BRAND AWARENESS AND PERCEPTION; AND UNIBEN STUDENTS’ PATRONAGE OF TECNO MOBILE PRODUCTS
ABSTRACT
         This study examines Brand awareness and perception and uniben students’ patronage of Tecno mobile products, and seeks to discover factors besides brand awareness and perception that affect the choice of the Tecno brand at the first purchase in the University of Benin?  
         The survey research design was adopted for this study. The population of this study consisted of students in the University of Benin, Edo State. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 120 respondents through a convenience sampling technique. The data from the questionnaires was coded and presented on excel spread sheets for analysis. The data was then exported into a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and analyzed. Furthermore, the formulated hypotheses were subjected to inferential statistics and analyzed by the means of frequencies, descriptive, percentages, chi-square and correlations.
 In the course of this study, it was assessed that factors besides brand awareness and perceptions indeed affect the choice of the Tecno brand at the first purchase in the University of Benin. Also, these factors were ranked where Brand Recognition was the first factor, Peer Influence came second, Price came third and Quality came fourth while others came last. Consequently, it was recommend that this same research be conducted across different forms across or throughout the federation (Nigeria).Further the study should be focused on finding out the mediating role of purchase intension on the relationship of brand awareness and profitability, perceived quality and profitability and brand loyalty and profitability..
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study    -    -    
1.2     Statement of the Problem    -    -
1.3     Research Questions    -    -    -    -
     Objectives of the Study    -    -    -
      Significance of the Study    -    -    
      Scope of the study    -    -    -
1.7    Limitation of the study    -    -
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction    -    -    -    
2.2 Conceptual Framework    -    -
2.3 Brands    -    -    -    -    -    
2.4 Brand Equity    -    -    -    -
2.5 Consumer Behaviour    -    
2.6 Empirical and Theoretical Review    -    
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction    -    
3.2 Research problem    -    -    -
3.3 Objectives of the Study    -    -    
3.4 Research hypotheses    -    -    
3.5 Research design    -    -    -    -
3.6 Reliability and validity    -    
3.7 Ethical issues    -    -    -
3.8 Sample and Population    -
3.9 Questionnaire    -    -    -    
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
  Introduction    -    -    
4.2      Description of Background Information
4.3     Test of Hypotheses    -    
4.4     Discussion of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1    Introduction    -    -
5.2    Summary of Findings    -    -    
5.3    Conclusion    -    -
5.4    Recommendations    -
REFERENCES    -    -    
APPENDIX I    -    
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Modern Smartphones are taking even more complex roles than traditional computers, making it possible to do a lot with this small hand held device. They have broad uses such as sharing information, paying for products, browsing, and shopping. Further to Knapman (2012), consumers of Smartphones are strongly influenced by brands when it comes to choosing a Smartphone. According to Ahmed (1991) a strong and clear brand image can increase consumer confidence and convince consumers to purchase.
In various mobile markets around the world, different mobile brands dominate different regions. So while Apple’s iPhone is the undisputed champion in America for instance, this is not particularly the case in every other big market.
In South America, Blu owns the biggest market share, while Samsung and Micromax are the most dominant mobile brands in India. The world’s most populous country, China, has Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo holding sway respectively in a market that has about the stiffest competition globally.
But, how about in Africa?.
Data from recent research shows that Tecno Mobile has crawled its way up to dominate the African mobile space, doing remarkably well in its ten years of existence to emerge as the local king in Africa’s mobile industry.
Tecno Mobile needs no introduction, definitely not in Africa. Tecno Mobile is a Chinese mobile phone manufacturer.
The company was started in July 2006 in Hong Kong with its first research and development Centre in Shanghai, China. The dynamic mobile multinational has definitely done well for itself in the African market.
In 2006, Tecno entered the African mobile market sphere and its 10 years stay, has covered more than 35 countries while dominating major markets such as Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana and so on.
However, after the African mobile market dominance, Tecno aimed at expanding this feat to other parts of the world and it succeeded.
Today, Tecno has extended its web to more than 48 countries around the world, across the Middle East, South East Asia and South America this has made Tecno one of the mobile brands to reckon with, not just in Africa but also around the world.
Understanding the market is key to a brand’s success and Tecno brand has understood the need for African consumers.
Year on year, the Asian multinational rolled out smartphone products targeted at different market segments and pegged at the right price.
In November 2007, Tecno released Africa’s first dual SIM phone the T780 to address the then problem of people carrying around several mobile phones due to poor Telecoms network infrastructure in the continent at the time.
Apart from the dual SIM card feature, Tecno smartphones are reliable and the average life span of every Tecno product could last for over three years.
With this exploit, in 2010, Tecno was ranked among the top three brands in Africa also, according to a survey carried out in 2011, six out of every ten Africans use a TECNO dual SIM phone, this further increased Tecno’s market share to more than 27% within its dominant markets.
