Social Media as a Research Methodology

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Added on 2020-12-09

Social Media as a Research Methodology

Added on 2020-12-09

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Research Methodology

Table of ContentsPROJECT COMPONENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................3INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9PROJECT COMPONENT 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY\.................................................10Background of the study...........................................................................................................10Research aim and objectives ....................................................................................................10Research questions ...................................................................................................................11Rationale of the study................................................................................................................11Significance of the study...........................................................................................................11Research methodology..............................................................................................................12Gantt chart.................................................................................................................................17REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................20

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PROJECT COMPONENT 1: LITERATURE REVIEWINTRODUCTIONLiterature Review is one of the type of review article which helps in making thorough study ofsubject matter to any person, individual or the company. A literature review is defined as ascholarly paper or article or statement which includes all the current knowledge, thoughts,concepts, ideas including the findings, assessments, identification made during the researchproject study done. It also includes the theoretical, practical as well as methodologicalcontributions made to the particular project activity or topic. The term literature review makesemphasizes on the questions related to the research topic. It also helps in identifying, appraising,making selection and arrangements of all the research documents, evidences, statements, articlesand arguments which is required to support the research question. The literature review preparedshould be of high quality and properly formulated.MAIN BODYTheme 1: Trends of social media marketing (SMM) in UK fashion sectorAs per theGodey and et.al., (2016), SMM is a form of marketing which is done with thehelp of Internet sources by making use of the social networking websites such as Facebook,Instagram, Twitter etc. as a marketing tool. Social Media Marketing is a process of promoting,launching or advertising about products and services of the company with the help of socialmedia websites and platforms. Companies can track or monitor the progress, growth, successwith engagement of advertisement campaigns. Wang and Kim, (2017),assessed in their studythat with the help of social media marketing company can share the content of their productswith users, who will further share it on their social networking sites. By doing this, company canincrease brand image, broaden its customer reach & base, receive direct feedback from customerin form of product review. Tajudeen, Jaafar and Ainin, (2018), said that, social media marketing has grown rapidlyby acquiring majority of business's share by conducting business operations online. Thecompany can boost its sales and revenue with the help of current trends prevailing in the socialmedia marketing. One of current trends is 'Click and shop and user generated content'. Alves,

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Fernandes and Raposo, (2016), identified that, companies are nowadays making improvement inthe technological factors related to the e-commerce business concepts and customer preferences,demand. Companies are now providing the user generated content of their products like apparels,accessories, bags etc. for sharing it on the user's social website. This had lead to ease in gettingproduct review and feedback from the customers globally. Customer on one click can get fullinformation about the new product or clothing apparels which has come in the market and thuscan make use of it. However on the contradictory noteShareef and et.al., (2019), argued that,because of marketing done through social media it has lead to increase in the cost of productionas well as cost of operations of the company.As evaluated by Drummond, McGrath and O'Toole, (2018), with the help of social mediamarketing, fashion industry can 'Create their own web page on social platforms'. By doing this,customers can easily assess to images and photographs of the fashion apparels, clothes, bags andother accessories as uploaded by the company on its web pages. Example of some social mediamarketing are Pinterest, Vine, Instagram. This will lead to sharing of photographs of most likelyfashion products among customers and hence will increase the demand for that fashion product.Fashion Companies by providing direct link of their websites can help people in doing shoppingeasily without surfing from one window to another. But at the same time, Agnihotri and et.al.,(2016), has also said that by sharing of company's best apparels design on social media can leadto loss of opportunity to earn more profit, as competitors can easily stole their design and ideas. Kizgin and et.al., (2018), assessment shows that, companies engaging in the business offashion sectors by making use of social media marketing can connect with its customerworldwide successfully. 'Exchange and Return policies ' given by fashion companies is one ofthe current trend prevailing in the UK fashion market. Company can attend personally all thegrievances and feedback of its customer on One-on-one basis, without letting customer to waitfor long period. It has allowed customers to establish personal contacts with brands which hashelps in building brand loyalty. Because of social media marketing, many fashion designers &retailers, brands are having their own sites for controlling business and forming brandperception. On this Stephen, (2016), argued that, due to the policy of exchange and return, mostof the customers are making wrong use and taking advantage by buying clothes, bags, any otherfashion accessories and returning it back after their purpose is fulfilled. This has lead to loss tocompanies when it comes to quality product as company receives used product from its

