BM631 Report: Social Media Marketing and Brand Awareness at Lidl

This report evaluates the effectiveness of social media marketing in increasing brand awareness, focusing on Lidl as a case study. It explores the rationale behind the research, emphasizing the importance of social media in today's market for enhancing brand image and expanding the customer base. A comprehensive literature review examines existing research on social media marketing strategies, customer engagement, and brand awareness. The research aims to determine the knowledge of social media marketing in the context of an organization, determine the importance of social media marketing in increasing customer base towards Lidl, and examine the ways for increasing brand awareness in the marketplace. The methodology section outlines the research approach, design, methods, and data analysis techniques, including the use of questionnaires for primary data collection and a descriptive research design. The report also addresses the importance of validity and reliability in the data collection process and concludes with a discussion of data analysis using frequency distribution analysis. The report provides valuable insights into the role of social media marketing in brand awareness and its implications for businesses like Lidl.

BM631 Research Methods
(To evaluating the effectiveness of social media
marketing in increment of brand awareness at
marketplace)
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Contents
Rationale..........................................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Aim..................................................................................................................................................5
Objectives........................................................................................................................................5
Questions.........................................................................................................................................5
Methodologies.................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Social media marketing is the effective use of websites and social media platforms to
promote service or products. This is an essential and valuable type of marketing because it helps
an organisation in increasing of their brand awareness in marketplace and in customer mind.
Through social media marketing, company can easily attract larger customer base within single
time of period. Social media marketing gives organisations with an effective way to engage with
existing customers, attract new customers and promote their desired culture, tone or mission
(Perakakis and et. al., 2016). For this research, Lidl is a chosen international discount
supermarket chain that provides their products and services in al over the world, with aim of
accomplishing competitive benefits. Company was founded in 1973 by Josef Schwarz. Company
wants to expand their business that is only possible with social media marketing. This marketing
will help company in increasing of their brand awareness among customers and in market place
that result in improved brand image.
Rationale
Main rationale behind selection of current topic is to determining the issues of lack of brand
awareness for an organisation. For this, social media marketing will be applied, with purpose of
increasing brand awareness in marketplace. Present investigation is important at personal as well
as professional level. Developing on personal level, current study help investigator by improving
their all types of research skills that includes presentation, time management etc. Depending on
professional level, current study helps students by enhancing their understanding regarding the
significance of social media marketing in improvement of brand awareness (Kumar and Pradhan,
2018).
Literature review
Literature review is the process that systematically collect secondary information through
books, articles, journals and many other sources relevant to the topic. Main purpose of literature
review is to explore research gap within existing topic. In this, effectiveness of social media
marketing in increment of brand awareness at marketplace is a main gap. In previous
investigations there were different information available regarding the social media marketing
but there were lack or missing information regarding the effectiveness of social media for an
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organisation in improvement of its brand awareness. In order to fulfil this gap, research questions
will be applied, which will be described as below:
Explanation regarding the social media marketing in context of an organisation?
According to the Giroux, Pons and Maltese (2017), social media marketing is a type of
marketing that helps business organisation in promoting of their brand to the customers and in
marketplace. There are different types of social media marketing such as Facebook advertising,
Instagram advertising, Twitter advertising etc. All these are essential and effective types of
marketing that will be essential and effective for company in marketing of their products easily.
One of the main use of social media marketing is to increase number of customers by providing
actual information regarding the product, process or services.
What are the importance of social media marketing in increasing customer base towards
Lidl?
As per the view presented by Sung, Kim and Choi (2018), social media marketing is an
effective way of promoting brand, product or service. One of the main advantage of social media
marketing is to increase customer base by providing accurate information about the product or
services. There is also different importance of social media marketing including, increased band
awareness, improved search engine ranking, improved brand loyalty, higher conversion rates,
cost-effective etc. All these are biggest and main advantages of social media marketing that will
be beneficial for Lidl in increment of customer base within minimum time. It is important for
company to increase customer base because this will help them in increment of their sales and
profitability. This will further assist them in attaining competitive advantages within minimum
time and in successful manner.
What are the effective ways for increasing brand awareness in marketplace?
According to the Ninan, Clegg and Mahalingam (2019), it is important for Lidl to increase
their brand awareness among customers through different platforms and websites of social
media. Some will be explained as below:
 Facebook: This is one of the main and essential type of social media marketing because
today’s most of the person spend their maximum time on Facebook. This will be essential
for company to increase their brand awareness and maximise sales.
 Instagram: This is another type of marketing that will be useful for Lidl in advertising
and promoting of their brand in marketplace. For this, company should send picture of
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their products and also make video that will be effective in increasing customer base and
also improving brand image.
Aim
Main aim of this research is “To evaluating the effectiveness of social media marketing in
increment of brand awareness at marketplace”. A study on Lidl
Objectives
 To explore knowledge regarding the social media marketing in context of an
organisation.
