Research Methods and Ethics

This study material explores the research methods and ethics in the context of e-marketing strategies and their impact on business performance. It includes a case study on Audi, a leading automotive manufacturer. The material covers topics such as the concept of e-marketing, issues faced by Audi, and the relationship between e-marketing and business performance. It also provides a literature review and research design.

Research Methods and
Ethics
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Title .................................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................3
1.1 Overview of the research topic .............................................................................................3
1.2 Research aim..........................................................................................................................3
1.3 Research Objectives ..............................................................................................................4
1.4 Research problem ..................................................................................................................4
1.5 Research question .................................................................................................................4
1.6 Sub-questions of research .....................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................5
2.1 Introduction to literature review ...........................................................................................5
2.2 Explain about the concept of E-marketing in context of Audi? ............................................5
2.3 What issue faced by Audi while using E-marketing strategies? ..........................................6
2.4 What are the relationship between E-marketing and business performance? .......................7
2.5 Conclusion of literature review .............................................................................................8
Chapter 3: Research design .............................................................................................................9
3.1 Research strategy...................................................................................................................9
3.2 Methodology .........................................................................................................................9
3.3 Constraints ..........................................................................................................................10
3.4 Research philosophy ...........................................................................................................10
3.5 Outline Project plan ...........................................................................................................11
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REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................14
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Title
To investigate the issue faced by automotive manufacturers while using E-marketing
strategies and its influence on their business performance. A secondary research on Audi".
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Overview of the research topic
E-marketing refers to the systematic process of marketing a product and service by using
internet. This type of marketing not only includes marketing on the internet, but also covers
marketing done through wireless media and e-mail. E-marketing uses a different number of
technologies to support to connect business to their clients (Abu Bakar and Ahmed, 2015). There
are different types of e-marketing strategies that were employed by automotive manufacturers
such as SEO, PPC, PR, social media marketing, content marketing, affiliate marketing, paid
advertising, influencer marketing etc. All these are effective types of e-marketing strategies that
were used by automobile industry for marketing and promoting their products or service to the
customers or in marketplace. These strategies helped overall manufacturing industry by
increasing customer base and maximising sales.
For this research proposal Audi is a chosen automobile manufactures that designs,
produces, markets and distributes luxury vehicles. It was founded in 1910 by August Horch and
headquartered in Ingolstadt, Germany. Audi has an energetic participation in sponsoring
different number of sport ventures. In addition print media, television and net marketing,
company furthermore engages celebrities to recommend the product. Along with this, company
used different number of e-marketing strategies such as social media marketing, SEO etc. These
are effective for them in maintaining of strong relationship with customers and also retain them
for longer time that resulted in higher growth and improved brand image. Along with this, E-
marketing strategies supported company to increase their business performance by providing
accurate information about the product and services speedily through internet (Ahmad and Saber,
2015).
1.2 Research aim
Main aim of this research proposal is “To investigate the issue faced by automotive
manufacturers while using E-marketing strategies and its influence on their business
performance”. A secondary research on Audi".
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1.3 Research Objectives
 To gather an understanding on concept of E-marketing
 To determine issue faced by Audi while using E-marketing strategies.
 To ascertain the relationship between E-marketing and business performance.
1.4 Research problem
This research proposal is based on E-marketing strategies and its influence on business
performance of Audi within automotive industry. Main purpose of doing this research is to
identify literature gap in previous study. Within an investigation main research gap is the
influence of e-marketing strategies on business performance. In previous study, there is
information about the influence of e-marketing strategies over performance of an organisation,
but there is lack of data about the influence of types of e-marketing strategies. In order to fulfil
this gap, present research will be conducted (Ali and Hashim, 2017). Along with this, one of the
main problems faced by manufacturing industry is how to connect with customers, in order to
reduce this issue, e-marketing strategies will be employed because this helps an organisation to
connect their customers towards products and also increase their sales easily.
1.5 Research question
 What are the issue faced by automotive manufacturers while using E-marketing strategies
and its influence on their business performance?
1.6 Sub-questions of research
 Explain about the concept of E-marketing in context of Audi?
 What issue faced by Audi while using E-marketing strategies?
 What are the relationship between E-marketing and business performance?
