Research Proposal: Impact of Social Media Practices on Tesco

This research proposal investigates the impact of social media practices on the retail sector, specifically focusing on Tesco. The introduction outlines the topic, research rationale, aim, objectives, and research questions. The literature review explores the concept of social media marketing and its impact on website traffic, brand awareness, brand loyalty, and customer service within Tesco. It also identifies challenges associated with social media practices, such as creating engaging content and dealing with cyber security threats. The research methodology section details the research philosophy (positivism), research approach (deductive), and research strategy, providing a structured framework for the research. The proposal aims to evaluate the influence of social media on retail organizations, offering valuable insights into marketing strategies and their effects on business performance. This study will help to understand the different aspects of social media and how these aspects affect the retail sector.

Research Proposal
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the topic.............................................................................................................3
Research rationale..................................................................................................................3
Research Aim:........................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives:..............................................................................................................3
Research Questions................................................................................................................4
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................4
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Overview of the topic
Main objective of this report is to better understand the impact of different social media
practices on the functions of retail sector organisation. Social media is an important concept
which is used by organisation at a large area (Abeza and et. al. 2013). It is consider as an
effective tool of promotion of goods and services of a company, as because now a days people re
more active on social media platforms, which will help an organisation to reach large number of
customers at a single point of time. Social media refers to a tool which is used by an organisation
for their marketing activity. It will include various platforms such as Instagram, Tweeter, and
Facebook and so on. For this research proposal Tesco Company is taking into consideration. It is
a British Multinational grocery and merchandise retailer company. It was founded by Jack Cohen
in 1919 and it’s headquarter is in United Kingdom. Company will expand their market area
through retailing of various goods and services such as, books, furniture, toys, home decoration,
electronic and so on. This report proposal will assist in better analysing the influence of social
media prat ices on selected company.
Research rationale
It will help in analysing the reason for conducting the research. The rationale will assist
in effectively analysing and understand the needs & requirements of effectively conducting the
research. This research proposal will conducted for better analysing the influence of social media
on functions of Tesco. It will assist researcher in better analysing the importance of social media.
Through this research there are also able to analysis the various challenges which are attach with
social media that will influence selected company performance. This research proposal is based
on the selected title for conducting the research on Tesco organisation (Atherton, 2019).
Research Aim:
"To evaluate the impact of various social media practises on the functioning of retail sector
organisations." a study on TESCO.
Research Objectives:
1) To understand the concept of social media marketing.
2) To evaluate the impact of various social media practises used by TESCO in the regular course
of organization functioning.
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3) To identify the challenges associated with various social media practises.
Research Questions
1) What do you understand by the concept of social media?
2) What are the impact of various social media practices on functioning of Tesco?
3) Explain the various challenges which are related with social media practices?
Literature Review
It refers to a process which will assist in effectively systematically evaluating the
secondary information (Plume, Dwivedi and Slade, 2016). There are different kind of sources of
secondary data collection like reviewed articles, books and so on. All these sources will assist the
researcher to better collect the necessary information in an effective way. Main purpose of
literature review is to analysis the gap in the current investigation. Literature review on various
research questions and objectives are discussed below:
To understand the concept of social media marketing.
According to Maya Dollarhide, 2021, social media refer to a computer based technology
which will help in effectively sharing the facts, ideas, thoughts and important information with
the help of building of virtual network & communities. It is based on internet and provide quick
electronic communication to content. Here content will include the personal information,
documents, video’s and photos. Users of social media are engage it with the help of computers,
tablets, and smartphones and so on. There are various famous social media tools such as
Instagram, LinkdIn, Facebooks etc. but Facebook is consider as world largest social media
network. Social media will provide an effective way to its user to interact with their friends and
family and now a days with the increase in the popularity of social media platforms among
people. Organisations will also use this tool for their business. They are using social media
content for attracting a large numbers of customer towards their products. The power of social
media will assist an organisation to effectively communicate and interact with large number of
customers (Cawsey and Rowley, 2016).
