Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Buying Behaviour of Marks and Spencer

UNIT 6 MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT
‘IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR
OF MARKS AND SPENCER’
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................4
LO1-PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN......................................................................5
PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES......................................................................5
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN COVERING THE ASPECTS OF COST,
SCOPE, TIME, QUALITY, COMMUNICATION, RISK AND RESOURCES............6
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE AND GANTT CHART TO RENDER
TIMEFRAMES AND STAGES FOR COMPLETION..............................................10
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE................................................................10
RESEARCH METHOD.......................................................................................12
GANTT CHART................................................................................................. 12
PROJECT MILESTONES..................................................................................13
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN.........................................................................14
LO2-PROJECT LOG BOOK......................................................................................15
SMALL SCALE RESEARCH BY APPLYING QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE
RESEARCH METHODS TO MEET THE PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES. . .15
SECONDARY RESEARCH...............................................................................15
PRIMARY RESEARCH......................................................................................16
ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF RESEARCH METHODS USED...................16
ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF RESEARCH.............................................16
LO3- PERFORMANCE REVIEW..............................................................................17
ANALYSE RESEARCH AND DATA USING APPROPRIATE TOOLS AND
TECHNIQUES.......................................................................................................17
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS TO DRAW
OUT CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................18
LO4........................................................................................................................... 19
REFLECT ON THE VALUE OF UNDERTAKING THE RESEARCH TO MEET THE
OBJECTIVES AND OWN LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE.............................19
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EVALUATE THE VALUE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND USE
OF QUALITY RESEARCH TO MEET STATED OBJECTIVES AND SUPPORT
OWN LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE.............................................................21
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................... 22
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................23
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INTRODUCTION
In this world of digitalisation, the social media advent has been successful so far in
creating a new landscape which enhances the personal connections. The business
world, as a result, is gaining enormous opportunities with this growing trend by
attracting customers and influencing the consumer buying behaviour as a result.
Through the social media marketing, many businesses are transiting and are
influencing the intentions of the customers. The consumer decision process has
been impacted to a great extent due to the social media marketing (Baldwin, 2014).
Social media is an evolution that is based on the Web 2.0 that is boosting the user-
generated contents and is encouraging them to focus on exhibiting the content
sharing. Through the social media marketing, the traditional marketing approaches
have been drastically revolutionized the relationships that the marketers tend to
possess with the channels of distribution, consumers, retailers and others (Thorpe,
2011).
Marks and Spencer have hailed the social media which has contributed to the sales.
Marks and Spencer have recently redeveloped the websites that have led to the
incorporation of reviews and ratings. Marks and Spencer use many social media
platforms for marketing purposes that include, Facebook for enhancing the
community relationships, Twitter for promotions, Google+ to promote a brand
through various apps, Instagram to engage customers and many more. Thus Marks
and Spencer have been successfully using the social media to gain customer
engagement and polishing its brand so as to build community relationships in an
effective manner through both online and physical channels (Baldwin, 2014).
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LO1-PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
As a business researcher of Marks and Spencer, the focus will be laid on the
successful implementation of the business project undertaken by devising out the
effective aims and objectives for M&S to effectively apply digital transformation for
the benefit of the organisation.
Aim
The main aim of this business project is to analyse the impact of the social media
marketing on the consumer buying behaviour of Marks and Spencer.
Objectives
In order to attain the devised aim of the project undertaken the following objectives
are laid out:
 To identify the factors affecting consumer buying behaviour of Marks and
Spencer
 To identify the differences in consumer buying behaviour through social media
marketing and traditional marketing (Thorpe, 2011).
 To discover the changes that social media brings to consumers in their
decision-making process
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN COVERING THE ASPECTS OF COST, SCOPE,
TIME, QUALITY, COMMUNICATION, RISK AND RESOURCES
A project management plan will be framed for Marks and Spencer that will involve
planning for different aspects of the business project undertaken and will help to
integrate all in one single plan.
PROJECT SCOPE (INCLUDED SCOPE)
The project scope undertaken for this business project by M&S will involve the
consumer buying behaviour that gets influenced due to the social media marketing.
The use of the social media platforms by M&S will be considered under this research
that is used for marketing activities and thus the findings will be drawn on how
effectively the social media marketing helps to alter the consumer buying behaviour
(Thorpe, 2011).
The project scope of Marks and Spencer thus will include the local consumers of
M&S that get influenced through the marketing activities of social media platforms
and this will be conducted by carrying out a survey with the help of focus group
questionnaire.
PROJECT SCOPE (EXCLUDED SCOPE)
This project will not include the use of other digital media platforms for marketing
activities and it will only consider the social media platforms that influence the
consumer buying behaviour of the consumers of M&S (Baldwin, 2014).
KEY DELIVERABLES:
The key deliverables of this project will be the factors that influence the consumer
buying behaviour of M&S with reference to the use of the social media platforms by
the consumers. The marketing activities carried on these platforms will be also
delivered through this project that is successful in attracting more consumer base for
M&S (Baldwin, 2014).
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