Role of Social Media in Influencing Consumer Purchasing Decision - A Study on Ikea

This study investigates the role of social media platform in influencing the purchasing decision of customers, focusing on Ikea. It explores the importance of social media for businesses, ways in which Ikea influences customer decisions using social media, and challenges faced by Ikea. The study aims to provide insights for businesses to effectively use social media to attract and influence customers.

Report
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CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1: PROJECT PLAN.............................................................................................................3
Overview of research problem or area to focus...........................................................................3
Research aim................................................................................................................................3
Research objective.......................................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................3
Methods and sources use for investigation..................................................................................4
TASK 2: PROJECT REPORT.........................................................................................................5
Introduction to project.................................................................................................................5
Area of problem...........................................................................................................................5
Literature review..........................................................................................................................6
Discussion....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................9
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TASK 1: PROJECT PLAN
Overview of research problem or area to focus
The current project is to investigate about the role that social media platform plays within
influencing the purchasing decision of consumers. The main rationale behind selecting this topic
is that in todays world of technology people more rely over the social media platform in order to
gather information about product, consider the experience of other persons and evaluating the
options available in market. This in turn increases the issue of brand switch among the customers
(Chang, Hsu, Hsu and Sung, 2019). For conducting this study the Ikea which is Swedish
multinational group situated within Netherland which deals within designing and selling the
ready to assemble furniture, home accessories, kitchen and appliances as well as other useful
services and occasionally home services. Ikea operates by establishing the physical stores as well
as also managing with the online platform where it manage to offer its services online by
displaying product for home delivery through their own official website. So this study is
conducted to determine the several ways through which and organisation can influence the
purchasing decision of its customers by making use of social media platform. On the other side it
also helps in determining the challenges that the Ikea have to face while using social media
platform. Hence by performing this investigation it become possible for Ikea to make right use of
social media to attract the customers and influencing their purchasing decision in positive
manner.
Research aim
To determine the role of social media platform in influencing the purchasing decision of
customers. A study on Ikea
Research objective
 To investigate about the importance of social media platform for businesses today
 To determine the ways in which Ikea influence its customer decision using s9ocial media
platform
 To ascertain challenges that Ikea may face while using social media platform
Research questions
 What is the main importance of social media platform for businesses today?
 Describe about several ways through which Ikea can influence purchasing decision of its
customers using social media platform?
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 What are major challenges that Ikea may face while using social media platform?
Methods and sources use for investigation
To performing this investigation the data will be gathered using qualitative investigation
method as it help in collecting the more detailed information and also support in developing the
in-depth understanding about study area. This is so because the qualitative method of
investigation make use of theoretical framework which support in evaluating several information
in detailed and theoretical manner to make it more explanatory. Addition to this for gathering the
information the secondary sources will be used where the information about current study area
will be collected from the sources like articles, journals, web pages, blogs, book etc. This support
in presenting information from view point of several authors and then critically evaluating them
in order to bring out best possible understanding regarding the study area. This in turn further
help0 in justifying the research questions created by combinedly presenting the data gathered by
several authors about related and similar kind of topic.
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TASK 2: PROJECT REPORT
Introduction to project
In current world of technology social media has become a major part of every one’s life
as people use it as a platform to remain connected with their friends, family, business or with the
brand. The social media is provided with a tool that provide people with a power to access any
information, any product at any time. This much involvement of social media in peoples’ life
influence the brands to join the social media platform and remain connected with their existing
customers as well as approach the new target market by spreading information and approaching
them with several offers to provide them better shopping experience. For these businesses
perform a range of marketing practices to attract the customer toward their product or services
and try to represent themselves superior to other brand for influencing the customers to make
purchases (Ziyadin, and et. al., 2019). To further explore about this power of social media to
influence the customers current report is conducted. This study involve a deep investigation with
the help of secondary sources of data collection to enhance knowledge about the role that social
media platform plays a within the success and profitability of a business by influencing the
customer choice about purchasing a particular product or services. To gather this information,
Ikea is taken into consideration within present study. This is so because it is a well known
multinational brand of furniture which presented a greater example of digital marketing and
ecommerce to operate business within furniture industry. It also make use of social media
platform to promote its products and from which it get a greater sources of profit in business.
