MARKETING STRATEGIES AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGIES AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Business Research Project
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MARKETING STRATEGIES AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR1
Topic: Investigating the synergy impact of Social media marketing and traditional
marketing on consumer buying behaviour: A case study of Coles
1.0 Introduction
This report proposes to investigate the synergic influence of social media
marketing and traditional form of marketing on the consumer buying behaviour.
Businesses use social media marketing as it is one of the most relevant form of
media in gaining competitive and sustainable advantage. Communication with the
consumers have increased significantly and social media has presented the
opportunity to interact with the consumers to understand their needs and wants.
Social media is one of the most efficient way of gathering information about the key
market trends and change in needs of the consumers (Kumar, Choi and Greene
2017). Social media marketing have received significant importance due to its
penetration ability but the relevance of traditional media is still existing in the current
business environment. Traditional media and its tools are still used effectively by
multinational companies. The research proposes to identify the way balance
between social media marketing and traditional marketing have helped multinational
companies in achieving sustainability by influencing the buying behaviour of the
consumers.
1.1 Research problem and background
Retail industry in Australia is highly competitive in nature and it has
experienced significant growth in the past few years. The competition has intensified
as ALDI has increased the growth rate in the market resulting in reduction in market
share of companies such as Coles and Woolworths. IBISWorld has described the
competition in the industry as fierce and highly concentrated (Mudditt 2017). ALDI
debuted shook the industry and the improvement in private labelled products in
terms of price and quality has caused problem for big market leaders like Coles and
Woolworths. Heavy discounters such as ALDI are expected to drive the trend of
shopping in the supermarket retail industry (Mudditt 2017). Therefore, the synergy
between social media marketing and traditional marketing is essential for
understanding the changing trends in the market. The concentration level is
significantly higher with four major companies taking up 80% of the share in the
market (Mudditt 2017). Coles and Woolworths account for the 60% of the market

MARKETING STRATEGIES AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR2
share and they have successful in developing synergy between their social media
marketing and traditional marketing to invoke consumer loyalty within the
consumers.
Price cuts is one of the primary strategies of the companies operating in the
retail supermarket industry where every company is trying to make their offerings
more enticing (Kumar, Choi and Greene 2017). Social media marketing and
traditional marketing plays a significant role in it. However, the majority of the
studies in the past decade only focused on the impact of social media marketing on
the purchase behaviour of the consumers so there is a significant need of shedding
light on the synergy between digital and traditional marketing to influence the
purchase decision of the consumers.
1.2 Research Question
This research aims to examine the synergy between traditional marketing
media and the social media marketing media to understand the impact on the
purchase decision of the customers. This study will try to establish the relationship
among traditional marketing medium, social media marketing medium and consumer
buying behaviour by keeping brand loyalty as the moderating variable. In light of this
context, the research has developed the following objectives:
To examine the synergy between traditional and social media marketing
To investigate the impact of traditional and social media marketing on the
consumer buying behaviour by keeping brand loyalty as the mediating
variable
To recommend suitable strategies to improve the synergy between social
media marketing and traditional form of marketing
Research Questions
How do companies achieve synergy between social media and traditional form of
marketing?
What is the impact of traditional and social media marketing on the consumer buying
behaviour by keeping brand loyalty as the mediating variable?