A Study Of The Differences In The Decision-making Process Between First-time And Repeat Buyers Of Students’ Mobile Phone

After nearly twenty years development, China’s mobile phone market has entered a mature stage. The phone has been a symbol of identity and status as a luxury evolving into a general public consumer goods, or even can be said to be a necessity. Many first-time buyers have become the repeat buyers. The manufacturers who want to continue to occupy the market need to distinguish the first-time buyers and repeat buyers, and then analysis the difference exist in the process of attribute perception→perceived value→attitude→behavior intention and the inner decision-making. After understanding and mastering the differences, it will take product development, brand building and business promotion.A lot of empirical study in the domestic and foreign found that first-time buyers and repeat buyers have significant differences in the process of decision-making process. In this study, Fishbein and Ajzen created the multi-attribute attitude model to study the differences of decision-making in the situation of the college student consumers purchasing firstly and repurchasing. The Aim is to identify the differences in the process of consumer buying decision-making, and to validate previous research in this area. Though visiting the college students in-depth, I generalized the dimension of attribute perception paid attention to when students were buying the phone. Then I designed and developed the survey questionnaire according to the actual situation of the mobile phone market on the basis of previous research. Though small scale pretest, we have been classified the indicators, and tested the reliability and validity of the results, showing that the structure of the internal consistency is good and higher, reaching the study requirements. Finally it distributed485questionnaires in four universities which are in Cheng Du, and retained449valid questionnaires after screening and selection. The last of these449valid data proved the proposed hypothesis though path coefficient analysis.Analysis of the survey data reveals three main differences between the two types of buyers:(1) first-time buyers value extrinsic attributes (e.g., brand reputation) more than intrinsic attributes, whereas repeat buyers value intrinsic attributes(e.g., quality) more than extrinsic attributes;(2) first-time buyers are guided by emotional value, whereas repeat buyers are influenced more by functional. value;(3) first-time buyers are more influenced than repeat buyers by a need for social conformity.The conclusion indicates that if enterprises position their products in first-time buyers, they should put more energy on mobile phone brand-building and product promotion. Besides, enterprises should pay more attention to word-of-mouth spread of their production; If enterprises focus on repeat buyers, they should pay more attention to the quality and prices of mobile phone.