Area of problem
This investigation focuses over the problem area related with the fluctuation in choice of
customers due to number of alternatives available in market. As the customers now a days
explore about the product more over internet in order to gather more information as well as
perception of other people toward a particular product or services. This in turn affecting the
decision making of customers toward purchasing a particular product or services which remains
a major concern for the companies like Ikea as it leads to brand switch and also affect the
profitability of brand (Satpathy and Patnaik, 2019). So, to determine the ways through which the
social media can be used to improve the overall performance of brand and influencing the
purchasing decision of customers this study is conducted. Additionally, it also support in
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gathering data about challenges involve within use of social media so that better strategies can be
develop to deal with these issues.
Literature review
The importance of social media platform for businesses today
According to the information presented by Matthew, 2018, social media has now become
a essential piece of every business. A social media platform is one that helps a business to get
connected with the customers, increasing their brand awareness and boosting up the sales by
approaching the customer directly in more personalised manner. The social media has provided a
immense potential to businesses as consumers are in habit of log in with them daily and get
expose to number of companies where they found product of there choice. Following are certain
benefits that a business get by making use of social media platform,
 Increase brand awareness: The social media helps a business in boosting up their
visibility in front of potential customers as well as help them in reaching up to the wider
audience. With the help of social media platform a business can perform its marketing at
minimum possible cost by posting up information about their product and brand by using
articles, videos, images etc. and spreading it throughout the world that let customer
known more about the brand.
 Communicate authority: Today customers are getting more internet savvier where
before making any decision about purchasing their made a quick net surfing. Hence,
social media platform support a business to create a robust profile with updated
information that can be access by customers and they become able to form up better
decision in favour of brand when they become able to feel that authority and get positive
impression about a brand then they definitely make purchases.
The ways in which Ikea influence its customer decision using social media platform
As per the view point of Barker. S., 2017, from its journey as a platform for individual to
share pictures to friends, family. The social media as now evolve as a much more impactful
platform specially for the businesses. As the organisations mainly use social media platform in
order to perform marketing, selling its product, gathering feedback, performing market research
and many more in order to attract customers. Ikea can also use the social media platform in a
way to influence the customers decision. These ways are explained below:
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 Stores presence on social media: The business presence over social media has bring up
a significant influence over purchasing behaviour od customers. By remaining active over
social media platform and regular positing some interesting information, pictures and
videos about their product Ikea would be able to gain the attention of people. The value
these marketing efforts create help Ikea in getting turn their visitors into followers and
then the buyer who also suggest other to purchase the same.
 Advertising on social media: Another way to influence the customers, Ikea places its
advertisements over social media sites which support in making targeting in much more
detailed manner. With the help of advertisement Ikea would be able to create brand
awareness, drive up sale or suggest the sources to customer through which they can
access the product offered by brand. So when an individual click over those media ads
then they directly reach to the website where the get products in more category.
Challenges that Ikea may face while using social media platform
According to the perception provided by Beese. J., 2016, the social media platform have
a tremendous impact over the business from past few decades. As social media platform has
transformed the way people communicate with one another and also change the way a business
cater need of its customers. But despite of all the benefit that social media platform provides to
Ikea in term of growing its business there are also certain challenges that Ikea may face while
operating its business operation over social media platform. These challenges are explained
below:
 Measuring the social media ROI: This ROI is about what a business get back from
time, resources and money that it put over social media platform. The social media
platform is totally different from the tradition method of marketing and due to which
determining the value over the social media posts as well as click per ad is quite difficult
process. This create a challenges and sometime make it difficult to determine that
whether the people who have visited the post will likely to make purchases or not.
 Improving the organic reach: In case when there is a decline within the organic traffic
over the website of brand then it become very difficult to regain it. The negative
comments or any kind of humour presented by the people over the website of Ikea is
challenging situation for the company as it affect the perception fo customers toward it
and may also affect the performance of brand.
