Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Buying Behavior

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business Research
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1BUSINESS RESEARCH
Table of Contents
Research problem............................................................................................................................2
Research questions...........................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Social media marketing...............................................................................................................4
Difference between social media marketing and traditional marketing......................................4
Consumer buying behavior..........................................................................................................5
Steps of consumer buying behavior.............................................................................................5
Theory and models of consumer buying behavior......................................................................7
Theory of reasoned action.......................................................................................................7
The Bettman information processing model............................................................................7
The Engel, Blackwell, Miniard model.....................................................................................8
Impact of social media marketing on consumer buying behavior...............................................8
Methodology....................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................12

2BUSINESS RESEARCH
Research problem
Since the emergence and increased popularity of social media over the years, business
organizations have taken the help of this platform for reaching and influencing the behavior of
the consumers. The global connectivity, easy access to consumer information, cost-effectiveness
and uninterrupted communications make social media marketing more preferable compared to
traditional marketing (Karimi & Naghibi 2015, p. 86). However, the challenges it imposes
cannot be left unattended.
In this modern era, consumers are still there who hardly use social media platforms in
their daily lives. Hence, it has become a matter of concern for business corporations because
relying on social media marketing solely prohibits their ability to reach and communicate with
that section of population (Hofacker & Belanche 2016, p.75). There are still places in the world
where internet facility is inappropriate as well as customers those are not friendly and
comfortable in using social media platforms. Thus, business corporations restrict them if they
solely rely on social media marketing.
Apart from the above problem, another issue of using social media marketing in
influencing consumer buying behavior is the transparency of the virtual platforms. According to
Keegan and Rowley (2017, p. 20), a customer decides to buy by listening to the experience of
another customer. Positive word-of-mouth triggers the purchasing decision among customers.
Having said that, the negative comments and feedbacks posted by the consumers about the
product or service of the business corporations imposes severe negative consequences. As the
feedback posted on the official page is visible by other users in social media, their purchasing
decision is affected negatively, as they tend to consider the views and opinions of other

3BUSINESS RESEARCH
customers who have used the products. Hence, even a single negative feedback in social media
platforms negatively influences the consumer buying behavior.
The social media platforms have billions of active users that make targeting consumers
difficult. If the individual characteristics of the customers are to be considered, it differs from
customer to customer. Another problem or challenge that business corporations face is to
understand which kind of marketing or advertisement campaigns are more likely to appeal the
customers (Sloane et al. 2015, p. 915). If the marketing campaign developed for the target
audience fails to impress them, the consequences are severe in respect to customer, business and
profit and revenue growth. Hence, the ultimate purpose of influencing the consumer buying
behavior by using social media marketing for the business corporations remains unfulfilled.
Research questions
The questions of the research are:
1. What are the benefits offered by the usage of social media marketing to the business
corporations?
2. How social media marketing is more effective in nature in comparison to the traditional
media strategies used by the business corporations?
3. How the business corporations can influence the buying behavior of the customers
through the usage of social media marketing?
4. What are the ways through which the business corporations can effectively use social
media for marketing or promoting the commodities offered by them?