Impact of Social Media on Consumer Behaviour

This research proposal focuses on understanding how social media influences consumer behavior and purchase patterns. It explores the significance of social media, different tools used by consumers, and the impact on decision-making processes.

Consumer Behaviour Research Proposal
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the research project...........................................................................................3
1.3 Research aims............................................................................................................................3
1.4 Research Objectives...................................................................................................................4
1.5 Research Questions....................................................................................................................4
1.6 Significance of Research...........................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................5
2.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Concept of social media.............................................................................................................5
2.2 Concept of consumer behaviour................................................................................................5
2.3 Traditional marketing method versus digital marketing method...............................................5
2.4 Social media platforms and their suitability for business..........................................................6
2.5 Impact of Social media on the decision-making process...........................................................6
2.6 Literature Gap............................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3: Methodology..................................................................................................................8
3.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................8
3.2 Research Philosophy..................................................................................................................8
3.3 Research Approach....................................................................................................................9
3.4 Sampling techniques..................................................................................................................9
3.4 Data Analysis Methods..............................................................................................................9
3.5 Ethical Considerations...............................................................................................................9
3.7 Research limitation....................................................................................................................9
3.6 Research Timeline...................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Social media is one of the most important variables in the decisions that a business makes. It is
extremely valuable as it raises brand awareness, website traffic and consumer engagement. This
medium allows the consumer to understand about the product, learn about the company’s values
and enables to act in very specific ways, which may be positive for the business owners. This
study will focus on different consumers of different ages and demographics and how they use
social media and how this affects their consumption and purchase patterns.
1.1 Background of the research project
The internet has made people more connected in this world. This constitutes of one of the most
important strategies for a businesses over the world. Most consumers now spend their time on
social networking sites and this ensure that they are able to keep up to date with the latest
products and the offerings of companies the world over. Organisations have been able to use this
as a marketing tool that can help them gain any types of advantages as they conduct their market
activities.
Internet connectivity has also made computer very prevalent in the lives of consumers. Internet
users have grown from 57 per cent in 2006 to 90 per cent in 2017 and have ensured that the
internet is one of the most important platforms for consumers to find shopping options for them.
Thus, organisations must be able to use effectively social media patterns to advertise and re-
advertise to potential and existing clientele, while ensuring that growth prospects are maintained
and market shares are increased accordingly.
1.3 Research aims
This research aims to understand the ways in which consumers are influenced by social media
when making any types of purchases. Organisations will be able to use these strategies to
implement marketing strategies that can be used to effect business in the most positive manner.
Organisations will be able to use this research to understand how they can acquire customers and
ensure that these customers are held on to.
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1.4 Research Objectives
The main objectives of this research are as follows:
 To understand the different social media tools that consumers are using to explore offers
provided by business organisations
 To understand the different ways in which consumers use these tools to gather the
information that they will make use of during any purchases that they make
 To understand the difference between traditional marketing method and digital marketing
methods
 To identify how organisations can use the same to make marketing strategies to
implement better business processes
1.5 Research Questions
1. What are the different social media tools used by consumers?
2. How do consumers use social media to gather information?
3. What is the difference between traditional marketing and digital/online marketing?
4. How can organisations use this information to make better business strategies?
1.6 Significance of Research
This is an extremely significant bit of research as it provides an understanding of the
contemporary market situations and the different ways in which the consumers are engaging with
content. This research is also significant as marketers and organisations can understand how to
strategize as per the required market situations to increase profitability.
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.0 Introduction
In the current chapter, the researcher will offer different literatures that have been discussed on
the topic earlier. Additionally, the chapter will also be focusing on the concept of the different
parameters of the topic. The chapter will offer secondary data, which has been collected for
gaining an in-depth understanding of the topic so that the research can be conducted effectively.
2.1 Concept of social media
The term “social media” has been referred to as the collection of online communication channels
that are committed towards input given by the community, sharing of content, interaction and
cooperation. In other words, (Goh et al., 2013) has described “social media” as a series of
applications and websites that offer individuals to share content in a fast, real-time and efficient
manner.
2.2 Concept of consumer behaviour
As mentioned by (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016), the term “consumer behaviour” has been
defined as the study of an individual person or a group of people or an association and the
activities related with their act of purchasing, using and disposing of products and services. It
also takes into consideration the emotional, behavioural and mental response of the consumers
before and after these activities. On the other hand, in the words of (Gensler et al., 2013),
“consumer behaviour” studies the manner in which individuals and their decision making
process regarding the buying, wanting, needing and performing with respect to a product,
company or service (Solomon et al., 2012).
2.3 Traditional marketing method versus digital marketing method
(Rapp et al., 2013) have focused on the difference between traditional marketing and digital
marketing methods, so that the role of social media in the current business world and reason
behind its success can be identified. Traditional marketing is done through use of tangible items
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like print ads, business cards, posters, TV commercials, radio advertisement, brochures and
billboards. Alternatively, digital marketing is performed through use of advanced technology
through websites, YouTube advertisements, banner advertisements and other forms on online
marketing like advertising social media platforms like Facebook (Salehi et al., 2012). The main
advantage of traditional marketing is that it offers longevity and consumers are more accustomed
