Social Media's Impact on B2B Sales and Branding

This assignment delves into the profound impact of social media on B2B sales and branding strategies. Students are tasked with analyzing a collection of academic articles that examine how social media use in B2B sales affects competitive intelligence gathering and adaptive selling techniques. The role of learning orientation as a key enabler is also explored. Furthermore, the assignment investigates the synergistic effects of social media and traditional marketing on brand sales, highlighting the importance of capturing time-varying effects. Finally, it considers the impact of social media on retail network operations and customer satisfaction.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PROJECT
Role of Social media and Digital marketing in creating brand awareness in Australian Retail
Sectors
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Definition and key concept....................................................................................................3
1.2 Background of the study in professional context..................................................................3
1.3 Literature Review..................................................................................................................4
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives................................................................................................8
1.5 Research Questions................................................................................................................9
2.0 Methodology..............................................................................................................................9
2.1 General approach...................................................................................................................9
2.2 Population and sampling......................................................................................................10
2.3 Analytical approach.............................................................................................................10
3.0 Result.......................................................................................................................................11
4.0 Discussion and Conclusion......................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Definition and key concept
Digital marketing and social media have a correlation as both are used as the marketing
tool in the business. However, in the new era, modern marketers need to understand the
importance of social media marketing in business in order to detect the new leads. Hence, it is
important to understand the concept of digital marketing and social media marketing and their
working nature (Dekoulou et al., 2017). Digital marketing is considered as the umbrella to
encompass all the marketing efforts in order to increase the brand awareness. Media marketing,
e-mail, blogging, mobile marketing SEM, and SEO are the examples of digital marketing. On the
other hand, social media includes Facebook, Twitter to enhance the brand value. Social media
marketing is considered as the latest version of digital marketing.
This study deals with the role of social media and digital marketing to create brand
awareness among the Australian retail sectors. However, critical factors of social media
marketing will be discussed in this section. However, by using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin,
Tumbler, Snapchat, and Google+ the business organizations promote their brand through
digitization. However, it is important to get a clear concept that social media marketing is a part
of digital marketing. In the present years, social media marketing is a popular marketing tool to
promote the business by creating the brand awareness (Gainsbury et al., 2016).
1.2 Background of the study in professional context
Social media is a vital part o digital marketing and according to meet the current demand
of the market, the retail sectors use this marketing approach. However, in Australian retail,
sectors web marketing, blogging; SEM, mobile marketing and SEO are very popular as the

digital marketing. On the other hand, social media provides scope to the retailers to connect with
the million consumers from different geographical regions (Mena & Bourlakis, 2016).
Traditional marketing is too expensive and time-consuming to create the brand awareness while
social media marketing is a cost-efficient way and less time-consuming. In order to minimize the
hectic process and high cost in traditional marketing can be reduced by the social media as well
digital marketing in the context of retail sectors. However, the web has been evolving day by day
as a result people get more opportunities to get more knowledge about a brand. In the previous,
the internet was static and few content developers are engaged in web developing.
Over the time, the technology becomes advanced and many technical experts are
involved in the web development, which improves the digital marketing. However, in the recent
years, people spend more time and money in their online shopping. According to the statistics,
14% of the online sale has increased in last year in Australian retail sectors (Kasemsap, 2017).
Social communities are the vital areas to promote a brand and make a connection with the target
audience. However, social media provides a platform for the people to share their psychological
urge by talking and sharing perspectives (Scott et al., 2017). However, it has been found that a
third of the women and 40% of the men prefer to purchase a brand that is recommended by their
friends. Based on this the marketers use social media as the tool of digital marketing to develop
the brand awareness in the public domain.
1.3 Literature Review
Concept of digital and social media marketing
Digital marketing has drawn a lot of attention of the customers and the business
organization towards a brand. However, as a part of digital marketing social media plays an

