This Apple Campus Experience Centre Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Apple Store in Malaysia has developed Apple in Education that also called as Campus Experience Centre. This Apple Campus Experience Centre is different compared to other apple store. Apple has been set up this program under education program and it will influence people like student shop at the Apple Store for Education and start saving. It is because Campus Experience Centre offers the education pricing to students, faculty and staff members of the higher education institution where the experience centre resides to purchase Mac computers, Apple software, and select accessories at special prices. From elementary schools to universities, Apple products are transforming the learning experience, making it more interactive, immersive and engaging.

In Malaysia, there are six Apple Campus Experience Centre located in Kuala Lumpur (2locations), Selangor (3locations) and Johor (1location). Two locations in Kuala Lumpur were at Tristar at UCSI University and Tristar at TAR College. Three locations in Selangor were includes Tristar at Multimedia University (MMU) Cyberjaya, e-Xperience at Taylor's University Lakeside Campus and Epicentre at LimKok Wing University. While in Johor, only one location is EIT at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

1.2 BACKGROUND OF TAYLOR'S UNIVERSITY LAKESIDE CAMPUS

Figure 1: Taylor's University Lakeside Campus

Taylor's College started out in a small building in Jalan Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, offering the Victorian High School Certificate (VHSC) programme for a student population of 345. Since then, it has expanded to include Taylor's College Subang Jaya (launched in 1989), Taylor's College Petaling Jaya (launched in 1992), Taylor's College Sri Hartamas (launched in 2008) and Taylor's University at the brand new Lakeside Campus (launched in 2010), with regional offices in Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Sabah and Sarawak. 

There are facilities and building for the selected companies to run their business In Taylor's University Lakeside Campus. One of the selected companies is e-Xperience Store that is under education program of Apple Malaysia.

Since e-Xperience Store is located at the Taylor's University Lakeside Campus, therefore it become important to understand the background of Taylor's University Lakeside Campus. The background of the campus may help researchers to obtain preliminary information on the target respondent. Most of the students are Malay, Chinese and foreigner. Students of Taylor's University Lakeside Campus are to come from middle and high level income. Besides that, in order to conduct a study in the area of Taylor's University Lakeside Campus, researchers have to obey all the rules determined by the campus administration.

Figure 2: Location of Taylor's University Lakeside Campus

1.3 BACKGROUND OF e-Xperience Apple Store

e-Xperience Apple Store is located at Taylor`s Lakeside Campus in Subang Jaya, Selangor is one of Apple Store Malaysia that operated in under education program. This Apple Store has been operated since 2010. Operation of the e-Xperience Apple Store is managed by Mr Sullhrzmy Bin Mohd Ali as a General Manager and the business is supported by his two shares partner. Besides that, e-Xperience Apple Store have five staffs including administration, three people responsible in sales, the rest are responsible in accounting and administration department. The operating hour is from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.

According to Mr Sullzhymy, Apple Malaysia has been set their target to e-Xperience Sdn Bhd to achieve at least RM 22, 000 per day for their sales. Their main target customer of this Taylor`s Lakeside Campus Apple store majority is from Taylor`s University students, faculty and staff members. Most of Taylor`s University students are Chinese, Malay and Foreigner. Besides that, it is compulsory to e-Xperience Apple Store to run the business every day. Otherwise the disciplinary action will be taken by Taylor's University Lakeside Campus's building management by charging fine e-Xperience Apple Store RM 1000 per day when it closed unless they have permission.

1.2.1 MISSION AND VISION OF e-XPERIENCE APPLE STORE

VISION

To maximize profitability, improve shareholder value and deliver sustainable growth year after year.

MISSION

Company committed to bring the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings accordance to vision of Apple Malaysia.

1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Among the Apple Store, sales are the lifeblood of the organization, thus they are more focusing on sale. One of the criteria of performing a good sale, Apple store must understand the customer's needs and wants. It is necessary to conduct a study in order to gain perception of customers towards their purchase decision. Nowadays, the purchasing power of consumers increases and many alternatives that used by buyers in order to increase consumer purchase decision. In the purchasing process, the buyer decides to purchase a particular product. Besides that, every customer has different taste for different products. Hence, this study is to know what the product determinant factors for Apple products.

Therefore, this study is conducted to identify the factors that influence the customer purchase decision of e-Xperience Sdn Bhd at Taylor`s Lakeside Campus.

1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

Research objectives are the statements that the research projects will attempt to achieve. Research objectives provide the guideline for establishing our research agenda of activities necessary to implement the research process (Zamalia, 2008).

In order to find customer purchase decision factors, the study was focused on three research objectives that need to be achieved.

The research objectives are:

To study the factors that influence the customer purchase decision of e-Xperience Apple Store at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus.

To identify the firm's competitive advantage.

To recommend the strategies to attain a profitable sale of e-Xperience Apple Store.

1.6 RESEARCH QUESTION

According to the Hensley et al., 2006, research question refers to the central focus of the research effort that serves as the basis of the research problem and provides direction for the entire process. Research question which the researcher's translation of the research problem into a specific need for inquiry (Mahmud, 2008).These research questions can be:

What are the factors that influencing the customer purchase decision of

e-Xperience Store at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus?

What are the firm's competitive advantages?

What are the best strategies should be applied by e-Xperience Store at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus to attain their profitable sale?

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study as stated earlier is to explore the factors that influence customer purchase decision at e-Xperience Apple Store. Therefore, the study will take place in e-Xperience Apple Store Store at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus in Subang Jaya, Selangor. This study will concentrate on the sales performance of Apple store from January 2010 until June 2012.

