The Impact of Social Media Technology on the Marketing of M&S

This case study examines the impact of social media technology on the marketing activities of M&S, a leading UK retailer. The study explores how social media has been used to increase brand awareness, customer engagement, and sales. It also analyzes the challenges and opportunities associated with social media marketing for M&S. The research methodology includes both primary and secondary data collection, with a focus on analyzing customer and employee perspectives. The study concludes with recommendations for M&S to further leverage social media for marketing success.

THE IMPACT OF the SOCIAL
MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ON THE
MARETING OF M&s
M&S

Table of Contents
NTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1..............................................................................................................................................3
P1- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT..............................................................................3
P2- PREPARATION AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN..........4
P3- TIMEFRAME AND STAGES OF COMPLETION THROUGH GANTT CHART AND WORK
BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE...........................................................................................................8
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................12
P4- QUANTITATIVE AND THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS TO MEET THE OBJECTIVES
OF THE PROJECT........................................................................................................................12
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................24
P5- RESEARCH ANALYSIS THROUGH EFFECTIVE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES..............................24
P6- APPROPRIATE RECOMMENDATIONS AS A RESULT OF THE RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS......25
P7- REFLECTION OF UNDERTAKING THE RESEARCH IN OWN LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE
SO AS TO MEET THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.............................................................................26
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................28
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................29
1

NTRODUCTION
The success of any business organization largely depends upon the innovations made in its
business activities. The role of the social media technology in increasing the marketing of the
M&S has been defined in this case study. Social media technology has proved to be the most
reliable sources in increasing the sales of the organization through the marketing activities.
Social media technology as a form of the digital media transformation has been used in the
M&S by the strategic planning, global sales real-time monitoring and the support of the
employees. With the increasing competition in the market in the retail industry, it is essential
for the M&S to improvise its marketing activities so as to become successful and maintain its
brand image.
M&S or also known as the Marks and Spencer is one the popular companies of UK that are
delivering it products, clothes and food other accessories’ to the men, women, children. It is
essential that a project management plan must be built and implemented in the organization
along with the specific time frame and stages. The impact of the social media on the business of
M&S is analyzed by the primary and the secondary research.
2

TASK 1
P1- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem which the M&S organization has been facing in the current is the reduced sales of
the company products because of the lack of information to the customers. M&S sales can be
increased by the effective marketing techniques through the social marketing techniques.
PROJECT DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the M&s are being analysed in the project management plan. The different
stages based on the project requirement which is analyzing the impact of the social media on
the marketing activities of M&S are described in this report. The aim of the project is to
increase the sales of the company through the usage of the social media marketing strategies.
The use of the social media platform the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube can help the marketing
team to connect with the customers and share the information of the company products
directly to enhance their marketing activities (Kilgour, et al. 2015).
The important objectives of the M&S which are focused in this report are-
To increase the awareness of the M&S products and services among the customers
through social media technology
To determine if the customers are satisfied with the products and services of the M&S
To determine that the employee satisfaction level due to the introduction of the new
ways of promoting the business by the digital technologies
To determine the effectiveness of the social media platform usage in the M&S by
observing the sales of the company
To determine the usage of the social media platforms by the customers to gather
information about the company products
3

P2- PREPARATION AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT
MANAGEMENT PLAN
PROJECT SCOPE
In the included scope of the project primary and the secondary research will be carried out in
this assignment based upon the different studies of the authors and a questionnaire based
upon the customers and the employee’s opinions.
Any other factors rather than the impact of the social media on the marketing of the M&S will
not be addressed in this report. The factors that are external to the M&S are not included.
PROJECT LIMITATIONS
One of the limitations that can be faced in this project is the unwillingness of the customers to
answer the questionnaire. The unwillingness of the employees to use the social media
technology for marketing activities of M&S. Usage of only Microsoft Excel is the other
limitation.
PROJECT COST
COST FACTORS IN MILLION
FIXED COST $490
MATERIAL COST $31.53
DOMESTIC AUTHORISATION TAX $0.34
TOTAL BUDGET $920.13 PER YEAR
SUCCESS CRITERIA
4

