Social Media Marketing in Business Performance: Sainsbury's Case

This research proposal explores the significance of social media as a marketing tool for enhancing business performance, focusing on a case study of Sainsbury's. It addresses the importance of social media in attracting customers and improving financial outcomes in the digital age. The literature review examines the concept of social media, its impact as a marketing tool, and the challenges companies face in implementing these tools. Key themes include leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to build brand image, foster customer relationships, and analyze real-time performance. The proposal also acknowledges challenges such as accessing data across platforms and accurately tracking performance metrics. The research aims to understand the concept, determine the impact, analyze challenges, and suggest solutions for effectively using social media marketing.

Research proposal

Table of Contents
Research Questions................................................................................................................2
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Literature review....................................................................................................................2
Rationale................................................................................................................................4
Aim and Objectives................................................................................................................4
Research design......................................................................................................................4
Timescale...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................5

Title: “Importance of social media as a marketing tool in business performance: A study on
Sainsbury”
Research Questions
 What is the importance of using social media as a marketing tool in business?
Introduction
In the era of digitalization, every company wants to stay ahead in the competitive by
offering range of new product and services. In the same way, current study is also provide a
way through company will be stay top in competition by offering the range of innovative
product to their customers i.e. social media. The current study will help to generate the
importance of using social media within a business so that range of new customers will be
attracted. Hence, the current proposal will assist to determine the significance of using social
media in order to draw attention of company which in turn leads to improve the financial
performance.
The chosen firm for this report is Sainsbury which is a top international firm in UK
which provide range of product and keep focusing upon innovative service as well. Thus, to
let customers know about the different product, there is a need to use best marketing tool
which in turn leads to grab attention of many users. That is why, through the study, scholar
will uses range of collection sources in order to conduct the entire research in more precise
manner.
Literature review
Through literature review, scholar collect the information by secondary sources i.e.
relevant books, articles and magazine in order to meet the define aim. In the current section,
researcher designed theme on the basis of research objectives so that it will help to answer
research questions and also perform the research in better manner.
Theme 1: Concept of social media
In accordance with Tuten and Solomon (2017) social media is a computer based
technology which is used by the company in order to sharing ideas, thoughts and information
which is based upon virtual network. Thus, in business perspective, it is a platform where
range of customers connect with each other in order to build brand image and increase sales.
Thus, it can be stated that it is a tool which is used to promote the company’s product to
range of people. For example, Sainsbury uses this method in order to let innovative product

disclose in a market and during season time, company post an advertisement in which offers
are describe so that customers some to know different discounts. Felix, Rauschnabel and
Hinsch (2017) shows that there are variety of tools which are used by the company among
all, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are consider the best tool which in turn leads to attract
range of tools.
Theme 2: Impact of using social media as a marketing tool upon business
Duffett (2017) reflected that social media helps to reach bigger audience and around
90% of the marketers are uses this method in order to create brand awareness and stay
connected with customers as well. Thus this shows that there is a positive impact upon the
business performance because when customers attracted, it help to improve the financial
performance of a company. Also, it can be say that social media change the way to do
business and entire business is relies upon digitalization. Dahl (2018) argued that social
media as a marketing tool also allow business to build more meaningful relationship with
customers, so a business can easily build fan base and receive feedback from their target
audience and generate customer relationship as well.
On the other hand, Shareef and et.al., (2019) said that it generates more loyalty and
also increase industry collaboration as well. Such that it help to all the companies work
together and determine the rival’s strategy that used to attract customers. As it require lower
ad cost and as compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing is cheaper and that
is why, they uses in order to attract target audience. Further, Iankova and et.al., (2019)
explain that it is a real time performance analysis that helps a company to keep track how
well the business is performed and determine the loopholes as well. That is why, it is
analyzed that there are many advantage of using social media as a marketing tool such that it
leads a business towards growth and also provide opportunities which in turn leads to sustain
brand image.
Theme 3: Challenges face by company in order to implement marketing tools
Wang and Kim (2017) presented their views that that while selecting best marketing
tool for the company, it faces many challenges which somehow affect the results. Such that
the biggest challenge company face is to accessing the data across platform. Such that
customers are uses range of channels and devices in order to create multitude of data point
and that is why, for marketers, it is not easy to have a complete understanding and this in turn
creates a challenge for a firm. On the other side, Tafesse and Wien (2018) argued that

tracking performance metric in accurate manner is also consider the biggest challenge for top
and international firm. Such that when different identifier are involved, they do not know
who receive messages and that is why, performance of the company is not determined. That
is why, there is a need to manage single marketing tool which helps to determine accurate
position. Thus, better organizing a data will help to resolve the queries and enable company
to determine the actual performance and also make changes accordingly. This will help the
company to improve the strategies and also represent the data in better manner too.
Rationale
Aim and Objectives
Aim: “To investigate the importance of using social media as a marketing tool in business
performance: A study on Sainsbury”
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of social media as a marketing tools
 To determine the impact of using social media upon business performance
 To analyze the challenges which company face while developing marketing tools.
 To suggest the best ways through which the challenges may overcome.
Research design
Research methods
Sample:
Data Collections:
Research Approach:
Research Philosophy:
Ethical Issues:
Timescale

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dahl, S., 2018. Social media marketing: Theories and applications. Sage.
Duffett, R.G., 2017. Influence of social media marketing communications on young
consumers’ attitudes. Young Consumers.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media
marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research. 70. pp.118-126.
Iankova, S. and et.al., 2019. A comparison of social media marketing between B2B, B2C and
mixed business models. Industrial Marketing Management. 81. pp.169-179.
Shareef, M.A. and et.al., 2019. Social media marketing: Comparative effect of advertisement
sources. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 46. pp.58-69.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.
Tafesse, W. and Wien, A., 2018. Implementing social media marketing strategically: An
empirical assessment. Journal of Marketing Management. 34(9-10). pp.732-749.
Wang, Z. and Kim, H.G., 2017. Can social media marketing improve customer relationship
capabilities and firm performance? Dynamic capability perspective. Journal of
Interactive Marketing. 39. pp.15-26.