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Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Introduction to literature review
Literature review refers to the systematic and useful process of collecting secondary
information by using number of sources such as magazines, books, journals, articles, company’s
websites, publication research etc. All these are main sources that will be used for collecting
secondary data about the influence of e-marketing strategies over business performance of an
organisation (Khraim, 2015). Main purpose of this section is to identify the research gap and
main gap of this research was discussed in research problem. In order to fulfil this gap, sub
questions of research will be applied because it facilitate in collecting of secondary data and also
achievement of research aim and objectives systematically. Sub questions of this research will be
explained as below:
2.2 Explain about the concept of E-marketing in context of Audi?
According to the Belyh (2017), E-marketing refers to the effective process and mix of
modern marketing communication that market usually applies. E-marketing emphasis on
marketing of company or products online by using direct or indirect marketing features on the
internet. This will help an organisation to connect new customers, retain existing customers and
develop a storing brand identity. E-marketing, via online resources and tools, can be followed by
company through direct emails, SMS, text messaging, blogs, web pages, banners, videos,
pictures, advertisements i.e. pay per click, display, social media advertising etc. In addition, e-
marketing refers to an interactive process or procedures, when following information technology
with purpose or maintaining long term relationship between the organisation and customers.
Main characteristics of e-marketing are customer oriented, identified as a process, supported of
information technology and based on mutual relation, communication.
On the other hand, Li, Wang and Yu, (2015), E-marketing refers to the process of planning
as well as executing the conception, allocation, promotion, pricing and selling of products or
services in a automated, networked environment, for example the World Wide Web and
Internet , to assist exchanges and fulfil customer’s demands and requirements. It has two
different benefits over traditional marketing. E-marketing gives clients with more expediency
and more competitive prices, and it facilitates businesses to decrease operational costs.
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According to the Pratap (2019), In context of Audi, there are four overlapping rings of that
helps Audi in creating of brand image in the customer’s mind. Audi is aggressively involved
within the sponsorship of a lot of sporting enterprises. They also invite celebrities to promote the
product, as well to television, print media and internet marketing. All these are considering basic
types of promotion used by Audi to promote and market their luxury products. Audi used
different number of social media strategy such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter,
LinkedIn etc. All these are considering effective e-marketing strategies that were used by Audi
for marketing their products and attracting more customers easily.
2.3 What issue faced by Audi while using E-marketing strategies?
According to the Caulton (2020), there are different types of e-marketing strategies or
digital marketing that were used by automotive manufacturing industry for marketing their
products and increasing strong relationship with the customers. Some main e-marketing
strategies will be explained as below:
Social media marketing: Role of this type of e-marketing strategy within automotive
manufacturing industry is reaching out to more of potential customers by involving and engaging
with them through the number of social media websites that they are following. These are
Facebook, Twitter & Instagram and even more niche social networking platforms. For example:
Audi’s impact on Instagram is highly effective. It has around 13 million followers and a full
engagement which indicates huge attain and popularity. Audi’s engagement stage is exceptional
on Instagram and even better than Facebook. It has made approximately 1,861 posts and
acquired masses of hundreds of likes on every one. There are loads of responses on each from
followers who cheer Audi and its today's models. Audi’s posts are specifically promotional but
the organization engages its users on a number of other subjects too such as technology,
innovation, sustainability and driving force safety.
Search Engine Optimisation: The main purpose of automotive Search Engine
Optimisation is to drive more organic traffic to business website. In simple terms, it means
getting business website to put in an appearance on Google as well as many other search engines
(if possible on page one) for keywords that potential customers of an organisation are searching
for. This will helped automotive manufacturing industry by increasing traffic from search engine
via organic means that resulted in high number of customer’s involvement (Maziriri, 2018).
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Press Release: Thus is another type of e-marketing strategy employed by automotive
manufacturing industry. Press Release is using the press as well as other media organisations
such as local, national, or international with purpose to earn more exposure for their brand, and
to get their name in front of related people. This is frequently completed by financing on industry
developments or company milestones. This helped business by maximising press exposure of
their business.
Above mentioned all are main e-marketing strategies used by Audi. While using traditional
marketing, company faced different issues such as higher cost, lack of customer base etc. These
are main issues that negatively impact on business performance of Audi. In order to overcome
these issues, company used e-marketing strategy that was effective because it save their tome
and also helps in attraction of large customers easily.