 To determine the importance of social media marketing in increasing customer base
towards Lidl.
 To examine the ways for increasing brand awareness in marketplace.
Questions
 Explanation regarding the social media marketing in context of an organisation?
 What are the importance of social media marketing in increasing customer base towards
Lidl?
 What are the effective ways for increasing brand awareness in marketplace?
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Methodologies
Methodology is a main part of the research because it helps investigator in gathering as well
as evaluating of the appropriate data about the topic. There are different methods that will be
included in this methodology. These will be explained as below:
Approach
This is the process of collecting and analysing the information about the specific field of
study. This section of the methodology basically divided into two types such as data collection
and data analysis. In order to gather information, there are also two approaches which are
inductive and deductive (Healey, 2017). Along with this, for data analysis, there are also two
approaches i.e. inductive and deductive. Therefore, these are effective approaches of data
collection and data analysis. According to the current research, quantitative approach of data
collection will be applied as it facilitates investigator in gathering of numerical data within less
time. In order to analysis quantitative information, deductive approach of the research will be
applied as it not consume maximum time and helps in getting of quantitative results.
Design
This refers to the process of identifying the research problem. There are basically three
types of research designs which are exploratory, descriptive and experimental. All these are main
types of research design but in accordance to the existing topic, descriptive design of research
will be applied because it helps investigator in collecting, analysing and using of quantitative
information within minimum time and as compare to experimental and exploratory design
(Wang and et. al., 2017).
Methods
There are two main methods of data collection such as primary and secondary. Both
methods of data collection are useful within an investigation because it helps researcher in
attaining of all objectives successfully. In order to collect primary information about the
effectiveness of social media marketing, questionnaire will be applied because it helps in
gathering of numerical data easily and within minimum time. For collecting secondary
information regarding the existing topic, there are different sources such as articles, books,
magazines etc. sources will be applied for literature review (Mora and et. al., 2019).
Participants
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This is a part of sampling that is divided into two types are called probability sampling
and non-probability sampling. Both techniques of sampling are essential but in accordance to the
existing topic, probability sampling is more valuable because it assist researcher in selecting of
larger base of sample within minimum time. By using probability sampling, 25 employees of
Lidl will be recruited on random basis. Main reason behind selection of random sampling as a
type of probability sampling, as it helped in selection of larger base of sample without taking
additional time (Zhang and et. al., 2017). Non-probability sampling is not useful according to the
topic because it not assists in selecting maximum number of respondents and also consume
maximum time.
Validity and reliability
This is another main part of methodology that helps investigator in testing the reliability
and validity of the data. Questionnaire as an instrument of quantitative data collection is a chosen
method that will be essential and effective for investigator in collecting of reliable and valid data
within less period of time.
Data analysis
Data analysis introduces to the effective process of evaluating the data collected from
specific instrument. Within an investigation, data will be collected from questionnaire and for
evaluating this, frequency distribution analysing will be applied as an analytical technique. In
this technique, researcher will require in making of frequency distribution table that will be
effective for investigator in achieving the research aim and research objectives successfully
(Faggion, Bakas and Wasiak, 2017).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Faggion, C.M., Bakas, N.P. and Wasiak, J., 2017. A survey of prevalence of narrative and
systematic reviews in five major medical journals. BMC medical research
methodology, 17(1), pp.1-7.
Giroux, M., Pons, F. and Maltese, L., 2017. The role of perceived brand personality in promotion
effectiveness and brand equity development of professional sports teams. International
Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship.
Healey, N.M., 2017. Reflections on the value of insider research as a qualitative research
methodology. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Kumar, V. and Pradhan, P., 2018. Trust management issues in social-media marketing. In Social
Media Marketing: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 714-732). IGI Global.
Mora, L. and et. al., 2019. How to overcome the dichotomous nature of smart city research:
Proposed methodology and results of a pilot study. Journal of Urban Technology, 26(2),
pp.89-128.
Ninan, J., Clegg, S. and Mahalingam, A., 2019. Branding and governmentality for infrastructure
megaprojects: The role of social media. International Journal of Project
Management, 37(1), pp.59-72.
Perakakis, E. and et. al., 2016. Social media as a marketing tool for Greek
destinations. Tourismos, 11(3).
Sung, Y., Kim, E. and Choi, S.M., 2018. # Me and brands: understanding brand-selfie posters on
social media. International Journal of Advertising, 37(1), pp.14-28.
Wang, Y. and et. al., 2017. A variable-capacity power system driven by geothermal energy:
research methodology and preliminary experimental study. Energy Procedia, 142,
pp.278-283.
Zhang, L. and et. al., 2017. A survey of advanced techniques for spectrum sharing in 5G
networks. IEEE Wireless Communications, 24(5), pp.44-51.
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