1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

i) TO THE APPLE STORE

This research will help Apple Store at Taylor's University Lakeside campus in Subang Jaya especially for their marketing strategies because this study intends to determine factors that influence customer purchase decision towards e-Xperience Apple Store at Taylor's University Lakeside campus in Subang Jaya. The findings of this study are very useful for them to make improvement in their sales strategy to ensure they meet the customer's expectations.Perhaps, e-Xperience Apple Store can sustain their current customers, attract new customers and thus increase the number of sales.

ii) TO CUSTOMERS

This study is significant to customers especially Taylor's University Lakeside campus to get information regarding digital product, gadget, and other devices available and the price difference in the e-Xperience Apple Store at Taylor's University Lakeside campus. Besides, it will create and enhance the level of awareness among customers of Apple products especially in terms of their original brand produced by the Apple Store, quality of the product, features, functions and market price available for their selected item in Apple products.

iii) TO RESEARCHER

Other researchers may use this study as secondary sources, reference or a guideline in conducting further research in relevant aspect. It could also build a more analytical style of thinking as the researcher had to venture into a wide possibility of circumstances in performing the research.

1.9 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Limitations are those things the researcher could not control, but that may have influenced the results of the study (Baumgartner & Hensley, 2006). All studies have some weaknesses because compromises frequently have to be made in order to conform to the realities of a situation. Among the items that typically involve limitations to this study are the following:

a) Difficulties in getting permission to conduct research in Taylor's

University Lakeside Campus

Since e-Xperience Store was located in the Taylor's University Lakeside Campus, we must get permission to enter the campus in order to research. We also need to obey all the rules and policy of the campus. Researchers are allowed to go around the research area and prohibit disturbing students in the class.

b) Difficulties to obtain the information from the Apple Store

Due to the private and confidential by the company, they cannot reveal every figure in their business report. Therefore it becomes limitation of the study to see the actual performance of Apple Store during the specified period. However, researchers have to respect and obey with their conditions to avoid any information delivers to their competitors. Thus, all information that will be obtained from the interview will be fully utilized in order to gain the information for this research.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Customers Purchase Decisions

According to(Schiffman, Kanuk 2004), Consumer behavior can be defined as research enables for better understanding and forecasting not only on the subject of purchases but also of purchasing motives and purchasing frequency. People often buy products not because of their main function but for their subjectively perceived value for them.Factors influencing consumer behavior briefly described by (J. Stávková, L. Stejskal, Z. Toufarová, 2008) to understand the influence of factors biasing purchase decisions connected with the measurement of consumers' involvement. The most important factors biasing purchases of all commodity groups are products' characteristics and the perceived quality. Together with this goes the factor price, nevertheless for example for the commodity group health price did not appear in the scale of the perceived importance at all.

The consumer buying process offers two useful perspectives: the decision-making process associated with consumer buying and the factors which affect the buying process (Rowley, 1997). According to (ManojPatwardhan, 2010), consumer behavior analysis is based on consumer buying behavior. It aims at improving business performance through an understanding of the customer's preferences and desires. Nowadays, the growing competition where there are numerous brands selling the same products, consumers have an abundant number of choices and many diverse factors influence their buying behavior.

According to (Salomon 2004), products' basic function is quite important, but today's role of product exceeds its service limits. Even more often consumers do not determine products according to their uses because it means the main utility provided. According to real product which it means the particular products' qualities and the extended product, which represents the set of intangible factors bringing the demanded perceived advantage of consumers and also influences their decisions.

2.1 Promotion

Promotion is used by organizations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, promotion is one side of the communication process with customers. In some forms of promotion and service delivery, communication in both directions can be achieved simultaneously, and since two-way communication is the only real form of communication, promotion which is associated with two-way communication is to be encouraged (Pergamit&Veum, 1999). Exchanges between the service agent and the customer can elicit information about customer requirements, and also permit the service agent to explain the organization's products and how these might meet the customer's needs (Leontaridi& Sloane, 2001).

There are several objectives of promotion such to increase sales, maintain or improve market share, create or improve brand recognition, create a favorable climate for future sales, inform and educate the market, create a competitive advantage, relative to competitor's products or market position and improve promotional efficiency (Batt, 2002).

Promotion is believed to be an effective tool to promote brands (Sandra et.al., 2008). Through promotion, consumers have an opportunity to discover the presence of a brand and its associations. In the center of advertising is the customer, whose psychology is determined by numerous aspects and advertising itself, which aims at arousing the customers wish to acquire the product advertised, and most importantly, at achieving the act of purchasing the product.

2.2 Brand

Research on brand strength typically attempts to explain differences between brands. Strong brands are sometimes identified by behavioral measures like market share or behavioral loyalty (Kim, 2001), by attitudinal measures like trust or satisfaction (Oliver & Bearden, 1999), or by cognitive measures like the uniqueness of brand associations (Keller, 2008). Besides, a strong brand not only wins people's trust but offering ideal solutions to their consumers. High-technology brands such as Apple and Hewlett Packard manage to establish strong brands in the consumer's mind and subsequently become one of the market leaders in their own market sector (Hamann et al., 2007). These approaches are useful for defining the success of brands and sometimes uncover the relationship with some other such external valid criteria like share price (Child &Tse, 2001).

Brand equity is a customer-based: equity is present when the customer is familiar with the brand and holds some favorable, strong, and unique brand associations in memory (Snojet. Al., 1992). Interestingly, customers tend to choose a branded product from other choice of brands of similar features and ready to pay a premium price and even build a strong bond with brands (Temporal& Lee, 2000). This conceptualization implies that brand equity is a multifaceted construct consisting of both brand knowledge characteristics (i.e. Content and properties of brand knowledge) and customer brand response defined in terms of attitudes and behaviors. The examination of specific functions that the brand performs further illuminates the analysis of brand influence over consumers' perceptions, and purchasing decisions.

