The Impact of Social Networking Websites on Product Sales: A Case Study of Cafe Nero

This document explores the impact of social networking websites on product sales from a consumer perspective through a case study of Cafe Nero in the Borough of Brent. It discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by Cafe Nero in utilizing social media platforms to enhance sales and profitability. The document also includes a literature review on different social media platforms, ways to improve profit margins through social media, and challenges faced by Cafe Nero in using social media platforms.

Programme: FdA Business and Management
Module: Foundation Project
Assessment Type: Research Plan
Assessment No: 1
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[The impact of social networking websites on product sales from a consumer perspective: A
case study of Cafe Nero in the Borough of Brent".]
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Research Aim.....................................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives..........................................................................................................................4
Research Questions...........................................................................................................................4
Literature Synopsis................................................................................................................................5
Literature 1: Author Name, Literature Title, Date..............................................................................5
Literature 2: Author Name, Literature Title, Date..............................................................................6
Literature 3: Author Name, Literature Title, Date..............................................................................6
Research Methodology and Rationale...................................................................................................7
RESEARCH METHOD..............................................................................................................................7
Ethical Considerations...........................................................................................................................9
Bath Spa Research Ethics Approval Form..............................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................10
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“The impact of social networking websites on product sales from a
consumer perspective: A case study of Cafe Nero in the Borough of
Brent".
Introduction
In present time, sales process is basically comprised with number of practices, which
helps a business organisation in meeting the desired goals and objectives. Including this, it is
said that there are various elements like media, technology and more which affects the sales
of products and services offered by a business organisation (Akman and Mishra, 2017). Here,
one of the crucial element that came in front i.e. social networking websites, which impacts
upon sales in both positive and negative manner. On the other hand, it is vital for business
organisations to enhance their sales, as it directly impacts positively upon profit margins and
productivity as well of the business organisation. Social media, has helped people and
business organisations in connecting and helped firm in getting much more information in
regards to what exactly the customers are looking for.
In the same way, Cafe Nero in the Borough of Brent has also started dealing with the
issue, where number of social sites like Facebook, Instagram and so on impacted in both
negative and positive sense over sales of products and services offered by this Cafe Nero
among Brent. Basically, Cafe Nero is basically a casual coffee-shop chain that consists with a
particular menu, which was found in the year of 1987 of Italian-style light dishes along with
specially blended drinks. On the other hand, investigator has developed the topic to conduct
the investigation on looking at the variations within the products sales and services offered by
them to customers based on their perspectives, that they are having.
Research Aim
Without an aim, an investigation cannot be developed and it is also may be possible
that investigator would not become able to collect the relevant data on the chosen topic
(Mimoun, Poncin and Garnier, 2017). In present research, the investigator has considered a
particular aim, which will directly lead the whole investigation to pull pit favourable
outcomes.
Research Aim - “The impact of social networking websites on product sales from a
consumer perspective: A case study of Cafe Nero in the Borough of Brent".
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Research Objectives
 Research Objective 1: To compute, 9% decline within the customers negative
responses with the help of effective social media approaches within 10 months.
 Research Objective 2: To identify the different social media platforms that can help
Cafe Nero in enhancing the customer base by 25% in near future 15 months.
 Research Objective 3: To evaluate number of ways that could help Cafe Nero in
enhancing the profitability by 12% considering social media as major element within
10 months.
Research Questions
 Research Question 1: Understanding the particular concept of social networking
websites while business perspective ?
 Research Question 2: What are the different social media platforms, which can be
utilised by Cafe Nero to sustain within the market ?
 Research Question 3: How Cafe Nero, could effectively improve profit margins
through taking in use of social media ?
 Research Question 4: What are the challenges that can be faced by Cafe Nero while
using social media platforms that considering customers perspectives ?
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Literature Synopsis
Literature 1: Author Name, Literature Title, Date
Different social media platforms, which can be utilised by Cafe Nero to sustain within
the market
According to Hollebeek and Solem, (2017), there are ample number of social media
platforms that are available for the business organisations that are performing at both
international or national level. The social media platforms all websites basically impacts upon
a business organisations sustainability in both positive and negative manner. Therefore,
sustainability cannot be developed considering social media platforms only as they can only
its impact upon customers perspectives and their perceptions for a short period of time in
regards to to what company is offering to them. Including this, some of these social media
platforms are mentioned underneath :
Facebook : this is said to be one of the crucial social media platform that really
impacts over sustainability of a business organisation like Cafe Nero. Basically, every single
business organisation mostly try to stay connected with the customers and Facebook helps
them to do so. But, any wrong feedback given by client can lead company to deal with
decline among sales of products and services offered by them. It has been found that, Cafe
Nero would required to develop much more effective promotional activities for Facebook and
offer customers with good quality products so that sustainability can easily be improvised.
Instagram : this is another crucial platform that could make or break a business
organisation. Basically, it is said that since, this platform has been one of the famous one in
present, where it will be required by the business organisation like Cafe Nero to sustain
within the market for a longer period of time. Most of the youth stage online on this social
media platform, where developing effective promotional act could lead the company to
improve their sustainability in a short period of time.
