Impacts of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Behavior: A Study on Morrisons

Research Project

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Topic: To investigate the impacts of social media marketing over consumer behavior. A study
on Morrisons................................................................................................................................1
Research aim and objectives........................................................................................................1
Research rationale........................................................................................................................2
Research question........................................................................................................................2
Structure of the project................................................................................................................2
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................3
To develop an understanding about social media marketing.......................................................3
To identify practices of social media marketing undertaken by the companies in retail sector. .4
To analyze association between social media marketing and customer’s behavior in context of
Morrisons.....................................................................................................................................6
To recommend appropriate social media marketing strategies to Morrisons for satisfying
consumer behaviour.....................................................................................................................7
Chapter 3: Research methodology...................................................................................................8
Chapter 4: Data analysis and research findings.............................................................................13
Analysis of collected facts.........................................................................................................13
Interpretation of data..................................................................................................................15
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation.................................................................................22
Chapter 6: Reflection.....................................................................................................................26
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................28

INTRODUCTION
Topic: To investigate the impacts of social media marketing over consumer behavior. A study on
Morrisons
The concept of social media marketing is associated with the form of internet marketing
and it comprises the use of social media and other digital apps as marketing tools. Further,
marketing is tending to be a vital business activity that is being used and adopted by an
origination to effectively interact and connect with their customers. For undertaking the current
investigation selection of Morrisons has been made with a famous British retail company.
Morrisons was founded in 1899 by William Morrisons, it started with an egg and butter stall in
Rawson Market and further start the first self-service store in Bradford (Hafez, 2021). It is the
fourth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. It serves products like clothes, florists,
books, petrol, food, magazines, homeware, etc. it mainly focuses on the manufacture and
distributor of fresh food products. In 1967 it became a public limited company and was listed on
London Stock Exchange. The motto of Morrisons is “Fresh Choice for You” and they also aim is
to produce fresh as well as affordable products that make them available for everyone (Vrontis
et. al., 2021). Morrisons is tend to face an issue related to the effective marketing of its product
and services. Thus, the current study is based on Morrisons to analyze and review about impacts
of social media marketing over consumer behavior.
Research aim and objectives
Research aim
The aim of conducting the current study is to evaluate the impacts of social media
marketing on Morrison's customer behavior.
Research Objectives:
1. To develop an understanding of social media marketing.
2. To identify practices of social media marketing undertaken by companies in the retail
sector.
3. To analyze the association between social media marketing and customer behavior in the
context of Morrisons.
4. To recommend appropriate social media marketing strategies to Morrisons for satisfying
consumer behavior.
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Research rationale
The selection of the current project seems rational and significant as in the current digital
world making use of a significant marketing strategy has become vital. It has been also seen that
the use of social media marketing tends to be significant as it supports the building of better
brand Awareness and Recognition, Generates Conversation, helps to Understand Target
Customers' Interests, and also provides a better platform to connect with the customers. Besides
this, the making choice and selection of the current topic is also significant and vital as it leads to
a better understanding and review of some practices of SMM that are taken by the organization
within the retail sector that supports a higher level of customer satisfaction and business success
(Salem and Salem, 2021). Apart from this, the selection of the current topic is also significant
and rationale as it supports the development of the key skill and competencies of the researcher
along with supporting better understanding and information for other scholars. Further, the
rationale and significance behind the choice of the current topic also comprise the fact that it
meets the personal interest as well as the academic integrity and educational perceptive of the
researcher thus, it supports better academic qualification and development.
Research question
 What is social media marketing?
 What are some practices of SMM that are taken by the organization within the retail
sector?
 What is the relationship between SMM and consumer behavior for Morrisons?
 What are some SMM strategies that are suggested to Morrisons for customer satisfaction?
Structure of the project
 Chapter 1: Introduction- It forms out to be the first chapter of a dissertation that
provides information about the background of the selected company along with the aim
and objective of the project.
