Research Proposal: Online Promotions vs Traditional Marketing

This research proposal, submitted as part of a BSc (Hons) Business Management (Top-up) program, investigates the benefits of online promotions compared to traditional marketing methods within the context of a marketing department, specifically using Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) as a case study. The research aims to evaluate the role and advantages of online promotions, addressing the research question of how online promotions compare to traditional marketing. The proposal outlines the background of the topic, research rationale, research questions, aims and objectives, and the chosen methodology, including a qualitative research approach using questionnaires for primary data collection and literature review for secondary data. It details the sampling method, research philosophy, and design, along with a Gantt chart for time management and a list of resources. The study intends to identify the concept and importance of online promotions, analyze their benefits for H&M, and identify potential online platforms for international promotion. The proposal concludes with a list of references, including books and journals related to marketing and online communication.

BSc (Hons) Business Management
(Top-up)
September 2019
BMP6001
DISSERTATION
Project 1 – Research Proposal
Topic
“Importance of Online Promotional
activities in context of Marketing
Department”

Table of Contents
Topic - “Benefits of online promotions over traditional marketing in context of Marketing
Department” ....................................................................................................................................1
Background to Research Topic........................................................................................................1
Background to Research Organisation ............................................................................................1
Research Rationale...........................................................................................................................2
Research Question...........................................................................................................................2
Research Aims and Objectives........................................................................................................2
Research aim .........................................................................................................................2
Research Objectives ..............................................................................................................2
Research Methodology ...................................................................................................................3
Timescale.........................................................................................................................................4
Resources.........................................................................................................................................6
.......................................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

