Factors affecting customer brand switching in Pakistani Cellular Service Industry

Abstract

This research project focused on two important factors influencing brand-switching in cellular service industry, namely advertising and switching cost. Survey questionnaire was applied to study the attitudes and behavior of different age groups of customers in the twin cities. The sample size was one hundred. The findings show that advertising is positively related to brand-switching and switching cost has an inverse relationship with brand switching. However, the effects of these two variables on brand-switching may vary accordingly with the frequency of switching decision, the level of monthly expenditure, brand consideration and customers’ level of satisfaction with the current service. Research shows that majority of the male and female respondents thought that switching cellular network in Pakistan is not difficult. The majority of the respondents has rarely or never switched but at the same time thinks that switching in Pakistan is easy. This indicates that the low switching cost does not necessitate that users will switch their service provider every now and then. Similarly, the majority gives weight to the advertisement but this does not necessitate that advertisement will make them easily switch their current service provider.