Role of Social Media in Marketing Activities of UK Retail Organizations: A Study on TESCO

Dissertation
Social media in UK

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketing is represented to be an utmost agenda of the establishments as a way of raising
the sales of their proposed goods and services to the users. It is where marketing is referred to be
one of the most wide ranging activity of an enterprise and thus requires an abiding support of
their affiliated stakeholders. The present research work is carried to critically analyse the role of
social media in marketing activities of UK based retail organizations with a special context of
TESCO. It is together in support of certain research based objectives for a systematic
achievement of its intended aim. Social media has reflected to be one of those progressive tools
to successfully market the products and services of an organization. It is basically to fetch a
liable interest of more number of clients and users with such a progressive tool of marketing.
Further, the discussion on the effectiveness of social media tool for conducting marketing
activities has been done. Social media marketing helps organization in carrying out business
marketing activities in an effective manner. Further through the help of this the organization can
make aware to its customer about the product and services which they are selling in market.
social media tools are playing a significant role in the communication strategies of several retail
based organisations of UK that mostly involves certain renowned firms like TESCO and several
others. It is basically in support of today's modern technical era where social media tools are
largely used as a pivotal mean for enhancing the level of sales by together meeting their targeted
expectations. A foremost objective of this research work was to scrutinize the elementary
concept of social media in the retail based organisations of UK. In whose context, social media is
referred to be the most considerate technique used in the activities practised by the firms to
market their proposed goods and services.

TABLE OF CONTENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................4
1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................4
1.2 Aim and objectives...........................................................................................................4
1.3 Theoretical Framework....................................................................................................5
Significance of the research study..........................................................................................6
Structure of the dissertation....................................................................................................6
1.4 Rationale of the study.......................................................................................................7
CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................1
2.1 Literature Review Introduction........................................................................................1
2.2 Concept of social media in retail industry of UK.............................................................1
2.3 Effectiveness of social media tools for conducting marketing activities.........................4
2.4 Tools of social media that are commonly used by the retail organizations to carry out their
marketing activities................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 3 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES.........................................................................1
3.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................1
3.2 Choice of research design.................................................................................................1
3.3 Construction of the method..............................................................................................3
3.4 Sampling...........................................................................................................................5
3.5 Ethical consideration........................................................................................................8
3.6 Research limitation...........................................................................................................9
3.7 Validity and Reliability....................................................................................................9

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS...................................................................10
4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................10
4.2 Secondary Research Findings and Analysis...................................................................10
CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS....................................................1
5.1 Conclusion........................................................................................................................1
5.2 Recommendations............................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
A successful continuation of business is referred to be a foremost concern of almost all sorts of
organisations where it is simply irrespective of their size and nature of business operations.
Marketing with a similar context to it is represented to be an utmost agenda of the establishments
as a way of raising the sales of their proposed goods and services to the users. It is where
marketing is referred to be one of the widest ranging activity of an enterprise and thus requires
an abiding support of their affiliated stakeholders (Tuten and Solomon, 2014). Herein, the
customers are oriented to be at a foremost position and it is important for the organisations to
satisfy their factual needs and demands that often tends to change as per the prevailing trends of
the market. It is thus with a similar preposition of their marketing activities that are required to
be conducted by using some progressive tools and techniques. This study has been carried out to
identify such modernized tactics of marketing via some effective tools of social media as a way
of promoting the offered goods and services with a contemporary outlook. It has together
indicated a pivotal intent of the present secondary research work which is to vitally evaluate the
role of social media in the marketing activities of UK based retail organisations. Marketing plays
a significant role to make aware people about their products and services so that it can easily
enhance market share. Social media is also known as interactive web based application. Further
it is very supportive for an organisation to make proper communication with people. It can also
be used by an organisation so that company can easily identify the needs and wants of its
customer. Along with this, it can take feedback from its regular customer and can make changes
as per accordance to the needs of consumer. There are different social media marketing tools
which company can use in respect to reach its target audience. Some of the marketing tool such

as twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Further, Facebook is one of an active social media marketing
strategy which can be started by an organisation by creating a business page on Facebook. In
addition to this Twitter is the social media marketing tool which helps in broadcast updates at
web. On twitter, there are some mixed up and official related tweets such as discounts, exclusive
offer and new update which can easily grab the attention of substantial number of customer.
There are some essential elements of social media marketing strategy that is to find out business
goal, here it is important for an organisation to set business goal for each marketing strategy.
Further they also need to decide the way to use social media and its contribution to reach
customers. Further the organisation need to set marketing objectives. For instance, if one of the
main goal of company is to enhance sale then it need to first decide percent of sale which
company want to achieve in specific period. Further organisation need to identify its ideal
customers to whom it wants to sale its product and services. The customer can be targeted based
on income, gender and age. There are different social media platform which company can used
to target its customer. Here it need to find out which platform is best for an organisation to
increase sale and profit. Social media marketers can use different social networking sites to raise
visibility on the internet and for promoting products and services. By making a social media site,
an organisation can easily build social network where it can exchange knowledge and ideas
related to product and services. Through the help of social networking sites, company can keep
regular communication with its customers and can make changes in its product and deliver
services as per the requirements. Company can paste effective content related to product and
services on its social site to grab attention of substantial number of customers. There are different
tools and techniques which company can use for measuring the negative and positive feedback of

its customers. Social media marketing plays multiple role for an organisation such as it assists in
making good image in front of its customer, increase sale and profit etc.
Company overview
TESCO is one of the most renowned retail organisations of UK that is successfully operating
since last 98 years. It is a public limited company that is currently headquartered in Hertfordshire
area of England, UK (Kumar, V., Bhaskaran, Mirchandani and Shah, 2013). Also, this venture is
located at varied locations of the world with total 6902 number of stores. On whose basis, its
annual revenue in the year 2016 was enumerated to be £54.433 billion with nearly 476, 000
employees in total. Being a giant retailer, Tesco is required to keep abreast with its competitors
in order to survive as well as conquer the market. For this, it is necessary for the firm to analyse
the trends and adopt the same for building its image within the industry. Social media is the latest
trend in every industry including retail. Therefore, Tesco has taken sufficient steps to utilize
social media sites for connecting with its customers on a better level. However, it is also
important for the chosen firm to study the impact that social media has had on its marketing
activities. This is required for making improvements in the existing marketing strategies for
generating positive results for the organization. The present research focuses on this aspect and
explores the role of social media in marketing activities of Tesco.
1.2 Aim and objectives
The present research work is carried based on an intended goal that is “To critically analyze the
role of social media in marketing activities of UK based retail organizations- A study on
TESCO”. It is further accompanied by several numbers of objectives to provide a guiding base to
carry out the secondary research work in a succeeding direction.

1. To evaluate the concept of social media in retail industrial sector of UK with a special
context of TESCO as one of the most renowned retail based organisation of UK.
2. To determine the effectiveness of social media tools for conducting the marketing
activities of TESCO.
3. To identify the tools of social media that is commonly used by the TESCO to carry out
their marketing activities.
4. To recommend certain effective strategies of social media marketing that can be adopted
by TESCO.
1.3 Theoretical Framework