Research Methodologies

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Research
Methodologies

Table of Contents
PART 1: Research Design Proposal................................................................................................4
TITLE:.............................................................................................................................................4
Chapter 1 : Introduction...................................................................................................................4
Rationale of Research.................................................................................................................4
Research Aim..............................................................................................................................4
Research Objectives....................................................................................................................5
Research Questions.....................................................................................................................5
Significance of Research.............................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Research Methodology...................................................................................................5
Chapter 3: Data Analysis.................................................................................................................9
Chapter 4: Ethics, Values, Referencing and Presentation..............................................................10
PART 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................................................11
Chapter 1: Literature Review Introduction....................................................................................11
Chapter 2: Literature Review Main Body......................................................................................11
Different Social media marketing strategies.............................................................................11
Impact of social media on sales and revenue............................................................................13
Challenges of social media marketing......................................................................................14
Chapter 3: Literature Review Conclusion......................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

PART 1: Research Design Proposal
TITLE:
Impact of social media marketing on sales and revenue of the organisation. A
study on Vodafone PLC.
Chapter 1 : Introduction
In current market, there are many changes which are taking place in current
market because if managers want to perform operations as per external policies. With
understanding and determining that changes are required in external market, there will
change in business activities as well (Chaffey, Hemphill and Edmundson-Bird, 2019).
These days, there will use of information which is specific and appropriate to
understand changes properly. If actions are conducted to determine actions, then it will
not be easy for people to understand policies properly. These days, there is requirement
of complete and specific information about ways through which marketing can be done.
Social media marketing is one of the best and specific way to complete the task. There
is requirement of policies with which organisation can do marketing properly (Lou and
Alhabash, 2018). This study is based on Vodafone PLC which is one of the best tele-
communication organisation having head quarter in UK. This association is using social
media for marketing purpose and they have positive impact on its sales and revenue.
Rationale of Research
The main purpose behind conducting this present research which is based on
social media marketing is to analyse how it affects sales and revenue rate of a
company. Through this process, researchers can enhance their concept on importance
of marketing strategies and the way social media influence purchasing behaviour of
people. To conduct this project, they will get opportunity to sharpen their research skills,
that helps in completing future assignment more efficiently.
Research Aim
To determine the impact of social media marketing on sales and revenue of the
organisation. A study on Vodafone PLC.

Research Objectives
 To study the different social media marketing strategies.
 To determine the impact of social media on sales and revenue of Vodafone PLC.
 To evaluate the challenges that arise in social media marketing of Vodafone
PLC.
Research Questions
 What are the different social media marketing strategies?
 What is the impact of social media on sales and revenue of the Vodafone PLC?
 What are the challenges that arise in social media marketing of Vodafone PLC?
Significance of Research
Through this research, role of social media in marketing a business can be
determined, with its impact on sales and revenue. This would help researchers in
recommending better strategies to chosen company, for selecting best channels for
increasing accessibility of business.
Chapter 2: Research Methodology
Introduction
Research methodology is a specific technique and method used by researchers
to identify, select process and analyse all the relevant data and information related to
particular topic (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). This section allows and gives
proper understanding to reader about the overall study, its reliability and validity. This
section is conducted in order to provide thorough information to reader about the
sources from which all the data present in report is collected and the process and ways
by which it is analysed and evaluated. This research is conducted on the qualitative
data which is based on the numbers, figures and graphs (Zaki, 2019). In this report
research onion tool is used to understand different aspects of research methodology
and provide more elaborative and descriptive information.
Research onion framework is used which has several layers containing various
factors. This model starts from outer layer moving towards the inner layer of the
research onion. Research onion tool was developed and established by Saunders in
2007, describing different stages by which a researcher passes while conducting and

developing an effective methodology. All various layers of research onion are described
and elaborated below in next section:
(Source: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, 2020)
Research Philosophy
This is the first and the outer most layer of research onion known as research
philosophy, which is based on the set beliefs and concerning about the nature of
investigation (Misirlis and Vlachopoulou, 2018). Research philosophy can differ
according to the goals, aims and objectives of research and the best method of
philosophy is used to achieve and obtain all prescribed goals and objectives. There are
three main philosophies, which can be use by researchers, ontology, epistemology and
axiology. Ontology is basically a study of reality, describing the nature and of the
situation (Guha, Harrigan and Soutar, 2018). Epistemology is mostly used in scientific
research which helps investigators in finding that is authentic and depends on facts.
Axiology enables researchers to understand valuables and opinions impacts the
collection and analysing the data of research. This philosophy is used in this research
Illustration 1: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, 2020

