Impact of Digital Marketing Strategies: Research Proposal for Next PLC

This research proposal outlines a study on the impact of digital marketing strategies on product promotion and customer acquisition for Next PLC, a major British multinational retailer. The introduction provides background on the importance of digital marketing and its role in maintaining competitiveness, along with an overview of Next PLC. The rationale emphasizes the need to analyze how companies can leverage digital strategies to increase sales and improve customer interaction. The research questions focus on the significance of digital marketing strategies, their impact on product promotion, and the specific strategies Next PLC can adopt. The methodology section details the research philosophy (positivism), approach (deductive), method (quantitative with closed-ended questionnaires), and strategy (survey). It also covers research tools, sampling methods, timescale, and resources. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of digital marketing in promoting products and services, with specific objectives to assess the significance of digital marketing strategies, analyze their influence on product promotion, and identify suitable strategies for Next PLC. The proposal includes a detailed plan for data collection, analysis, and resource allocation to ensure the research objectives are met within a 10-week timeframe.

Research Proposal

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the research topic................................................................................................3
Company overview......................................................................................................................3
Rationale of study........................................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
Research aims and objectives......................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................4
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................4
Research approach.......................................................................................................................5
Research method..........................................................................................................................5
Research strategy.........................................................................................................................6
Research tools..............................................................................................................................6
Sampling method.........................................................................................................................7
Timescale.....................................................................................................................................7
Resources.....................................................................................................................................8
Appendix........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Background of the research topic
Digital marketing is one of the most essential marketing types nowadays every company must
adopt in order to remain competitive in the market. It is necessary for the company to opt digital
marketing as it will help the company to reach to a wider audience and will help them in
advertising their products in broader campaign. Without using digital marketing, a brand can
limit their abilities and scope to be successful (Ulas, 2019). A business can put a limit on their
opportunities by not incorporating digital marketing in their business. In the given report the
importance of digitization and how it impacts the company is given. Also, how the company can
make sure that they are successfully market their products through digital marketing is also
given. The strategies and digital technology that must be used by Next PLC is also give in order
to promote their products of clothing, footwear and home products.
Company overview
The Next PLC is a British multinational company. They offer clothing, home products and
footwear and is the largest clothing retailer in United Kingdom. The company was incorporated
in 1864 and was founded by Joseph Hepworth (Kingsnorth and et. al., 2019.). The company is
headquartered in Enderby, England and has approximately 700 stores in all over the world. The
biggest competitors of the company are Marks & Spencer which are on number two in terms of
sales in United Kingdom.
Rationale of study
It is needed to be analyzed that how a company can incorporate digital strategy in their
businesses and how digital strategies can benefit the company. It is important for the businesses
to know that they can increase their sales as well as profits with the help of digital marketing. In
the report it is observed that how a company can see real time results if they opt for digital
marketing and how digital strategies can help the company in improving their marketing
strategies. It can improve the way in which company interacts with their customers and also
enables the company to reach the audience which might be impossible to reach without
digitization of the company (Ahmed and et. al., 2017). Digital marketing helps the company to
bring traffic to their website and also make sure that it can reach to the customer who are looking
for the services or products that are offered by the company.

Research questions
 What is all the significance of digital marketing strategies?
 How digital marketing will be helpful in product promotion?
 What are the strategies which Next PLC can opt for promoting the products through
digitalization?
Research aims and objectives
Research Aim:
To determine the impact of digital marketing for the promotion of products and services”. A
study of Next PLC.
Research Objectives:
The objectives of the research are:
 To evaluate the significance of digital marketing strategies.
 To analyse the influence of digital marketing for the promotion of products.
 To identify the strategies which Next PLC can opt for promoting the products through
digitalization.
METHODOLOGY
The goal of research is to improve a person's knowledge base. It is a scientific approach of
obtaining knowledge about a certain topic or situation. As a result, researchers use a variety of
tools and methodologies based on their prior experience and knowledge to accomplish this. One
of the ways that this scholar can utilise to get a valid conclusion is research methodology. It is a
methodical technique for conducting research that is specified as a method. Furthermore,
Research Methodology is a set of criteria that researchers must follow when confirming facts or
establishing new theories.
Research philosophy
The researcher has decided to conduct her research utilising positivist theory. By investigating a
causal relation to highlight the impact of sustainable marketing on attracting clients, this theory
allows for in-depth findings to be generated (Boyland and et. al., 2017). This idea aids in the
objective conclusion of human behaviour studies. The epistemological theory has been ignored
since it is used in experimental scientific research. This enables researchers to determine which