Brand knowledge characteristics refer to brand perception, customer response "refers to the customer's processing of those perceptions to form subsequent comparative evaluations, preferences, behavioral intentions, or behavior". Consumer brand knowledge has been conceptualized in various ways. Romanuik& Sharp (2003).

Traditionally, a brand is defined as "name, term, signal, symbol, design, or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors (Elliott, 1994). Brands are more than just names and symbols. They are a key element in the company's relationship with customers. Brands represent consumers' perceptions and feelings about a product and its performance in which everything that the product or service means to consumers (Stokburger-Sauer, 2010). In the final analysis, brands exist in the minds of consumers (Belen Del Río et. Al., 2001).

Brand loyalty is a consumer's conscious or unconscious decision that is expressed through the intentional or behavior to repurchase a particular brand continually. Brand loyalty has been proclaimed to be the ultimate goal of marketing (Holland & Baker, 2001). In marketing, brand loyalty consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase the brand through repeated buying of a product or a service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth. This indicates that the repurchase decision very much depends on trust and quality performance of the product or service (Chaudhuri& Holbrook, 2001).

2.3 CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer services can be defined as the process of ensuring customer satisfaction with a product or service. Customer service can take the form of an in-person interaction, a phone call, self-service systems, or by other means. According to Baohong (2005), he explained that customer services are focusing more in term of call center services. Call centers are very important as a basic need to answer the customers' questions. Call centers play an important role to be transformed from simply dealing with customer inquiries to performing integrated marketing functions. Beside that, many companies noticed that call centers are the best channels to acquire and retain customers, enhance customer relationship and grow long-term revenue, and also minimized the cost. Then, the management of call centers has become an important part of customer relationship management strategy. It is among the most crucial corporate assets to acquire and retain customers, grow sales, and increase profit. From this paper, customer services are very important to improve customer retention, reduce service costs and enhance profit by growing relationships.

According to KatriJakosuo (2010), customer service can be defined as the area where different organization's can compete and where they can develop a competitive advantage. A good customer service quality can be a good service and the significance of professional personnel in the business. The relationship between personnel and customer is one of the most important factors affecting the service quality and also will give an impact to company sales performance. This paper explains more about how to ascertain personnel work methods that will influence a customer's satisfaction. The quality of service can be determined based on the customer's experience, and the customer service is one of thought processes to estimate the customers' evaluations of the quality of service of an organization's. The organizations will be able to improve their services by monitor all the employees know and understand the organization's targets and their own job descriptions. It is also important to encourage employees to work together and monitor how employees treat the customers.

According to Lo (2010), the improvement in service quality will enhance customer loyalty, which plays a significant role in this equation are reliability, empathy, and assurance. Service quality influences organization's performance, as the key success of a service provider depends on the high quality relationship with a customer, which determines customer satisfaction and loyalty in order to increase the company sales profit. Nowadays, many organizations face the challenges of greater market satisfaction in order to cultivate customer loyalty and based on research, customer services is the method to assess customers' expectations and satisfaction on the quality of products and services offered by one's organization. Then, customer satisfaction plays an important role between service qualities and customer loyalty.

2.4 PRICE

Definition of price impact according toBouchaud (2009) refers to the correlation between incoming orders were to buy or to sell based on the subsequent price change. Pricing plays different role in different business and for buying trade should push the price up seems at ¬rst sight obvious and is easily demonstrated empirically. But, it still gives the same effect on customer decision.

According to Gorkan (2010), pricing is very important to advertise products and services to consumers and commonly used as one of the marketing strategy by many companies nowadays that are beneficial for their businesses. Pricing practices strategies used the design of price tags, rebates, sale adverts, cell phone plans, bundle offers, and others. The pricing practices will have an effect on consumer decisions because several of pricing practices used sales promotions. Six pricing practices using the method such as drip pricing, reference pricing, the use of the word 'free', bait pricing, complex pricing, and time limited offers. However, pricing practices sometimes less effective in conditions where consumers are readily able making memory based on price comparisons, or have quick and easy access to price information.

According to Bouchaud (2009), his focus on consumers which are the end users of goods and services while a group of customers who purchase goods for inputs example organizations and businesses are referred to as customers. He defined the pricing factor as a fall in the price of a product will result in an increase in the quantity of a product purchased, however this depends on the price elasticity of a product. If a product price is elastic and this means that the price elasticity of the good is more than one, then the product demand will rise at a greater proportion than the rise in price. If the price elasticity of a product is less than one then the demand for the product will not rise at a greater proportion than the price. Future expectations about changes in prices will also influence the buying decisions of consumers, if consumers expect a rise in price in the future for a certain product then they will tend to purchase that good in large quantities to avoid the high prices of the product in the future. Therefore the price of a product is a factor that influences the consumer buying decision.

2.5 RESEARCH FRAMEWORK

Brand

Promotion

Customer Services

Price

Factors Influencing Customer Purchase Decision of e -Xperience Apple Store at Taylor's University Lakeside Campus

Figure 3: The Research Framework of Factors Influencing customer purchase decision of the e-Xperience Apple Store at Taylor's University Lakeside Campus.

Factors driving consumer choices are very different from one product category to another (Godey B. et al, 2011). According to the research framework diagram above, it can be elaborated that potential independent variables namely, brand, promotion, customer services and price may influence the dependent variables of customer purchase decisions.

2.6 ACADEMIC CONSTRUCT

2.6.1 SWOT Analysis

One of the most useful and essential tools for any business, no matter what size is SWOT analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). SWOT analysis is a systematic and detailed examination of all internal and external factors that may affect business, at any specific point in time.

INTERNAL

Strengths

Weaknesses

Apple products have a strong brand image.