As per Adam Hayes, 2018, social media marketing refers to the use of various social
media platforms and networks for effectively market the product and service of organisation. It
will provide the best way to company to successfully engage with their target customers. Along
with it will make them to promote their desire culture and mission. Main purpose of social media
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marketing is to build data analytics tools which will allow the marketer to successfully track the
success of their efforts. There are various sites such as Twitter, Facebook etc. which are used by
an organisation for effectively marketing their product and services. It was analysis that social
media will change the working of society and provide the bet and easy way to connect with large
numbers of customers. There are various platforms of social media and an organisation will use
these for changing their customer’s behaviour. These websites will help the marketer to employ a
wider range of tactic and strategies for promoting the content and have people engage with it.
There are various social media networks will help user to provide various details which help in
the growth of business and in making effective strategies such as geographical, demographical
and personal information. There are five important pillars of social media which are strategy
related to social media, planning and publishing will define the plan related to the content of
business, effective listening of their customers and more engagement with them. After that it will
require to analysis and reporting the reach of their social media content and in last advertisement
which define that purchasing ad on social media is a great way to promote and further
development of a brand. It was analysis that this social media marketing strategy is more
effective as compare to traditional marketing strategy (Chan and Yazdanifard, 2014).
To evaluate the impact of various social media practises used by TESCO in the regular
course of organization functioning.
According to Uma Bhat, 2018, social media practices will play an essential role in the
growth and success of an organisation. As it will assist them in effectively interacting with their
customers and help them to better understand their requirements of their customers. Social media
has becoming a powerful platform for marketing because of high brand exposure and grate return
on their investment. It was analysis that social media practices of Tesco Company will have a
positive effect on the functioning of their organisation. In context of selected company various
positive effect of social media are discussed below:
Effect on Website Traffic- It was analysis that many people are spending their time on
social media. It was analysis that there are almost 2.77 billion people are the users of social
media all over the world. It will make a perfect medium to drive traffic on company website.
Social media will have the great potential. To become a major source of traffic on company
website. It will support various formats such as text, image, video etc. In context of select
company they will use an effective content and post it on their website which will help them to
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attract more and more customer’s toward their business (Denizci Guillet, Kucukusta and Liu,
2016).
Effect on brand awareness- It was analysis that social media will provide various way
or opportunity to the brand of an organisation to come out with more creativity in crafting social
media campaigns and promotions. It was consider as the most effective tool for the brand to
engage with their audience and capture their attention which will assist them in increasing their
brand image. In context of selected company, their effective campaign on Twitter will assist
them in creating an effective brand image of their company in the market. Better image of brand
will assist company in achieving higher customer’s loyalty which will increase the sales and
profitability of company and also make them to smoothly run their business operations (Dibb and
et. al. 2012).
Effect on brand loyalty- It was analysis that social media practices of selected company
will assist them to attract a large number of customers and make them their loyal customers in
the best cost effective and efficient manner. Tesco will create a trusting relationship with their
customers through regular interaction with them on social media. This will increase the
customers brand loyalty which is very important for the growth and success of an organisation.
Effect on customer’s service- Social media will also affect the customer’s service of an
organisation. In context of Tesco, they are regularly check quarries and complaints that their
customers are posting on their Facebook and Twitter account. By providing them quick and
effective response company will timely resolve their customer’s problems. This will assist
company in long term retention of their employees. It was analysis that social media will
changed the face of their customer service. This is because now a days customers are prefer to
post on social media rather than talking to call centre of company (Geho and Dangelo, 2012).
To identify the challenges associated with various social media practises.
According to Emma Wiltshire, 2019, the selected company will face various
challenges which are related to various practices of social media. It will directly influence the
growth and success of an organisation and also create barriers in the path of effectively operating
their business operations, which are discussed below:
Creating a fresh and meaningful content for each audience- It was analysis that it
will quite difficult for an organisation to create an effective content for each type of audience.
There are different type of people are exist in the world and taste and preferences of people are
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also different, so it will be difficult for selected company to create an effective content which
will attract all audiences towards their products and services (Gillin, 2008).
