Social Influences on the Consumer Behaviour

Research methodology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
Attributes of social Media Marketing..........................................................................................6
Consumer Behaviour Tracking....................................................................................................7
Benefits of Social Media Marketing............................................................................................7
Disadvantages of Marketing........................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
To create awareness about the brand social media has been widely used. There are
various benefit associated with social media advertising as it increases the audience reach and
also facilitates by establishing relationship with new and existing consumers (Mathras.and et.al.,
2016). Social influence buying behaviour of potential buyers. On companies social media
platform there are images which attracts the consumers towards their products. Consumers too
get the wide range of option through these social media. Consumers get various options to make
their buying decision such as by various blogs, images or videos. Present Report highlights th
impact of various digital technologies such as social media on consumer's purchase decision such
as increase focus on the global development and also the uses of technology in advertising,
marketing and also promotion that can leads the companies to shifts their focus on the costumers.
Various researcher have identified that technology can became a major component while
defining and expanding mark
ets and marketing strategies. Simultaneously advertising and promotion often focuses emotional,
social ,psychological factors that can impact on the consumer's decision. Social media such as
Facebook have gives an innovative new way of brand related content as well as creating
exchanges with costumers by generating costumer interaction. Report conducts literature review
of the Social media impact on the consumer's of the company Marks & Spencer.
Aim- To identify impact of social media on purchase decision of consumers: A study on "Marks
& Spencer"
Objectives-To evaluate effects on usage of social media on the behaviour of customer purchase
To analysis the usage of social media for marketing.
To Evaluate the value of content management on social media.
To analysis role of social media for marketing.
Rationale - Reason for choosing this topic as it is a Current issue prevailing in market. This
develop a personal interest and understanding pursuing the research. This will help me to
develop understanding on impact of social media on the decision of consumers and also assist to
analysis the value of content marketing on the social media.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology regulate design, approaches that help in investigating topic in
significant manner (Bai, Yao.and Dou,2015). It also enables to justify mu choices by describing
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advantages as well as disadvantages of each and every design and approach taking into the
account with practical applicability regarding to the research. Quantitative Research is
determines the way of generating numerical data such as quantify attitudes, defined variables,
various surveys such as online surveys, mobile surveys, face to face surveys and telephone
surveys, also included online polls as well as systematic approach (Palihawadana, Oghazi. and
Liu, 2016).
Qualitative research is considered as the primary research which gives factual detail. It
gives the insight that can assist to develop ideas. It includes individual's interview as well as
observations.
Research philosophy- The research philosophy can reflect on the crucial assumptions of author.
In general it can deal many branches to a broad range of disciplines (Ashley. and Tuten, 2015).
There are four methods in research philosophy such as Pragmatism, Positivism, Realism,
Interpretivism. Positivism methods applies quantifiable observations. It is a known as the
empiricist view that can Consider the knowledge form Human experience. Interpretivism is
considered as the philosophical approach of the idealism and also it is used to collaborate group
together for diverse approaches (Dessart,Veloutsou. and Morgan-Thomas,2015). It can include
phenomenology, social constructivism. Researcher used method called Interpretivism as it is a
qualitative approach of data collection for example interview and observations. Third one is
abductive approach that can be set to address the weakness that can be associated with inductive
as well as deductive approaches. Here deductive approach is criticised regarding to the lack of
clarity regarding to the terms and prepare hypothese. It is also criticized as there is no amount of
empirical data that can necessary allows theory building (Ajzen, 2015). It is known as this
research can be begins with the puzzles, surprising facts as well as devoted their explanation
third alternative that can overcome the weakness adopting perspective called pragmatist.
Research Approach- Here Deductive approach can test the validity regarding to the
assumptions whereas inductive approach can emergence of new generalisations and new
theories.
Researcher used the inductive approach as it begins with the observations as well as
theories. It starts with detailed observation that shifts towards more ideas and generalisation.
Inductive is simple approach which only consider theories to reach to end results (Lin. and Hsu,
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2015). Basically this approach can be came under qualitative approach of data analysis as well
as data collection.
Research Design
Research design is a choice of particular methods of data collection as well as analysis.
Exploratory research as the name offers that it can investigate the research questions that are
unable to provide the final as well as conclusive solutions regarding to the current problems..
descriptive is simple method hat always describes element to get the positive results (De Mooij,
2019).
Researcher used the Descriptive research that can be considered as the researcher in
which the researcher has no control over the variables.. The three main purposes of the Inductive
approach is to explaining, describing and validating research findings (Schramm-Klein.and et.al.,
2016).
Data collecting
It is the kind of method that always emphases on gathering data from differnet sources.
Primary sources re such techniques that give in-depth detail whereas secondary details are such
methods that only gives data which are already used hence both these techniques handle the
research in different manner. Here in this research there is a large amount of data available in
these kinds of resources about the research (Rana and Paul, 2017). It can increase the levels of
research reliability as well as validity.