The completion of the different stages of the project within the given time frame is one of the
success criteria. If the project gets completed in the estimated time while the quality is
maintained is other success criteria.
QUALITY CONTROL
This project will be based on the maintenance of the marketing activities of the M&S by
following the rules and regulations and providing the efficient quality of services to the
customers. I will seek the guidance of the senior managers to maintain the quality of work
throughout (Holt, 2016).
COMMUNICATION PLAN
In the communication plan, the employees of the marketing team and the customers will be
given a description of the usage of the questionnaire in the project which will attract them to
involve in the research process. The supervisors will be involved in this research (Castells,
2015).
PROJECT ASSUMPTIONS
It has been assumed that the employees of the M&S are well aware of the social media
technologies. The survey participants will be only the employees and the people above the age
of 18 years. The customers and the employees will answer truthfully and it is also being
assumed that social media will enhance the marketing activities of M&S.
PROJECT RISKS
The quality, time and the cost of the project are the factors in which the risks can occur. The
project will not fall below the set standard otherwise the quality will be decreased so the
supervisors must be involved to avoid the quality risks. The project might exceed the estimated
cost and the time for which I will review the complete plan again, use lower cost products and
will try to stick to the deadlines (Mitra, 2016).
5

RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
ALL the required resource in the project must be managed well and allocated to the employees
of the M&S to as to successfully carry out the research and then implement it (Mitra, A., 2016
et al. 2016).
TIME MANAGEMENT
6

Figure 1: Project Plan Characteristics
[Source: https://www.coleyconsulting.co.uk/projplan.htm]
PROJECT STRATEGY
In the project, I will ensure to communicate with my supervisors at the different stages of the
project. The questionnaire must be well planned with the help of the management team, and
supervisors. The data collected from the questionnaire will be analyzed with the help of the pie
charts and MS-Excel. Finally, the conclusion will be drawn based upon the enhanced marketing
of the M&S by social media usage.
7

P3- TIMEFRAME AND STAGES OF COMPLETION THROUGH GANTT CHART AND
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
Structural measures of the company and its way of performing business can be done with the
help of the Work breakdown structure. The work breakdown structure and the Gantt chart are
created in this report for a duration of 3 years in which all the task that needs to be performed
for the usage of the social media in the M&S business to improve the marketing activities are
being divided into smaller tasks. These tasks are allocated to the different employees of the
team involved in the project that needs to complete the project within the estimated time.
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
WB
S Id
Lev
el
Name of Element Work
Descriptio
n
Budg
et £
Resources Deliverable
1 1 PLANNING THE
PROJECT
REQUIREMENTS
Project
manageme
nt plan
developme
nt
Managers,
stakeholders and
employees
Business
plan
2 2 DESIGNING THE
STUCTURE OF THE
PROJECT (Llonch, et al.
2017)
Design the
company’s
ojectives
Managers and
leaders
Project
goals
3 3 GATHERING THE DATA
AND INFROMATION
PRIMARY
AND
70 ONLINE
REOSURCES,CUTSO
Information
8

SECONDAR
Y (Thiry,
2016)
MERS
4 4 DOCUMENTATION OF
THE DATA GATHERED
Chart and
diagrams
in report
50 Ms-word, MS-
PowerPoint
Proper
structure
5 5 EFFECTVE
IMPLEMENTATION(Stel
zner, 2014)
the
planning is
being
implement
ed
260 Facebook, Twitter,
Youtube usage
Digital
transformati
on
6 6 ANALYSING THE
IMPACT ON
MARKETING OF THE
COMPANY (Harrison
and Lock, 2017)
The impact
of the
project is
analysed
110 Employees and
customers
Success or
failure
7 7 INVESTIGATION AND
EVALUATION
Deriving
the
conclusion
from the
data
collected
Employees Defaults in
the project
are
identified
The total estimated cost of the project is $490 million. The stages that need to be carried put in
this project are mentioned in the above work breakdown structure.
9

GANTT CHART
TASKS WEE
K 1
WEE
K 2
WEE
K 3
WEE
K 4
WEE
K 5
WEE
K 6
WEE
K 7
WEE
K 8
WEE
K 9
WEE
K 10
WEE
K 11
WEE
K 12
Project
planning
Project
designing
Secondary
data
collection
Primary
research
Project
scheduling
Budget/cost
estimation
Resource
gathering
Final
approval
Project
implementa
tion
Impact
evaluation
The stages that are decided in the work breakdown structure needs to be completed within the
estimated time duration of 12 weeks (Acharya and Chellappan, 2017). Effective communication
10

must be maintained throughout the project to avoid any kind of confusion which will help in
successfully carrying out the impact of the social media technology on the marketing of the
M&S organization.
11