Hackers and crackers- It refers to the people who are stole the personal information
over the internet. They are the biggest reason of cybercrimes. It was analysis that because of
them people are feel hesitated to provide their full personal inform as they feel unsafe because of
them. This will create problem for company to effectively gather the important information about
their customers over the medium of social media. Which will reduce the performer of company
(Holzner, 2008).
Research Methodology
It will assist the researcher in effectively differentiating the unbiased outcome with the
biased outcome. It was analysis that research will provide carious important policies which h are
governed by the government. Research methodology will provide a clear path or direction to the
researcher so that the research project will be completed in an effective and appropriate way. It
was consider as a backbone of research that will assist in finding the main purpose. It a research
will not include any methodology, the researcher will not able to achieve the aim of their
research. It will in lude a proper process which will help in collecting the correct & accurate
information.
Research philosophy- It refers to a belief on the bases of which the researcher will
conduct its research (Macy, 2011). It will help the researcher in effectively collecting data in an
appropriate manner. There are two methods of research philosophy which are positivism &
interpretivist. For this report the researcher will use positivism because it will help researcher in
successfully performing there researcher task and also it is highly structure
Research Approach- It would be described as plan and procedure of research and data
will be collected and analysed as per the board assumption. There are two types of research
approach which are deductive and inductive and deductive research. For this research deductive
research approach is effectively used by the researcher as its help the researcher in finding
accurate information.
Research strategy-It will help the researcher in effectively finding correct and accurate
information to perform better research practice. It consist of planning, executing & monitoring of
research. This research will consist the survey as a research strategy which will help researcher
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to collect information and identify the correct information which would be coming from different
respondents.
Researcher choice- The choice of data collection method is based on the overall aim and
objective of research. Research choice will divided into two parts which are quantitative and
qualitative research. Quantitative research is the systematic approach of gathering information
which consist of data & statistics. Qualitative research is effectively significant and helps us in
finding correct and in-depth information related to the topic. For this research, the researcher will
select the quantitative method as their research choice. This is because it will help them in
collecting all necessary information and data in a more systematic and effective manner. This
method will help the researcher in successfully evaluating and effectively analysing the whole
information.
Research Instrument- It refers to the instrument and tool which is used by a researcher
in order to collect the right and appropriate information (Martin, 2013). In this research practices
the researcher will consider the questionnaire as the research instrument. This is because it will
help them in effectively measuring the behaviour, opinion, attitude and preferences of a large
population. It will describe various diffusion of reasons, which are social desirability bias &
protect the private ness.
Sampling- It refers to the selection of number of people or a group which will represent
the whole population. This is because it will very time consuming and costly affair to take the
whole population as research sample. For this research report the researcher will select the
random sampling method. It refers to a effective method of research sampling because it will
provide an unbiased and highly accurate information and also represent the whole population. It
will provide equal opportunity to all respondents to answer the questions of researcher. Foe this
research the researcher will consider 30 employees of Tesco as their research sample.
Data collection- It refers to the practice of researcher for effectively collecting the data
or gather the important information from the various available sources. This will help the
researcher to conduct an effective research and achieve the aim of their research. It will help in
finding the correct and right solution for the research report. The researcher will collect the data
from primary and secondary source, which are mention below:
Primary data collection- It refers to the method of data collection in which the researcher will
directly collect the information and does not use any kind of information which is already
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established in the market (Newman, Peck and Wilhide, 2017). This type of collected data is
highly accurate and correct. As because the researcher will directly collect this data with the help
of interview and questionnaire. This source of information will require a lot of time and cost as
compare to the secondary research. In this type of data collection method the person who collect
the information will be the sole owner of that information. Main benefit of this method is that it
will help the researcher to collect the information as per the requirement of their research need.
Secondary data collection- It refers to the source of information which is already collected by
someone and available in the books, internet, magazines etc. This type of data collection method
will provide the benefit of cost and time effectiveness. As because the information is already
available and the researcher will not require to put their extra efforts. This method will assist the
researcher to find out the best solution for their research problem.
Research Ethics- All the information which is collected from the employees of
organisation will keep as secrete and does not disclose o leak to outside the company (Zeng and
Gerritsen, 2014). For better results the use of offensive and unacceptable language are avoided in
the questionnaire. All the voluntary participants are motivated and encourage to contribute their
best. These ethical practices will help the researcher in conducting the research in the best and
effective manner. It is very important that the researcher will ethically collect the whole
information for conducting the research because it will directly impact the overall process of
research.
Valid and reliable- It is an important step which will define the visibility and reliability
of the research information (Scott, 2009). It was analysis that the validity of research which is
based on the methods and tools used by the researcher for gathering information related to the
research topic. It was analysis that questionnaire will be the most effective tool which will
provide the most reliable and relevant information to the researcher because this information is
directly collected from the employees of organisation and the information is highly accurate.
Other than this the information collected from the literature review is fully valid. This will help
the researcher in better analysing the impact of social media on various functioning of selected
business.
Research limitation- There are various limitation which are occur at the time of
conducting this research such as lack of cost, lack of time and unethical behaviour of
respondents. These limitations will have a direct impact on successfully achieving the research
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objective and aim. Other than this it was analysis that the employees of organisation are also not
fully corporate with the researcher because of which it is quite difficult to effectively collect the
information for conducting the research in the bet way.
Time management- Time period in which the research report will also play an essential
role in conducting an effective research report (Schlink and Crain, 2013). For this the researcher
will use the gnat chart so that they will better manage and plan their time of research. The gnat
chart for this research is mention below:
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Abeza, G., and et. al. 2013. Relationship marketing and social media in sport. International
Journal of Sport Communication. 6(2). pp.120-142.
Atherton, J., 2019. Social media strategy: A practical guide to social media marketing and
customer engagement. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cawsey, T. and Rowley, J., 2016. Social media brand building strategies in B2B
companies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Chan, J.M. and Yazdanifard, R., 2014. How social media marketing can influence the
profitability of an online company from a consumer point of view. Journal of Research in
Marketing. 2(2). pp.157-160.
Denizci Guillet, B., Kucukusta, D. and Liu, L., 2016. An examination of social media marketing
in China: how do the top 133 hotel brands perform on the top four Chinese social media
sites?. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 33(6). pp.783-805.
Dibb, S., and et. al. 2012. Marketing: concepts and strategies. Cengage.
Evans, D., Bratton, S. and McKee, J., 2021. Social media marketing. AG Printing & Publishing.
Geho, P.R. and Dangelo, J., 2012. The evolution of social media as a marketing tool for
entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurial Executive. 17. p.61.
Gillin, P., 2008. Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and
Customer Communities to Turbo-charge Your Business!. Linden Publishing.
Holzner, S., 2008. Facebook marketing: leverage social media to grow your business. Pearson
Education.
Macy, B., 2011. The power of real-time social media marketing: How to attract and retain
customers and grow the bottom line in the globally connected world.
Martin, H.J., 2013. The economics of word of mouth: Designing effective social media
marketing for magazines. Journal of Magazine Media. 14(2).
Newman, T., Peck, J. and Wilhide, B., 2017. Social media in sport marketing. Routledge.
Plume, C.J., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Slade, E.L., 2016. Social media in the marketing context: A state
of the art analysis and future directions.
Schlinke, J. and Crain, S., 2013. Social media from an integrated marketing and compliance
perspective. Journal of Financial Service Professionals. 67(2).
Scott, D.M., 2009. The new rules of marketing and PR: how to use social media, blogs, news
releases, online video, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. John Wiley & Sons.
Zeng, B. and Gerritsen, R., 2014. What do we know about social media in tourism? A
review. Tourism management perspectives. 10. pp.27-36.
Online
Maya Dollarhide, 2021. [Online] Available through <
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp>
Adam Hayes, 2018. [Online] Available through < https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-
media-marketing-smm.asp>
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