Effect of Social Media on Marketing in Next Plc: Strategies and Impact

This research report analyzes the need of social media marketing in Next Plc, the different social media marketing strategies adopted by the company, and the impact of social media marketing on attracting and retaining customers.

Research Report
(The effect of social media on
marketing)

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................3
1. BACKGROUND (INTRODUCTION).......................................................................................4
2. PROJECT AIMS..........................................................................................................................5
Project aim..................................................................................................................................5
3. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................5
What is the need of social media marketing within retail industry?...........................................5
What are the different social media marketing strategies adopted by Next Plc to promote its
offerings?.....................................................................................................................................6
What is the impact of social media marketing over attracting potential customers and retaining
existing customers within Next Plc?...........................................................................................7
4. METHODOLOGY......................................................................................................................8
5. PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED.........................................................................................................9
6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................10
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................11

ABSTRACT
The main idea of conducting this research is that it helps in identifying the need of social
media marketing in the organisation so that they gain high number of customers and share in the
market in order to motivate and satisfy customers. The report also fulfil several objectives and
that are defined as to identify different types of social media marketing strategy for promoting
products and services to customers and to examine the impact of social media marketing in order
to attract existing and new customers for increasing sales and profitability.

1. BACKGROUND (INTRODUCTION)
Background of the company
Next plc is one of the British multinational home products, footwear and clothing retailer.
The headquarters of the company is located in Enderby, England. The company has 700 outlets
and of which circa 500 are in the UK and the remaining circa 200 across Asia, the Middle East
and Europe (De Oliveira and et. al., 2020). This company is considered as the largest clothing
retailer in comparison of sales in the United Kingdom. It has overtaken position of Marks &
Spencer in early 2014 and 2012. The organisation was founded by Joseph Hepworth in 1864.
The recorded revenue of Next plc is £3.28 billion as per the year 2021. On the other hand, the
recorded net income as per 2021 is £444.5 million.
General to specific
Social media marketing is one of the practices which is used by almost every type of
company in the whole world. It is being recorded that companies which are adopting various
channels of social media for promoting their business offerings are experiencing great benefit.
The benefit is increased customer base with potential as well as existing customers. Next plc UK
also adopts social media marketing to reach out their customers effectively and efficiently in
comparison of their competitors (Laksamana, 2018).
Provide facts and figures about the impact
Social media marketing is one of the forms of marketing which tops the list in UK. As
per the survey conducted in 2018, 88% people want to know and inform about the products and
services of the companies through different channels of social media (Mason, Narcum and
Mason, 2021).
Identification of problem
The major identified problem of the current investigation is that retail companies face
issue in promoting their commodities and products because social media channels have negative
as well as positive reviews regarding the products. The negative reviews become barrier for
companies while grabbing attention of the potential customers.

2. PROJECT AIMS
Project aim
The aim of the current study is, “To determine the need of social media marketing and its
impact over attracting potential customers and retaining existing customers.” A study on Next
Plc
Project objectives
 To identify the need of social media marketing within retail industry
 To evaluate the different social media marketing strategies adopted by Next Plc to
promote its offerings
 To examine the impact of social media marketing over attracting potential customers and
retaining existing customers within Next Plc
Research questions
 What is the need of social media marketing within retail industry?
 What are the different social media marketing strategies adopted by Next Plc to promote
its offerings?
 What is the impact of social media marketing over attracting potential customers and
retaining existing customers within Next Plc?
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction of literature review
Literature review can be defined as a process of collecting and analysing information
about the chosen topic in a summarised form so that the research can be carried out in a suitable
manner (Dźwigoł and Dźwigoł-Barosz, 2018). There are different types of sources that helps in
gathering information about the chosen research topic such as books, articles, journals and many
more.
What is the need of social media marketing within retail industry?
As per the view of Hanaysha (2018), social media marketing is an important concept
which helps the retail industry in engaging with the potential customers easily on various online
platforms in order to earn more profits and growth. Social media marketing is defined as a type
of digital marketing that leverages the power of social media related networks in order to achieve
business branding and marketing goals. Social media marketing is considered as an effective