It has a very loyal set of enthusiastic customers that advocate the brand of Apple

Offers pricing and products to fit student Taylor's needs, be it for personal purchases or ordering on behalf of Taylor's Collage.

Able to make product recommendations and define limits on product configurations to ensure students, faculty, and staff are getting the right technology for their curriculum.

Provide the Apple Online Store for Education program which offers the convenience of 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week ordering to save school time and money.

A patent infringement lawsuit may affect financial condition and operating results

The price offer limited to student, faculty, and staff of Taylor's University only.

Secluded area

The store restricted to sell only Apple products or licensed by Apple Malaysia.

Any promotion and advertising are controlled by Apple Malaysia.

EXTERNAL

Opportunities

Threats

Sharply rising buyer demand for industry product.

Openings to exploit emerging new technologies due to constant growth of mobile and PC industry

Expanding into new geographic markets.

High product substitution effect in the innovative and fast moving IT consumables market.

Very high level of competition in the technology markets.

Shift in buyer needs and taste away from the industry's product.

It is an

SWOT analysis is an essential part of the current situation analysis and should provide the basis for strategy selection and development. SWOT analysis is an integral part of the marketing planning process. Without it, the planner has no real idea of what is happening in the industry/ market and which direction and activities the business needs to undertake to proceed to the optimal success (Xiaomin, 2000).

2.6.2 Ansoff's Matrix

Ansoff's matrix provides a very simple but very effective focus for considering different options for growth, and shows whether it is better to find new customers for existing products, offer more products to the existing consumer, or stay with existing products and attempt to gain a greater share of the market.

Market Penetration: Achieve maximum sales or profit using the business's current product range within the current markets.

Market Development: Increasing sales or profit potential by directing current products towards new markets of any segmentation description

Product Development: Increasing in sales or profit potential by developing new products, usually within the same broad product category, this should appeal to existing customers. New products developed outside the broad product category really fall into the realm of integrative and diversification growth.

Diversification Growth: Increasing sales or profit potential by creating new versions of existing products which can be targeted at new markets. This is a combined new product and new market strategy, and broadens the scope and potential of the business.

e-Xperience

Apple Store

Based on the current situation, e-Xperience Apple Store is parallel with the concept of market penetration which the business is trying to sell more of the same products to the same people. Therefore, e-Xperience Apple Store most suitable locating at the first quadrant. It is because e-Xperience Apple Store is aggressively seeking to increase their customer purchase decisions its existing products (Apple products such as iPhones, iPad, laptop and other accessories) in the existing market (students, lecturer and staffs in the Taylor University's Lakeside Campus). The alternative strategies developed from Ansoff's Matrix would be discussed in chapter 4.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.0 RESEARCH DESIGN

Figure 4: Research Design Framework

According to Sekaran (2003), the research design involves issues regarding the purpose of the study (exploratory, descriptive and quantitatively), its location (study setting), the type it should conform to (type of investigation), the extent to which it is operated and controlled by the researcher (extent of researcher interference), its temporal aspects (time horizon) and the level at which the data was analyzed (unit analysis). This section also covers the other aspects of measurement, data collection methods, sampling design, and data analysis.

RESEARCH DESIGN

3.1 Purpose of the study

This research was conducted to explore and determine factors that influence the customer purchase decision on an apple product at e-Xperience Apple Store, Taylor University's Lakeside Campus in Subang Jaya, Selangor. This research was done through conclusive study which the purpose is to explore the factors or variables related to the problem statement then conclude it the finding together with some recommendation. Before identifying the problem statement researchers had applied the observation method to identify the real problem associated. The preliminary data was done collected and gathering by interviewing the general manager of e-Xperience Apple Store.

3.2 Extent of Researcher Interference

The interference in this research is moderate especially in conducting an interview session with general manager of e-Xperience Apple Store and distributing questionnaires to the respondents.

3.3 Study Setting

There are two types of study setting which are contrived and non contrived. Non contrived study was done in this analysis which the research was done in the natural environment where works precedes normally. Correlation study basically was conducted in non contrived setting compared to causal study that was done in contrived lab setting.

3.4 Measure and Measurement: Questionnaire Design

Close end questionnaire was used in the study. The questionnaire consists of two sections: The first section is about gathering the respondent's demographic information of the target respondents that consists of six questions, that includes: gender, age, race, marital status, education level and scholarship/loan source of income. While the second section is on respondent's perception towards potential factors of customer purchase decision that are consist of 29 questions by using a 5-Likert scales. Value of 1 classified as strongly disagree, value 2 classified as disagree, value 3 classified as neither, value 4 classified as agreed and value 5 classified as strongly agree. This cut off point that was adapted for use in evaluating of findings. The questions in the questionnaires were constructed with reference various from a Journal of Marketing that related to the customer purchase decision.

3.5 Units of Analysis

In order to obtain data for the study, the unit of analysis involves are individuals and organizations. The study was focused on e-Xperience Sdn Bhd Apple store at Taylor`s Lakeside Campus in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

i) Individuals

Customers are the unit of analysis in this study. Customer purchase decision of e-Xperience Apple Store is basically related to customer who come the store and buys Apple products. Since the main target market of e-Xperience Apple Store is the student, therefore they are become our respondents that can help us in collecting data. 200 questionnaires in purposive sampling were distributed to identify the customer purchase decision of apple product among the customer of e-Xperience Apple Store.

ii) Organization

This research focused on e-Xperience Apple Store, therefore another type of unit analysis is the organization or the employees itself, including the manager. The interview session has been done by the general manager in order to gain a important information regarding e-Xperience Apple Store. Such information includes financial report, company report, and some problem faced by them.