by the investigator as it helped them to collect all appropriate data which enables them
in providing proper results and attaining research objectives.
Research Approach
This refers to the research approaches which are taken by the investigator or
researcher for conducting their study. This is the next step of research onion which
generally have classified in two broad categories deductive approach and inductive
approach. Deductive approach develops the hypothesis upon pre-existing theories and
formulates research approaches and plans (Olofsson, Hoveskog and Halila, 2018).
Deductive approach use questionnaires to develop understanding of the observations
allows researcher to compare different data and understanding gathered from empirical
data. Deductive approach can be used for conducting qualitative research, the only
difference will be that in this case the expectations formed from pre-existing information
will be formulated differently than hypothesis testing. Inductive approach allows the
investigator to create a theory based on the situation rather than using pre-existing one
like in deductive approach (Petrini, 2019). This is the most basic and clear difference
between the two approaches. This approach is used in qualitative techniques as it
moves from specific to general data. No framework is used while following and adopting
this approach and this is the point at which new theories are developed. Inductive
approach is used by the researcher for conducting this research effectively and
efficiently as only secondary approach and data is used.
Research Strategy
The research strategy for the research is the case study approach with the use of
survey and questionnaires. Research strategy is geared towards a single contextual
setting and it describes how the researcher or investigators are intended to carry out
work (Onyijen, Awoleye and Olaposi, 2019). This research strategy can include number
of approaches which are experimental research, action research, case study, interviews
and systematic literature review. Experimental research strategy refers to the creating
and developing research process that examines the results of experiment against the
expected results. It is useful in all areas of research and involves few factors of
consideration. Case study strategy focuses on one or more people and on a single
area. It offers an insight into specific nature of any situation and establish importance of

culture and context in difference between various cases (Kapoor and et. al., 2018).
Case study research is very effective and useful in financial research such as
comparing the experiences of two companies and comparing the effects of investments
in difference contexts. Action research is very commonly used in professions and as
teaching and nursing where the investigator can assess way by which they can improve
their professional approaches and understandings. This strategy is used mainly to find a
solution and several problems can be solved through this approach.
Research Choice
It is the mixed method which is useful in the qualitative approach in order to
conduct the research which is consistent with the realist research philosophy (Nisar,
Prabhakar and Patil, 2018). It is the deductive research approach which is used in the
secondary research in order to form the questionnaire which is based on the interaction
of the research. It is completed with the use of secondary research with the proper
questionnaire. The researcher will include the knowledge of the social media activities
of Vodafone. It is the mixed approach which is useful in order to provide the set of
results and analyse the combination between the qualitative and quantitative research.
Data Collection methods
Data collection methods put emphasis on the various basic techniques. It
includes two basic methods which are primary and secondary and both focus on the
qualitative and quantitative data (Chaffey, Hemphill and Edmundson-Bird, 2019).
Primary research includes exact and original findings which is collected by using the
number of tools such as self-questionnaire, interview, GD, examination and analysing
etc. To conduct research, it is determined that how social media affect Vodafone and its
structure and it is positively managed by using the questionnaire methods which is used
in order to collect the primary information. On the other side, secondary data refers to
that data which is collected by the researcher and provide the vision of the research
area of the present methodologies (Lou and Alhabash, 2018). It creates research gap
which needs to be fulfilled by the researcher. This data source could be carry in the
form of internal and external information which cover wide range of areas. In secondary
information external sources are used like newspaper, media, magazines, online
websites, books and journals etc. In this research, secondary data is used in order to