WhatsApp : over the years, social media platform has been playing a crucial role for
most of the business organisations and disc and also impact up on their sustainability.
Developing strategies and regards to promotion of products and services directly impact
positively up on sales of it. Therefore, it is much needed for Cafe Nero to improvise existing
strategies of promotional activities so that they could easily sustain in the market through
enhancing the sales of products and services offered by them.
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Literature 2: Author Name, Literature Title, Date
Cafe Nero, could effectively improve profit margins through taking in use of social
media
As mentioned by Muhammad, Dey and Weerakkody, (2018), every single business
organisation is looking forward to improve its sustainability through offering best quality
products and services. But, it is not that easy to sustain in today’s business environment due
to high competitive market where number of business companies are performing crucially
with the help of different unique and innovative approaches. In present context, social media
(Kucharska, 2017). Including this, it is also said that social media over past has been one of the
effective strategy for firms to develop effective promotional strategies for themselves that
lead them to grab number of competitive advantages and helps in improving the profit
margins. Developing number of accounts among different social media platforms like
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and many more could help firms like Cafe Nero
in grabbing good position within the market in a short period of time. Basically, social media
platforms builds the positivity among customer experiences and perceptions that they are
having in regards to the business organisations products and services. Cafe Nero, would
require to maintain their productivity and profitability, as this would directly help firm in
grabbing a good position within competitive market and this could easily be done through
developing effective and appropriate type of social media related strategies. Through this,
maximum benefits will effectively be gained by Cafe Nero in a short span.
Along with this, it is also said that social media have been an effective marketing
along with communicative tool for Cafe Nero, which is particularly an Italian coffee bar.
Social media has made a huge impact both on the business and marketing world. Traditional
marketing methods are not able to reach the target audiences as they did a decade ago with
the same effect. Marketing communication is something, which may help in representing
Cafe Nero among different levels of the targeted customers. Through this, it can also be said
with the help of appropriate and quality products along with the services, company will
become able to develop effective relationship with customers. Away with this, through
creating a friendly atmosphere, by integrating local environment and culture, Cafe Nero have
proved to be customer focused. On a business perspective, to increase sales and to gain
competitive advantage the company has been trying to communicate its products and services
to the consumers through different marketing communication tools.
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Literature 3: Author Name, Literature Title, Date
Challenges that can be faced by Cafe Nero while using social media platforms that
considering customers perspectives
As mentioned by HEATH, (2019), using social media or any other channel is not an
easy task for a business organisation as social media has had a tremendous impact over
business firms in both negative and positive manner over past decades. Along with this, as
mentioned by various researchers is that social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have
transformed the way that people communicate and, in the process, have changed the way that
businesses interact with customers.
Away with this, social media’s influence runs deeper than customer engagement.
Departments like market research, sales, product development, human resources and so on,
are launching successful campaigns (Marchand, Hennig-Thurau and Wiertz, 2017). But, these
has also carried number of challenges as well, that a business organisation like Cafe Nero
deals with and these are presented underneath:
Measuring Social Media ROI : Social media ROI is what Cafe Nero, business gets
back from the time, money and resources that the company putting towards social media
marketing. Along with this, there are number of things, which needs to be considered by a
particular company and i.e. social media ROI as it is totally different from traditional online
marketing. It can be hard to see the value of Cafe Nero's Tweet or post getting shared
compared to clicks on an ad.
Turning Employees Into Brand Advocates : This is said to be one of the challenge,
that Cafe Nero faces because, there are a number of cases came in front, where it's staff has
posted number of negative comments against the company. This has brought less reliability
on employees and impacted on customer's perspectives as well. In this context, around 41%
of respondents said employees are the most credible source of information regarding a
business. Making sure for the team is sharing the right information by educating them on
Cafe Nero’s history, products and goals.
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Research Methodology and Rationale
RESEARCH METHOD
Research Methodology consists of various methods which have been incorporated by
various investigators so as to ensure effectiveness in whole research which is helpful in
enhancing their knowledge on a particular topic. It is a process which is selected by
researcher to choose, gather and interpret all information of a particular topic (Agnihotri and
et. al., 2017). To make a research more effective topic of present report id “impact of social
marketing websites on sales of products based on opinion of customers” on Cafe Nero,
investigator has used a method of questionnaire as a methodological approach to conduct
research in more effective way. Questionnaire is a method which is a method used for
collecting primary information. Investigator has mainly adopted this method in doing the
research with the help of a reliable source of collecting data. It is easy to collect first hand
data and then conduct the research based on that data. This source has a benefit that that this
is a cost effective source as compared to other sources of collecting data. Using questionnaire
helps in allowing researcher in saving of time. Questionnaire is also very helpful in
development of research objectives and also for literature review. In this research there are 20
respondents which have been selected for this research work. Participants are customers and
they have been selected on a random basis. The major target behind choosing customers as
respondents is that overall perspective of consumers is very important in this research work.