3.6 Sampling Design

Figure 4: Stages in selection of a sample

Target population is students at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus due to the large population. The sampling frame of the study was the customers of e-Xperience Apple Store. The students are included post graduate and under graduate level. This sample method used in this study is non-probability sampling design which is a purposive sampling method. To follow the procedure to select a sample unit done by distributing personally the questionnaires to a total sample of all postgraduate and undergraduate students in Taylor University's Lakeside Campus. By using sampling, the researchers are able to draw the conclusion that was generalizable to the population of interest (Mark, 2007). The sample size of this study was around 667 respondents. In order to select actual sampling units, researchers decided to take about 30% of the sample size. Finally, researcher could conduct field work by distributing questionnaires to the 200 respondents in Taylor University's Lakeside Campus.

3.7 Times-Horizon

The study was done in cross-sectional studies. In this study, data were gathered once just once, most probably over a period of along two semesters at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus.

3.8 Data Collection Method

After the objectives of the research were determined, the next step is deciding on how to gather information about them. Data collection is the process of gathering as much information needed to start the research or to find the factors and variables to the problem. After all data had being collected, it was analyzed and evaluates to create solution to the problem. Basically, there are two main sources were used in this research which are primary and secondary data

Primary data

The primary data were obtained from interviews with apple store general managers and personal observations. The primary data were used to get an overview of this research problem statement, background of the company and application of academic construct tools. The primary data were obtained through observation, interview and questionnaires.

Observation

Unstructured observation was used for preliminary which is a nonparticipant observer technique. This method was done by sitting at the corner of apple store to observe all the activities at e-Xperience Apple Store for a period of time (once per week, start from April until June 2012). The behavior of the customers has been observed, whether they look comfortable once they enter into the store. Usually, there are many customers came to the store around 1.00 p.m. till 4.00 pm and from 7.00 to 9.00 pm. Some of the customers came to the shop to survey the products without buying anything but they show the intention to buy. The observation was also made to determine whether the staff of e-Xperience store entertain their customers or let the customer finds entertain themselves.

b) Interview

Structured interview was used to enhance the preliminary data in this study. All the questions for the interview have been prepared before start the conversation. Researchers are preferred to conduct a face-to-face interview. The advantage of face-to-face interview is able to clarify the respondents' action during the interview session. This interview was done by interviewing the general manager of e-Xperience Apple Store at Starbuck Coffee shop in Taylor University's Lakeside Campus. The interview session was completed in one and half an hour, start from 1.00 P.M until 2.30 P.M on 1st of May 2012. The overview picture of e-Xperience Apple Store business operation, sales pattern and service has been gathering.

Distributing questionnaires

Close ended questionnaire was used as a means of data collection. First, researchers administer the questionnaire to the sample of 200 respondents. The questionnaire to be used in this study based on previous study about consumer purchase decision and demographic sections designed by the researcher. In constructing the questionnaire, there are two types of scales that were used; nominal scale and interval scale. Scaling techniques that are used in the questionnaire are dichotomous for gender and other demographic profiles and 5-point Likert scale measurement of variables.

Secondary data

Secondary sources were providing a secondary data. Secondary data are information already created. It may be published or unpublished. Most of the data were collected from various journals. The journals can be found from the electronic library through websites such as Emerald insight, Ebscohost, Scopus, Science Direct and etc. Data and information available from the journals are related and relevant to the study. Most of them consist of Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing and Business. All of these resources were used for the purpose of gathering data and information.

3.9 Data Analysis

For this research, a statistical technique was used to analyze the data and achieve the research objectives as presented earlier section. The data were managed and analyzed in order to proceed to the next step. The data were processed first such as editing, coding and keying respondents' answers into the computer in order to analyze. The data collected from respondents was converted into useful information. The purpose for this step is to ensure the respondents must have correctly answered the questions in the questionnaires. All the data and information was processed through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).

Reliability Analysis: Cronbach's Alpha

Reliability analysis allows studying the properties of measurement scales and the items that compose the scales. Cronbach's alpha is a measure of internal consistency which is how closely related a set of items are as a group or one variable. A high value of alpha is often used (along with substantive arguments and possibly other statistical measures) as evidence that the items measure an underlying construct. The closer Cronbach's Alpha is to 1, the higher the internal consistency reliability.

Pearson Correlation Model

The Pearson correlation is a statistical technique that can show whether and how strongly pairs of variables are related. In this research, the researcher wants to investigate and find the correlation between independent and dependent variable. The analysis based on a rating which is high, moderate and low correlation based on the score computed.

Descriptive Statistic Model

The measurements used in this study are the mean and standard deviation. The mean is a measure of central tendency that offers a general picture of the data without unnecessarily inundating one with each of the observations in a data set. Meanwhile, standard deviation refers to a measure of dispersion for interval and ratio scaled data, offers an index of the spread of a distribution or the variability in the data (Sekaran & Bougie, 2009). The mean and standard deviation are the most common descriptive statistics for interval scaled data.

CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS

4.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter mainly presents and analyzes the results from survey questionnaires and interviews. The results in this study were divided into three main sections. Firstly, the demographic profiles of respondents are identified. The demographic profiles were gender, age, status, race, education level and scholarship/loan. This demographic profile is important in order to enhance the understanding about the background of the respondents. The study of customer purchase decision at the e - Xperience store was investigated by discussing the factors that influence purchase decision of customers, which include promotion, brand, customer service and pricing. Then, discussions of academic construct tools were presented.