collect information about the social media because it carry huge amount of information
and knowledge which is provided on the online sources.
Research Limitations
The biggest research limitation of this study is that secondary research is
considered in to collect information and data. Because of using this, research has
limited areas in order to collect information as here sufficient data is available on the
official website of company and other related reports (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick,
2019). Here the researcher does not have the access of company's website in order to
collect information and data as some data is kept confidential and secret by the
company as it is not publicly provided by them. The researcher was impacted by
identifying the questionnaire of the respondents in order to convenience for the
sampling approach as it provide mitigation to the issues. For the capability of the
researcher they include a huge size of sample for their secondary research which limits
the time for the completion in which the researcher has sufficient time to carry out its
research activities.
Research Design
This is considered as set of different methods as well as procedures which are
used for collecting or gathering and evaluating measures specified in the research
problems. There are mainly five research designs which are used by investigator and
they are, descriptive, correlation, experimental, experimental, review and non-
experimental (Zaki, 2019). In this research descriptive research design is used by the
researcher in which they conduct and analyse several case study and surveys.
Chapter 3: Data Analysis
It is a process which is used in systematically application of statistical techniques in
order to describe and evaluate the data. It is used in order to reduce the lump of data
into small sections which is valuable. Researches are based on the data as they have
factual information in order to solve the problem and the data is the answer of each and
every question (Misirlis and Vlachopoulou, 2018). In this research qualitative is taken
which carry statistical procedure, facts and figures in which the data is continuously
gathered and examined almost at the same time. It considers the pattern which is used
in order to observe and analyse the pattern of research.

Chapter 4: Ethics, Values, Referencing and Presentation
Research ethics are the morale principles of researches which is used in order to
examine the right and wrong thing about the practices of research. There are various
ethical elements which are important in the views of researcher in order to conduct a
research (Guha, Harrigan and Soutar, 2018). It describes that researcher need to keep
the information confidential and secret which is concerned with the research,
respondents and other members. This needs to be done because that data includes
huge personal information which can be misused by other person which comes under
illegal actions. In addition to this, the researcher always need to keep various rules and
regulations at the time of collecting data as they will not hurt the emotions of any
individual and helpful in neglecting legal actions.

PART 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Chapter 1: Literature Review Introduction
It is a document which include the current knowledge including the useful findings,
theoretical and contribution of methodologies to the specific topic and it is the basis of
the research (Olofsson, Hoveskog and Halila, 2018). It purpose is to show the specific
reader that researcher read and also concerned about the specific topic and question
based on the particular field. It is done in any sort of format include various online
sources. It is significant to consider that review should not be only the description about
the summary but it also includes the form of critical discussion which show the vision
and awareness of various arguments, concepts and approaches. It is used in analysing
the appropriate published work. For this, the researcher need to identify that what they
should read (Petrini, 2019). In order to write the literature review, a researcher should
include a clear introduction about the topic like outline of it with a brief. They need to
specify the clear connection between the researcher's own arguments and the evidence
which are hidden in reading. This review should be written in the formal and academic
style. It is important to conduct literature review as it define and limit the research,
neglect irrelevant duplication, evaluate promising research methods and also relate the
findings to the past knowledge and provide some suggestions for further research. This
section of research defines and carry the comprehensive study of social media which is
collected by the researcher. It is helpful in concluding the secondary data in order to
analyse and overcome the research problems.
Chapter 2: Literature Review Main Body
Different Social media marketing strategies
According to Murray Newlands (2017), it has been evaluated that social media in
today’s digitalised world, considered as the most crucial platform for companies, for
marketing their brands (Ten Social Media Marketing Strategies for Companies, 2017). It
provides a number of channels for firms in establishing brands and create awareness
among people about products and services. This would also help in influencing
purchasing behaviour of people also (Onyijen, Awoleye and Olaposi, 2019). In context

with Vodafone, as this firm deals in multinational telecommunication sector, where
competition is already much intense. Currently it runs business in more than 25
countries, with partnership business within 47 nations. So, it has a strong brand image
among customers, at both global and domestic level. But due to intense competition,
people are mostly concerned to purchase services of those companies who offered
them talk-time and internet services on effective plans (Kapoor and et. al., 2018).
Therefore, it becomes essential for this firm to adopt the digital marketing strategy for
enhancing its number of mobile customers and influencing purchasing behaviour of
them. For this purpose, a unique set of skills are required to develop social media
strategy, whereby management of Vodafone requires to identify the needs of its
targeted audience first. Some social media strategies are given as below –
 Create the personalised experience for customers – Integrating Chatbots in
marketing strategy, will provide a great way to Vodafone in creating better
personalised experience for its targeted audience (Nisar, Prabhakar and Patil,
2018). This would help in solving customer related problems and creating ads
that redirect them towards messenger window with chatbot. It will help in
creating the loyal fan base and boosting sales more effectively.
 Create efficient and attractive marketing strategy – As quality of content
consider as the main key of social media marketing, so, management of
Vodafone needs to create proper content on digital channels. Along with this, it
also required to post the matter at right schedule, which help in reaching towards
right customers more efficiently.
 Utilising the brand advocated – making a strong brand image among targeted
audience considers as the best promotional for marketing the business. For this
purpose, social media guidelines is needed to be developed by management of
Vodafone (Zaki, 2019). In addition to this, add leaders under each and every
section of advocacy plan on social media platform. Furthermore, for better
creation of brand image, track the data which is doing well is also proves
beneficial for improvement.
 Create profiles on relevant channels – Creating profile on best social media
channels like Instagram, Linked In and more, also consider as effective tool for

marketing business among customers. In this regard, Vodafone also required to
select those channels where it can reach towards targeted audience more
easily.
Impact of social media on sales and revenue
According to Mohammad Abdullah (2017), it has identified that in today’s digital
era, social media provides a best platform to organisations in connecting with its
customers (Impact of social media on Sales. 2017). It helps firms in identifying how
business of them is perceived by its targeted audience, including their perception about
competitors’ products and services. This prospectus helps in making necessary
changes in own business strategy to enhance sales more effectively (Chaffey, Hemphill
and Edmundson-Bird, 2019). As sales plays the crucial role in generating revenues,
therefore, to enhance sales and reach targeted audience, Vodafone needs to create
effective social media marketing strategy. In this regard, choosing right channels of
social media, management of respective firm can identify preference of customers and
engage them in business by bringing awareness about new exciting offers and mobile
plans.
For enhancing sales and revenue, social media give opportunity to firms to build
effective relationship with targeted audience and influence them more easily towards
products and services. This would help in enhancing sales volume and generating high
revenue more easily, that leads to increase market share as well (Lou and Alhabash,
2018). Direct sales via social media channels, is another main advantage of digital
marketing strategy, where it becomes easy for organisations in introducing their new
products and services in short period of time. While traditional concepts like offline
channels requires more money and cost to marketing business among large audience,
that affect profitability ratio as well (How Social Media Marketing Influence Revenue For
The Companies, 2020). Therefore, adopting the direct sales strategy, will possibly work
for Vodafone in getting countless sales and achieving corporate goals which is to
become largest telecommunication firm at worldwide level. Similarly, creating a
relocatable identity of brand on the platform of social media is also considered as
successful technique for Vodafone, which can prompt the direct increment in volume of
sales (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Thus, it has been evaluated that social media

increase potential of business to create a loyal customer base and increase capacity of
business, to achieve its goals.
Challenges of social media marketing
According to Vandita Grover (2019), it has been evaluated that Social media has
become the most popular channel for companies in marketing their business and reach
towards target audience in short span of time (3 New Social Media Marketing
Challenges to Overcome in 2019, 2019). Through adopting a social media marketing
strategy, a company can face a number of benefits like, investing less capital to
promote new product or service among customers as compared to traditional process of
marketing; better focused on branding the business to build an effective customer base;
develop competencies of business to meet demand of marketplace which helps in
earning high competitive advantage as well, etc. But apart from various benefits, social
media which includes itself with a unique set of challenges, arise various issues in front
of a company (Misirlis and Vlachopoulou, 2018). In this regard, some challenges that
might marketers of Vodafone can face while implementing social media marketing
strategy are given as below –
 Building trust and transparency – The disclosure of business data on social
media platforms, related to company’s strategy, failure in tailoring with needs
with some customers etc. considered as the major disadvantage part of social
media (Guha, Harrigan and Soutar, 2018). It creates a threat for organisations
including Vodafone, to optimise social media channels for marketing business.
In this regard, spreading negative rumours about product quality and services,
among targeted audience on online platform, arise difficulties in recreating the
trust and gain loyalty of them. For this purpose, it becomes essential for firms to
deliver consistent as well as high-value of content at online platform, so that
positive perspective of business among customers can be maintained.
 Balance the privacy and privatisation – Personalising the social content and
maintain privacy of each personal interaction with customers is another main
difficulty, in front of organisation while making connection with online customers
(Olofsson, Hoveskog and Halila, 2018). It also arises threat for companies, to
ensure that privacy of each customer is maintained. Therefore, marketers of

