketers of electronic products
who want to expand its business in China.
Recommendations: Since the price is the consumer’s main concern,
marketers of the SONY Company should try to cut down the price of laptops.
Alternatively, they can detrude more products of a variety of prices to meet
the demand of consumers of different level of income.
To remain competitive, the SONY Company may continue to focus on its
quality and appearance as well. The marketers should also try to make full
use of the positive perceptions of Japan.
Page 6 of 6