4.1 DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS OF RESPONDENTS

The demographic details for each respondent were summarized in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Demographic Details of Respondents

DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS

FREQUENCIES

PERCENTAGE (%)

Gender

Male

Female

72

108

40

60

Age

17 - 20 years old

21 - 24 years old

25 - 29 years old

30 and above

32

78

63

7

17.8

43.3

35

3.9

Race

Malay

Chinese

Indian

Others

69

76

32

3

38.3

42.2

17.8

1.7

Marital Status

Single

Married

157

23

87.2

12.8

Educational Level

Foundation

Diploma

Bachelor

Professional

20

57

98

5

11.1

31.7

54.4

2.8

Scholarship/Loan

RM 500 - RM 999

RM 1000 - RM 1999

RM 2000 and above

116

29

35

64.4

16.1

19.4

From table 4.1, there are the details of demographic of respondents that include gender, age, status, race, education level and scholarship/loan. It could be seen that, the majority of the respondents were female (108, 60%) and only 72 (40%) were male. The result showed an obvious gender imbalance in education institution especially in Taylor University. For age of the respondents, the highest respondents were from 21 to 24 years old (78, 43.3%), followed by respondents from 25 to 29 years old (63, 35%). However, lower percentages of respondents were observed from 17 to 20 years old (32, 17.8%) and above 30 years old (7, 3.9%).

The table also shows that most of respondents were Chinese (76, 42.2%) compared to Malay respondents (69, 38.3%), Indian respondents (32, 17.8%) and others (3, 1.7%) that is includes foreigner students. It could be inferred that there were more Chinese students than students from other races who were always come to e-Xperience store in Taylor University.Most of the respondents were single (157, 87.2%) compare to those who married with only 23 (12.8%).

Besides that, educational levels also play an important role to distinguish level of knowledge among customers of the e-Xperience store at Taylor University. There were four divisions of educational levels, which were foundation, diploma, degree and professional. It also reveals that the highest respondents were bachelor students (98, 54.4%) and the lowest respondents were from professional level (5, 2.8%).

On the other hand, it could be seen clearly that the highest respondents (116, 64.4%) were those who have pocket money starting at RM500 until RM999. There are 35 respondents (19.4%) who had the amount of pocket money of RM2, 000 and above and only 29 respondents (16.1%) had the amount of pocket money around RM1, 000 until RM1, 999.

4.2 RESULTS OF PEARSON CORRELATION MODEL

Table 4.2: Correlation of Promotion and Customer Purchase Decision

PROMOTION

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION

PROMOTION

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1

180

0.087

0.037

180

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

0.087

0.037

180

1

180

Table 4.2 indicated that the strength of association with variables was very low (r= 0.087) and it showed the promotions that were performed by the e-Xperience store were not strongly influence the customer purchase decisions. The correlation was significant with the value of 0.037 since the value of significant is less than 0.05.

Table 4.3: Correlation of Brand and Customer Purchase Decision

BRAND

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION

BRAND

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1

180

0.462

0.029

180

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

0.462

0.029

180

1

180

*. Correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 4.3 showed the results of findings. It was observed that the strength of association with variables was moderate (r= 0.462) and it indicated the brand image of Apple products might influence the customer purchase decision. The correlation coefficient was significant with the value of 0.029. It was suggested that the customer purchase decision was highly affected by the Apple brand image.

Table 4.4: Correlation of Price and Customer Purchase Decision

PRICE

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION

PRICE

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1

180

0.516

0.004

180

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

0.516

0.004

180

1

180

The results of the findings were illustrated in Table 4.4. It was shown that the strength of association with variables were moderate (r=0.516) and it suggested the price of Apple products that influences the customer purchase decision. The correlation coefficient was significant with the value of 0.004. In other words, the price had a great impact in influencing the customer purchase decision.

Table 4.5: Correlation of Customer Services and Customer Purchase Decision

CUSTOMER SERVICE

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1

180

0.021

0.048

180

CUSTOMER PURCHASE DECISION Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

0.021

0.048

180

1

180

The results of the findings were illustrated in Table 4.5. It was observed that the strength of association with variables was low (r= 0.021) and it showed the customer service by the e-Xperience store not influence the customer purchase decision. The correlation coefficient was significant with the value of 0.048. This indicated that the quality of customer services had a slight significant relationship to the customer purchase decision.

4.3 RESULTS OF DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC

Table 4.6: Results of Means and Standard Deviation

Variables

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Standard

Deviation

Promotion

180

2.00

4.00

3.1870

0.37440

Brand

180

3.43

5.00

4.3111

0.36434

Customer Service

180

2.00

4.12

3.1764

0.34500

Price

180

3.62

4.62

4.0493

0.19709

Table 4.6 showed descriptive statistics reflecting the total mean scores and standard deviations of the customer purchase decision of the e-Xperience Apple store. Promotion comprised of 6 items had a mean of 3.1870 (s=0.3744), brand comprised of 7 items had a mean of 4.3111 (s=0.36434) while customer service comprised of 8 items had a mean of 3.1764(s=0.345) and price comprised of 8 items had a mean of 3.1764 (s=0.19709).

Analysis: Based on the findings above, the brand variable indicated the highest mean value. Then, followed by price, promotion and also a customer service variable that indicated the lowest mean value. Most of respondents gave a positive answer for the brand and price variable since their minimum value is 3.43 and 3.62, which was higher than 3 values.

4.4 RESULT OF CRONBACH'S ALPHA

Table 4.7: Dependant Variable (Customer Purchase Decision)

VARIABLES

NO OF ITEMS

CRONBACH'S ALPHA

Customer Purchase Decision

6

0.708

Table 4.7: Independent Variable

VARIABLES

NO OF ITEMS

CRONBACH'S ALPHA

Price

8

0.708

Brand

7

0.708

Promotion

6

0.709

Customer Service

8

0.714

According to Sekaran (2003), the Cronbach's Alpha Range from 0.7 until 0.8 was acceptable. The alpha coefficients for all the variables were above 0.7, suggesting that all the variables have relatively high internal consistency and reliability. In short, this study showed an acceptable reliability for the questionnaires.

