Research Proposal: Assessing IMC Impact on Consumer Buying Behavior

This research proposal investigates the impact of integrated marketing communication (IMC) on consumer impulsive buying behavior, focusing on the H&M brand. The study includes a comprehensive literature review, exploring the concepts of IMC and impulsive buying, along with the relationship between them. The methodology outlines a quantitative approach, employing a deductive approach with probability sampling, and data collection via questionnaires. The proposal details the research philosophy, approach, methods, design, sample, and data analysis techniques, including frequency distribution analysis. Ethical considerations and limitations are also addressed. The research aims to identify how IMC influences consumer behavior and impulsive buying patterns, offering insights into effective strategies for brands like H&M to manage consumer behavior. The research timeline is visualized using a Gantt chart, providing a structured approach to the study's completion.

Research and study skills
(Assessing the impact of integrated marketing
communication on consumer impulsive buying
behaviour)
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Contents
Research Justification......................................................................................................................3
Background of the research.........................................................................................................3
Research aim and objectives........................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................5
Methodology....................................................................................................................................7
Research Timeline...........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Integrated marketing communication refers to the process of transferring a unified
information across a different channel to increase customer base. Integrated marketing
communication is important for an organisation because it helps them in improving their brand
image and goodwill in marketplace. There are different activities that will be needed in
completing research proposal (Ahn and Kwon, 2020). These are introduction, literature review,
methodology, Gantt chart etc. All these are important in completion of full study in systematic
manner. main purpose of this study is to determining the effectiveness of integrated marketing
communication in changing of customer’s behaviour towards the brand.
Research Justification
Background of the research
Integrated marketing communication introduces to the effective concept under which an
organisation carefully integrate as well as coordinates its different communication channels, with
aim to delivering clear information to the customers. There are different examples of integrated
marketing communication that will be essential for company in attracting larger customer base.
These are public relation, direct marketing, social media etc. For this study, H&M is a chosen
multinational clothing brand that is well-known or specialise in selling of clothing for teenagers,
men, children and women. H&M is a well-known brand because of its quality products or
services. in Covid 19 situation, company faced certain issues regarding their sales and lack of
customer engagement or attraction. This situation had negative impact on business performance
of H&M by reducing their sales ratio (Cheah and et. al., 2020). In order to overcome this issue,
current study will be concluded in systematic manner. there are different benefits of using
integrated marketing communication such as cost effective, change the customer’s buying
behaviour, improve brand image, increased morals etc. These are major advantages that will be
beneficial for H&M in improvement of its growth and success after Covid 19. Thus, integrated
marketing communication is important and essential part for H&M in improvement of its growth
and also accomplishment of competitive advantages.
Main rationale behind selecting this topic or research is to determining the issues faced by
company during Covid 19. This is a biggest reason behind conducting present investigation.
Along with this, current investigation helps an individual, organisations and industries by
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providing accurate information about the significance of integrated marketing communication in
changing customer behaviour towards the brand. This research helps at personal as well as
professional ground. At personal level, present study assist investigator by improving their
research skills that are literature review, time management, presentation etc. With the help of
these skills, researcher can easily conduct full investigation in successful manner. depending on
professional level, current investigation helps students by increasing their understanding about
the integrated marketing communication and its effectiveness in impulsive buying behaviour of
consumer. Therefore, current study has biggest importance for all members i.e. industry,
organisation and an individual.
Research aim and objectives
Research aim: "To identify the impact of integrated marketing communication over impulsive
buying behaviour of consumer". A study on H&M
Research objectives:
 To develop basic understanding regarding the integrated marketing communication and
consumer's impulsive buying behaviour.
 To explore ways for changing the impulsive buying behaviour of consumers towards the
H&M.
 To examine the relationship between integrated marketing communication and impulsive
buying behaviour of consumer.
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Literature Review
Literature review is the process of gathering secondary data through various sources which
are articles, books, journals, magazines and many more. These are useful sources of gathering
secondary data about the topic. This part of research has main purpose that is to identifying the
gap within current study. In previous studies, there were larger number of information available
regarding the impact of integrated marketing communication on business performance, but there
were insufficient or lack of data regarding the impact of integrated marketing communication on
buying behaviour of customers. This is main gap and for overcoming this, research questions
will be defined in detailed manner. These are:
What is the concept of integrated marketing communication and consumer's impulsive
buying behaviour?
According to the, Efendi, Indartono and Sukidjo (2019), integrated marketing
communication introduces to the effective and essential process of communicating information
the customers about the product, service or process. In simple word, it is the process of planning,
executing and monitoring the brand message that develop customer relationship. There are
different advantages or benefits of integrated marketing communication such as brand
differentiation, trust among customers, accountability within an organisation etc. These are
biggest advantages that will be beneficial for company in improvement of its growth and
development.
On the other hand, Hussain and Siddiqui (2019), inclusive buying introduces to the
tendency of a client to purchase services and products without planning in advance. Positive
consumer buying behaviour is important for an organisation in improving their brand image at
national as well as international marketplace.
What are the effective ways for changing the impulsive buying behaviour of consumers
towards the H&M.?
As per the view presented by MARTEY (2020), this is important for an organisation to
change customer buying behaviour towards the brand. There are different ways that will be
effective for H&M in changing the buying behaviour of customers. Some ways will be explained
as below:
 Identifying the customer expectations: This is important way for H&M to change
inclusive buying behaviour of their customers. For this company must identify the
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customer’s expectation towards the brand and provide products as per the same. As it will
be beneficial for H&M in increment of customer base.
 Mobilise leaders: This is another effective way of changing the customer’s buying
behaviour towards the brand. Work together with the line leadership within a planning
secession to support them know and address the customer behaviour now and change in
future.
Therefore, above mentioned all these are effective ways in changing inclusive buying behaviour
of customers towards the brand or product.
What is the relationship between integrated marketing communication and impulsive
buying behaviour of consumer?
According to the Sharma, Mishra and Arora (2018), integrated marketing communication has
positive relationship with impulsive buying behaviour of consumer. Integrated marketing
communication support an organisation to increase their brand awareness among customers
through social media, public relation and many other communication channels. There are some
pints that will help in identifying the positive relationship among integrated marketing
communication and impulsive buying behaviour of consumer. These points will be explained as
below:
 Increase brand awareness: Integrated marketing communication help H&M in
increment of brand awareness among customers that turn to impact in change of
customers buying behaviour. This will help in identifying that both has positive
relationship with each other (Yoon and Lim, 2018).
 Increase customer base: By providing accurate information about the products through
integrated marketing communication, H&M become able in maximising the customer
base towards the brand or product.
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Methodology
Methodology is the process of gathering and evaluating information regarding specific field
of study. There are different methodologies that are essential and useful in doing present study
systematically and successfully. This will be described as below:
Research philosophy: This is the process following, within aim of collecting and analysing
the data through positivism and interpretivisim philosophy. This are two types of philosophies
that helps in getting of qualitative or qualitative outcomes (Hooda and Ankur, 2018). According
to the impact of integrated marketing communication over impulsive buying behaviour of
consumer, positivism philosophy is useful for investigator by way of, it not takes maximum time
and also help in getting of quantitative outputs. Interpretivisim philosophy is another type that is
not effective according to the present study as it needs maximum time in qualitative data
collection and analysis.
Research approach: This introduces to the process of evaluating qualitative or quantitative
type of data. There are two approaches of data analysis i.e. inductive and deductive. Both
approaches of data analysis are essential but for present investigation, deductive approach is
useful. This approach facilitate investigator in analysing the quantitative data in less period of
time and in successful manner (Vasileiou and et. al., 2018). Inductive approach is not valuable
for conducting present study because it only facilitates in analysing the qualitative data and also
require maximum time.
Research methods: There are two methods of methods of collecting data i.e. qualitative and
quantitative. These are two important types of data collection methods. According to the current
study, quantitative method will be applied. This will be beneficial for researcher in gathering of
numerical information in accurate and within minimum time of period. Qualitative is another
method that is not useful in carrying out present investigation because it takes maximum time
and also not facilitate in collecting of numerical data (Husain and Javed, 2019).
Research design: This is a part of methodology that helps in analysing the research
problem. There are three type of research design such as descriptive, experimental and
exploratory. These are main designs of the research but for doing current investigation,
descriptive design of the research is more valuable as it assists in gathering and analysing the
quantitative data within minimum time as compare to exploratory and experimental research
design.
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Sample and sampling: Sampling is the process or technique of selecting sample from total
population. There are two techniques of sampling, which are probability and non-probability.
These are two techniques of sampling but for selecting sample in accordance to the current study,
probability sampling is useful. This will help investigator in selecting of larger sample base
within minimum time. 20 employees of H&M will be selected randomly by using probability
sampling. On the other hand, non-probability type of sampling is not essential in current
investigation because it not facilitate in larger sample selection and also consume maximum time
(Reichstein, Härting and Neumaier, 2018).