method should be followed or adopted, as well as which techniques should be applied to achieve
better results. In general, research philosophy can be divided into two categories:
 Interpretivism is a study strategy that helps academics better comprehend human nature
and the roles that people play. It assists in the interpretation of a person’s social roles
within a set of perspectives.
 Positivism has a well-defined methodology as well as quantitative facts that can be
analysed statistically. This method can be applied to a huge number of samples.
As a result, because it is founded on social reality and aids in the development of acceptable
results, the Positivism method was adopted in this study.
Research approach
To determine the link between digital marketing and improved customer involvement, the
researcher tends to use deductive research technique rather than an inductive research technique.
The deductive helps in providing material that can back up the research topic by searching
secondary sources (Rust and et. al., 2016). Because it demands the construction of a new theory
for the investigation, the inductive technique has been rejected.
 The deductive technique is useful for validating assumptions and estimating a right result.
When conducting research, the deductive technique is best suited for a researcher who
has created a hypothesis and wants to determine whether the idea should be kept or
dismissed.
 Researchers can use the inductive approach to help them uncover new theories that have
yet to be examined. Inductive approaches, unlike deductive approaches, lack a formalised
hypothesis; nonetheless, they do include goals, objectives, and research questions that can
be used to reach meaningful findings and outcomes.
The researcher in this study uses a deductive research technique to aid in the generalisation of a
broad research topic into a more focused one.
Research method
The researcher used a deductive technique to establish the relationship between the dependent
and independent variables, as well as mathematical and statistical methodologies, to illustrate the
impact of digital marketing client acquisition. The researcher used a closed-ended questionnaire
to collect data in a quantitative manner, allowing them to apply regression to show the precise

relation between the dependent and independent variables. The researcher will be using
deductive approach which is beneficial for the research.
 Qualitative Research: This approach focuses primarily on a humanistic and idealistic
viewpoint; thus, qualitative research can be said to be entirely focused on human beliefs,
experiences, attitudes, and behaviour. Qualitative research is useful for finding links
between various aspects, which is why it is primarily used for exploratory research. There
are numerous patterns to be identified in terms of thoughts and opinions, and the
qualitative research approach aids in this endeavour. In addition, the method for gathering
data and information can be unstructured or semi-structured.
 Quantitative Research: When data and information are gathered in numerical form,
quantitative research is used to quantify the issues, which can then be expressed in
statistical form. This is more organised and systematic as compared to qualitative
research. This can include, among other things, online surveys, face-to-face interviews,
and phone conversations. Depending on the situation, the sample size may be small,
medium, or large. This study was conducted using a quantitative research approach since
it comprises mostly of various forms of structured inquiries that may be turned into
numerical data.
Research strategy
The researcher wanted to get feedback from customers, so they used survey theory to figure out
how green marketing affects customer acquisition, and they ran a research study for that survey
questionnaire (Labanauskaitė and et. al., 2020). To acquire quantitative data, the researcher
designed a closed-ended survey form, as previously described.
Research tools
Both primary and secondary sources will be used to acquire the necessary information. A
questionnaire survey with a multiple-choice response format will be produced to collect data on
the impact of digital marketing of Next PLC regarding the acquisition of new customers.
Information on the research topic can also be discovered on the internet and through traditional
search engines like Google (Norman and et. al., 2016). Research can also be aided by reading a
variety of articles and soliciting the opinions of other knowledgeable people such as customers,
employees, etc.

Sampling method
This method permits information to be collected at random from a large population, the basic
random sampling approach was chosen. It provides an equal opportunity to everyone in the large
population. The researcher recruited 40 respondents at random to guarantee that the procedure
was lacking of unfairness.
Timescale
Many activities will be carried out during the knowledge research to guarantee that the
required objectives are accomplished. Before beginning the research, the researcher will discuss
their ideas with their supervisor or tutor. In the weeks ahead, the researcher will address the
research introduction in the first meeting before moving on to the literature review, research
technique, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
Following the data collection, the investigator will meet with the teacher to discuss the
data analysis. After finishing the research, the researcher will meet with the tutor one more time
before submitting it to discuss any ideas or suggestions for improvement, as well as receive
feedback on their work. As a result, the investigator will need to keep these several
responsibilities and deadlines in mind during the training in order to complete it on time without
sacrificing quality. As a result, the study’s expected outcomes will be met. Over the period of 10
weeks, the activities described above will take place.
Several tasks will be done, such as the researcher writing the research introduction for the
first time. To accomplish this, the researcher will meet with the instructor on a regular basis.
After that, the researcher will undertake a literature review to obtain information for the study.
Many weekly sessions will be required of the researcher. Another activity in which the
researcher finalises the study approach, strategy, and methods is research methodology.

