Mobile phone recycler wants to understand the importance of brand versus price

Challenge

A national mobile phone recycling and refurbishing company wanted to understand which brands had the most brand equity and commanded the most trust in the mobile phone recycling space. The goal was to not only understand their own brand equity as a market leader but to evaluate the intangible value of a competitor brand they were considering acquiring.

Action

The sample for this study was a mix of customers who had recycled a phone in the past year and customers who said they would be doing so in the coming year.  The study looked at customers' unaided and aided brand awareness of mobile phone recycling brands and perceptions around ease of use, service, trustworthiness, and overall value for each brand. Discrete choice analysis was used to uncover the relative importance customers placed on price, convenience, shipping, and brand in deciding which brand to use.

Result

Results suggested that price was the dominant determinant of where customers chose to recycle their phones. While brand was important for mobile phone recyclers, the value of the brand equity in the company targeted for acquisition did not match its selling price. The findings allowed the focal brand to restructure the terms of their acquisition offer and save millions of dollars paying for equity that didn't exist.