to advertisements on newspapers, billboards and magazines. On the other hand, as (Luo and
Zhang, 2013) mentions, digital marketing is beneficial as the effectiveness of the marketing
activities can be easily measured and digital campaigns have the power to reach large scale
audience. It is highly interactive and involves direct contact with the consumer as well, thereby
helps business in collecting valuable feedback. The core disadvantage of traditional marketing is
that it is comparatively more costly and is highly static. On the other hand, digital marketing is
measuring the success of social campaigns is highly time consuming.
2.4 Social media platforms and their suitability for business
The different social media platforms serve different purposes and effective utilisation of these
platforms helps the companies in acquiring customer loyalty, brand loyalty, customer
satisfaction, thereby an increase in their sales. According to (Ioanăs and Stoica, 2014), the social
media application Snapchat is used by 60% individuals falling under the age of 24. In addition
to this, approximately 100 million consumers are spending 30 minutes for using the content
offered by it. As a result businesses that capitalise on it by creating unique videos or releasing
video clips on behind the scenes. In case of Facebook, the Americans lying in the age group of
25-54 use 29-32 per cent of the platform. Only 9% of the users belong to the age category of 18-
24. Hence, the companies that are focusing on consumers below 24 years should prefer creating
a company page or can avoid investing on Facebook, whereas company focusing on age group
above 24, Facebook would prove to be a highly valuable platform. Instagram is used by 500
million individuals, among which 59% have the habit to check the application on a daily basis.
This platform can be used by companies as a tool for brand building if the company has beautiful
pictures and videos to share.
2.5 Impact of Social media on the decision-making process
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As rightly mentioned by (Goh et al., 2013), the current business world is revolving around
customers, offering them high quality products and services, making the delighted, thereby
increasing their satisfaction level. The chief marketing officers of the organisation have a belief
that social media has a direct impact on the brand awareness, brand loyalty and sales. As a
result of this confident belief, social media plays a role in their decisions regarding the forecasts
and predictions. As per the social media marketing report, the marketers are highly attracted to
social media, approximately 83%, who give it high value as they consider it as a medium for
their business. The preferences and decisions depend on factors like peer reviews, power of
online marketers, blogs, referrals, social networks and other mediums of user-generate content.
The reason behind consumer preferring social media as a source for decision making is that the
content offered by it is democratic and neutral in nature. Hence, the consumers refer to social
media for collecting the necessary information needed regarding the product or service and make
their decisions accordingly. The contents like reviews and those created by users like movie
ratings, music, books, have a high degree personal taste to it, hence affecting the purchase
decisions of the consumers. As pointed by (Ioanăs and Stoica, 2014), unlike traditional media,
social media interacts with the customers, creates consumer awareness and takes into
consideration various factors instead of provoking the customer to purchase the product based on
a general perspective. Based on the results of a research conducted by Google in the regions of
Germany, France, United Kingdom, US, Japan, Brazil and Canada, it was seen that various
channels of social media have a different impacts on the consumers at different areas. The result
pointed out that social media majorly plays the role of an assisting channel for generating
awareness and identifying the factors to be considered while taking the purchase decision.
2.6 Literature Gap
The gap in literature is that it does not fulfil the objectives of the research project. Despite the
fact that it has offered discussion on various elements of the topic, there are some areas which
have not been covered. This will affect the quality of the research.
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Chapter 3: Methodology
3.0 Introduction
Methodology is the backbone of the research proposal that helps researcher to identify the
importance of the research as well as conclude the research project as per the result in a
symmetric and synchronised manner. Research methodology guides the researchers to maintain
the quality as well as the validity of determined topic. Research methodology consists of various
part including research design, philosophy, research approach, sampling techniques and timeline.
3.1 Research Design
Research design makes the foundation of the research with different types demonstrating the
knowledge on the issues of the research project. These types are conclusive, descriptive,
exploratory design and explanatory design. In the proposed research, the method follows the
causal or explanatory design to make the method simpler. In causal or explanantory design, the
researcher will be able to consider all of the aspects of the research with the help of in-depth
analysis including the quantitative and qualitative data and finally establishes a cause and effect
relationship between the variables considered in the proposed research.
3.2 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy guides every action of the research for creating knowledge from the raw
data collected as building block of the research. The research philosophy, moreover, guides the
researcher and determines what ways the learner should follow in the process of conducting the
research project. It guides the researcher by explaining the aspect of the research by acquiring
feasible data in data collection method. There are two different types of research philosophy such
as epistemology or knowledge and ontology or reality. Phenomenology and axiology are the
other two aspect of any research philosophy. However, the research environment is thoroughly
dominated by Interpretavism, Realism and Positivism. With the help of the positivism, the
researcher will be able to derive and evaluate the raw data and facts available about research
topic in unbiased fashion and produce a scientific research result.
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3.3 Research Approach
Research approach helps to draw the lucid outline of the research project that ensures the proper
guideline and its implementation and the best selective approach for the taken topic. Deductive
approach and Inductive approach are the two types of research approach (Neuman, 2013).
Deductive approach allows the researcher to analyse the existing theories on the discussed topic
whereas inductive research enables the capability to develop new theory from the current
environment and collective data analysis from the relevant field. In this case, the research
follows the deductive research approach to go through the research process.
3.4 Sampling techniques
Sampling techniques determines the particular segment of the research along with the determined
boundaries. In this project the sampling process involves 50 online users and e-purchaser and 3
managers of the given company who regulate the online marketing and other promotional and
selling activities.
3.4 Data Analysis Methods
There are two types of data analysis method, such as quantitative data analysis where the
research analyse the statistical data collected from various survey within large amount of
respondents and other one is qualitative data analysis where the research analyse the opinions pof
the persons involved in various interview and qualitative data. In this research both of these
techniques will be applied (Kumar, 2014).
3.5 Ethical Considerations
The research will be conducted by following some ethical norms and confederations involving
the data collection where the research will gather different data from opinions that can be
personal and sometimes against the authority. The research has to follow Data protection act
1998 to keep confidential of the data that are collected from the participants.
3.7 Research limitation
To conduct a tangible research there must be a limitation where the research will not able to
fulfil the objectives as expected.
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3.6 Research Timeline
Activities 1st week 2nd week 3rd week 4th+5th
week
6th week 7th week
Selection of the
Topic