Resources
Resources are the main elements which are very helpful and necessary for the researcher. This
research will be based on digital library books and internet sources for gathering secondary data.
The British library and local library have much information regarding the data. both of which
have contributed and published information from knowledgeable authors (Phillips and et. al.,
2017). The results of the study will be analysed using Microsoft Office Excel which will allow
the researcher to include quantitative data in charts and graphs. It is an academic journal
publisher that will provide essential information for conducting research efficiently.

Kingsnorth and et. al., 2019. Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online
marketing. Kogan Page Publishers.
Ahmed and et. al., 2017. Interactive digital media and impact of customer attitude and
technology on brand awareness: evidence from the South Asian countries. Journal of
Business Economics and Management, 18(6), pp.1115-1134.
Boyland and et. al., 2017. Exposure, power and impact of food marketing on children: evidence
supports strong restrictions. Eur. J. Risk Reg., 8, p.224.
Labanauskaitė and et. al., 2020. Use of E-marketing tools as communication management in the
tourism industry. Tourism Management Perspectives, 34, p.100652.
Mihardjo, L and et. al., 2019. Digital leadership role in developing business model innovation
and customer experience orientation in industry 4.0. Management Science
Letters, 9(11), pp.1749-1762.
Norman, J and et. al., 2016. The impact of marketing and advertising on food behaviours:
evaluating the evidence for a causal relationship. Current Nutrition Reports, 5(3),
pp.139-149.
Phillips, P and et. al., 2017. Understanding the impact of online reviews on hotel performance:
an empirical analysis. Journal of Travel Research, 56(2), pp.235-249.
Raskino and et. al., 2016. Digital to the core: Remastering leadership for your industry, Your
Enterprise, and Yourself. Routledge.
Roggeveen and et. al., 2016. Do digital displays enhance sales? Role of retail format and
message content. Journal of Retailing, 92(1), pp.122-131.
Rust and et. al., 2016. The era of e-service. In E-service: New directions in theory and
practice (pp. 15-34). Routledge.
Ulas, D., 2019. Digital transformation process and SMEs. Procedia Computer Science, 158,
pp.662-671.
Benefits of a Digital Marketing Strategy & Why Your Business Needs One, 2017. [online]
available through <https://www.e-xanthos.co.uk/blog/benefits-digital-marketing-
strategy-business-needs-one>.
The Impact of Digital Marketing on Business Growth, 2020. [online] available through
<https://mediaboom.com/news/the-impact-of-digital-marketing-on-business-growth/>.
Good news for Next PLC as it posts better than expected lockdown sales, 2020. [online]
available through < https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/good-news-next-
plc-posts-18679867>.

Appendix
Research Ethics Approval Form
Please answer all relevant questions and note that your form may be returned if
incomplete.
For further support and guidance please contact your respective Unit Tutor.
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully
with your Unit Tutor.
Please complete this form in good time before your research project is due to
commence.
Section 1: Basic Details
Project title: Impact of digital marketing
Student name:
……………………………………………………………………………………...
Student ID number:
………………………………………………………………………….……
Programme:
………………………………………………………………………………….………
School: ……………………………………………………………………………………….
………..
Intended research start date: 22/01/2021.
Intended research end date: 30/05/2021.
Section 2: Project Summary

Please select all research methods that you plan to use as part of your
project:
 Interviews:
 Questionnaires:
 Observations:
 Use of Personal Records:
 Data Analysis:
 Action Research:
 Focus Groups:
 Other (please specify):
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants?
yes
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: Young People aged 17-18: Adults: Above 18
How will participants be recruited (identified and approached)?
Through probabilistic sampling technique 40 employees of Next PLC will be
selected randomly.
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you
are doing:
The respondents will be informed via mail and text.
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will
it be made clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to
participate at any time?
Te participants will be given proper information of consent and they could
take back their content whenever they want.
Studies involving questionnaires: Will participants be given the option of
omitting questions they do not wish to answer?

Yes: No:
If No please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical
issues arising from this
Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked
for their informed consent to be observed.
Yes: No:
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e. give them
a brief explanation of the study)?
Yes: No:
Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?
(This could be a brief summary of your findings in general)
Yes: No: