Importance of Social Media Marketing: A Retail Study

This report investigates the significance of social media marketing and its influence on product promotion and customer retention within the retail industry, with a specific focus on Marks & Spencer. The introduction highlights the growing importance of social media marketing in enhancing brand visibility, driving sales, and engaging customers. The preliminary literature review explores the concept of social media marketing, its methods employed by retailers like Marks & Spencer, and its impact on customer retention and product promotion. The research aims to examine these aspects, posing specific research questions regarding the concept, methods, and impact of social media marketing. The research objectives are outlined to understand, discern, and analyze these elements. The research rationale emphasizes the role of social media marketing in reaching a larger audience and achieving both personal and professional gains in understanding and applying social media marketing strategies. The report incorporates figures and illustrations from sources like Statista and Mintel to support its findings. The report also includes a comprehensive list of references, including books and journals, that were used to support the research and analysis.

CW1 Scope of Research Plan
(To investigate the importance of social media marketing and its
impact over promoting products & retaining customers of retail
organisation)

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................5
Concept of social media marketing within retail industry......................................................5
Methods of social media marketing used by Marks & Spencer to promote products and retain
customers................................................................................................................................5
Impact of social media marketing on the retention of customers and promotion of the products
................................................................................................................................................5
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................6
Research Questions................................................................................................................6
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................6
Research Rationale.................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Social media marketing has great significance and plays a very vital role in improving the
company performance and productivity in the competitive market. It is mainly defined as the
effective use of social media on which the company share information for building organisation
brand, enhancing sales and driving high traffic on the website (Chen and Qasim, 2021). It also
helps in engaging existing customers within the business and reaching new ones in order to gain
high growth and success in the market. Social media marketers helps in connecting and engaging
potential customers with the help platforms of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, You-
tube, LinkedIn and many more. With the help of strong and effective strategy of social media
and the ability to create an engaging content, marketers can engage large number of customers
towards the business in a more appropriate manner (Wang, 2021). This research topic is helpful
in retaining more number of customers towards the business so that they achieve high
profitability and revenue within the competitive business environment (Shen, 2022).
Figure 1: (Number of Marks and Spencer's Facebook followers in the United Kingdom between
August 2010 and August 2015)

(Source: Statista, 2022)
It is the statistic which highlights that Facebook followers of the retail organisation
Marks & Spencer between August 2010 and August 2015. The organisation's followers on
Facebook risen from 125 thousand in the year 2010 to 2.3 million followers in the year 2015.
The selected topic is important for the researcher as it helps in finding out about the
various ways of social media marketing that helps in attracting large number of customers for
purchasing the quality products and services of the enterprise (Nash, 2018). The selected
organisation in the present report is Marks and Spencer that is known to be a successful British
retailer company for producing quality products to the customers.
Illustration 1: Revenue of Marks & Spencer worldwide in the financial year ending March 31,
2018, by segment (in million GBP).
(Source: Statistica, 2018)
From the above graph it is interpreted that they Marks and Spencer took certain measures to
control the losses and for achieving success in the business market such as low profit stores that
are operating the market cut their costs, along with good discounting policy (Saurwein and

Spencer-Smith, 2020). The food sector has achieved high growth in the recent years and this
helps the company in improving their brand image in the competitive market.

PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of social media marketing within retail industry
As per the view of Stojiljković (2019), social media marketing holds vital role in the
organisation market as it facilitates in reaching out the targetted customers and the market. It is
considered as a strong way for company to achieve high growth and success within the business
market which results in driving the overall sales of the business. It helps the retail industry in
leveraging more share in the market with the help of attractive and creative posts or videos so
that customers gets attracted towards the quality products and services.
Figure 2: Online shopper distribution among retailers
(Source: Mintel, 2016)
Marks & Spencer is doing quite well with their sales conducted through online as
compared to other fashion retailers. The base of online customers of Marks & Spencer is quite
old. The figure shows all those retailers which have sold their clothes online in the past 12
months.
Methods of social media marketing used by Marks & Spencer to promote products and retain
customers
As per the view of Mason, Narcum and Mason (2021), there are various methods of
social media marketing that helps the company in promoting the products of the company and
retaining customers within the business. Sharing videos and post through Facebook or Instagram

site for attracting customers towards availing company's services. You-tube is also a very good
method that help business organisation in promoting their valuable and quality goods and
services in an effective and efficient manner (McGruer, 2020). Pinterest is also considered as a
social media platform that help company in achieving their predetermined objectives of attaining
more visibility to the customers in the large share of market.
Figure 3: UK Top 10 clothing market shares (%) 2008 & 20183 (by value)
(Source: Clothing market shares, 2015)
Impact of social media marketing on the retention of customers and promotion of the products
As per the view of Fusté-Forné and Filimon (2021), social media marketing creates a
positive impact on customer retention and in promoting the products of the company. With the
help of social media marketing business explains about each and every detail about the product
in a proper and effective way (Taylor, 2019). It helps in gaining loyalty and trust among
customers that the business is delivering best quality of products and services in the competitive
market (Bernon, 2018). Social media marketing also helps in creating a strong presence in the
market and in the mind of customers which results in gaining high revenue and profitability.

Figure 4: Financial performance of Marks & Spencer
(Source: Marks & Spencer Annual report, 2015)

Research Aim
To investigate the importance of social media marketing and its impact over promoting
products & retaining customers of retail organisation. A study on Marks & Spencer
Research Questions
 Explain the concept of social media marketing within retail industry?
 What are the methods of social media marketing used by Marks & Spencer to promote
products and retain customers?
 What is the impact of social media marketing on the retention of customers and
promotion of the products?
Research Objectives
 To understand the concept of social media marketing within retail industry
 To discern the methods of social media marketing used by Marks & Spencer to promote
products and retain customers
 To analyse the impact of social media marketing on the retention of customers and
promotion of the products
Research Rationale
The rationale for my research is to understand the role of social media marketing for
promoting products and services to the larger audience within the UK retail industry. Social
media marketing is an effective approach that helps in reaching out the potential clients for
delivering the company products and services in an effective and efficient manner (Hudders, De
Jans and De Veirman, 2021). The researcher fulfils two main objectives which are defined as
personal perspective and professional perspective. In terms of personal perspective, the
investigator shall gain great knowledge about the social media marketing in an organisation and
in the personal life. While in terms of professional perspective, the researcher shall gain new
skills and knowledge related to the new methods of social media marketing in their future career
also at the time of job attainment (Kim, Moon and Iacobucci, 2019).

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bernon, M., 2018. Sustainable supply chains: Marks & Spencer’s Plan A. The Business &
Management Collection.
Chen, X. and Qasim, H., 2021. Does E‐Brand experience matter in the consumer market?
Explaining the impact of social media marketing activities on consumer‐based brand
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Mason, A.N., Narcum, J. and Mason, K., 2021. Social media marketing gains importance after
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McGruer, D., 2020. Dynamic digital marketing: Master the world of online and social media
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