 Chapter 2: Literature review- This section of the project tends to involve the review of a
different set of literature in which the viewpoints of different authors are compared on the
themes associated with the topic.
 Chapter 3: Research Methodology – This section of the project includes the use of the
methodologies which help the researcher in performing the research study systematically
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and accomplish its aim. Within the current project use of both primary and secondary
sources of the data is being made.
 Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Research Findings – This section includes the analysis of
the key findings of the project. Data analysis is done by making use of charts and graphs
for the presentation of data in the best authentic way.
 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations - A summary of the project is provided in
this part, and a recommendation is also included in it which forms the last part of the
project conclusion and recommendation.
 Chapter 6: Reflection - In this, the researcher reflects the overall learning acquired by
performing the study along with future implications of the study. It involves the
information about what went well or not, the learning that the researcher acquired along
with the overall contribution that the study made to the personal development of the
researcher.
Chapter 2: Literature review
It forms out to be one of the most vital section of every research project that supports and
provide a systematic analysis and review of the pre-existing set of data. Literature review tends
to provide a base and framework for further investigation by the way of leading a systematic
review of the pre-existing data about a specific topic. Thus, it tends to support better knowledge
creation and understanding of a selected topic so that better investigation and study can be made
(Zhao et. al., 2021). The current literature review is based on the topic of social media marketing
along with reviewing the practices of SMM that are taken by the organization within the retail
sector and another related objective for which analysis of a set of online articles, books, and
journals has been made. A discussion and review of these online articles and journals based on
the selected topic and its objective are provided below:
To develop an understanding of social media marketing
As per the viewpoint and opinion of Gangadharbatla, H., and Morrisons, D., 2022, the
concept of social media marketing has been also known as digital marketing or e-marketing
includes the use of social media platforms to build and create better promotion of the product and
services. Further, social media marketing also includes and comprises the publishing of great and
informative content on social media platforms where the users build social networks and share
information to effectively improve and enhance brand awareness and drive higher traffic on
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websites. Along with this, it has been also seen and analyzed that social media marketing also
comprises well planned as well as an effective set of the process that is entailing proper
marketing methods that aim at bringing change within human behavior as well as improving the
connection and interaction with the customers to have a better understanding about their
purchasing behavior (Tiwary, and et. al., 2021).
It has been also reviewed based on the information provided by Dolega, L., Rowe, F., and
Branagan, E., 2021, that social media marketing that too includes and comprises the use of social
media networks and platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest,
YouTube, and Snapchat to share information about product and services. Thus, social media
marketing provides an effective way and method for the business organization to engage with its
existing set of customers as well as reach out the new ones through having an effective means of
connection, interaction and collection of customer data. Further, it has been also seen and
implicated that making use of the social media marketing strategy tend to have transformed the
way in which business is used to influence and direct the behavior of customer by the way of
promoting the improved content that drives and rings out higher customer engagement and
satisfaction (Arya, Paul, and Sethi, 2022).
Apart from this, it has been also seen and finds out that social media marketing also tends
to play a vital role in effectively extracting and collecting the relevant data from the customers
that helps in making messaging more resonate with the potential customers. Along with this, it
has been also seen and find out that the use of social media marketing tends to provide a wider
reach and access to the customer market in an efficient manner through making the connection
with the help of the social media platforms. Apart from this, an improved way of interaction
based on multimedia content as well as attractive design and formatting is also being supported
and brought out by social media which plays an important role in attracting and catering to the
interest of a larger number of customers. However, it has been also seen and finds out that some
issues and challenges are also being associated with the use of social media that are based on and
comprised of the challenges related to security and privacy threats (Kim and Kim, 2021).
To identify practices of social media marketing undertaken by the companies in the retail sector
As per the opinion of the Khoros Staff, 2021, it has been analyzed that social media
marketing tends to have many positive impacts and benefits for a retail company as it supports
the increase in the trust-making consumer along with quickly introducing and promoting its
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brand to potential customers. Thus, various effective ways and practices are being adopted and
implicated by the retail sector to ensure and have better use of social media marketing. One of
the key practices and approaches of social media marketing tends to include effectively
determining and setting the target audience (Naeem and Ozuem, 2021).