Qualitative approach always uses theories into consideration where theories are used to
develop understanding whereas quantitative is the method where calculations are performed to
reach the end results and answer research questions.
Sampling
It is the process of selecting people from wide range of population. As it is noted that
many populations has to large and their interest is also too large than to work with them directly
there is a need of obtain samples from large section of Population (Mathras.and et.al., 2016). In
probability sampling sample are consider as non zero chance Here randomization is considered
as the core of probability sampling techniques. In non probability sampling there are various
sample groups, members that can be choose and only certain number of public has a chance to
participate. There are 20 employees of Marks and Spencer that can be used as a sample for
answering 10 questions (De Mooij, 2019).
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Data Analysis- It is the process of analysing data by using Statistical and analytical tools to
Observe useful data as well as helps in business decision making. methods that can involves
business intelligence, text analytics as well as data mining. Thematic analysis is considered as
the qualitative research that can focuses on examining patterns in data. This method can imply
both the organisation and rich description of set of data collection. It can be used to make sense
of unrelated material as well as used to evaluate qualitative information to get the knowledge
about a group, situation ,culture or an organisation (Lin. and Hsu, 2015).
In data analysis thematic analysis is considered as the flexible data that can evaluate plan.
It is qualitative research that can send to generate themes regarding to the interview data. It is
considered as the flexible research (De Mooij, 2019). Thematic analysis has easy process to
analyses the data. Thus, with the help of this flexibility, thematic analysis enables for complex,
detailed and rich description of data. There is another way to analysis data such as snowflake i.e
is considered as a cloud native data that can assist and support data at almost any scale.
Researcher can be used snowflake as It is considered as the Cloud centric approach of data that
means data can be analysed through an unlimited number of people at the same time without any
contention of resource (Schramm-Klein.and et.al., 2016).
Ethical issues
Maintain Honesty
Ethical issues that can be consider while doing a research are honesty that means researcher need
to do honesty researcher and also implies these methods such as what to did in data, results. It
also enables that while working with others there should always keep agreements as well as act
sincerely.
Avoid careless mistakes
It is also considered take care of your research and also avert the careless mistakes. Researcher
should review their work more carefully as well as critically and also assure that results are
credible or not. It is also crucial for the researcher to keep the full records of their research (Rana
and Paul, 2017). After the Completion of research asked the peers about to review the report and
also do the job effectively and productively.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Social media marketing It is one of the most commonly used dominant platform through
which organizations can easily reach their consumers. Organization and customers can easily
interact with each other.. Social media is a platform which is used by both consumers and
organizations so it is much easier for organizations to understand and tract consumers buying
behaviour. It has also helped the organizations to increase their customer base and track their
customer’s needs, desire and requirements. Other than this, customers can also provide feedback
about organizations services and produces.
Literature review is a kind of narrative review which focuses on current knowledge
including all kinds of substantive findings, theoretical and methodological contribution to the
paper. Literature review includes all kinds of secondary sources information and no new
information or experimental work is included in it. It is quite important for a research paper as it
helps in providing a base to the research paper..
Marketing is one of most important function of organization. This is a basic process
which is used by company to make people or consumer aware of products that are provided by
company. This process is consists of various activities which are designed to provide information
to people. In the traditional method poster, television advertisement are used to communicate the
product and services of company. These methods are most effective because people are more
attracted towards the visual adds. Visuals provide more information to people and this can
encourage them to buy particular product. As per (Tuten and Solomon, 2017) in current time
there are different sources are used to perform marketing for local, national and international
marketing. The fastest growing trend in the marketing is social media marketing. There are
different benefits of social media marketing that can improvise the marketing function of
company. This also can increase the number of customer company currently have. Connectivity
of internet is everywhere and there are many people around the world are connected to it. The
connectivity to internet has provided opportunity to people to connect to the social media. These
are some most common social media sites that are used by people around world. As per the
innovation companies are using their presence at social media as platform to promote their
products and services, and they are achieving goals related to marketing effectively.
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According to (Sajid, 2016) the users of internet are continuously increasing, and people
are getting comfortable with use of social media sits. Social media marketing is a strategy that is
used by organization to improve their reach to more people. By this method organization can
target more people at same time and this thing can increase their customer base. It can benefit
organization in different ways. Social media can be considered as interdictive computer mediated
technology that help the people to share and transfer information, data, ideas, and other
expressions. This is virtual form of communication that is performed by the social media user.
This type of marketing is considered as most efficient and cost effective way of marketing
because it is cost and time efficient. It does not required extra cost to perform marketing and the
time taken in this process is short. Apart form this the result of social media marketing are vast.
Most of organization have their social medial page which is used by people of organization to
promote their product and services along with make direct communication with end point
consumer. It is the best effective way to communicate with consumers to know about their needs
and demands. It also can help the organization to make improvement in their products.
Attributes of social Media Marketing
As per (Stephen, 2016) there are various features of social media is marketing function. It
is beneficial marketing tool are- high visibility, Discipline of social media, customer
engagement, wider brand presence, more effective, Customer relation and highly creative. These
are well-known features of social media that can be utilized by the organization to improve the
revenue and customer base in the target market. The reach of social medial is vast and it is
everywhere. This is an advantage for organization that are using the social media as medium of
promotion. It can help the organization to reach to the people who are living in the remote area.
This is how organization can increase their target market to improve sales and profit. These are
some common benefits of social medial and business organization can take leverage of it.
According to (Zhu and Chen, 2015) High visibility is one of most important function of
social media. If the products and services are visible to customer then it will be so helpful for
organization to complete their organizational goals with in the time. High visibility can offer
more convenience to organization to be more creative at marketing. To maintain the customer
loyal to organization it is essential for them to engage their customer with high creative and
effective offers. By providing better information of discounts and other offers on social medial
will help the company to collect more customer views. Social medial also can be used to
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improve the global brand presence of company. By promotions on social media company can
communicate its presence on the global level. Promotion and marketing through social media is
more effective than any other method that organization can use. The traditional methods are not
effective now. People are attracted more towards the technological trends and marketing through
social media can help company to gain high attention of customers. This way of marketing is
more creative and effective for customer. In social medial marketing organization can use
different graphics and videos on the social medial platform to seek attention of people. Various
events of company and campaigns of organization can be launched on the social media and this
will help the company to communicate with the people who lives in the remote areas.
As per view of (Dwivedi, Kapoor and Chen, 2015) good Consumer relation is basic
requirement of company to generate optimum output. This is important for company to stay
aware of the requirement and demands of consumer to provide them better satisfaction. There is
no direct source of communication between company and consumer. Company can use social
media as the platform to communicate with the consumers. This will provide better feedback of
company product and services. This direct communication also can be utilized to get suggestion
from the customer to make changes in product and services of firm. It is how features of social
media is useful tool to improve the performance of organization in global market.
Consumer Behaviour Tracking
(Dahl, 2018) said that for an organization it is important to know the customer behaviour
to design the proper advertisement, product and services for them. This is not possible to track
their behaviour in the traditional form of marketing because this is not possible to evaluate how
many people have watched the promotion of company but in social media this is so easy to track
the behaviour and interest of consumer. Activity of consumers can be tracked on the social media
site by using cookies. The consumer clicks on the company promotion can be tracked to get
better data of consumer behaviour. This will help the company to know the behaviour of
consumer and develop their product and services accordingly. These are some basics that are
affective for organizational use. Consumer behaviour tracking on the social media site can
provide better result to company in the marketing operation.
Benefits of Social Media Marketing
As per (Alves, Fernandes and Raposo, 2016) there are many benefits of social media
marketing that can help the organization to be more effective at sales and marketing. For the
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competitive advantage it can become a crucial factor. It is useful for tracking the sales and brand
awareness of other companies and this information can be utilized by organization to redesign
their process of marketing and selling to make it more attractive. This also can improve the
conversion rate of company by providing many advantages in market. There are different targets
are defined by organization to meet in the future. To achieve those goals company need to
improve their marketing and promotion strategy in order to get better result with this particular
function. Social media is one of best solution for company. This is cost effective for company
and it allows the organization to reach to larger audience in the small time period. That is how
use of social media can help the organization to perform marketing on the regional, international
and national level to get better result in sales and improve the brand awareness on the global
platform.
Disadvantages of Marketing
(Hyder, 2016) has argued that apart from various benefits there many disadvantages or
social media marketing that can cost a lot to company. This is disadvantages of social media are
associated with risk of internet that can reduce the effectiveness and performance of organization
in the international market. This is easy to create the social media marketing campaign but it can
take huge time to generate the expected result. It also takes huge time to spread worldwide. In
the initial level there are many challenges are faced by the organization to established on a
particular social media platform. This process is time taking and need higher efforts to built
proper fan base. Apart from this it can lead to negative promotion of organization. Negative
comments and reviews of customer can affect the brand image of company. Other threat to
company is about the cyber attacks. Hackers can steal the classified information of company and
can create major risk to organization.
Conclusion
it has been summarized that marketing through social media is quite useful for
organizations. It can easily help the organizations to reach their customers in an easy manner. It
has been observed that many organizations to prefer such kind of socials sites for promoting the
brand. Many customers prefer to provide feedback about the product or service used by them on
social media which help the organizations to understand their customer’s reviews, their
requirements and changes that they need to bring within their products and services.
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CONCLUSION
Study concludes that Increase uses of social media platform across all over the world
leads to the belief that is a valuable tool that assist consumer engagement .Companies like Marks
& Spencer continuously used new methods and technologies to reach the target costumers and
also for behaviour of customers as well as included the brand loyalty towards the customers.
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REFERENCES
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