Analyzing Social Media Marketing's Impact on Zappos' Customer Behavior

This research proposal examines the impact of social media marketing strategies on customer buying behavior, focusing on the online retailer Zappos. The study aims to determine how various social media marketing strategies influence customer purchasing decisions. It will explore the concept of social media marketing, analyze the specific strategies Zappos employs, and identify the challenges the company faces in leveraging these strategies. The research includes a literature review covering relevant concepts and previous studies, and outlines the research methodology, which will involve primary and secondary data collection to gather insights into customer engagement and marketing effectiveness. The proposal also provides a timeline for the research activities, including project planning, literature review, methodology development, data collection and analysis, results discussion, report writing, and presentation of findings. The research seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of how social media marketing contributes to Zappos's customer acquisition, retention, and overall business success.

Research Proposal Form
Student Name: ………………. Student ID: ……………..
Centre Name: …………………
Tutor: ………………………….. Date: …………..
Unit: ……………………………
Proposed Title: Impact of social media marketing strategies on customer buying
behaviour. A study on Zappos.
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Introduction….
This project aims at analysing the impact of social media marketing on consumer buying
behaviour. Social media marketing is a type of marketing which consists of various
platforms and website to promote their products and services. this is used by various
organisation to promote their brand through digital marketing platforms or e-marketing
platforms marketing strategies used by organisation to enhance customers and to gain their
satisfaction. Social media strategy platform includes Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and so
on. Which helps organisation in promoting their products and services and making
engagement with the customers and setting that target audience. If there is a strong
marketing campaign, then it will build organisation effectiveness and also customers will
be more engaged that campaign and this helps organisation in achieving their
organisational goals and objectives. Social media marketing plan is the overview of
marketing goals and actions that could be followed by companies to achieve their goals.
Social media plans help businesses in keeping on track and developing their plan of action
so it is important for companies to make an effective social media marketing strategy. This
helps organisation in building their brand for longer time and keeping stable in the market
and competitive advantage among competitors. It focused on communication and making
contact with customers effectively also it helps in generating more leads and targeting
audience improving their business strategies. The organisation is Zappos. it is an American
online shoe and clothing retailing company. it was founded in the year 1999 by Nick
Swinmurn. Company is having their headquarters in Las Vegas, US. It is dealing in the
products like shoes, handbags and accessories and clothing. There are about 1500
employee working in the company currently. Company is using effective social media
strategies to enhance their customers so that customer will buy more their products. In this
report, this consists of research aim and objectives and there is a research question. then it
consists of literature review and research rationale. It consists of research methodology
used to collect data and information and time scale for schedule.

Research aim
“To determine the impact of various social media marketing strategies on customer buying
behaviour.” A study on Zappos.
Research objectives…
 To understand about the concept of social media marketing strategies used in the
organisation.
 To determine social media marketing strategy used by Zappos to enhance their
customer buying behaviour.
 To analyse the challenges faced by company in using of social media strategies.
Research questions
 What do you understand about the concept of social media marketing strategies
used in the organisation?
 How social media strategy used by Zappos to enhance their customer buying
behaviour?
 What challenges faced by company in using of social media strategies?
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
Main reason behind choosing this research topic is that it helps the investigator in
searching about social media strategies used by organisation to enhance its customer
satisfaction and what will be the behaviour of customer on buying of products and services.
This research helps the investigator in enhancing his personal and professional skills also
this helps him in developing various skills like communication and time management skills
and decision making skills. Conducting this research will be able to get more knowledge
about the topic of social media strategy. This topic is more important because it tells details
about various platforms that is used by company to to see the impact of customer buying
behaviour while implementing social media strategies in market. Moreover, this will help
in researcher future job position when they apply for marketing job positions in any
organisation. In this report investigator is using primary and secondary methods both to get