TASK 2
P4- QUANTITATIVE AND THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS TO MEET
THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
PROJECT STRATEGY
There are majorly two kinds of research taken out in this project to analyse the impacts of the
social media technology on the marketing of the M&S i.e., primary and the secondary research.
There will be almost 100 employees along with the customers that will be asked the different
questions made in order to analyse the impacts of the social media technology.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
According to the Michaelidou the social media marketing has helped the several organizations
to increase their website traffic, raise the awareness of the brand in the customers. This will
create a brand entity and positive brand associations and proper conversions will be built
(Michaelidou, et al. 2011). Hennig-Thurau states that a proper communication can be built with
the targeted audience of the organizations by the use of the social media platforms. Facebook
is one of the popular tools that can be used for the social media marketing because most of the
customers and the people are using the Facebook which can be utilized to attract a large
number of customers (Hennig-Thurau).
PRIMARY RESEARCH
IN order to analyse the impacts of the social media on the marketing activities of the M&S some
of the employees of the company along with some customers approximately 100 in number will
be asked few questions. Based on the data gathered from the questionnaire conclusion will be
derived.
12

QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Are you a customer of M&S?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Neutral
2. How often do you use the social media platforms?
a) Many times a day
b) Once in a day
c) Few times in a month
d) Uncertain
3. Which social media technology do you mostly use?
a) YouTube
b) Google+
c) Twitter
d) Others, please specify
4. What is the effect of the social media usage of the marketing of the M&S?
a) Increased sales and revenues
b) Increased customer satisfaction
c) Improved business processes and models
d) Increased awareness of the brand
5. What do you think social media has enhanced the marketing process of the M&S?
a) Agree
b) Strongly agree
c) Uncertain
d) Disagree
13

6. Which factor is resisting the effective adoption of the social media by the employees
of the company?
a) Lack of effective planning
b) Lack of leadership and guidance
c) Different risk factors for cybersecurity
d) Uneasiness to accept the change
e) Others, please specify
7. Do the employees ready to adopt the social media for marketing and promotion of
M&S business?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Unsure
8. Are you happy with the detailed information you get about the products of M&S
through social media?
a) Agree
b) Strongly agree
c) Uncertain
d) Disagree
e) Strongly Disagree
d)
14

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
QUESTION 1
RESPONSE TABLE
Total Yes No Uncertain
100 40 35 25
Customer of M&S?
Yes
No
Uncertain
15

QUESTION 2
RESPONSE TABLE
Tota
l
Many times a day Once in a day Few times in a month Uncertain
100 35 22 25 18
How often you use social media?
Many times a day
Once in a day
Few times in a month
Uncertain
16

QUESTION 3
RESPONSE TABLE
Total YouTube Google+ Facebook Other,
Please
specify
100 25 20 40 15
Most used social mdeia
YouTube
Google+
Facebook
Other
17

QUESTION 4
RESPONSE TABLE
Total Increased sales
and revenues
Increased
customer
satisfaction
Improved
business
processes and
models
Increased
awareness of
the brand
100 38 22 16 24
Social media has enhanced marketing of
M&S?
Agree
Strongly agree
Uncertain
Disagree
18

QUESTION 5
RESPONSE TABLE
Total Agree Strongly agree Uncertain Disagree
100 37 23 15 25
Social media in enhancing marketing on M&S
Agree
Srongly agree
Disagree
Uncertain
19

QUESTION 6
RESPONSE TABLE
Total Lack of
effective
planning
Lack of
leadership and
guidance
Different risk
factors for
cybersecurity
Uneasiness to
accept the change
Others,
please
specify
100 16 14 24 30 16
Fcartor affecting the effective adoption of
social media
Lack of effective planning
Lack of leadership and guidance
Different risk factors for cyber
security
Uneasiness to accept the change
Others, please specify
20

QUESTION 7
RESPONSE TABLE
Total Yes No Unsure
100 40 35 25
Willingness to accept change
Yes
No
Unsure
21

QUESTION 8
RESPONSE TABLE
Total Agree Strongly
agree
Uncertain Disagree Strongly
disagree
100 34 24 17 13 12
Enhanced satisfaction
Agree
Strogly agree
Uncertain
Diasgree
Strogly agree
22

