David Game College: Social Media's Impact on Lush Consumer Intentions

This report investigates the impact of social media on consumer purchase intentions, using Lush, an organic products company, as a case study. The study begins with an introduction to Lush and its global presence, highlighting the company's focus on organic products and its expansion across multiple countries. The aim is to identify and understand how social media influences consumer behavior and purchase decisions, with specific research questions addressing the extent of social media's impact on purchasing organic products. The justification for the study emphasizes the benefits of social media for businesses, including understanding consumer expectations, enhancing customer engagement, building brand value, and improving communication. The literature review explores the definition of social media, its benefits such as enhanced communication, tracking competition, and building brand value, and its association with consumer purchase intentions. Various studies are cited to support the impact of social media on consumer behavior and online advertising. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of social media for cosmetic retail organizations like Lush in understanding consumer purchase intentions and maintaining growth.

Investigating the Impact of social media on Consumer
Purchase intentions:
The Case of Lush
1.1 Background of the study
LUSH is a company focusing on organic products. They pride themselves with their
hand made soap and bath products. Lush was launched in 1994 in the United
Kingdom by Mark Constantine. Over the years LUSH company managed to expand
on over 37 countries across to globe including England, Japan, France, Italy and
Taiwan.
Lush managed to grow so fast over the last 10 years. For example from 100K
pounds in sales in 1995 they’ve grown up to 70 million pounds in sales by 2004, this
showing a growth of 700x. Their flagship store is situated on Taipei, Taiwan a
building that's known as the highest building in the world.
All LUSH stores are branded with the name “LUSH”. The brand name “LUSH” isn’t
translated in any other language than english (Schmitt, Pan and Tavassoli 1994;
Tavassoli 1999; Zhang and Schmitt, 2001), this meaning that even if it’s flagship is
based on Taiwan the brand still keeps its name and is not translated in either
Chinese or Japanese.
All LUSH stores are selling the same product and are globally standardised. To
make sure that products are the same and have the same quality the Company
builded regional factories that are supplying every single store around it, this
ensuring product freshness and in no way altered by long transportation between
continents.
LUSH ensures that all products are the same and they originate from the founder
Mark Constantine, or the Sophia Meeting.
As stated above all products are standardised, therefore each store has a single
website to communicate to its customers. For example LUSH UK will address to its
customers at https://uk.lush.com.
All stores at LUSH have the same core beliefs, however they are using them
differently. For example LUSH as the main brand has a policy on encouraging
customers to use reusable bags, however the shops themselves have the power to
design their own reusable bags.
1.2 Aim and Objectives
The aim of this project is to identify and investigate the impact of social media on
Consumers.
 To understand how consumers are influenced by social media.
 To review existing studies related to social media and consumer purchase
intentions.

 To identify the key success factors of social media on consumer purchase
intentions.
 To recommend some frameworks on how social media could be used to
improve consumer purchase intentions.
1.3 Research Questions
 To what extent does social media impact on consumer purchase intentions in
organic products?
 Does consumer participation in social networking sites impact on the
purchase of organic products?
1.4 Justifications of the study
The incorporation of the social media platform is very much beneficial for any sort of
business as it helps the primary stakeholders of the business to comprehend the
expectation and necessities of the consumers which keeps on changing every
moment (Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott 2017). Customer engagement is
the other most significant contribution of the application of the various social media
podiums as huge number of consumers of the cosmetics industry uses a wide range
of social media podiums such as Instagram and Whatsapp.
Creation of a brand value using social media podiums is the most desiring aspects of
Lush, which is a type of cosmetics retailer organization based in England (Sullivan
and Hyun 2016). The usability of the wide range of products offered by this
organization can be understood in an organized manner using social media
podiums.
Detailed discussion about the efficiency of using social media podiums is very much
beneficial for Lush as it can help them to grow as compared with the other similar
business organizations (Patroni, Recker and von Briel 2015). The need for change in
business procedures and organizational policies can also be managed in an
organized manner using social media platforms.
There are different categories of stakeholders working for this organization.
Maintaining these stakeholders is a huge issue for this organization and the practice
of using social media podiums can be very much useful to maintain these
stakeholders (Collis and Hussey 2013). The deployment of social media podiums
can also be very much useful for this organization to attract most of the potential
clients of this business.
1.5 Scope and limitations of the study (is lush)
Social media is increasingly becoming a competitive tool in the retailing industry,
particularly in the cosmetics industry. The advent of internet technology and social
media is increasingly redefinining how consumer purchases products. The other
significant limitation of this proposal is the language of the chosen data sources as
English is not my first language (Collis and Hussey 2013). All the data which was
considered in the literature review is based on articles written in English so it was a
huge challenge to go through the details of each articles.

1.6 Summary
Thus, this paper is very much essential for cosmetics retail organizations like Lush
as they want to incorporate the deployment of various categories of social media
organizations. The purchase intentions of the consumers can be understood by the
strategic team of this organization using the social media podiums which are
increasingly used by the consumers of this organization. The increasingly growth of
this organization can be maintained using social media podiums like Whatsapp. Most
of the international clients of this organization will be significantly benefitted if social
media podiums are considered by the sale and marketing team of this organization
in order to address the language and communication difficulties.
This proposal will have numerous segments, and each of the segments will be very
much beneficial to understand the effectiveness and the role of using social media
podiums in a cosmetic organization. The success-factors of deploying social media
podiums will be evaluated in this proposal. The impact on the sale of the organic
products due to the deploying of social media will also be evaluated in this proposal
paper. At the same time, it can also be said this proposal might have some
limitations as well in terms of fraudulent activities and other social media
humiliations. The ensuing unit of the paper will be presenting the literature review
where researchers have stated their opinion about the usability of social media
podiums in cosmetic organization.
Chapter Two
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
This unit of the paper will aim to provide a clear idea about the deploying of social
media in a retail-business, at the same time benefits offered by social media will be
considered in this section of the paper (Collis and Hussey 2013). The association of
social media along with its impact on the consumer purchase intentions will be
discussed in this section of the paper from the perspective of different researchers.
2.2 Definitional clarity: social media
According to Huang et al. (2018), there are different categories of social media
podiums which are extensively deployed in business purposes like Facebook,
QZone, Tumbler, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The investigator of the
paper stated that social platforms can be defined as the type of platforms which are
used to understand the needs and expectation of the consumers. The investigator of
this paper also stated that the formation and sharing of the content is much easier
using social media platforms.
As stated by Schultz (2016), social media is defined as a computer-based
technology which are for sharing of ideas. The investigator of the paper stated that
the exchange of thoughts and ideas is the primary contribution of social media

podiums in business. The investigator of this paper stated that all the networking
activities of the business can be managed in an organized manner using social
media platforms. The investigator of the paper mentioned that the social media
podium can also be used a discussion forum between various stakeholders of the
business such as the strategic team and the clients respectively. The paper helps in
understand that customer engagement is the other significant contribution regarding
the deploying of social media podiums (Menon et al. 2016). Relationship between
each of the stakeholders of this organization can be maintained using these social
media podiums as well. Both incoming and outgoing traffic of the business can be
identified using social media platforms. Enhancing brand visibility is the other
significant contribution of the social media podiums in the retail industry.
As mentioned by Pantano and Gandini (2017), bookmarking sites is the most
significant contribution of deploying social media podiums for the business purposes.
The investigator of the paper helped in understanding the usability of the video,
which are uploaded in YouTube channels. The investigator of this paper has
highlighted that the service and product offered by the business can be enhanced
using the social media platforms. The current operations can be enhanced after the
deployment of social media podiums such as Facebook. The effectiveness of
Facebook live in business can also be understood from the paper. Reputation
building among the potential clients is the other significant contribution of using
social media podiums. Marketing errors of the sales and marketing team can be
improved significantly after the deployment of social media podiums.
2.3 Benefits of social media
As illustrated by Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch (2017), there are different
categories of benefits of using social media podiums in retail business. The
investigator of the paper stated that enhanced communication is the most significant
aspect of deploying social media podiums such as Instagram. The live chat option
provided in most of the social media podiums can be used by the consumers of the
business if they have any sort of queries or complaints against the service provided
by the business organisations (He et al. 2015). Tracking the competition is the other
significant contribution of using social media podiums as stated by the investigator of
the paper. Organic visibility of the other advantage of using social media podiums in
reatail business.
As mentioned by Yahia, Al-Neama and Kerbache (2018), brand value of the
business can be improved significantly after the use of the social media platforms.
The investigator of the paper stated that most of the recent activities can be
telecasted using the social media podiums which is an added advantage for the
business. The progress of the other similar organizations can be tracked and
managed in an organized manner using social media podiums.
According to He et al. (2015), getting the feedback of the consumer is one of the
prime reason behind the success of any sort of business and the use of the social
media podiums can be every much significant to understand the feedback of the
consumers (Durkin, Mulholland and McCartan 2015). The feedback coming directly
from the consumers of this organization is very much beneficial for the strategic team
of the business to understand the quality of service offered by the business.