valuable and reliable information about the topic. Primary methods are used by researcher
to get numerical data and graphs for collecting accurate information and data. secondary
information is collected through author's perspective view about the topic.
Section Three: Literature review
Concept of social media marketing strategies used in the organisation.
According to the views of Subramani, (2020), Social media marketing is described are the
strategies which helps customers in getting engaged with the company products and
services. These strategies are used by organisation to promote their products and services.
This is a form of online marketing. There are various social media strategies used in
organisation. These are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. Raised platforms have
in running paid campaigns of marketing and build stronger customer base. Social media
marketing strategies are most important for the organisation in buying behaviour of
customers (An, Chung, and Muk, 2021). According to recent research it is find out that
social media attract new customers and business owners use social media tool to enhance
their customers and promote their products and services (Social Media Marketing
Strategies, 2020). It helps in increasing sales and achieving organisational goals and
objectives social media strategy used by companies to reach customer and handle their all
complaints and make improvements in their products and services. it tells customers about
the active and updated technologies used in companies and updated products made by the
company. This also focused on communication with customers and more engagement with
them also this helps in making effective marketing campaign together more customers
there can be several benefits of social media marketing like branding, customer loyalty,
customer insights, customer support and conversion. As branding can be done through
social media and connecting with target audience. Further, it makes a positive impact for
the business to raise brand's voice, content and interactions with the customers. Now a days
Zappos making bigger emphasis on customer experience which can create impact on their
reputation and they are engaging more on social media channels to receive higher loyalty
from customers.
Determine how social media strategy used by Zappos to enhance their customer
buying behaviour.
According to Kotler (2021), There can be various social media marketing strategy used by
zappos to enhance their customer buying behaviour. These marketing strategies can be
through various platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (Bae, and Kim, 2021). As
social media marketing strategy can be created in five ways these are why company want
to be on social media, who is the target audience, what are they going to share, where they
are going to share and when they are going to share (What makes Zappos marketing
strategy stand out above the crowd? 2021). Zappos.com is the American online clothing
retailer company which is doing its social media marketing strategy in very effective way
to enhance their customers and increasing their satisfaction they are doing promotion
through Facebook, Pinterest and other platforms. Zappos is building strong presence on

multiple social media networks and setting hi-bar so that it can engage with more its
customers. they are nearly very top at the major brand ranking in customer service and
social media marketing. Company sharing on Google plus, tweets on Twitter, post on
Facebook and updated videos on Instagram so that it could engage with customers more. if
customers are more engaged than this could really impact their buying behaviour when
they will more search about brand products and services. There can be review of their
marketing strategy that is adaptation and innovation, customer relationships, customer
engagement, experience customisation and encouraging, sharing by surprising their
customers. Companies doing various experimentation and market research to gather latest
trends preferred by customers they are try to accumulating new customers and cultivating
making relationship with them. they are enjoying more followers and fans in the long run
so that their brand could enhance (Cerezo, and et.al., 2021). Further they are making
promotions like “buy one get one free” and making engagement on social media through
various comments, likes and shares. They are making customer engagement and
conversion as naturally as possible. Also, they listen carefully and observe and apply new
ideas what they learn from those customers. Happy customer share good experience and
reviews. Also, this could impact customer buying behaviour as if they get products with
high quality and more receivable by people then they could move forward to get the
product. For this, company is making effective promotions through social media marketing
channels. By targeting audience company promotes their products and services to them and
hence gain competitive advantage in the market and competitors. Company focusing on
creating attractive contents so that this could attract more customers through their post and
videos. Also, they are providing online products at the time of covid-19. Furthermore,
strong social media strategies help in building company reputation and staying people
connected with the brand.
Challenges faced by company in using of social media strategies.
From the views of Calus, (2020), There can be various challenges faced by company in
implementing of social media marketing strategy. There can be various challenges which is
faced by organisation in every single day (Karimkhan, and Chapa, 2021). These can be
problems and issues related with productivity, efficiency, branding on the daily basis.
Some of the main challenges faced by zappos is there is never enough time- as it is always
seen that social media always distract person from the real work. So, this could make clear
that there is not enough time for customers to see various post and campaign made by
company on various platforms. Another talent which is being faced by companies keeping
in touch with customers- social media is not just about the posting and waiting for result it
is about being social with customers. sharing and debating new ideas and engaging
customers and sharing feedbacks about products and services (Five Biggest Social Media
Challenges and 10 Solutions to Them, 2020). Also, company has to be connected 24/7
hours with customers so that they could handle their complaints and issues related to
products and service provided to them. Then another can be is providing ROI with social
media- as it is the biggest challenge that is being faced by organisations in digital
marketing. Turning followers into customers and making money by using should social

media marketing is the significance sales online is a most important on website for that
company has to keep their performance criteria of social media campaigns connected with
their goals (Kaser, and Oelkers, 2021). Another challenge like being different from the
competitors- is the biggest challenge that can be faced by organisation as other companies
are using strong marketing strategies to attract customers and enhance their buying
behaviour so for that Zappos have to make its online presence so effective that customers
will more engage with their products and this could build digital brand to specific market.
Online
Five Biggest Social Media Challenges and 10 Solutions to Them, 2020. [Online] Available
through <https://planable.io/blog/social-media-challenges/ >
Social Media Marketing Strategies, 2020. [Online] Available through <
https://knowonlinemarketing.com/social-media-marketing-strategies/ >
What makes Zappos marketing strategy stand out above the crowd? 2021. [Online]
Available through <https://digitalsparkmarketing.com/zappos-marketing-strategy/ >
Activities to be carried out during the
research project (e.g., planning, conducting
research, analysis, write-ups)
Project formulation and Project Planning
Literature Review
Methodology
Data Collection and Analysis
Discussion of the results, including
reflection
Report writing
How long this will take: (See Gantt Chart
below)
3 wks.
4 wks.
4 wks.
5 wks.
4 wks.
3 wks.

