Digital Marketing's Impact on Business Performance: A Dissertation

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Dissertation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
Title of the dissertation................................................................................................................2
Aims and objectives.....................................................................................................................2
Justification for the study.............................................................................................................2
Background of the study..............................................................................................................2
Focus............................................................................................................................................3
Scope............................................................................................................................................3
Impact on business.......................................................................................................................4
Benefit for researcher..................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................5
Project Definition.........................................................................................................................5
Project management challenges...................................................................................................5
Introduction to digital marketing.................................................................................................5
Consumer Behaviour...................................................................................................................6
Impact of marketing on consumer behaviour..............................................................................8
Relationship between brand loyalty and digital marketing.........................................................9
Other business benefits with the help of digital marketing.......................................................10
Negative impact on business in terms of digital technology.....................................................11
Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................................13
Research Process.......................................................................................................................13
Research Type (Qualitative or Quantitative).............................................................................15
Research Philosophy..................................................................................................................15
Research Approach....................................................................................................................16

Research design.........................................................................................................................18
Research Type...........................................................................................................................18
Research strategy.......................................................................................................................19
Data Collection Method.............................................................................................................19
Sampling Size and Technique...................................................................................................22
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................22
Research Plan.............................................................................................................................23
Ethical issues.............................................................................................................................24
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................25
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings.........................................................................................26
Discussion of Data Collection...................................................................................................26
Questionnaires...........................................................................................................................26
Data interpretation and analysis.................................................................................................29
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations..............................................................................44
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................44
Recommendations......................................................................................................................46
Chapter 6: Limitations/Ethical Considerations..............................................................................48
Limitations.................................................................................................................................48
Ethical Consideration.................................................................................................................48
References......................................................................................................................................50

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Advantage and disadvantages of Primary Research........................................................20
Table 2: Advantage and disadvantages of Secondary Research...................................................21
Table 3: Ethical Issues related to researching................................................................................25

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Research Onion..............................................................................................................14
Figure 2: relation between Research process, philosophy and methodologies.............................16

Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
Internet now days play an important role in changing the perspective of customers. With the
evolution of internet, traditional methods of communication have vanished. People or businesses
mostly rely on online mediums for conveying information about their brand and this is the reason
large number of business organizations is identified to make use of internet for strengthening and
generating value for the brand so as to put positive impact on potential target in the entire market
(Davcheva and Benlian, 2018). Business organizations make use of e-newsletters, websites, etc
for managing the communication with customers so that defined goals and objectives can be
attained. However there are still some target groups that might not be able to access the product
offered by business and therefore the concept of digital marketing has been adopted by major of
the business organizations.
Digital marketing adopts new technologies that help marketers to communicate with customers
while attaining several benefits such as cost effectiveness, brand awareness, improved purchase
intention, etc. Online marketing channels such as social network, mobile, website, E mail, etc not
only help the business to make consumers aware about their product rather it will help
consumers to post their feedback so that further product can be improved.
The current report is to highlight the importance of digital marketing that supports raising the
overall performance of the business.
Digital marketing is emerging in a rapid manner and is mostly adopted by the business
organizations for their overall success in terms of attracting customers, consumer awareness so
that overall sales and revenue of the business can be increased (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick,
2019). Utilisation of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc has
contributed largely to transform the perception of consumers in the market and has
revolutionized the ways of conducting business. Digital marketing is has become an extensive
subject to study so that business can gain several benefits out of it. The main purpose of
conducting the study is therefore based on digital marketing so that small and large scale
business can gain several benefits with the help of social media in terms of penetrating the
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existing markets, as well as to reach large number of customers. In addition to this, business can
alter the perception of customers towards its existing products and services and can gain
successfully gain competitive advantage in the market.
Title of the dissertation
The proposed title for the existing dissertation is related to ‘Study the impact of digital marketing
on business performance’.
Aims and objectives
Aim of the project is to study the ‘influence of digital marketing on overall performance of the
businesses. Related objectives include:
 To determine the impact of digital marketing on business performance (sales)
 To identify the influence of digital marketing on consumer behaviour
 To access the relationship between brand loyalty and digital marketing
 To identify the importance of customer relationship with business
Justification for the study
The research is conducted so as to develop knowledge related to importance of digital marketing
and how it can impact the future business performance especially to meet the competitors in the
era of increasing technology. Extensive knowledge related to the topic will support improving
the existing situations within the business. Consumers now days in the market are inclined
towards products with higher brand name and in such situation it is important for business to
draw the attention of consumers by adopting rigorous marketing techniques (Ryan, 2016).
Information available on digital or social media platforms relevant to product or service will
directly influence the perception of consumer in either positive or negative manner. Digital
marketing will also help consumers to be aware about new products launched by the business.
With this perspective, current research has aimed to identify consumer behaviour towards
business with the implementation of digital marketing.
Background of the study
With the advancement of technology, business organizations are appropriately moving towards
large number of benefits so that it can withstand the competition in an effective manner. It has
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been identified that digital marketing provides business to gain the opportunity in terms of
advertising and online branding. Digital marketing not only impact activities of large scale
business but it also contribute towards overall growth and development of small scale
organizations. The most advantageous feature of using this type of marketing is that it supports
business to connect with customers in the most helpful manner (Crittenden and Crittenden,
2015). In other words it can be said that digital marketing endeavours the process of notifying
consumers in the market with the help of promotion of products on social media platforms.
The main idea of the study is to investigate the influence of digital marketing on business
performance emphasizing on various aspects of consumers. The report will consider various
areas related future research associated with business entities. The project suggests that business
enteritis must focus on embracing the new and changing technology so that new market
opportunities can be grabbed. If the business organization does not work with the pace of
technology, then it might experience business declination.
Focus
The main focus of the project is to highlight the importance of digital marketing in context to
business performance. Digital marketing involves sending of message to the consumers
associated with the target market. This includes utilities and benefits of products that help the
business to seek the attention of consumers. The main objective of business organizations that
adopts such type of marketing is to gain competitive advantage by creating brand awareness,
enhancement of sales as well as by increasing the market share.
Scope
The method of utilizing promotion tools in future will support business organizations to grab the
attention of consumers in much better manner and without facing any kind of difficulty. Such
type of promotional strategies might focus on online advertising (Järvinen and Karjaluoto, 2015).
It has been identified that traditional marketing are collapsing with the advent of technology and
are of no importance as it does not contribute much towards its growth in the competitive era.
Social media platforms and other sources of internet are considered as most important mediums
of promoting business. It is known fact that millions and billions of people in the market access
the internet in search of new and innovative ideas. Business organization can grab the
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opportunity of posting ads of products on social medial platforms so that potential audiences
become aware about new offers associated with products.
The current research aims to identify the effectiveness of digital marketing and for this it will
consider various aspects such as consumer perception, purchase intention as well as customer
relationship. Researcher in this study aims to collect the data from the target population which
will be assessed according to the research questions. The collected data will be further analysed
to gather the qualitative data.
Impact on business
The main purpose of utilizing online marketing is to transform the consumer behaviour as well
as their purchase intention regarding new products and services in the market. Business
organizations in this context must focus on conducting rigorous research so that current
expectation of consumers can be identified (Baker and Saren, 2016). With the collection of data
on the basis of consumer behaviour, business can develop products according that further favour
business profitability. In addition to this, customers can also access to wider range of information
so that products available in the market can be compared and can gain the advantage of best
quality and best priced product. This has enhanced the competition among business entities and
therefore quality in terms of innovative products has been identified in the market.
Overall findings of the research will help business to identify the importance of spreading