To understand the views of customers. Involving customers at various levels is very essential
according to objectives of this research (Xiao and Benbasat, 2018).
Every research has some limitations which can affect outcomes of a research in a
negative manner. Major limitation with this questionnaire is that there are some close ended
questions which may lead to respondents not bale to share their actual responses or what they
actually feel about that particular scenario. This is because answer can be provided based on
the available options with respondents, this poses limitation on what can be answered. This
leads to researcher being able to collect very limited information only and broad response of
respondent cannot be gathered in this approach. Many time this is also a situation that right
information is not provided by respondents as they may feel that the information which they
are providing can be misused by researcher. This may lead to respondent being reluctant in
providing accurate information to researcher. This will lead to non achievement of objectives
laid down at the beginning of research. All these are major limitation of research work which
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can pose a barrier in overall achievement of objectives of research work. Apart from all the
negative aspects it can be said that questionnaire is the best method which can be used by
researcher in conducting the research in a more better way and achieving laid objectives in
the time specified. Valid outcomes can be obtained by usage of questionnaire as a way of
collecting information by investigators in their research (Kujur and Singh, 2017).
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Ethical Considerations
Bath Spa Research Ethics Approval Form
Student name
Programme and/or module FdA Business and Management and Foundation
Project
Title of the proposed research
project:
“The impact of social networking websites on
product sales from a consumer perspective: A
case study of Cafe Nero in the Borough of
Brent".
Number and type of proposed
participants
20 respondents are selected where targeted
individuals belongs to Borough of Brent and are
the customers of Cafe Nero.
How is permission being sought
from the participants and/or their
parents/carers?
Authorization will going to be taken from
respondents that is clients with assistance of
assent structure so as to get most extreme data
for the equivalent.
How is participants’ anonymity to
be preserved?
Data got from number number of respondents
will be protected in PC and cloud system so as
to safeguard it for longer time frame.
Describe the research methods
proposed (e.g. interviews,
classroom observations)
Within this investigation, Questionnaire strategy
is picked by investigator which goes under
essential research technique.
List the ethical issues and potential
risks associated with the research
methods outlined above (e.g.
confidentiality) and how you
propose to deal with each of these.
The problem, which is ethical in nature is near
to the scope of the investigation. The primary
issues among them are identified with privacy
and steadiness of the overall quality of
information. There are higher possibilities that
respondents probably won't give genuine data to
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investigators in light of the fact that as per them
research might elaborate the information, which
has been given by them. This impacts them to
not give individual information. So as to beat
this, researcher have persuaded all picked
clients by clearing on them significance of this
research with the goal that they can alter their
perspective while giving information.
Describe how your findings will be
reported or disseminated
Findings and the results of the research are
going to be accounted through considering the
associations legitimate websites, that are
available for investigators.
I have read the University’s
Process and Procedure for the
Approval of Research Activity
(please sign and date)
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References
Agnihotri, R. and et. al., 2017. Examining the role of sales-based CRM technology and social
media use on post-sale service behaviors in India. Journal of Business Research. 81.
pp.144-154.
Akman, I. and Mishra, A., 2017. Factors influencing consumer intention in social commerce
adoption. Information Technology & People. 30(2). pp.356-370.
HEATH, S., 2019. System and method for social networking interactions using online
consumer browsing behavior, buying patterns, advertisements and affiliate
advertising, for promotions, online coupons, mobile services, products, goods and
services, entertainment and auctions, with geospatial mapping technology. U.S.
Patent 10,217,117.
Hollebeek, L. D. and Solem, B. A., 2017. The consumer engagement/return on social media
engagement interface: development of a conceptual model. In Contemporary Issues
in Social Media Marketing (pp. 132-148). Routledge.
Kucharska, W., 2017. Consumer social network brand identification and personal branding.
How do social network users choose among brand sites?. Cogent Business &
Management. 4(1). p.1315879.
Kujur, F. and Singh, S., 2017. Engaging customers through online participation in social
networking sites. Asia Pacific Management Review. 22(1). pp.16-24.
Marchand, A., Hennig-Thurau, T. and Wiertz, C., 2017. Not all digital word of mouth is
created equal: Understanding the respective impact of consumer reviews and
microblogs on new product success. International Journal of Research in
Marketing. 34(2). pp.336-354.
Mimoun, M. S. B., Poncin, I. and Garnier, M., 2017. Animated conversational agents and e-
consumer productivity: The roles of agents and individual
characteristics. Information & Management. 54(5). pp.545-559.
Muhammad, S. S., Dey, B. L. and Weerakkody, V., 2018. Analysis of factors that influence
customers’ willingness to leave big data digital footprints on social media: A
systematic review of literature. Information Systems Frontiers. 20(3). pp.559-576.
Xiao, B. and Benbasat, I., 2018. An empirical examination of the influence of biased
personalized product recommendations on consumers' decision making
outcomes. Decision Support Systems. 110. pp.46-57.
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