4.5 DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS

This section of this study was to discuss and analyze how the promotion, customer services, brand and price influence the customer purchase decisions of e-Xperience Apple Store at Taylor University.

According to Pearson correlation results, all the variables are significant. The purpose of using Pearson correlation is to measure the degree of association between two interval level variables. From the results, only price and brands variables shows the strong relationship between variables. A business should attempt to consider of customer expectations about the price. Apple does not have to fear its product price and price that offered by their competitors because they use its dominant market position to enter the market.

From to the results, price is moderate (r=0. 516) and that relationship shows that price of Apple products will enhance their customer purchase decision. It's show that Apple as the tech industry's high-price leader and the customer willing to spend more to get an Apple product.

The best thing about Apple's success is that the due emphasis to the 'Apple' brand. Several technology companies have launched one or more successful product but they've failed to achieve in brand success. Therefore, according to the results, brand are moderate (r= 0.462) and that relationship shows that the brand image of Apple products will enhance their customer purchase decision. Most of Apple users may have rational expectations towards the Apple brand which concerning quality, values, reputation, service and competencies.

According to the promotions results, the strength of association with variables are very low (r= 0.087) and that relationship shows that promotions by e-Xperience store unrelated to enhance their customer purchase decisions. Apple has been more strictly enforcing its guidelines for promotions to indicate the company is tightening up control of its brand. When it comes to Apple products to do promotions, people are really excited because of their high price products. So, from the results show that promotions unrelated to influence customer purchase decisions, but based observation of the study and questionnaire from respondents, most of them needs and interested in advertisement by e-Xperience Apple store. It's show the importance of promotion activities from e-Xperience Apple store to promote their products and enhance their sales.

Based on the results, customer service indicated that the strength of association with variables are low (r= 0.021) and that relationship shows that customer service by e-Xperience store unrelated to enhance their customer purchase decision. It is the area where e-Xperience Apple Store can compete and they can develop a competitive advantage. Based on questionnaires, however most of the respondents disagree and dissatisfy with the customer services provided by e-Xperience Apple store. As a customer, they were dissatisfied when the worker unable to give full information related to the products. Based on the findings, it shows that the e - Xperience store should equip their employees with the skills and tactics they need to deal with changing customer demands. 

4.6 DISCUSSION AND SYNTHESIZING FINDINGS TO THE ACADEMIC CONSTRUCT

4.6.1 SWOT ANALYSIS

Figure 4.0: Strategies, matching strengths and weaknesses, converting weaknesses and threats

Based on SWOT analysis in the previous chapter, brand and price were part of the strengths of this company. Through the interview with General Manager, he also realized that their strengths were come from brand of Apple and prices. These factors then become a competitive advantage of the e - Xperience store since it was unique compared to the other Apple store outside the campus. These advantages contribute to the company in order to build their name in the Taylor's University Lakeside Campus. Furthermore, it was supported by the results of Pearson Correlation. Price and brand has strong relationship with the customer purchase decision. It is because e-Xperience store have strong brand image of Apple products and it offered a special prices to the students and staff of the campus.

However, the company itself did not realize that promotion and customer services are not satisfied by customers. Through the findings, most customers were disagreed about promotion and customer services conducted by e-Xperience. Customers prefer to come to the store if the store would improve on customer services and promotion. Therefore a study done by Nigel Piercy and William (1989) could be applied by e-Xperience store. The model suggests that the way businesses could use SWOT techniques in powerful form was summarized through customer oriented SWOT model shown in Figure 4.0.

When businesses were able to complete all four cells of the SWOT matrix, and businesses had ranked each item in each category in terms of importance, then the matrix acted automatically as a generator of strategies. All the strategies can be adopted through Ansoff's Matrix.

4.6.2 ANSOFF'S MATRIX

e-Xperience

Apple Store

Market penetration is designed to increase each individual product's sales. Therefore, the objective of a market penetration strategy would include; increasing current usage rates and attracting new customers either new adopters, brand switchers or competitors' customers.

The method to be used to achieve the objective of market penetration were focused on the customer services and promotion of the e - Xperience store. Based on the finding shows most respondents were disagreeing with e-Xperience's promotion and customer services. These weaknesses should improve immediately to able achieve on customer purchase decision. For examples, in term of promotion, e-Xperience store has to be more focus on promotion activities by hanging signs or posters at many places around the campus. The other alternative is dropping one another's flyer in customers' shopping bags. Besides that, e-Xperience store enhance promotion by launching buys one and gets one promotion strategy. e-Xperience store could promote customers come to the store by increase public relations activities. It could be a way of building a good image and reputation.

While in order to improve the customer services, it must start with the staff. The staff of e-Xperience store must know how to keep customers happy. The manager should have a key performance index (KPI) of each of her employees. Employees with a good KPI can be rewarded at the end of the month. Happy employees are just as important as happy customers. Happy employees help establish a repeat customer base. Besides that, manager should provide comprehensive training to each of the employees. They should be able to guess or identify the intention or the needs of the customers when they walk into the store. A good knowledge and information among the staff about the Apple products would help to attract people to buy. Therefore, staff of e-Xperience store must able to give full information and persuade customers to buy the products.

On the other hand, the e - Xperience store must listen to the customers first. Deeply understand about the customer complaints and ask what e-Xperience store can do to help them. Lastly, e-Xperience store must keep updating their website and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and others. Ensure that there is providing the latest information about e-Xperience Apple Store and it should be user-friendly. Besides that, the social network can be used to build a good relationship with the customers.