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customers. Customers are also buying used products because of unawareness about the quality ofproduct that whether it is used one or fresh produced. Because of this trend of 'return of productafter not satisfying within specified time period' customer satisfaction and retention ratio isdecreasing and also creating negative impact on company's profitability.Theme 2: Benefits and challenges of social media marketing on basis of fashion sector of UK.Alalwan, (2018), has defined social media marketing as an effective tool of marketing forevery business organisation. By adopting to this marketing form, companies can conduct theirbusiness operations smoothly with large access to customer across the world. The process ofsocial media marketing involves advertising and promoting product contents and maintainingtargeted customer engagement on social media platform such as Facebook, Instagram andPinterest. This marketing tool helps many business organisation in creating and increasing brandawareness, generate more contacts, improving customer engagement relationship.Alves, Fernandes and Raposo, (2016), has found that, social media marketing is a lowcost & effective marketing tool for the company to conduct its business operations. For acompany to promote its product, it only had to just sign up by creating a legal business profilewhich is free in most of the social networking platforms. Company's engaged in fashion sectorswith the help of social media campaign can run their business activities and operations in a costeffective manner. For promoting or advertising products of company online, relevant softwareare available which don't requires any subscription cost for carrying on operations. Thismarketing tool is considered as one of the cheapest marketing channel than others. On thecontradictory part, Drummond, McGrath and O'Toole, (2018), has said that bringing business onsocial media platform requires employment of professional having knowledge in the field ofinformation technology and computer science. These are required to paid a good remuneration asper the experience they have which in turn increases the cost of production of the company.Gainsbury And et.al., (2016), identifies that, Brand Awareness can be increased with theuse of social media marketing. By social media platform, company can creates and increases theBrand Recognition of its fashion products worldwide. It allows the company to conduct marketoperations to thousands of customer at any moment of time. As there is no geographic limitcompany can get in touch with different types of customers. Brand image ca be created whencustomer shares the most photograph of that fashion products which they had like mostly which

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leads to growth in the business at larger level. Colicev and et.al., (2018), has argued in thismatter that in creating brand image, company has to incur huge expenses on launching orbringing its products in the market which includes giving discount offers, trade discount, freesamples etc. for making customer aware about the upcoming new product in the market. As per Colicev and et.al., (2018), Company can make improvement in the customerretention level by providing deep audience insights. On of the benefit of social media marketingis rendering better customer service and also focus on providing after sales services to its fashionfollowing customer across the world. By providing fashion products and services with the bestquality, satisfying customer services company can earn maximum profits amount. With socialmedia marketing, company can get authentic customer insights and feedback as well throughwhich company can make improvements in its performance level. With social media marketinggetting customer thoughts has become easier than it was before for the business owners. Felix,Rauschnabel and Hinsch, (2017), on this thought has also argued that by making focus only onexisting customer will lead to loss of customer acquisition opportunity for the company whichwill in turn decreases its sales revenue and profit margins.Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, (2017), evaluates that by using social media marketingtool, fashion sector companies can build good and strong customer relationship across the world.Customer relationship management is considered as one of the most important factor forcompany in achieving the overall goals and objectives of the business efficiently and effectively.With better customer relation, company can increase its sales and profit margins over the year.Customer once satisfied with the quality of apparels, clothes, bags or any fashion sector productor services will recommend it to other person and will also continue using that till some newproduct or services started satisfying. Ashley and Tuten, (2015), on this part argued by sayingthat, once a customer reaches the highest satisfaction level, interest in consuming same productor services started decreasing. This can lead to decrease in the sales volume of the company andalso in the profitability. Alalwan and et.al., (2017), said that one of the major benefit from social media marketingis the identification of its targeted customer audience. Social Media Marketing has aids thefashion retailers and big marketers in identifying who are their targeted audiences and their tasteand preferences with the use of data analytics tools. It helps in analysing the tough competitors

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