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important role in generating brand awareness in the customer domain (Suh, 2017). However, the
digital marketing has various tools while social media is most popular among the digital
marketing tools. Blogging, SEO, e-mail, SMO and web content are beneficial to develop the
brand awareness by promoting the business of an organization. Therefore, the proliferation of the
social media on the marketing attracts the customers to a brand or a particular service. However,
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin are the most popular social media that are widely used to
promote business in the Australian retail sectors. The retailers mostly used Linkedin to create
brand awareness among the customers.
Factors influencing application of digital marketing and social media
Cost-effectiveness is one of the biggest factors that lead the organization to use social
media as a promotional tool in comparison to other tools of digital marketing (Ramanathan et al.,
2017). However, traditional marketing campaign includes radio, television cultural events that
are costly to create brand awareness. Hence, application of social media through Facebook,
Twitter is a cost-efficient process to provide information via online to the customers regarding a
product or brand.
Time saving is vital while promoting a brand, however, in the traditional marketing, the
marketers need to give more effort to provide information to the customers regarding a new
brand (Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2017). Therefore, it is difficult for the marketers to cover a
large population in the single time from different geographical regions. Therefore, use of digital
marketing and social media marketing is effective to communicate with a large number of people
at the same time. Therefore, it is helpful for the retailers to save their time during the creation of
brand awareness among the population.

Technological incorporation is another factor that influences the business organizations
to use the digital marketing and social media to improve the brand value as well as the brand
awareness in the consumer domain. However, in the recent years, business is technology oriented
and to cope with the emerging technology it is essential for the business organizations to
incorporate new technology in their marketing tool to enhance the brand awareness (Weitzl et al.,
2017). Digital marketing and social media give the scope to the Australia retailers to utilize the
benefits of the social media. In Australia people is addicted to the social media. Hence, brand
promotion via social media allows the consumers to gain knowledge about the new brand on
their social networking sites. This creates brand awareness as well as brand value for a particular
organization.
Generational theory of digital marketing
According to this theory, consumers who are the same age have the similar choice and
purchasing behavior as they share their experience regarding their shopping (Kumar, Choi &
Greene, 2017). This theory has a relation with the digital marketing in a way in which the young
generation shares their choices on their social networking sites via online and the marketers can
access their needs easily. Hence, by developing social media marketing as a part of digital
marketing the retailers especially the fashion retailers are able to influence the customers by
posting information on a new brand on the social networking sites. However, by following this
theory the marketers are able to advertise their products via digital marketing tool.
Role of digital marketing and social media in developing brand awareness
Digital marketing offers a good branding source by using the advanced technology
through different electronic tools (Wang & Kim, 2017). In the traditional marketing, the non-

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electronic media such as newspapers, leaflets, pamphlets, banners and the electronic media like
television and radio are used to promote a brand in the customer domain. However, in this
traditional marketing campaign, it is not possible for the marketers to measure the effectiveness
of the promotional campaign. Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the vital tools of
digital marketing. Yahoo and Google are the most popular search engines that allow the users to
enter in a company website to get information about their product or service. However, such
digital marketing is vital for the online retail marketers to get more traffic. As mentioned by
Itani, Agnihotri and Dingus, (2017), the customer gets quick access to the company product and
service. The digital marketing provides a visible evidence of the product to the customers that
influence them to purchase the product of a particular brand.
Social media plays an important role in the development of the brand image by
delivering product message to the customers (Molinillo et al., 2017). However, in the modern
era, the people have a great attachment to the social networking sites and they spend a long time
on different social media. Hence, use of social media as a marketing tool is an effective approach
to build brand image. As argued by Wang and Kim, (2017), social media has positive as well as
negative aspects. The retailers create a web page and share it via Google Plus, Facebook, and
Twitter. As a result, the product information easily reaches to the customer domain. Social
marketing strategy enables the business owners to engage a large audience with different
resourceful messages in order to get significant outcomes. Through the Facebook, an
organization is able to provide detail information to the customers in an attractive way.
Social media generates a platform for the consumers to make a connection with the
organization. Therefore, the target buyers get an insight regarding the brand as well as the
product and service (Zahoor, & Qureshi, 2017). However, the contents are presenting in a