strategy for the retail industry for reaching the customers and prospects in the large market share.
They mainly includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest which retail industry uses for
promoting their unique and innovative products and services to the customer for increased
growth and productivity. Different social media channels helps in attracting more customers
towards buying the products and services of the retail stores which results in gaining high
success in the business market. With the changing market trends and situations, customers are
now more engaged and interested in using social media and this make the retail industry to make
relevant changes in their promoting factor so that more customers can be retained within the
organisation (Drummond, O'Toole and McGrath, 2020). There is a utmost need of adopting
social media marketing tools in the business as it helps in connecting with large number of
customers and also helps in promoting their products and services over different media in order
to catch the attention of people for increasing their brand identity in the competitive market.
Marketers can engage customers on a high level and also helps in establishing loyalty and good
experience among customers. This helps in discovering, following, learning about new concepts
and shopping from variety of brands available on social media in order to drive the sales and
profitability of the business in the business market.
What are the different social media marketing strategies adopted by Next Plc to promote its
offerings?
As per the view of Aragoncillo and Orus (2018), social media marketing is needed for
gaining high success for Next Plc as it helps in delivering better products and services to the
customers. Social media marketing can be defined as a process of creating valuable content for
social media online platforms in order to promote product and services, for driving high traffic
towards business, and building connection with target audience (Sileyew, 2019). With the new
platforms and features emerging on a day to day basis has raised the importance of social media
marketing in the competitive business environment. There are several strategies related to social
media marketing that Next Plc uses for promoting their offerings and are defined below:
 Run contests on social media platforms – By running interesting contests on the social
media helps Next Plc in attracting more number of customers towards buying the
products and services without actually advertising it. To gain maximum benefits from the
organised contest, the company keep it simple, fun and offer interesting giveaways to all
the selected participants (Yadav and Rahman, 2018).

 Advertise product to reach at the wide market – Most of the people like a particular
page on social media because they are interested in that particular product (Chen and Lin,
2019). Social media advertisements helps Next Plc in reaching larger audience and in
achieving millions of positive views on the posts related to the unique products and
services. Advertising products through social media is considered as the most valuable
method for gaining more customer base and large market share.
 Run promo codes and deals on social media – This is the most effective strategy if
social media marketing as it helps Next Plc in attracting customers towards buying the
products and services which results in increased growth and profitability in the business
market.
What is the impact of social media marketing over attracting potential customers and retaining
existing customers within Next Plc?
As per the view of Ceyhan (2019), social media marketing has a great impact in attracting
and retaining large number of customers towards buying the products of company. In order to
gain more share in the market it is important for Next Plc to advertise products by using right
social media platform so that right type of customer are targetted for the following product
delivered by the company. It is the company that helps in delivering better services for the
growth and success of the business operations in the highly competitive business market (Helal,
Ozuem and Lancaster, 2018). An effective social media marketing strategy helps in creating
brand awareness in the minds of the customers in order to achieve high quality experience in the
market. Social media has several benefits that helps Next Plc in attracting potential customers
and in retaining existing customers and are defined below:
 Increase customer satisfaction – Social media marketing is a most important strategy
that helps in engaging high satisfaction among customers which results in improving the
performance and productivity of Next Plc. Social media provides customers the benefit of
giving reviews about their product to the customers and this helps the company in
managing their problems (Alalwan, 2018).
 Improved brand image – Social media marketing helps Next Plc in improving their
image of the brand as they promote their products by using different social media
platforms. This helps in building string relations with the potential customers by

