A study on the need and motivations of young consumers' mobile phone usage

ŞENER, Zehra Işıl. A Study on the Need and Motivations of Young Consumers? Mobile Phone Usage, Thesis for Master?s Degree, Ankara 2011This research was planned and carried out to gather information on young consumers? mobile phone usage in Ankara, to study their need and motivation towards using a mobile phone. In order to do so, among 335 young consumers, who study at different middle or high schools from different socio-economic levels; 206 going to middle school and 129 to high school, 303 of them who own a mobile phone are this research?s environment.Questionnaire method was used to gather the research materials. Answers given to Likert-type sentences were graded, to check the structure validity the ?Principle Component Analysis?, which is a factor analysis method was carried out, and for the reliability of the questionnaire the ?Cronbach Alpha?, which is an internal consistency measure, was calculated.In order to determine the ways of young consumers using their mobile phones, by considering the age and gender variables, a chi-square analysis was carried out; to determine the need and motivation of young consumers using their mobile phones a T-test was carried out to specify the variables depending on age and gender.The chi-square analysis results show that young consumers owning a mobile phone (p<0.01) and the length of time using a mobile phone (p<0.05) vary according to the age variable. How young consumers feel when they forget to bring their mobile phone with them (p<0.001) and the behaviours they would display (p<0.05) vary according to the gender variable.According to the T-test results; depending on the age variable it was observed that young consumers feel the following when using their mobile phones; original (p<0.001), careful (p<0.001), energetic (p<0.001), self-confident (p<0.005), focus on people (p<0.05), calm (p<0.001), free (p<0.001), adroit (p<0.05), safe when with their mobile phone (p<0.05), seeing their mobile phone as their friend (p<0.001), popular when they have a mobile phone (p<0.001), cool (p<0.001), bad when they do not have a mobile phone (p<0.01), valuable by friends when having a mobile phone (p<0.001), having a mobile phone means having a lot of friends (p<0.01), having a mobile phone while their friends also have one is important (p<0.001), one not having a mobile phone makes himself feel bad (p<0.001), making new friends because of their mobile phones (p<0.01), drawing attention via their mobile phone (p<0.05), liking the fact that they have a mobile phone (p<0.001), lonelier when not having a mobile phone (p<0.01), the function and quality of the mobile phone being important (p<0.05), thinking that good mobile phones are always expensive (p<0.01), their mobile phone being nice and cool is important (p<0.01), and using the mobile phone to talk with family (p<0.05). Depending on the gender variable it was observed that young consumers are the following when using their mobile phones; social (p<0.01), fast (p<0.001), chatterer (p<0.05), communicative (p<0.01), talking with friends when having problems (p<0.01), talking about school (p<0.001), giving bad news (p<0.001), listening to friends? problems (p<0.001), feeling safe when having a mobile phone (p<0.001), seeing their mobile phone as their friend (p<0.05), liking the fact that they have a mobile phone (p<0.001), and making plans with friends more easily with their mobile phones (p<0.05).Key words: Young consumers, mobile phone, motivation, need, identity.