2.4 Social media and its association with consumer purchase intentions
As demonstrated by Ainin et al. (2015), willingness of the consumer to buy the
product offered by commercial establishment can be obtained using the social media
platforms. The investigator of the paper stated that purchase decision is one of the
most significant success factor for any sort of business (Lee et al. 2016). The
investigator of the paper stated that online purchase intentions and the offline
purchase intentions are very much different from each other. The online consumer
behaviour can be understood using the social media platforms.
As instructed by Gainsbury et al. (2016), social media and consumer purchase
intentions are very closely linked with each other, as most of social media podiums
are very much useful to understand the intention of both the existing as well as the
potential clients of the business. The investigator of the paper stated about the
interactive feature of the social media podiums which are used to address the
communication issues of the social media podiums. Relationship between the
consumer and the business can be obtained using social media podiums (So et al.
2016). Online advertising can be the other significant contributions of social media
platforms.
2.5 Summary
Based on the opinion of each of the researchers it can be said that the incorporation
of the different categories of social media podiums is very much beneficial for any
retail industry or corporation as it helps in understanding the consumer purchase
intention and also help the stakeholders to address the communication issues.
Chapter Three
Methodology
3.1 Introduction
Research Methodology is one of the most significant chapter of this proposal, this
chapter will be highlighting the data collection procedure of this paper, the research
approach adopted in this proposal can also be identified from this chapter of the
proposal (Pantano and Gandini 2018). The strength as well as the weakness of the
methodology will also be mentioned in the concluding section of this methodology.
3.2 Research Paradigm
The research design which was considered in this proposal is positivism.
Positivism can be defined as the type of research paradigms which helps in studying
a topic based in facts and statistics (Collis and Hussey 2013, pp. 55). All the facts
and measurements of the paper is very much justified and very much reliable.

Interpretivism is the other research methodology which was selected in this proposal,
the involvement of interview and the data analysis are both considered in
interpretivism. All the elements of study are considered in thus type of research
design.
3.3 Research approach and strategy
Deductive research methodology was selected in this proposal as the hypothesis
can be better analysed using this research methodology. Theories were build and
tested on the findings of the paper using this approach.
Justification: The impact of using the social media platforms in retail business can be
well understood using this research approach.
Inductive research design was also considered in this proposal as this paper is very
much useful to analyse the qualitative data.
Justification: The secondary data collection procedure of this proposal is aligned with
the inductive research design.
There are different category of research approaches which are considered in the
project proposals such as the deductive approach, inductive approach and deductive
approach (Mathur 2018). Each of these different categories of approach are very
much essential for maintaining the reliability of the proposal (Lang, Liu and Kobia
2018). The research design which was considered in this proposal is the deductive
research approach as the findings are entirely based on the seconded data
collection procedure.
Investigation type: There are three different categories of investigation procedures
which are used in the proposal such as the analytical approach, exploratory
approach and the exploratory approach (He et al. 2017). Descriptive approach was
followed in this research as relevant theories were consulted to find the effectiveness
of social media.
3.4 Data Collection methods and ethnics
There are different categories of data collection procedures which are practised in
project proposals such as the primary data collection procedures in terms of
personal interview or survey and secondary data collection procedure in terms of the
secondary sources such as government databases and peer reviewed journals
(Dolan et al. 2016). The data collection which was considered in this proposal is the
secondary data collection where data was collected from reliable secondary sources
like Google Scholar.
Thematic Analysis was considered in this proposal which is very much useful to
examine the data collected from secondary sources. Each phase and subsections of
the data collected was examined in a professional using the thematic analysis (Tuten
and Solomon 2017). The prime reason behind selecting this data analysis technique
is it helps in addressing the methodological issues of the data gathered from peer-

reviewed articles. Transcribing the data in written from is much easier using the
thematic analysis.
Sampling method: There are different categories of sampling method which are
practised in proposal such as the probabilistic sampling method and the non-
probabilistic method (Lindsey-Mullikin and Borin 2017). Since secondary data
collection method was considered in the paper non-probabilistic sampling method
was chosen in this proposal (Collis and Hussey 2013).There are lots of ethical
considerations which were followed during the data collection method and
maintaining the security and privacy of the data is one of the prime ethical
considerations of this proposal.
Thematic analysis: The secondary data collection procedure of this proposal was
aligned is examined using thematic analysis technique (Braun et al. 2018). Each
patter of data which was collected from secondary sources is analysed using the
thematic analysis (Braun et al. 2017). Each description of the data are managed
using the thematic analysis. All the themes of the secondary data are analysed using
this data analysis procedure.
3.5 Strengths and weaknesses of the methodology
Like every other proposal this proposal have few strength and weaknesses. The data
collection procedure of the procedure is from Google Scholar and only peer reviewed
paper was selected to analyse the impact of using social media in organization which
provides organic products to the end users.
The prime limitation of the proposal is that data collection procedure again; as the
reliability of the proposal could have been further enhanced if this proposal
considered both the two types of data collection procedure.
3.6 Summary
Thus, this chapter helps in understand the type of data collection method which was
considered in the paper along with the research paradigm and research. The
research types and investigation which was considered in this proposal can also be
determined from this unit of the proposal. This chapter highlights the strength and
weakness of the chosen research methodology and the ethical considerations of the
proposal.
References
Websites:
LUSH: http://www.lush.com, accessed on 24 May, 2019
LUSH Japan: http://www.lushjapan.com, accessed on 24 May, 2019
LUSH Taiwan: http://www.lush.com.tw, accessed on 24 May, 2019
LUSH UK: https://www.lush.co.uk, accessed on 24 May, 2019
LUSH USA: http://www.lushusa.com, accessed on 24 May, 2019

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