Social Media Marketing's Impact on Indian Home Furnishing Retail

This research proposal investigates the impact of social media marketing on customer behavior within the home furnishing retail market in India. It begins with an introduction highlighting the significance of marketing strategies and the evolving role of social media in reaching consumers. The proposal outlines the research aim to identify the impact of social media marketing on consumer purchasing behavior, along with specific objectives focusing on social media, social networking, and pictorial representations. A comprehensive literature review explores existing research on social media marketing in the retail industry, consumer behavior, and the Indian retail landscape. The methodology section details the research philosophy (positivism) and approach (inductive), the data collection methods, and the planned data analysis techniques. The proposal concludes with considerations of limitations and ethical issues, setting the stage for a detailed study of social media's influence on consumer decisions in the Indian home furnishing sector.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Impact of Social Media Marketing on Customer Behaviour in Home Furnishing Retail market
of India
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Research Aim...............................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Social Media Marketing in Home Furnishing Retail industry and incorporation of customers. .4
Consumer Behaviour and Retail Industry....................................................................................5
Retail Industry in India................................................................................................................6
Literature Gap..............................................................................................................................7
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................7
Research Philosophy........................................................................................................................8
Research Approach..........................................................................................................................9
Research Strategy..........................................................................................................................10
Data Collection Method.................................................................................................................10
Data Analysis.................................................................................................................................11
Limitation......................................................................................................................................12
Ethical and Professional Issue.......................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

2RESEARCH PROPOSAL

3RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
The particular research will focus to identify the social media marketing and its impact on
retail market in India, especially the home furnishing retail industry. The success of an
organization is highly dependent on the marketing strategy and policy. The popularity of the
products depends on the promotional strategy implemented by the company. The company is
controlled by not only the quality of the products and services, but also on brand image that
company offers. The marketing of the products includes advertisement public relation,
promotion and sales marketing (Solomon 2014). The process of marketing has considerably
changed over time and the improvement of technology is having its impact on it. The
international business organisations have integrated social media as an integral part of their
marketing process. Compared to the traditional mode of marketing, social media has the
potential to communicate the products to the customers with low marketing expenses along with
the wider reach (Solomon 2014).
However, various factors plays important role in utilising the social media marketing for
the promotion of the products. The primary factors that contribute in the success of social media
marketing are the economic status of the target market and the technological advancement. The
technological advancement includes the advancement attained by the country along with the
incorporation of the technology by the greater section of the population. For instance,
technological adaptation in the countries like U.S. and Australia has attained its peak and is
inseparably integrated in the daily lives of the people. This helps both the national and
international organisations to utilise social media for their marketing process.

4RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Social media marketing implies the social networking, website networking and television
marketing. These marketing channels contain high potential as they not only communicate the
products to the customers, but also provides platform to the customers to get in touch with the
company as well as other customers seeking greater insight about the products. The companies
gain opportunity for not only delivering the products to the customers, but also retaining them by
building relationship by satisfying their need. Moreover, it helps in recording information for
future usage.
Rationale of the research:
Most of the researchers and practitioners have raised this issue in order to evaluate on
how social networking, website networking and television marketing left major positive impact
on the consumers’ behavior. This research will focus on the impact of social media marketing of
the home furnishing retail market in India on the customer behaviour. India is a developing
country, which creates opportunity for the international companies for social medial marketing,
as the country is the fourth largest internet user around the globe (Cia.gov 2018). The study has
focused to evaluate the impact of social media for business expansion of retail industry all over
India. Moreover, it will identify the influential factors affecting social media marketing process
that has left major impact on the target population.
Research Aim
The aim of this research is to identify the impact of social media marketing on
consumers’ purchasing behavior.

5RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Objectives
 To identify the impact of social media marketing on consumer behaviour in Home
furnishing retail market in India
 To identify the influence of social networking on customer behaviour in the same market
 To identify the influence of pictorial representation and advertisement in the selected
market
Literature Review
Overview of Social Media Marketing in Home Furnishing Retail industry and
incorporation of customers
Rapp et al. (2013) identified the contagion effects of the use of social media marketing in
the retail industry. According to the authors, it not only influences the promotion and customer
value of the company, but also has contagion effects on the overall business process. Their
research predicts the influence in customer loyalty through the use of social media marketing by
creating brand reputation in the target market. The constant growth in the use of social media
among the customers forces the retailers to incorporate social media in the business marketing
process for all aspects of promotional activities. Tiago and Veríssimo (2014) in their paper
“Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?” communicated the limitations of digital
marketing in the firms of retail industry. Their results communicate that limiting the use of social
media in promotional activities fails to attain the potential benefits. The retail firms can explore
greater benefits in incorporating customers’ opinion in the decision making process. They can
build relationship using this process that modifies the customer behaviour for a particular brand.

6RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Impact of social media on consumer behavior of Retail Industry
The research conducted by Hudson and Thal (2013) encounters the change in the
customers’ decision making due to incorporation of social media in their marketing process.
Their research marks the last decade as the growth span of social media marketing that
considerably changed the view of the customers and how it engage them with the brand. Their
research however is supported with the data from the tourism industry. Öztamur and Karakadılar
(2014) on the other hand identified the variables that influence the impact of social media
marketing in the customers’ perceived value and behaviour. They focused their study on four
American and Turkish companies and their social media marketing on Facebook and Twitter.
Their study reveals that clear communication using understandable language is of primary
importance. This should be aligned with the local language to make it easier for the common
people to greater perceive the value being proposed. Similarly, the selection of the popular social
networking channel in the target market is also of same importance. Öztamur and Karakadılar’s
study reveals that the Turkish companies under study fails in incorporating the necessary
language needed for communicating their products to the target market, whereas, the
incorporation of Twitter by the American companies failed to provide the expected results due to
the extreme use of Facebook.
Kumar et al (2016) identified the importance of the content included in social media
pages through they communicates to the customers. the results of the research reflects that the
quality of the content is proportionate in influencing the customers in making purchase decision.
Lee (2013) in his research answered the question of how social media influences the customer
behaviour. According to the author, increased use of social media by the customers helps the
company to communicate the advantages of the products provided by the companies. Ertemel

7RESEARCH PROPOSAL
and Ammoura (2016) points out that use of social media in the retail market has moderate
relation for decision making process and post purchase behaviour. However, the social media
marketing enables the customers to communicate the perceived value of the products being
delivered and the individual need. The company needs to modify the required for attaining
benefits of the system.
Overall scenario of Retail Industry and its social media advertisement
Constant modernisation and technological development in India is leading the customers
in using the social media in their daily lives. The customers are now moving their preference to
the online shopping for their basic needs like glossary. Prashar, Vijay and Parsad (2015) in their
report identified that there is a noticeable growth of 85% in online shopping compared to 65%
growth in regular shopping in 2013. Vinerean et al (2013) offered similar results in their study
that communicates integration of technology in daily life provides opportunity for the marketers
to use social media marketing as important tool in marketing. This denotes a significant
involvement of the customers with the technology and the use of social media. Hence, use of
social media for the marketing process will be beneficial for the retail firms for gaining
competitive advantage in Indian market. This can help the companies in addressing a significant
portion of the customers due to their active presence in the social media. Another study
conducted by Panda, Swar and Mukerjee (2014) identifies the influential factors in Indian
market. They are customer commitment, reliability, reputation and retail environment. The
technological advancement and incorporation in daily lives of the citizens of the country helps
will provide suitable environment for the retail industry to incorporate social media in their
promotion for influencing the mentioned factors.

8RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Literature Gap
The existing literatures provide insight about the benefits of use of social media
marketing by the house furnishing retail firms. These also communicate the capabilities in
influencing the customer behaviour. The primary factors that contribute in the success of social
media marketing are the economic status of the target market and the technological
advancement. The technological advancement includes the advancement attained by the country
along with the incorporation of the technology by the greater section of the population. However,
the a few studies are present in the market that successfully communicates the impact on the
Indian market. This creates an opportunity to direct this research for identifying the impact of
social media marketing on consumer behaviour in the retail market. Moreover, the companies
can both identify personal interest of the customers and align the brands in accordance for
gaining greater attraction. Additionally, they can influence the interest of the customers through
the use of social media.
Research Methodology
This section of the research paper provides clear idea of the process, by which the data
are collected and analysed. This also communicates the focus of the research by justifying the
process incorporated for attaining particular goal. It is important to follow the research guideline
that helps in reproducing similar data when similar methods utilised in similar type of research
(Sekaran and Bougie 2016). The research onion is utilised that helps in designing the
methodology for the research. Different layers of the onion communicate the methods
incorporated in the study.

9RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Figure 1: Research Onion
Source: (Sekaram and Bougie2016)
Research Philosophy
Philosophy of the research communicates the dimension in which the research is being
carried out. The research philosophy is constituted with three major ways positivism philosophy,
realism and interpretivism. This will help in countering the central question of research that is if
the social entities require objective or subjective perception, which in turn interprets the nature of
reality. Interpretivism as stated by Eriksson and Kovalainen (2015) communicates social
actors, which are involved are continuously accomplishing the social phenomenon and providing
them meaning. It will narrate the process and the influential factors that direct the customers’
behaviour related to the particular products sold. Positivism lastly identifies and describes the
elements of the research. This helps in identification of the truth underlies by simply dictating the
elements of research without tampering it (Collis and Hussey 2013). In this very specific study
positivism research philosophy will be selected as this particular methodological tool is used