balancing way in social media to give a clear idea to the consumers about the product or service.
Therefore, use of right social channels such as Facebook the retailers get more traffic. Social
media marketing develops a stronger relationship with the customers by creating brand
awareness. According to Australian social media statistics it has been observed that in the year
2017, 17,000,000 users are actively use social media per month. Approx 7 out of 10 users are
addicted to the social media, which ensures the success of the social media marketing in creating
brand awareness.
Challenges regarding the use of social media and digital marketing in creating brand value
Application of the social media as a marketing tool is an emerging technique of today.
However, several challenges are associated with the digital marketing as well as the social media
marketing (Hult & Sjölund, 2017). One of the major challenges is to choose the right audience. It
is often difficult for the business organizations to select the proper target audience through social
media as several people use it. Therefore, it is not possible for the retailers to cover the people
from rural areas through social media marketing. Hence, it is difficult to identify the people
having social media. On the other hand, accessing the data is another obstacle of digital
marketing as due to the technical issue often data of the customer are difficult to access. Apart
from this network, problem and breach of personal information are another challenges of digital
marketing that affect the brand image (Clark et al., 2017).
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives
This current study aims to identify the role of social media and digital marketing in
generating brand awareness in the Australian retail sectors.
Objectives

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 To understand the concept of social media and digital marketing
 To identify the factors influencing the application of social media marketing and digital
marketing in Australian retail sectors
 To evaluate the function of social media and digital marketing in enhancing brand
awareness of Australian retail sectors
 To recommend the methods to develop the use of social media and digital marketing
1.5 Research Questions
 What are the roles of social media and digital marketing to create brand awareness in
Australian retail sectors?
 What is the significance of the application of social media and digital marketing in the
Australian retail sectors?
 What are the ways to enhance the application of social media and digital marketing in
Australian retail sectors?
2.0 Methodology
2.1 General approach
This current research study is based on secondary data. Hence, secondary research
methodology has been taken in this study. However, secondary analysis is an authentic process
to get accurate data on the selected topic (Humphries, 2017). Therefore, post-positivism
philosophy has been taken in this section. Positivism philosophy is associated with the logical
observation and statistical data analysis. Positivism philosophy is an independent process and
includes the hypothesis.

Note: General approach includes research approach, philosophy and the design method of
a research. The secondary data is obtained by reviewing the articles through different data
bases. Exclusion and inclusion criteria are used for the selection of journals. Positivism
philosophy is logical approach.
Deductive approach highlights on the hypothesis method. Therefore, the deductive
approach is based on the existing concepts and theories from which the secondary information
has been gathered (Horvath, 2017). This approach allows the researcher to collect secondary
information from the valid journals. The descriptive design is suitable for this study as it focuses
on the current barriers regarding the research methodology that allows the researcher to carry out
the research method properly. On the other hand, deductive approach and descriptive design
methods are chosen for this current study.
2.2 Population and sampling
Sampling techniques include probability and non-probability techniques (Fletcher, 2017).
However, in this current study probability technique has been selected to collect data. However,
In the study, there are two variables one is dependent and another is independent. Role of social
media and digital marketing is independent variable while the role of social media and digital
marketing in creating brand awareness in Australian retail sectors is the dependent variable.
Note: Deductive approach highlights on the hypothesis and descriptive design focuses on
the methodological issues.

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2.3 Analytical approach
The analytical approach includes the cause-effect analysis in a research (Cvetkovic &
Medic, 2017). In this present research, study data is collected through the secondary data
collection method from the different journal articles. Journals are collected from various
databases. Therefore, inclusion and exclusion criteria are used to select journals from the
databases. Themes are developed to analyze the data. Maintenance of validity and reliability is a
big factor of data collection method. However, no data can be manipulated and it should be
presented according to its original form. Therefore, proper citation is needed.
Outcomes
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, it has been found that digital marketing and
social media have great impact on the retail marketing in Australia as 7 users out of 10 are
addicted to facebook, which ensures the success of the social media in business performance.
This fulfills the objective three that is associated with the function of social media in creating the
brand awareness in Australian retail sectors. According to Journal of Research in Interactive
Marketing, (Clark et al., 2017) it has been occupied that time saving, cost effectiveness and
technological marketing are the basic three factors of social media marketing that leads the
Australian retail sectors to use social media marketing for creating brand awareness. This
outcome fulfills the objective three, which is associated with the factors of the social media
marketing. According to the journal of Business Research (Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., &
Hinsch, 2017) the concept off social media marketing is understood, which reveals that social
media marketing is a part of digital marketing that has been using rapidly to establish the brand