providing them appropriate discounts so that they attach with the the brand easily and
increases their buying experience.
 Cost effective strategy – Social media marketing strategy is considered as the most cost
effective strategy as it do not involve any huge investment to promote products and
services to the social media platform (Nash, 2018).
Conclusion of literature review
It is concluded from the above gathered information from the literature review that social
media marketing is the most important factor that company must consider in order to sustain in
the highly competitive business environment and for attracting and retaining large number of
customers.
4. METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is the significant section which accommodates in the
accumulation and evaluation of information required for meeting pre-defined research aim and
objectives. Some of the research methods that are used in the study are given below:
Research Philosophy: It is one of the methods of research methodology that provides
certain principles and beliefs for the analysis of relevant information (Basias and Pollalis, 2018) .
It is of two forms that are: positivism and interpretivisim. Investigator will be selecting
positivism philosophy so that numerical information could be assembled. This facilitates in
taking out accuracy and relevancy of statistical piece of information. The major advantage of
selecting positivism philosophy is that it helps in adding numerical piece of information.
Data Collection: It is another research method that facilitates in the accumulation of
relevant and appropriate data. This is of two forms that are: primary and secondary data
collection methods. Investigator will choose primary data collection method to accumulate raw
information in a systematic manner (Rinjit, 2020). Questionnaire will be made with appropriate
close-ended questions so that information can be assembled directly from the source. On the
other hand, researcher will choose secondary method to assemble second-hand information from
various published sources. This assists investigator to save time of the researcher in a systematic
and precise manner. The main advantage of secondary method is that it facilitates in finding
appropriate research gap. The several secondary sources include: books, newspapers, journals,
articles, publications, magazines, already conducted surveys, interviews and many more.
Researcher will also use quantitative research method for the accumulation of numerical

information about the proposed topic (Mertler, 2019). This helps in taking out measurable results
and outcomes.
Limitations of the project: Conducting an investigation is not an easy task because there
are certain challenges that an investigator through while doing it. Some of the limitations are:
identifying right source to collect from multiple sources, bias nature of chosen respondents,
limited budget and many more.
5. PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED
Findings of the study after secondary research
Need of social media marketing within retail industry
As per the data recorded in the section of literature review, it is analysed that social
media marketing within retail industry is quite important because it assists in building
relationship with right audience (Solihatin and et. al., 2020). This kind of marketing provides
opportunity to retail industry to establish great bond with potential and existing audience. This
kind of marketing facilitates business to provide brands a different personality on several social
platforms. This kind of marketing provides huge opportunity to a brand for showing off its
customer service experience on several social media channels. Thus, social media marketing is
necessary for the success and development of the brands.
Different social media marketing strategies adopted by Next Plc to promote its offerings
As per the opinion of social media marketing is critical for the development and success
of a company. There are many social marketing channels which are adopted by Next Plc are:
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter etc (Solihatin and et. al., 2020). This company uses
Instagram through which consistently posts are updated about their different offerings. Through
this channel, brand approaches different social media influencers so that customers could be
easily influenced. The other channel used by company is Facebook and it has large number of
users. With this company targets large number of customers of different age groups. This assists
in increasing large number of people towards the brand.
Impact of social media marketing over attracting potential customers and retaining existing
customers within Next Plc
As per the gathered data from the literature review, it is evaluated that social media
marketing is the most important tool that helps in retaining and attracting large number of
customers. There are many benefits of using social media marketing in the company as it helps

in attracting customer towards buying the products and services by giving them substantial
discounts and offerings (Niknejad, Hussin and Amiri, 2019). This is the major advantage for the
company that helps in delivering affective growth an success for the business in the highly
competitive market. It is important for the company to choose the right type of channel for
targetting the right type of customer at the right period of time.
Summary of findings
It has been concluded from the above findings that for gaining success and growth in the
new digitalized world, it is important for the company to adopt to new social media marketing
strategy so that they attract present and new customers for the business. It is the customers that
helps in increasing the profitability of the company by retaining their products and services for
long period of time in the business. So choosing the right channel for marketing is very
important as it helps in developing gaining new customer base and market share.
6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
It is being concluded from the above gathered information that social media marketing
plays a very important role in increasing the overall sales and growth of the company in the
highly competitive environment. There are several strategies that company adopts for increasing
the sale of products and services to the potential customers so that they engage and connect with
them more appropriately. Social media helps the company in connecting with large number of
customers, in increasing the brand awareness and in boosting the sales and leads. It is also been
evaluated that the company focuses on increasing the experience of customers so that they stick
tie the products and services instead of other companies. It is also a cost effective strategy that
helps in company in promoting the value and quality of their products with less cost as most of
the people are using social media for interacting with other people and also for gaining
knowledge about any topic. For surviving in the competitive environment social media
Marketing works a very effective method for gaining high customer base in the business market
which results in achieving all the desired goals and objectives of the business.
Recommendations
It has been recommended that for surviving in the new advanced and technological
environment, the company must adopt social media marketing tools such as Facebook, Instagram
or Twitter for developing more share in the market and for gaining new and existing customers.

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