Literature
review
 
Developing the
interview
schedule

Data collection 
Data analysis 
The findings of
the research
 
Conclusion and
recommendation

Final
submission of
research

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References
Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y. and Wiertz, C., 2013. Managing brands in the
social media environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.242-256.
Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer
behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Information
Systems Research, 24(1), pp.88-107.
Ioanăs, E. and Stoica, I., 2014. Social media and its impact on consumers behavior. International
Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, 4(2), pp.295-303.
Kumar, R., 2014. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage.
Luo, X. and Zhang, J., 2013. How do consumer buzz and traffic in social media marketing
predict the value of the firm?. Journal of Management Information Systems, 30(2), pp.213-238.
Neuman, W.L., 2013. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Pearson education.
Rapp, A., Beitelspacher, L.S., Grewal, D. and Hughes, D.E., 2013. Understanding social media
effects across seller, retailer, and consumer interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 41(5), pp.547-566.
Salehi, M., Mirzaei, H., Aghaei, M. and Abyari, M., 2012. Dissimilarity of E-marketing VS
traditional marketing. International journal of academic research in business and social sciences,
2(1), p.510.
Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer
perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp.189-214.
Solomon, M., Russell-Bennett, R. and Previte, J., 2012. Consumer behaviour. Pearson Higher
Education AU.
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