2.4 What are the relationship between E-marketing and business performance?
According to the Oza (2020), E-marketing has positive relationship with automotive
manufacturing industry or Audi because it has to provide different benefits to them. Some
benefits and advantages of e-marketing will be described as below:
Brand development: Company used their digital platforms that will help them in building
of their brand reputation in market and in customer’s mind. A well-developed website, useful
articles and a blog featuring quality, a social media channel that is extremely interactive are a
number of ways through which an automotive manufacture can build its brand.
Hugh return on investment: Nothing matters more to an organisation than the return on
the investment it makes. E-marketing provides a large return on small investments. E-marketing
is the best way for an organisation in attracting of large number of customers in minimum time
period. This will helps company by increasing its sales and return on investment (Momany and
Alshboul, 2016).
Low cost: Marketing as well as advertising cost refers to the biggest financial burdens that
Audi have to bear. For this, E-marketing strategy is more effective and useful because it will
helps an organisation by reducing the cost of traditional ways of marketing.
Therefore, above mentioned information has been determined that e-marketing is a best
and positive part for increasing business performance and success easily. Along with this, by
using e-marketing Audi can enhanced customer base, increased sales, improved performance etc.
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2.5 Conclusion of literature review
From the above mentioned secondary information it has been concluded that e-marketing is
a wide concept that support automotive manufactures by developing strong relationship with
customers and also improving their brand image in marketplace and in customer’s mind.
Different types of e-marketing strategies employed by manufacturing industry like social media
marketing, pay per click, press release etc. All these are effective and useful for company
because with the help of e-marketing, they were created and build strong relationship, increased
sales and leads, increased press exposure for business etc. Therefore, e-marketing has positive
relationship with an organisation by increasing their business performance and sucess at
marketplace.
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Chapter 3: Research design
This is an important part of research because this will facilitate researcher in identification
of research problem. There are basically three types of research design which are exploratory,
descriptive and experimental. All these are suitable but according to the current topic or
secondary research exploratory research design has been followed because it gives insights into
the general nature of an issue. Therefore as compare to other research design, exploratory type
helps in analysing of secondary data easily (Oluwaseun and Adeyemi, 2015).
Research approach: There are basically two types of research approach which named are
inductive and deductive. Both are consider effective approach of analysing data but for doing
current study over the E-marketing strategies of Audi, inductive approach has been applied
because it use research questions with aim to narrow the scope of study. On the other hand,
deductive approach is not suitable within an investigation because it is completely based on
primary research and need primary data (Patel, 2015).
Nature of research questions: Nature of research question is mainly related with the
conceptual investigation because this research is completely based on secondary research and
data must be collected from the systematic literature review (Prabowo, Hamsal and Simatupang,
2019).
3.1 Research strategy
There are different types of research strategies that are suitable in collecting of information
regarding specific field of study. These strategies are case study research, interview, surveys,
experimental research, action research or systematic literature review. For collecting secondary
data about the E-marketing strategies employed by automotive manufacturers and their influence
on business performance Audi, systematic literature review has been used because it provide
detailed and accurate information (Varghese and Sudhahar, 2017).
3.2 Methodology
There are two types of methodology for data collection and data analysis which are
primary research and secondary research. For performing each activity of current study,
secondary research will be used because it gives accurate information about the topic. In order to
gather secondary data for systematic literature review, there is requirement of using number of
secondary sources such as magazines, books, auricles, publication research, website of Audi and
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many other sources relevant to the study. All these are effective sources for researcher in
gathering of secondary and in-depth information about the topic.
3.3 Constraints
There are number of constraints that may be face by researcher while doing secondary
research over E-marketing strategies and its influence on business performance Audi. These
constraints are lack of relevant literature, time, cost, and data may be out-of date or inaccurate
etc. These are major constraints that will be face by investigator during collecting and analysing
of secondary information for systematic literature review. Secondary data are not always
obtainable for strategy-specific research questions. Secondary data sources are more inadequate
and more expensive to obtain as well as utilize information. Secondary data are gathered
purposely for the research issue under investigation (Wang and Kim, 2017). Along with this,
research will also face issue of time and cost in collecting of secondary data because for this,
they require accurate amount of capital for using different sources and also need maximum time
for gathering data about the topic.
