A study on factors influencing young consumers’ smartphone brand preference in Erzurum, Turkey

Young consumers are the most important users of advanced information and communication technologies among others. Particularly, since the gradually increasing smartphone use among young consumers is taken into consideration, an empirical evidence about their purchase behavior in terms of brand perception may contribute to the existing marketing literature. For this purpose, the main objective of this paper is to determine factors that may possibly contribute to young consumers’ smartphone brand preference in a developing country with a particular emphasis on undergraduate students in Turkey. A written-questionnaire is conducted among 1,135 undergraduate students at a well-established university in Turkey. The dependent variable of this study is smartphone brand with a four-category. The data are analyzed using a multinomial logit model due to the unordered nature of the dependent variable. Estimation results suggest 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. The outcome of this relatively comprehensive study may provide a successful guidance for future marketing strategies and policies.