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Discussion
As per the data gathered above using secondary sources it can be said that the Social
media platform act as a bridge which connect the businesses and brand together over a single
networking platform. This platform support a busines sin implementing all its efforts and
strategy to create awareness about brand by spreading information and influencing the customers
decision making by influencing them to make purchases. The social media platform brings up a
bunch of growth opportunities to a business in term of its growth and success as with the help of
social media platform an organisation can maintain a better relationship with its customers by
regularly interacting with them and allowing them to get all the information they need for
forming up a better decision (Gautam and Sharma, 2017). There are number of benefits that a
brand get by making of social media platform for marketing, these mainly includes increasing
the brand awareness, communicate about the authority etc.
The social media platform open up several opportunities to a business by making them
exposure to a big world and market which in turn help it in imposing several of the marketing
strategies in order to attract the customers and expand the customer base (Seo and Park, 2018).
As the organisations mainly make use of social media tools and platform to performing its
promotional practices, selling the product, influencing programs, collecting feedback about the
customer experiences for improving services and performing the market research. There are
several different ways through which the Ikea can influence its customers decision making such
as by brining the store over social media platform to provide a way of online purchasing to
customers and performing advertisement over social media which take the customers directly to
a page where they can access range of product or services offered by Ikea.
But despite of all these benefits the Ikea also have to face certain challenges that while
using the social media platform (Wang, 2017). As the competition is high and at the same time
the technical or digital practice of performing business is totally different from the tradition
method of business. The major challenge that Ikea have to face are measuring about the ROI
earned by company through social media and improving the organic reach.
Conclusion
From the above performed investigation it can be summarised that the social media
platforms has now become major part of every business which provide them a place to manage
their relationship as well as network with their existing as well as potential customers. With the
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help of social media platform the organisation can be able to approach more and more customers
and influence them in formulating their decision about purchasing of product or services by
providing them access to the information which they need for considering a product appropriate.
Hence it can be said that the social media platform brings up several benefits such as brand
awareness, improving brand customer relationship and communication authority.
Reflection
The experience throughout this project was great as I become able top learn about several new
things as well as method of performing the investigation in write manner. Other than this I also
become bale to develop my understanding regarding the importance of social media platform for
a business and manner in which it remain helpful. But while performing investigation I found
certain challenges like I was very much confused about to which site I should prefer to collect
data as each of them are looking important for investigation point of view. This was very
challenging task but then I decided to check the authenticity of sources that whether it is valid or
not after that I go through review over article and then the content with latest update was
selected. This supported me in performing all my research to get complete in effective manner I
become able to accomplish my research topic in appropriate manner.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Chang, K.C., Hsu, Y.T., Hsu, C.L. and Sung, Y.K., 2019. Effect of tangibilization cues on
consumer purchase intention in the social media context: Regulatory focus perspective
and the moderating role of perceived trust. Telematics and Informatics, 44, p.101265.
Gautam, V. and Sharma, V., 2017. The mediating role of customer relationship on the social
media marketing and purchase intention relationship with special reference to luxury
fashion brands. Journal of Promotion Management, 23(6), pp.872-888.
Satpathy, S. and Patnaik, S., 2019, May. Role of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Purchase
Behaviour: A Critical Analysis. In 2019 International Conference on Applied Machine
Learning (ICAML) (pp. 92-97). IEEE.
Seo, E.J. and Park, J.W., 2018. A study on the effects of social media marketing activities on
brand equity and customer response in the airline industry. Journal of Air Transport
Management, 66, pp.36-41.
Wang, T., 2017. Social identity dimensions and consumer behavior in social media. Asia Pacific
Management Review, 22(1), pp.45-51.
Ziyadin, S., Doszhan, R., Borodin, A., Omarova, A. and Ilyas, A., 2019. The role of social media
marketing in consumer behaviour. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 135, p. 04022).
EDP Sciences.
Online
Barker. S., 2017. How Social Media Is Influencing Purchase Decisions. [Online] Available
through:<https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/05/social-media-influencing-purchase-
decisions/>.
Matthew. 2018. Why Social Media Is Important for Business Marketing. [Online] Available
through:< https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/why-social-media-is-
important-for-business-marketing/>.
Beese. J., 2016. Social Media Challenges Your Business Must Overcome. [Online] Available
through:< https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-challenges/>.
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