PROJECT LOG BOOK
23

TASK 3
P5- RESEARCH ANALYSIS THROUGH EFFECTIVE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
SECONDARY RESEARCH ANALYSIS
It has been analysed that the Facebook is one of the effective tools that can be used by the
M&S business to enhance their marketing activities as most of the people in the world are using
it as a part of the digital media. The customers seem to be more attracted towards the
company products and services by the usage of digital media platforms. The organizations that
are using the social media technology for the growth of their business are able to receive a
higher level of customer’s satisfaction. It has been analysed that the enhanced marketing
activities can lead to the enhanced revenues of the organizations (Smith, 2015).
PRIMARY RESEARCH ANALYSIS
With the help of the questionnaire that has been carried out in this research, it has been
realized that most of the customers use using the social media platforms these days and they
find it easy to get the details of the company products through such promotions and personal
attention. The revenues of the company have been enhanced by the improved marketing
process of the factors that have been analysed through the questionnaire is that the uneasiness
of the employees to accept the change is affecting the growth of the M&S. Most of the
customers agreed that they are happy with the digital transformation that has taken place in
the M&S due to which they are easily able to get the detailed information about the products
and services (Lewis, 2015)
24

P6- APPROPRIATE RECOMMENDATIONS AS A RESULT OF THE RESEARCH AND
ANALYSIS
The continuous acceleration is done by the M&S to enhance the performance of the business. A
competitive advantage has been gained by the company due to the utilization of the social
media technology in the business activities. It has been recommended that an effective
communication must be maintained throughout the project among the employees and the
supervisors so that it becomes easy to apply the changes. Effective marketing strategies can
help the marketing team to attract the customers through the social media platforms that will
help them to understand the customers’ requirements (Grishikashvili, et al. 2014). This will
further enhance the business.
Some of the recommendations are mentioned below which can help the M&S organization to
successfully implement the digital transformation in the company-
 The customers must be given information about the websites and the mobile
applications of the M&S. It will make it easy for them to purchase the product
 The employees of the marketing department must be trained to personally deal with
the different customers and resolve their queries (Taghieh and Keivan 2015)
 The different activities of the marketing team must be monitored regularly so as to
analyses the impact of the social media technology on the business activities
 The employees of the company must start using Facebook more so as to attract large
nobler of customers by promoting the services of the company
25

P7- REFLECTION OF UNDERTAKING THE RESEARCH IN OWN LEARNING AND
PERFORMANCE SO AS TO MEET THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The aims and objectives of the project can be attained by the proper management plan that
needs to be completed within the specified time duration as mentioned in the Gantt chart and
stages in the work break down structure. The following skills are identified by me during this
research which will help me to enhance my professional knowledge and skills.
SKILLS HOW I HAVE DEVELOPED THIS
SKILL
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
ANALYTICAL AND
RESEARCH SKILLS
I have researched both
qualitative and quantitative and
used MS-Excel for the research
analysis
I need to study online
tutorials for further research
methods
STRATEGIC AND PLANNING
SKILLS
I have made the work-
breakdown structure and Gantt
Chart plan the strategy
I need to plan the things
earlier to implement the
schedule as estimated
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
AND REPORT WRITING
SKILLS
Effective verbal and written
communication is used by me to
communicate with people. I
have effectively made the
documentation of the
conclusions
I need to learn more about
different writing skills to
effectively manage the report
writing
TEAM BUILDING SKILLS I have communicated well with
my team members throughout
the project
I need to learn more about
leadership skills and team
management skills
BUDGET PLANNING SKILLS I have estimated a budget plan I need to be more accurate
26

regarding the budget
preparation
RISK ASSESSMENT Risk assessment is done by me
to assess the impacts of the
project
I need to learn online the
research topics and
communication to effectively
manage the risks
PROGRESS MONITORING With the help of the Gantt
chart, I am able to continuously
monitor the progress of the
project
I need to research more about
the self-management skills
27

CONCLUSION
The social media technology has been transforming the business of the organizations like the
M&S. It is essential that the M&S must apply the digital transformation in the marketing
activities of the company so as to increase the revenues of the organization. The concept of the
project management along with its importance to successfully carry out any project is explained
well in this assignment. The project must include the different factors like the cost, quality,
time, scope, quality and the resource’s which must be estimated properly. Thus the advent of
the social media has successfully enhanced the marketing of the company.
28

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