Data collection: There are two sources of collecting data are known as primary and
secondary. In order to collect primary information, questionnaire is an effective instrument of the
research. This will help in collecting of data in reliable and valid manner as well as in minimum
time of period. For gathering secondary information, there will be requirement of different
sources including articles, magazines, books etc. sources. Therefore, in this study both types of
data collection sources are important in attaining of all objectives successfully.
Data analysis: This introduces to the process of analysing or evaluating the qualitative or
quantitative data through analytical technique. According to the present study, frequency
distribution analysis is an analytical technique that will be applied by researcher for analysing the
quantitative data gathered from questionnaire. With the use of this technique, researcher become
able in making the frequency table along with distributing entire in single one. This will be
essential in archiving best outcomes within less time of period (Purdon and Thornton, 2019).
Limitation of the study: There are several limitations that would be faced by researcher
while conducting full study. These are lack of time, insufficient amount of capital etc. These are
major issues that would have negative effect on researcher performance while completion of full
project in effective and within minimum time periods.
Ethical considerations: There are number of research ethics that will be useful for
investigator in completion of full investigation in ethical way. There are number of research
ethics such as informed consent, conflict of interest, confidentiality etc. These are main
principles that must be following within an investigation for achieving all objectives easily and
completing full instigation in ethical manner.
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Research Timeline
Time is considering important factor of doing any kind of research in effective manner.
Gantt chart is an essential tool of time management that will be applied within a current study for
identifying the starting and ending date of each activity or milestone (Maula and Stam, 2020).
Gantt chart of the current study will be shown as below in graphical manner:
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Conclusion
From the above mentioned information, it has been concluded that use of integrated
marketing communication helped business organisation in changing the customer’s buying
behaviour towards the brand. This turn to impact over growth and success of company in
positive manner. therefore, integrated marketing communication helped company in increasing
of customer base as well as improvement of their brand image.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahn, J. and Kwon, J., 2020. The role of trait and emotion in cruise customers’ impulsive buying
behavior: an empirical study. Journal of Strategic Marketing, pp.1-14.
Cheah, J.H. and et. al., 2020. Price image and the sugrophobia effect on luxury retail purchase
intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 57, p.102188.
Efendi, R., Indartono, S. and Sukidjo, S., 2019. The Mediation of Economic Literacy on the
Effect of Self Control on Impulsive Buying Behaviour Moderated by
Peers. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 9(3), p.98.
Hooda, A. and Ankur, A., 2018. Acceptance of social media as a marketing tool: A quantitative
study. The Journal of Business Economics and Environmental Studies, 8(3), pp.5-12.
Husain, U. and Javed, S., 2019. Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Indian Economy:
A Quantitative Research Perspective from 1980 to 2016. Ind Eng Manage, 8(281), p.2.
Hussain, S. and Siddiqui, D.A., 2019. The Influence of Impulsive Personality Traits and Store
Environment on Impulse Buying of Consumer in Karachi. Hussain, S. and Siddiqui, DA
(2019). The Influence of Impulsive Personality Traits and Store Environment on
Impulse Buying of Consumer in Karachi. International Journal of Business
Administration, 10(3), pp.50-73.
MARTEY, E.M., 2020. Integrated Marketing Communication and Consumer Buying Behaviour
using Mehrabian and Russell Model of Customer Mood in the Restaurant Industry in
Ghana. All Nations University Journal of Applied Thought, 7(2), pp.29-50.
Maula, M. and Stam, W., 2020. Enhancing rigor in quantitative entrepreneurship research.
Purdon, M. and Thornton, P., 2019. Research methodology for adaptation policy analysis:
embracing the eclectic messy centre. In Research Handbook on Climate Change
Adaptation Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Reichstein, C., Härting, R.C. and Neumaier, P., 2018, June. Understanding the Potential Value of
Digitization for Business–Quantitative Research Results of European Experts. In KES
International Symposium on Agent and Multi-Agent Systems: Technologies and
Applications (pp. 287-298). Springer, Cham.
Sharma, B.K., Mishra, S. and Arora, L., 2018. Does Social Medium Influence Impulse Buying of
Indian Buyers?. Journal of Management Research, 18(1), pp.27-36.
Vasileiou, K. and et. al., 2018. Characterising and justifying sample size sufficiency in
interview-based studies: systematic analysis of qualitative health research over a 15-
year period. BMC medical research methodology, 18(1), p.148.
Yoon, C.H. and Lim, D.S., 2018. The Effect of the Big Five and the MBTI on Impulsive and
Compulsive Buying Behaviors: An Integrated Analysis in Online Shopping. Journal of
International Trade & Commerce, 14(3), pp.101-117.
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