awareness. This fulfills the objective 1, which highlights on the concept of social media
marketing.
3.0 Result
The current study reveals the function of digital and social media marketing in generating
brand value in the retail sectors of Australia. However, the social media is a popular tool for
digital marketing in the modern era (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). According to the secondary
analysis in the literature review section, it has been found that application of social media is
crucial for the business sectors to develop their brand image and brand value. It has been
received that to communicate with a large population digital marketing as well as social media
marketing is necessary. In Australia, social media marketing is considered as the popular way to
create brand awareness among the customers.
On the other hand, the generational theory is effective for the retailers to understand the
importance of the social media application. However, reduction in cost and time are the main
two components that encourage the marketers to adopt digital marketing to enhance their brand
awareness campaign. From this study, it has been observed that social media is part of digital
marketing while digital marketing includes another marketing tool like SEO, web content and e-
mail. Among the tools, social media is most popular in digital marketing. It can be said that
digital marketing is a current marketing technique that needs to adopt for each business
(Humphries, 2017). As per the above discussion, it has been received that social media
marketing has some negative aspects besides its advantages. Breaking in the confidentiality of
the personal data and data accessing are the major challenges of digital and social media
marketing. Hence, it has been observed that the digital and online marketing have both

13PROFESSIONAL PROJECT
advantages and disadvantages in promoting brand awareness in public domain. It has been found
that the percentage of Facebook users in Australia is 53% that ensures the addiction of the
Australian people to the social media. On the other hand, 61% retailers rely on the Facebook for
advertisement of their product. Among the different retail products, media products have
percentage in the online marketing. According to the statistical data of the Australia the
consumer index is 1.9% in 2017. On the other hand, GDP is 0.8% in the year of 2017, which
ensures the good economic condition of Australia. In the year of 2013 and 2014 the financial
inequality becomes stable in Australia which occurred due to economic recession in 2008. This
highlights that purchasing behavior of the consumers become strong in this country (Abs.gov.au,
2017).
Figure 1: Use of Social media in Australia
(Source: visualstrategies.com.au)

Figure 2: Role of Social media in advertisement
(Source: Humphries, 2017)

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Figure 3: Internet Retail
(Source: Horvath, 2017).
4.0 Discussion and Conclusion
Discussion of the findings
According to the entire secondary data, it has been found that in the modern trade digital
marketing and social media marketing are adopted as the popular marketing tool in the retail
industry. However, fashion is the part of the retail industry. In the context of fashion, social
media marketing serves as the effective marketing tool to create brand value in a large
population (Gensler et al., 2013). Therefore, the present literature review reveals that social
media marketing gives a platform to the consumers and the marketers to build a good
communication between them.

Technology is invaded in the each business sector and digital marketing is a gift of modern
technology. Different factors are associated with the digital marketing. Digital marketing is cost
effective and time-saving process. On the other hand, in order to incorporate the modern
technology in the marketing strategy, the organization adopts digital and social media marketing
(Horvath, 2017). Social media marketing not only develops product information via online but
also develops communication with the customers. From the above statistical data it has been
observed that Facebook is the most popular social media for the online retailing. However,
maximum retail marketers prefer the Facebook rather that other social media to enhance their
brand awareness. The gap of the literature review focuses that the factors of social media and
digital marketing need to be explained more critically in this section. Therefore, proper critical
evaluation is important to analyze the impact of social media marketing in context of business.
Based on this gap further research can be proceed that is big opportunity of such gap.
Research Limitations
Limitation of the research focuses on the time constraint and the budget. Therefore, some
journals are of paid versions that were difficult to access for the researcher. On the other hand,
some journals were out of data that is a big limitation of the research.
Conclusion
This above study highlights on the application of social media and digital marketing in
the context of Australian retail sectors. In the recent years, Australian people are more
technology-oriented and habituated with the social media. By keeping this in mind, the retail
marketers use social media as the digital marketing tool to promote their brand awareness. It has
been discussed above that social media is an example of digitization in the business. In order to

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develop food and fashion products, retailers use social media and digital marketing in Australia.
However, social media marketing possesses low price in the context of business promotion rather
than traditional campaign. Therefore, traditional advertisement campaign is a time-consuming
process while social media marketing is a quick and easier process to create brand awareness in
the public domain. Therefore, an individual also suggests their friends about a new brand through
communicating via social media. Barriers related to digital marketing often highlights on the
distribution of the false information in the consumer domain that affects the perception of the
consumers regarding a brand.

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