CHAPTER 5

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.0 Recommendation for company:

For the discussion of findings, there are several recommendations that should be implemented by e-Xperience store. No matter what area of business, once a shop unable to sustain customers than their business will eventually fail. That's why it is so important to improve their strategy in a way which will not only attract the demographic sought, but inspire the customers to come back again. Here are some recommendations that e-Xperience store can apply to ensure that they able to achieve the customer expectation that influence their purchase decision.

Promotion

Firstly, the e - Xperience store has to be more focus on promotion activities by hanging signs or posters at many places around the campus. The other alternative is dropping one another's flyer in customers' shopping bags. Besides, print promotional messages on the customer's receipts can be a smart choice to inform the customers about current promotion of.

Besides that, it is recommended to e-Xperience store for launching buys one and gets one promotion strategy. It can be a very effective way to create traffic. Even though the price of an Apple product is fixed, but the e - Xperience store can implement this strategy to the accessories of Apple for the price of the accessories are not controlled by Apple Malaysia. It certainly isn't a new idea and it can amount to price-cutting, but it's a popular approach in retailing and mostly because it works. Most consumers don't see this as buying two items at half-price. Instead, their perception is that they bought one at regular price and then, generously, gave them another. e-Xperience store might try a new variation like a Voir Sale (Buy Two, Get One Free or "Buy One, Get One at Half Price" and so on just to be different.

On the other hand, the e - Xperience store could promote customers come to the store by increase public relations activities. It could be a way of building a good image and reputation. There are lots of events in Taylor's University Lakeside campus such as sports day, orientation week, Merdeka celebration, festival celebration, and many more. The e - Xperience store should grab this opportunity to show the support to the Taylor's University Lakeside campus and build a good relationship with the campus. For example, the e - Xperience store may offer to sponsor mineral water during Sports Day and promote in all students and staffs come to the store.

ii) Customer Services

The key to improve customer service is it starts with the staff by motivating them. The staff of e-Xperience store must know why they want to keep customers happy and how to do it. While the manager should have a key performance index (KPI) of each of her employees. Employees with a good KPI can be rewarded at the end of the month. Happy employees are just as important as happy customers. Happy employees help establish a repeat customer base. Customers would happily when the staff can give a smile even they are buying nothing.

Besides that, manager should provide comprehensive training to each of the employees especially in term of empathy towards the customers. They should be able to guess or identify the intention or the needs of the customers when they walk into the store. A good knowledge and information among the staff about the Apple products would help to attract people to buy. It is because Apple brand is a popular brand and the price offered is quite expensive as compared to its competitors. It may take time for customers to make a decision to purchase. Therefore, staff of e-Xperience store must able to give full information and persuade customers to buy the products.

On the other hand, in order to improve the customer service e-Xperience store may learn to listen to the customers first. Really listen to customer complaints and ask what e-Xperience store can do to help them. A complaint is any measure of dissatisfaction with the product or service, even if it's unfair, untrue, or painful to hear. The e - Xperience store should collect and report complaints. All this input should funnel to one place where the company objective is to build a valid database of complaints. To accomplish this mission, the company can use the database of complaints to define processes that are important from the customer's perspective and to improve the most critical ones. Based on analysis of the database, make appropriate investments to prevent issues that result in customer complaints. Look for permanent improvements to response time, cycle time, internal processes related to the complaints, and complaint frequency.

Lastly, e-Xperience store must keep updating their website and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and others. Ensure that there is providing the latest information about e-Xperience Apple Store and it should be user-friendly. Besides that, the social network can be used to build a good relationship with the customers. It can use as medium to build an interaction with customers and keep informing them on what is going in the e-Xperience store. It also can be used to help any problem faced by customers and they can get solution immediately. Besides that, the e - Xperience store must provide them with some tips on how to keep the Apple products safely. Thus, the customers would feel appreciated and proud to be one of the customers of Apple.

5.1 Recommendation for future researcher.

It seems very important for the Malaysian researcher to conduct further investigation to identify whether there are other significant factors that can contribute to this study. Accordingly, entrepreneurs may gain by exploiting information contained in this study for business decisions.

May be the further investigation can try the other relevant variables and test them using the other methodology such as a vector error correction model, autoregressive distributed lag mode and others. In order to obtain the variety of results, the study can be done in different Apple stores which not only focus on internal factors but also external factors where the study is beyond the Malaysian scope. On the other hand, the data collection should be longer and larger size of the sample so that the study can be more accurate and reliable. It is because the wider scope of the study will provide more information and will add more existing knowledge about this issue; which it will be useful for the other researchers.

5.2 Conclusion

Based on the findings of the study, there are four variables identified that include price, brand, customer service and promotion that influence customer purchase decisions at e-Xperience store at Taylor University's Lakeside Campus. It can be seen from the results of Pearson Correlation. The results show that all the variables are significant to the customer purchase decision. Furthermore, it was supported by Cronbach's Alpha test. Through reliability analysis, it indicates that all the variables are above 0.7. According to Sekaran (2003), Cronbach's Alpha Range from 0.7 until 0.8 was acceptable. It means that all the variables have relatively high internal consistency and reliability. This study shows that an acceptable reliability for the questionnaires. Thus, it explains to the first research objective of the study.

Among the four variables, prices and brand show strong relationship with the customer purchase decision. It can be seen through the results of Pearson Correlation. Furthermore, the study indicates that prices and brand part of strength of the e - Xperience store through its SWOT analysis. These factors then become the competitive advantage of the company. The e - Xperience store is unique compared to the other Apple store around the market. It gives advantages to the company to build their name in the Taylor's University Lakeside Campus since they have a strong brand image and they offer a special prices to the students and staff of the campus. Thus, SWOT analysis explains to the second research objective of the study.

According to discussion of Ansoff's Matrix, e-Xperience store