Role of Social Media in Improving Customer Buying Behaviour and Loyalty in Hospitality Industry: A Study on Premier Inn

This study examines the role of social media in improving customer buying behaviour and loyalty in the hospitality industry, with a case study on Premier Inn. It explores the social media tools used by Premier Inn, challenges faced by the company, and proposes a methodology for the study. The study aims to determine the role and significance of social media in improving customer buying behaviour and loyalty within Premier Inn, examine the social media tools used by Premier Inn, and determine the challenges faced by Premier while executing social media strategies to improve customer buying behaviour and loyalty. The proposed methodology includes the use of positivism as the research philosophy, deductive approach as the research approach, qualitative data as the research choice, survey as the research strategy, descriptive design as the research design, primary data as the data collection method, probability sampling as the sampling method, questionnaires as the research instrument, and frequency distribution as the data analysis method.

Research Methods for
Business

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the study..............................................................................................................3
Research aim:...............................................................................................................................3
Research Questions:.....................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives:...................................................................................................................3
Rationale......................................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Proposed Methodology....................................................................................................................5
Time frame.......................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Social media is defined as application and websites which emphasis on communication,
interaction, content-sharing and many more. In addition to this, it is referred as an effective tool
that allow users to share information and reach large number of customers within less time frame
(Dolan and et. al., 2019). There are various benefits gained by an organisation because of social
media that is increasing customer base level, customer satisfaction, increase in sales, high
profitability and many more. For the present study, Premier Inn is taken into consideration. It is a
British limited service hotel chain which was established in year 1987 and head office in UK.
The main objective to conduct the study is to analyse the role of social media in improving
customer buying behaviour and loyalty within the hospitality industry.
Research aim:
“To analyse the role of social media in improving customer buying behaviour and loyalty
within the hospitality industry” A study on Premier Inn
Research Questions:
 What is the role and significance of social media in improving customer buying
behaviour and loyalty within the Premier Inn?
 What are the social media tools used by Premier Inn in improving customer buying
behaviour and loyalty?
 What challenges faced by Premier while executing social media strategies to improve
customer buying behaviour and loyalty?
Research Objectives:
 To determine the role and significance of social media in improving customer buying
behaviour and loyalty within the Premier Inn.
 To examine the social media tools used by Premier Inn in improving customer buying
behaviour and loyalty.
 To determine the challenges faced by Premier while executing social media strategies to
improve customer buying behaviour and loyalty.

Rationale
One of the main reason to conduct the study is to analyse the role of social media in
improving customer buying behaviour and loyalty within the hospitality industry. Along with
this, it help researcher to know about the social media tools used by hospitality organisation
along with the issues faced by company while implementing them. Moreover, it will help various
stakeholders that is organisation, researcher and so on. In context to organisation, it help in
analysing role of social media and the issues they face which further assist company to develop
effective strategies in order to deal with it. This will help company to attract large number of
customers and retain them for longer time frame which is important to gain higher growth and
success at marketplace. Moreover, it will also help researcher to learn and improve skills that is
data collection, data analysis and many more. It will also allow investigator to conduct future
studies in more effective and systematic manner.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Role and significance of social media in improving customer buying behaviour and loyalty
within the Premier Inn
As per the viewpoint of GIL, (2019) it is analysed that social media has changed the way of
interaction and communication take place in the organisation and customer as well. In addition to
this, it help a company to interact with customers at any place and time and resolve their queries
rapidly which further assist to develop customer loyalty and retention for longer time frame
(Improve Brand Loyalty Through Social Media Marketing, 2019). Along with this, it also allow a
company to reach large number of customers which further leads towards increasing sales,
profitability and revenue level of company.
Social media tools used by Premier Inn in improving customer buying behaviour and loyalty
As per the viewpoint of Severt, there are various social media strategies used by the
company for the purpose to improve the loyalty and improving the behaviour of the organisation.
In reference to Premier Inn, the organisation can use facebook for the purpose to create the
profile, using Instagram reels for developing deals. In addition to that, the organisation can use
various pictures of the exterior and interior of the hotel, using live videos, promotions and post
stories( 8 Hotel Social Media marketing strategies and tips, 2019).