awareness with the help of digital methods of marketing. Business can gain advantage of
collecting vast information so that business can attain profitability in short run. However on the
other hand, increasing demand of customers has put pressure on various businesses to invest
more on conducting research so that development of new and innovative products can be
improved. In addition to this, making consumers aware about the new offers and products with
the help of social media is disadvantageous in terms of competitive advantage as their vital
information related to strategy might turn out to be viral and existing competitors in the market
can gain advantage out of it.
Benefit for researcher
Such type of research studies will help the researcher to improve their existing knowledge base.
As per the current scenario, researcher will help to gather the knowledge about changing
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behaviour and perception of consumers in the market. This will help to conduct the future
researches that are based on factors related to consumer behaviour. In addition to this, digital
marketing is of great importance in today’s business scenario and therefore this research topic
will help the researcher to conduct in depth analysis of the collected data in more effective
manner.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Project Definition
Project is the activity that supports developing distinct and innovative product or service that
comes up with business profitability in desired manner. Project involves number of steps that
contribute to develop the research design so that aims and objectives can be fulfilled. Time
frames are essentially to be considered while undertaking the project and because of specific
time frames, project cannot be undertaken in repetitive manner. It further includes resources¸
budget, scope, as well as factors that contribute towards overall quality of the project. It defines
certain set of goals and objectives that are to be fulfilled by the project completion stage so that
project can be considered as successful.
Project management challenges
Project management comes up with large number of challenges that restrict the project manager
to accomplish defined goals and objectives. Number of challenges that has been identified while
managing the project includes undefined goals as well as change in scope. In addition to this,
inadequate skills of project members hinder the success of the project. Further lack of risk
management skills will hamper the contingency plan which will restrict the project to deal with
number of challenges. Poor communication among team members is also of the biggest
challenge while managing the project. Therefore it is important to develop appropriate
communication strategies so that goals and task are clear for each and every one while
undertaking roles and responsibilities.
Introduction to digital marketing
Use of wider range of digital channels such as mobile phones, digital television, e-mail, Internet,
etc has enhanced the methods of marketing along with business profitability. It is crucial for
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marketers to make effective use of these channels such that business can gain competitive
advantage in the market. Several business organizations make use of digital marketing as per the
perceived ease of its utilisation. According to Todor, (2016), Digital marketing strategies
revolves around on how digital technologies are being utilised as it support the business in terms
of seeking individual attention, better product development, campaign management, along with
marketing design and its effective execution. In other it can be defined as process that enhances
the method of traditional marketing with the use of technology and it therefore allows marketer
to exhibit customized product and services along with content favourable to individual customers
in the market.
Stephen, (2016) stated that Digital marketing help the business marketers to measure the
perceived experience of customers towards the brand. Online marketing reduces the overall
investment cost of hiring marketing agents. In addition to this, use of digital marketing channels
also support customers to post their feedbacks after using or experiencing the product or service
offered by the business organization. This helps the business to exploit the information which
can be further utilised to develop or improve the existing product or services. Therefore it is
essential for business to integrate digital marketing within its marketing program so that it can
gain competitive advantage in the market.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. contribute largely towards digital marketing.
Number of business organizations makes use of social media platforms for attracting potential
customers. This allows users to exchange ideas and interest within the entire network. For an
example, organizations like Blackberry has gained several benefits by developing its page on
Facebook in terms of exhibiting several characteristics of its mobile phones and therefore the
organization has experienced increasing sales and sudden growth in the market. Use of social
media platforms helped the business organization to market its products in cost effective manner.
Main features of social media platforms especially includes interaction with friends, video
chatting, adding and removing friends, sending messages, posting comments, etc. The webpage
support users to get real time updates related to new products and services in the market.
Consumer Behaviour
Zhang and Benyoucef, (2016) stated that Consumer behaviour can be defined as the study that
supports identifying on how consumers or group of consumers buy or make use of products for
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satisfying their needs. It can be referred to as actions of customers in the marketplace along with
their motives against those actions. Marketers in the current scenario have higher focus over
understanding the needs of consumers while purchasing products and services. Such type of
understanding further helps the marketers to identify products that are essentially to be exhibited
in the market so as to seek the attention of consumers. It is being assumed that consumers play
an important role in the marketplace that contributes largely to the success of the business
organization. Beginning from information provider, payer or user, disposer, etc consumer plays
crucial role while making decisions within the process. These roles might differ in different
situations.
According to (Murphy and Dweck, 2016), consumer behaviour can be defined as the physical
activities as well as decision making process that contribute towards engagement of employees
while evaluating or utilizing the products and services. There exists number of factors that
influences consumer behaviour that includes marketing factors such as promotion, distribution,
packaging, positioning, and product design as price of the product. Along with this, personal
factors like income level, education, gender and age also plays an important role that influence
consumer decision making while purchasing the product. In addition to this, buying motives,
attitudes toward the product, product perception, etc are some of the Psychological factors that
alter the choice of consumers while making purchase decisions. Situational factors, social and
cultural factors also play an important role in moulding the consumer behaviour.
Sheeran and Webb, (2016) identified that consumer behaviour keeps on changing or it can be
said that it is not static. Consumer behaviour undergoes changes with the changing period of time
however it largely depends upon nature and characteristics of the product and how it is being
presented in the market by the business organization. For an example, parents choose fancy and
colourful footwear for their kids, but with their growing age, they like to wear either trendy or
sober footwear. Therefore there are various factors that include income level, marketing factors,
as well as education level that change the buying behaviour of consumers. Wansink, (2015),
stated that all customers do not react in similar manner or it can be said that different consumers
behave in different manner. Nature of culture, lifestyle, and consumers are some of the
individual factors that are responsible for creating differences in consumer behaviour. For an
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