3.4 Research philosophy
Research philosophy introduces to the set of main beliefs relating to the worldview or
stance from which the investigation is conducted. It is typically studied in form of ontology and
epistemology. At this time, ontology introduces to the authenticity or validity of the data and
how an individual know its subsistence, while epistemology introduces to the valid data needed
for the study and how an individual can get it. Philosophical positions followed in academic
research are often classified into positivism and interpretivisim. Positivism assumes that
information is independent of the topic being studied, whereas interpretivisim claims that person
observers have their own understanding and perception of reality. According to the current
investigation, interpretivisim philosophy is more suitable and appropriate for researcher because
it will helps researcher in collecting and analysing of secondary information easily. As compare
to positivism philosophy, interpretivisim type of philosophy is more appropriate and useful
because it focuses on secondary information and helps researcher in gaining of valid outcomes
easily (Ziggers and Henseler, 2016).
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3.5 Outline Project plan
This is an effective and essential part that will be based on time. For this part of study,
Gantt chart will be used because it is a time management tool and facilitate researcher in
completion of full study within set time period. This chart includes number of activities that will
be beneficial for researcher in conducting and completing of secondary research effectively and
systematically (Abu Bakar and Ahmed, 2015). Gantt chart according to the current investigation
will be shown as below apart from their starting and ending time period.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abu Bakar, A. R. and Ahmed, Z. U., 2015. Technology motivation in e-marketing adoption
among Malaysian manufacturers. Journal of Transnational Management. 20(2).
pp.126-152.
Ahmad, S. Z. and Saber, H., 2015. Understanding marketing strategies with particular reference
to small-and medium-sized hotel businesses in the United Arab Emirates. Tourism
and Hospitality Research. 15(2). pp.115-129.
Ali, R. and Hashim, A. B., 2017. Integrating Policies, Practices and E-Marketing Examination on
Customer Satisfaction Capability for Scholarly Publishing in Malaysian Public
Universities. International Journal of Human and Technology Interaction
(IJHaTI). 1(1). pp.01-12.
Khraim, H. S., 2015. The Impact of Search Engine Optimization on Online Advertisement: The
Case of Companies using E-Marketing in Jordan. American Journal of Business and
Management. 4(2). pp.76-84.
Li, X., Wang, Y. and Yu, Y., 2015. Present and future hotel website marketing activities: Change
propensity analysis. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 47. pp.131-
139.
Maziriri, E. T., 2018. The Impact of green marketing practices on competitive advantage and
business performance among manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in
South Africa (Doctoral dissertation).
Momany, M. and Alshboul, A., 2016. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: UTILIZING SOCIAL
MEDIA TO ADVANCE BRAND AWARENESS AND INCREASE ONLINE
SALES. International Journal of Business, Marketing, & Decision Science, 9(1).
Oluwaseun, O. M. and Adeyemi, I. I., 2015. E-marketing and firm’s profitability in the Nigerian
paints industry: The analysis of before and after adoption. American Journal of
Engineering, Technology and Society. 2(5). p.111.
Patel, J., 2015. Strutegies of E-Marketing: A Review of Theoretical and Empirical
Evidence. Quality Management Practices for Global Excellence. 1. p.446.
Prabowo, H., Hamsal, M. and Simatupang, B., 2019, August. e-Marketing and Service Quality
on Repurchase Intention of Online Transportation. In 2019 International Conference
on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech) (Vol. 1, pp. 324-329).
IEEE.
Varghese, J. and Sudhahar, C. J., 2017. Influence of Service Quality in Online Car Portals on
Young Customers. SMART Journal of Business Management Studies. 13(1). pp.56-
64.
Wang, Z. and Kim, H. G., 2017. Can social media marketing improve customer relationship
capabilities and firm performance? Dynamic capability perspective. Journal of
Interactive Marketing, 39. pp.15-26.
Ziggers, G. W. and Henseler, J., 2016. The reinforcing effect of a firm's customer orientation and
supply-base orientation on performance. Industrial marketing management. 52.
pp.18-26.
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Articles
Belyh. A., 2017. E-Marketing. [Online] Available through :< https://www.cleverism.com/e-
marketing-definition-tips-best-practices/>
Pratap. A., 2019. Audi social media strategy. [Online] Available through :<
https://notesmatic.com/2019/01/audi-social-media-strategy/>
Caulton. T., 2020. Marketing Strategies For Automotive Industry. [Online] Available through :<
https://dijitul.uk/marketing-strategies-for-automotive-industry/>
Oza. H., 2020. Advantages Of Digital Marketing Over Traditional Marketing. [Online]
Available through :<https://prowly.com/magazine/advantages-of-digital-marketing-over-
traditional-marketing/>
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