Challenges faced by Premier while executing social media to improve customer buying
behaviour and loyalty
As per the viewpoint of Das, (2018), It is analysed that there are many issues faced by
company while they execute social media tools with the objective to improve loyalty
(Challenges, 2019). One of the issue is high cost and technical issues which impact directly on
the performance and profitability of company. In addition to this, another issue is high
competition and developing attractive content as there are lot of competitors prevail at
marketplace which affect negatively on the brand image and competitive edge of the company.
Proposed Methodology
It refers to the set of techniques and methods which is used by investigator for the purpose
of conducting the study. Research methodology is explained by the application of onion
framework which is discussed below;
Research philosophy: This is referred as the principles and fundamental conceptions on
which the study is based. Research philosophy is mainly classified as positivism and
interpretivism which both are parts of epistemology. As per the current study, positivism will be
considered as it is more appropriate for quantitative study and facilitate unbiased results which
makes the research more authentic.
Research approach: It refers to the aspects which are taken into consideration for deciding
basis of data collection and is mainly categorised as deductive and inductive approach. For the
current study, deductive approach will be chosen as it helps in saving time through using an
already existing theory as basis of the study.
Research choice: It is majorly categorised into quantitative and qualitative aspects and for
the current research, the investigator will use qualitative data for conducting study (Hjorth and
Hinton, 2019). The major reason for choosing qualitative aspect is that it helps in obtaining
information in terms of numbers and figures ensuring more accuracy of results.
Research strategy: It refers to the plans and actions which are undertaken by researcher for
collecting data and there are various types of strategies used in conducting research. As per the
current study, survey will be used by investigator in order to collect a range of information by
individuals to perform analysis.
Research design: It refers to the approach and framework which is adopted by the
researcher for data collection and is classified as exploratory and descriptive. As per the current

study, descriptive design will be taken into consideration as it helps in constructive analysis
through collecting data in more elaborated manner.
Data collection: It refers to the methods of collecting data and is mainly of two types that is
primary and secondary research. As per the current study, primary data will be collected by the
investigator in order to obtain first hand information through original sources. The main reason
behind choosing primary data for research is that it helps in making the study more authentic
through gaining opinions and viewpoints directly from primary sources.
Sampling: It is defined as the process whereby samples are selected out of total population
and can be done through probability and non probability sampling (Schmidt, 2018). As per the
current study, probability sampling will be taken into account by the investigator where 20
employees of Premier Inn will be selected as participants. The reason for choosing employees as
participants as they are more familiar with practices and trends of the hospitality sector.
Ethical consideration: It refers to the consideration of ethical standards while conducting
research. During the current research, the investigator would ensure that analysis will be done
through collecting reliable and accurate data.
Research instrument: There are various mechanisms that can be used by researcher in order
to conduct the study but as per this research, questionnaires will be used by the researcher for
collecting primary data through gaining insights on opinions of the individuals.
Data Analysis: There are majorly two types of analysis including frequency distribution and
thematic analysis nut as per this study, frequency distribution will be taken into account as it
helps in data interpretation through the use of charts and graphics ensuring better understanding.
data interpretation through the use of charts and graphics ensuring better understanding (Smith
and Anderson, 2018).
Time frame
It is significant for researcher to make set the time period of each and every activity
associated to research as it helps in completing the study on time period. For this, Gantt chart is
developed, it is a bar chart which illustrates the starting time and ending time of every activity
and is given below:

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that social media plays an important role
within an organisation as it help company to gain various benefits that is increasing performance,
high response rate to customer, high profitability, increase in customer loyalty and so on. It is
determined that there are many social media tools used by company such as Facebook, web
application, Instagram and so on. Moreover, there are many issues faced by respective company
because of execution of social media strategies that is high cost, technical errors, high
competition and many more.

REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Dolan and et. al., 2019. Social media engagement behavior: A framework for engaging
customers through social media content. European Journal of Marketing.
Hjorth, L. and Hinton, S., 2019. Understanding social media. Sage.
Oliveira, T., Araujo, B. and Tam, C., 2020. Why do people share their travel experiences on
social media?. Tourism Management, 78, p.104041.
Schmidt, J.H., 2018. Social media. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Smith, A. and Anderson, M., 2018. Social media use in 2018.
Smith, B.G., Smith, S.B. and Knighton, D., 2018. Social media dialogues in a crisis: A mixed-
methods approach to identifying publics on social media. Public relations review, 44(4),
pp.562-573.
Online
Improve Brand Loyalty Through Social Media Marketing, 2019 [Online] Available through; <
https://eclincher.com/improve-brand-loyalty-through-social-media-marketing/>
Challenges, 2019 [Online] Available
through;https://www.academia.edu/12899207/Social_Media_Challenges_and_Opportunities_for
_Hospitality_Operations
Severt, 2019. 8 Hotel Social Media marketing strategies and tips [ Online] Available through
<https://unamo.com/blog/social/8-hotel-social-media-marketing-strategies-and-tips>