Understanding that several mobile users have specific needs that regular smartphones cannot totally satisfy, Tecno has three mobile series that are tailored to satisfy a special need. They are:
BOOM series (music lovers): Tecno Boom smartphone series liaises with Boom Maxx to provide rich, crispy sound and allows users feel the perfect mega bass.
The Boom player on the TECNO Boom smartphone comes with a free digital content (Music & Video) application that allows music lovers to access a huge catalogue of music and videos from their favorite African and International artistes.
The Boom player is preinstalled with over 300,000 songs from over 4,000 signed artistes across Africa.
CAMON series (Photo lovers): Tecno Camon series provides the excellent capture experience. A lot of mobile users face the problem of capturing very high definition pictures in low light environment. Since the release of the Tecno CAMON Series, from the 5MP on the Camon C5, 8MP on the Camon C8 to the dual 13MP on the Camon C9, that limitation has been surpassed as Tecno had up to 500 professional engineers working for more than 285 days’ to produce the most suitable low-light camera on the Camon.
Phantom series (high-level business consumers): The Tecno phantom series, which is one of the best-reviewed annual flagships from the stable of Tecno, always drops with unconventional upgrades on mobile specifications.
The Tecno Phantom brands have proven in five years of its official rollout, that the product line is as competitive and appealing as any other top smartphone brand in the African market. And much to the Tecno brand’s delight, consumers are taking a liking for TECNO Phantom products.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The research problem refers to observing and determining the factors most important in brand awareness and perception and University of Benin student’s adoption of Tecno smartphones.
While studying the literature, it was found out that there is not much research about the effect of brand awareness and perception on choice. Most research is focused on more complicated knowledge structures such as attitude and brand image. Therefore the researcher wanted to do a research on brand awareness and perception and how it affects consumer's choice.
Lately, Tecno has managed to transform its image from the "value for money", to a picture of brand that shows innovation by changing marketing strategy that puts the wishes and needs of consumers on the first place. Tecno differentiates itself as a company through more affordable prices than most competition, but also through the fact that if a Component of smart phones deteriorates it can be easily changed with a new one from Tecno representatives, unlike most of their competition.
 Research Questions
In view of the above, this study seeks to provide answers to the following pertinent research questions:
What factors besides brand awareness and perception affect the choice of the Tecno brand at the first purchase in the University of Benin?
Among different students in the University of Benin, how much does brand awareness and perception matter compared to other factors in a new, unfamiliar situation?
Why do people buy the brand and not necessarily the product?
What are the reasons for brand loyalty among students?
What are the factors that influence Brand awareness?
What are the factors that influence Brand perception
 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this research include:
Determine the factors besides brand awareness and perception that affect the choice of the Tecno brand at first purchase
To know what extent brand awareness and perception matters compared to other factors in the University of Benin student’s adoption of Tecno mobile products.
To know why people buy the brand and necessarily the product.
To determine the reasons for brand loyalty among youths.
To observe and analyze the factors that influence brand awareness and perception among people especially young adults.
 Significance of the Study
The findings of this research study would be significant to Smartphone producers like Tecno in understanding the basis for student’s preferences of smartphones and the brands they represent. A good knowledge of students brand preference in Smartphones would help in understanding how brands shape students buying decision and preferences. The conclusions will deal with student preference of Tecno smartphones, how students are influenced by its brand name, the role different components of its brand equity and brand identity plays in student brand preference.
The need for mobility, the need to communicate over long distances and access to desired information anytime, anywhere were factors that determined evolution of mobile technology.
 Since technology is embedded into students’ lives (Dahlstrom, Walker, & Dziuban, ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology, 2014), they (students) are recognized as the most important consumers of college and university information technology services (Dahlstrom & Brooks, ECAR Study of Faculty and Information Technology, 2014)
Chia-Ju & Hao-Yun (2014) presented the results of their research. They showed, from their survey that 71% of the subjects were willing to spend more money to buy their favorite brand of smartphone. In addition, the analysis of the eye tracking data indicated some significant differences in the sequential position of viewing the phones’ logos. The viewing of most subjects focused on the smartphone brand rather than on the product specifications and price. Studies have shown that monthly individual income and smartphone use in years have an increasing and decreasing impact on the use of a specific brand, respectively. Results also reveal that monthly household income, price of current smartphone, product design, product weight, and after purchase services have both increasing and decreasing influence regarding a specific brand preference.
 Scope of the study
The study is limited to the students of the University of Benin in Edo state.
It is to find out the impact of brand awareness and perception on Uniben students’ patronage of Tecno mobile products.
 Limitation of the study
Pertinent to the time constraint, the focus is on the best known theories in the field. The population was restricted to the students at the University of Benin. The products in the questionnaire mostly include Tecno mobile products as a substantial portion of the university’s population uses them. Further in the research, the main factors that were considered were the ones that had the most effect on the choice of brand.