Topic - “Benefits of online promotions over traditional marketing in context
of Marketing Department”
Background to Research Topic
Online advertising can be defined as an approach that helps a business organisation in
promoting the products and services over online platform. Basically, online advertising consists
with different names like digital advertising, internet advertising, web advertising or online
marketing, where an organisation utilises it with the help of internet (Fernandez-Cavia and et. al.,
2017). This is where, they directly offers customers with appropriate details in regards to the
products and services offered by them. Many consumers find online advertising disruptive, and
this is where number of ad blocking reasons are developing. On the other hand, if it is talked
about traditional marketing then it can be defined as an effective promotional approach, that
helps a company in utilising the number of tools like billboards, print advertisements, pamphlets,
flyers or TV, radio, newspaper and so on (Hall and Witek, 2016).
Previously, this type of approach was utilised by businesses which was both time
consuming and costly but now companies has started considering the online advertisements,
which are effective in nature and delivers number of benefits and these are : Flexibility of Ad
Types, reaching to the customers where they are, spending less amount of money and so on.
Background to Research Organisation
Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) is one of the famous business retailer that is known about its
fast-fashion based style attire for ladies, men, youngsters and adolescents. This association was
established in 1947 by Erling Persson and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Over the years,
company is dealing with marketing department because they have been following the traditional
marketing approach. This impacted negatively upon overall performance level, old version of
marketing was consists with billboards, print advertisements, pamphlets, flyers or TV, radio,
newspaper and all the elements were time taking and costly as well. Head of marketing
department has made their decisions to adopt the online advertisements to perform in much
effective and efficient manner (Key and Czaplewski, 2017).
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Research Rationale
Vital reason behind conducting the investigation on this particular topic is that, in modern
world most of international business organisations has adopted different online platforms to
promote themselves among different areas so that they could grab the attention of clients and
public from all over the world (McDONALD, 2016). With the help of this, a company could
effectively gain number of competitive advantages, customer engagement and so on. Through
this, firm could effectively increase their sales of products and services offered by them to
customers. Another reason for conducting this investigation is the self interest of the researcher,
because online marketing has changed the whole scenario for business organisations like Marks
and Spencer, where they could target customers from all over the world really very quickly and
through investing less amount from traditional approaches.
Research Question
 What is the concept of online promotions and it's importance in context of a business
organisation ?
 What are the benefits of utilising online promotions over traditional marketing within
Hennes & Mauritz AB ?
 What are the different potential online platforms that can be utilised by Hennes &
Mauritz AB to promote products and services at international level ?
Research Aims and Objectives
Research aim
“To evaluate the role and benefits of online promotions over traditional marketing in
context of Marketing Department”. A case on Hennes & Mauritz AB.
Research Objectives
 To determine the concept of online promotions and it's importance in context of a business
organisation.
 To analyse the benefits of online promotions over traditional marketing within Hennes &
Mauritz AB.
 To identidy the different potential online platforms that can be utilised by Hennes &
Mauritz AB to promote products and services at international level.
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Research Methodology
This segment helps the investigator in performing the investigation in a rightful manner
through undertaking an effective method, which may help in pulling out favourable outcomes in
specified time frame (Mullin, 2018). Under this piece of research, various strategies will be
undertaken for gathering precise and appropriate data about what are the benefits of online
promotions over traditional marketing in context of Marketing Department of a company like
Marks and Spencer. There are some valuable strategies which are expected to direct thesis in
orderly way. These techniques will be resolved as beneath:
Research Choice: Whole action of research depends on qualitative (subjective) and
quantitative kind of research. In present time, there are said to be the two crucial approaches, that
helps in accumulating the data in short span, so that right results could effectively be pulled out.
In present investigating report, researcher has taken into consideration of qualitative sort of
study, which will help investigator in pulling out favourable outcomes in specified time frame
considering the different values and perceptions that customers (selected respondents) are having
in regards to the online promotional activities that a company like Marks and Spencer has taken
into consideration over traditional marketing approaches.
Data collection: Another crucial segment within the, research methodology section
where there are two types of data collection methodologies that can be utilised and these are :
primary and secondary research. In present context, within the primary investigation, researcher
has chosen questionnaire to perform the investigation. Apart from this, researcher has utilised
secondary method as well to conduct the literature review section where distinctive optional
strategies, for example, number of materials, online articles, diaries, books and numerous other
resources has been utilised. In present investigating report, where researcher has taken into
consideration of the topic i.e. benefits of online promotions over traditional marketing in context
of Marketing Department will help in pulling out favourable outcomes (Popa, Tarca and Sasu,
2016).
Sampling: In present context, this is the section within research where an investigator
selects the sampling section, which helps selecting the respondents considering a particular
approach. Probabilistic and non – probabilistic are the two methods that are majorly be utilised
by investigator. For this investigation, researcher has utilised Random Sampling Method
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(Probabilistic), where 50 respondents (potential customers) has been taken into consideration,
because this is a type of sampling, that is less time consuming in nature.
Research philosophy: Positivism and interpretivism are the two specific philosophies
that can be taken into consideration in order to conduct the investigation a rightful manner. In
present context, researcher will consider interpretivism philosophy as it will support researcher
in collecting reliable data about the role and benefits of online promotions over traditional
marketing in context of Marketing Department of Marks and Spencer.
Research approach: Specifically, there are two different types of investigating
approaches, which can be utilised by researcher and these are inductive and deductive. Since, the
investigator has taken into consideration of qualitative research, deductive will be the specific
approach, because it is directly connected with values, perceptions of people and so on, and it
will help in pulling out favourable outcomes in regards to the benefits of online promotions over
traditional marketing in context of Marketing Department of Marks and Spencer (Rowley, 2016).
Research design: There are basically three useful research design which are exploratory,
experimental and descriptive. Among all kind of research design, descriptive design of research
will be going to used by researcher. As it assist researcher in identification of accurate impact of
study. Entire activity of research project is based on research design which helps researcher in
completion of research systemically and effectively (Rowley, 2017).
Timescale
While conducting an investigation, it is vital for every single researcher to consider a
tool, that would help him or her in managing the time and tasks in much effective and efficient
manner. In present context, researcher has considered Gantt chart as one of the crucial tool that
can be utilised to identify time period of completing this project. In this chart different number of
activities will be included which shown as below:
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Resources
While performing an investigation, it has been found that researchers utilises number of
resources, which could be anything from both primary and secondary where number of tools like
books, interview, questionnaire, journals, magazines, time and etc., are utilised. Away with this,
it can be said that these are said to be some of main resources, which would directly aid
researcher in meeting the requirements of the whole perspective of the investigation. For
conducting the investigation over the chosen topic, investigator has utilised questionnaire has the
method to collect the data focusing over primary research and on the other side, researcher has
utilised publication research, books, magazines, are consider secondary sources of data collection
(Shankar, 2016).
Henceforth, investigator has considered different resources like questionnaire, books,
magazines etc., which are said to be some of the resources that are coming under primary and
secondary investigating methods, which has helped in pulling out favourable outcomes in
specified time frame.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fernandez-Cavia, J. and et. al., 2017. Online communication in Spanish destination marketing
organizations: The view of practitioners. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 23(3). pp.264-
273.
Hall, H. and Witek, L., 2016. Conditions, contemporary importance and prospects of higher
education marketing on the example of Polish universities. Procedia Economics and
Finance. 39. pp.206-211.
Key, T. M. and Czaplewski, A. J., 2017. Upstream social marketing strategy: An integrated
marketing communications approach. Business Horizons, 60(3), pp.325-333.
McDONALD, M. A. L. C. O. L. M., 2016. Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice.
In The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Mullin, R., 2018. Promotional marketing. Routledge.
Popa, A. L., Tarca, N. N. and Sasu, D. V., 2016. An experiment on using online marketing tools
for promoting higher education services. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic
Science Series. 25(2). pp.588-93.
Rowley, J., 2016. Information marketing. Routledge.
Rowley, J. E., 2017. Information marketing. Routledge.
Shankar, V., 2016. Mobile marketing: The way forward. Journal of Interactive Marketing. 34(1-
2).
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