Presentation of the management 1 wk.

Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use and why?
What your areas of research will cover:
Research methodology is described as a set of actions that can be considered in research so
that it can be implement in a proper manner. It can be considered as one of the most
important roles that develop research process and methods in achieving research aims and
objectives in a systematic manner. One of the main objectives of the research methodology
is to study about the method used by investigator in conducting this research in more
systematic way and timely achieve its aims and objectives. It helps in gaining appropriate
data and information from the sources and respondents (Martino, and et.al., 2021). In this
research, Research onion framework is taken into consideration as this consist of different
layers which are discussed below:
Research philosophy: Research philosophies a set of action that can be advantages and
valuable in achieving research objective. It helps in investigating overall research in
effective manner. It is a phenomenon used by investigator to collect data and information
about a particular research topic also it is defined as a set of assumptions in research. It
consists of two methods that is positivism and interpretivism. Interpretivism philosophy is
associated with form of acknowledgement to investigator in which all development can be
seen within a study. In this particular research positivism philosophy is used by researcher
to get end up knowledge about a particular topic of social media strategy because this helps
in getting dealt in direct as well as indirectly.
Research approach: Research approach is a leading research that that makes use of
conception frameworks so that values can be enhanced of investigator and investigation
both. It is said that research approaches are very important to obtain objectives and aims of
the investigation. There are two approaches used in research onion. These are inductive
and deductive research. Deductive approach is used is related with the hypothesis and this
can be framed for implementing results. On the other hand, inductive approach is referring
to the observations and achieving research objectives. In this given research, researcher is
using deductive approach to collect data and information in most effective manner. There
helps in gaining more knowledge and information about the topic. Further this helps in
collecting information about the cost effective manner and in timely manner. This will be
conducted by investigator in analysing all results and data.
Research strategy: It is the next layer of research onion framework as in this researcher
collect various data and information through various sources (Patro, 2021). Investigator
choose some of the research strategy in order to collect data and information in effective

manner and to get reliable and accurate data. It is a method which plays most important
role in conducting this research. There are various strategies used in research. These are
questionnaire survey, literature review, interviews and case studies and observations tec. In
this given research, researcher is making use of questionnaire survey and literature review
to carry out the information and data. This questionnaire survey is to be filled by
respondents and employees of Zappos. so, by this researcher will be able to get reliable
data and information about social media strategies used in company.
Data collection: Data in the research is collected through two methods. These are primary
and secondary research. In this given research, researcher is making use of both of these
methods. As primary method is used for conducting numerical data that is through graphs
and interpretation. This can be conducted through questionnaire survey which is filled by
employees of company to get reliable data and accurate data. Then another secondary data
is collected through literature review that is trough books and journals and this brings in
depth knowledge of the given topic. These both method helps the investigator in achieving
their goals and objectives and also achieving aims and objectives of the research. This will
give true and accurate results about the given topic and give proper interpretations.
Sampling: Sampling is the process of selecting a sample from large number of populations.
From these samples, information is being gather and this brings more reliable results.
There are two types of sampling used (Peñalba-Aguirrezabalaga, and et.al., 2021). These
are probabilistic sampling and non- probabilistic sampling. In this particular research, non-
probabilistic sampling is used to gain data and information about given topic. In this
research, the selected sample are 50 participants who are the employees of Zappos. so, they
have to filled questionnaire survey in order to get information true and correctly. In this
random sampling is taken into consideration so that there could be equal chances should be
given to each participant.
Research choice: it can be referred to as developing study in systematic manner and going
accurate and reliable data. this is the next layer of research onion and in this investigator is
having great assistance to develop their path and obtain objectives. There can be two forms
of research choices. These are quantitative data and qualitative data analysis. In its present
research, investigator is using both of these methods (Premnath, 2021). As quantitative
data is used for conducting practical data and information which can through tables and
graphs. And qualitative data is used by researcher to gain theoretical data and findings.
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