It tends to be one of the most effective and suitable social media marketing strategies and
practices within the retail sector as it helps in determining the key factors and aspects that would
effectively attract and cater to the interest of the target audience to have a higher success of the
social media marketing. Further, effective social media marketing practices tend to include and
comprises of the making selection of a suitable set of platform that effectively reach and access
to the target audience. It has been seen that social media marketing comprises of various
platforms such as the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and
Snapchat. Thus, for the success of the social media marketing it is essential practice to make
choice and selection of suitable set of social media platform to reach the correct audience in
effective manner.
Apart from this, to ensure and bring out higher success within social media marketing it is
also an effective practice to set advertising goals that need to be properly aligned with the overall
objective and goal of the company. For instance, if the key goal and objective of Morrisons are
on increasing the level of sales and revenue then the social media marketing plan would also
need to aim at boosting sales through attracting and catering a larger number of customers. The
effective practice and strategy of social media marketing with retail companies tend to includes
of creating and designing a proper set of content bank (Hafez, 2021). It has been seen that the
content and messaging tone plays a most vital role in attracting and catering the interest of the
customer thus, it is vital to effectively create and support the online content through making use
of multimedia videos, photos, etc to have a positive impact on purchasing behaviour of the
customers.
Apart from this, making use of the high quality visuals is also taken as a vital and effective
strategy to attract and cater a learn set of customer. For example, if a retail company is going to
run a Facebook ad for the clothing boutique’s coats that it is good practices that the image
featured in the ad should be the coats. This, strategy and good practice of social media making
tend to give a higher sense to have an ad that promotes the blouses or shoes as for videos it also
make use engaging and exciting videos. Apart from this, making use of right call to action as
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well as regular testing the performance of ads and social media marketing is also an effective
strategy to have higher success and better promotion within the retail sector. Another most
effective and vital set of practices of social media marketing undertaken by the companies in
retail sector comprises of responding to customer in a promptly manner. It has been seen and
analysed that the strategy of keeping the customer base happy is based on having a regular
response on their tweet and demand response as fast as possible. Apart from this, sharing the
positive customer feedback on regular basis as well as building a continuous relationship through
social media platforms is also effective SMM practices that support higher success level for the
organisation (Vrontis and et. al., 2021).
To analyze association between social media marketing and customer’s behavior in context of
Morrisons
With respect to the view point of the Watanabe, N.M., Kim, J. and Park, J., 2021, it has
been seen that the social media marketing tend to provide and support a better platform where
the people and customer can effectively voice their opinion and also come up with the suggestion
when they are unhappy. Thus, the making use of the social media tend to supports and provides
with a better platform on the basis of the which a business organisation can modify its offering
and product and services to effectively meet the desires and wants of the customers. Beside this,
it has been also seen and find out that the social media marketing and the perception of the
customers are together forms a vital part in improving and enhancing the overall customer
buying decision making process (Salem and Salem, 2021). It has been observed that the social
media marketing strategy that includes of the use of effective set of content and attractive design
tend to have a positive impact on the behaviour and attitude of the customer which also tend to
create and lead out a purchasing zeal within the customers that supports improved customer
perception and behaviour towards a brand. In context of the Morrisons, it has been seen and find
out that the Morrisons tend to have the make use of the Sticky content that is a vital marketing
term presenting and includes of the attractive content that engages customers at first glance and
then influences them not only to purchase products but also to share the content. Thus, an
analysis can be made that there is a direct association and link between social media marketing
and customer’s behaviour in as the use of the attractive set of content and multimedia advertising
tend to have and create a positive impact on the mind set and opinion of customer which also
carte higher purchasing zeal. Along with this, it has been also seen and find out that the Apart
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