Vodafone needs to give control to targeted audience over who can collect their
personalise data. While making interaction with them, marketers are also
required to take decisions about how to gather consent of online customers.
Along with this, focusing on quality data despite of purchasing third-party data
will also help Vodafone in providing quality personalised experience to its
audience.
 Pricy social adds – It is another main challenge that organisations who used
social media platform for marketing business, are faced for maintaining their
visibility within overcrowded social feeds (Petrini, 2019). Hereby, using filtering
or any other kind of advertisement blocking rise cost and limited the ROI for paid
adverting. Therefore, to boost quality of organic content, managers of Vodafone
requires to monitor social media adds in real time and must take the corrective
measures.
Chapter 3: Literature Review Conclusion
It has been concluded from this literature review that social media marketing
strategy provides the fabulous platform to companies for connecting with domestic and
international customers in easy and effective manner. It provides a number of strategic
tools to understand preference of people and connect them with business of a company
for long period. Social media provides a platform with numerous benefits including
reaching the targeted audience from various geographical locations as well as
influencing their purchasing behaviour. Through this process, it becomes easy for
companies to enhance their sales volume and generate high return on investment for
enhancing profitability. Social media also enhance potential of companies, in raising
their voice to make effective communication with customers and build trust with them.
This would help in earning loyalty of them to retain with business for long period of time.
Along with this, as compared to traditional methods of marketing like television, radio,
newspapers etc., social media also helps in bringing awareness among large population
about brands, timely offers and others, to enhance sales volume.
In developing the marketing plans, management of a company can utilise social
media channels in identifying the competitors’ strategies for attracting the customers.
Along with this, identifying needs of customers including their purchasing behaviour,

also enables firms to tailor demands of them, in most efficient manner, for enhancing
sales volume. Therefore, from all over the discussion, it has been summarised that
social media plays vital role in increasing accessibility of business that ultimately, leads
to raise sales and revenue in desired way.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Chaffey, D., Hemphill, T. and Edmundson-Bird, D., 2019. Digital business and e-
commerce management. Pearson UK.
Guha, S., Harrigan, P. and Soutar, G., 2018. Linking social media to customer
relationship management (CRM): A qualitative study on SMEs. Journal of Small
Business & Entrepreneurship. 30(3). pp.193-214.
Kapoor, K. K. and et. al., 2018. Advances in social media research: past, present and
future. Information Systems Frontiers. 20(3). pp.531-558.
Lou, C. and Alhabash, S., 2018. Understanding non-profit and for-profit social marketing
on social media: The case of anti-texting while driving. Journal of Promotion
Management. 24(4). pp.484-510.
Misirlis, N. and Vlachopoulou, M., 2018. Social media metrics and analytics in
marketing–S3M: A mapping literature review. International Journal of Information
Management. 38(1). pp.270-276.
Nisar, T. M., Prabhakar, G. and Patil, P. P., 2018. Sports clubs’ use of social media to
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Olofsson, S., Hoveskog, M. and Halila, F., 2018. Journey and impact of business model
innovation: The case of a social enterprise in the Scandinavian electricity retail
market. Journal of cleaner production. 175. pp.70-81.
Onyijen, O. H., Awoleye, O. M. and Olaposi, T. O., 2019. Effectiveness of social media
platforms for product marketing in southwestern Nigeria: a firm-level
analysis. International Journal of Development and Management Review. 14(1).
pp.175-192.
Petrini, K., 2019. Using data to maximise event impact and return on
investment. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing. 7(2). pp.115-120.
Zaki, M., 2019. Digital transformation: harnessing digital technologies for the next
generation of services. Journal of Services Marketing.
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