10RESEARCH PROPOSAL
after making a keen observation about the research issue. This will be helpful in identification of
the impact social media marketing on the customers’ behaviour pattern in the retail market of
India.
Research Approach
Research approach identifies the validity of the existing theories or it can propose new
theories as well. Research approach is constituted with two major parts including deductive
approach and inductive approach. With the help of deductive approach the researcher can
evaluate necessary data and information based on the exiting theories analyzed on literature
review (Zikmund et al 2013). On the other hand, inductive approach primarily focuses on
evaluating necessary information based on new theories. This research will select inductive
approach based on the way social media marketing and its influence consumer behavior. By
evaluating theories on consumers’ purchasing behavior the study would focus to highlight the
impact social media marketing on influencing the buying behavior of Indian retail customers.
After evaluating consumers’ behavior theories the researcher would like to analyze buying
behavior perception of customers from Indian retail industry in order to know whether they are
influenced on social media marketing or not.
Research Strategy
Two types of research strategies exist from which the researcher has to select depending
on the type of research being conducted. They are qualitative research method and
quantitative research method. Quantitative research method on the other hand helps in
extracting the quantifiable data. This type of research method is useful in identification of the
results of a phenomenon (Creswell and Creswell 2017). This specific research will select
quantitative method because it utilizes various data collection methods like survey, structured

11RESEARCH PROPOSAL
interviews, study records and documentation. This helps in obtaining data that describes the
nature of the phenomenon, which in turn helps in assuming the relation between the element and
the influence of it on the society. Quantitative research being objective and effective will be
utilised in this research. This will help in revealing the truth by identifying the degree of
influence the social media makes on the customer behaviour (Levy and Lemeshow 2013).
Data Collection Method
Data collection technique is the systematic method of gathering appropriate information
from various resources. Data collection method is constituted with two types that include
primary source of data collection technique and secondary source of data collection technique.
For this particular study primary data will be used for getting immediate response from the
participants. The method that will be utilized is quantitative method that will help in collecting
feedback of participants on the home furnishing retail market in India and the impact of social
media marketing on customer purchasing behaviour. Questionnaire will comprise of a number of
closed ended questions with the options provided which will limit the opportunity for the
respondent to a certain range, which can hence be quantified (Palinkas et al 2015). Total 100
participants will be involved for collecting their response. 100 is a standard size based on which
sufficient data regarding the research issue can be collected. Total 100 questionnaires are
prepared for collecting necessary information from the respondents. This will keep the research
method simple and easy. This will help in analysing customers’ purchasing behaviour in the
retail market of India. The questions in the questionnaire will be set accordingly in relation to the
social media marketing to identify its impact.
Sampling

12RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The sampling method that will be incorporated in this research is probabilistic sampling
as it provides the most accurate data. With the help of probability sampling technique the
researcher would like to select the respondents randomly from retail sector. Total 250 sampling
size would be selected among which 150 respondents are from customers of retail industry and
100 participants will be involved from employees in home furnishing retail industry. By
involving both the customers and the employees, the research will be conducted about the impact
of social media on business expansion of retail industry. Forms will be distributed by going to
the retail firms in order to acquire necessary data and information.
Data Analysis
Data analysis process incorporates the data interpretation. The data collected through the
closed ended interview schedule and questionnaires will be put into the graphs and tools for the
analysis process. The responses collected through the data collected will be analysed using
statistical analysis tool that includes mean, median and mode. This will help identifying the
factors of social media marketing that influence the customers in theri decision-making process.
This will again classify the dependent and independent variables in the data. Next tool
incorporated for this research is the regression tool. The positivity and negativity in the
relationship between the variables will be identified utilising the Pearson’s regression correlation
tool (Draper and Smith 2014). This again will help in understanding if the social media has or
has not any impact on the purchasing behaviour. However, this tool cannot provide the extent of
relationship between the variables. The research then utilises the descriptive statistical analysis.
It helps in summing up the acquired results for a detailed description, which will help the reader
to have a clear idea of the phenomenon under study. In other words, this will describe the
findings regarding the impact of social media marketing in modifying the purchasing behaviour

13RESEARCH PROPOSAL
of customer in house furnishing retail market in India. This will further help in presenting the
data on systematic manner for greater understanding.
This particular research issue is constituted with two variables including impact of social
media is the independent variable and consumers’ purchasing behavior is dependent variable.
With the help of an effective qualitative data analysis the research variables will be proved. In
order to maintain accuracy of data an effective regression analysis would be conducted to prove
research variables.
Limitation
Several limitations of the study can be highlighted that is possible to encounter in
conducting research. The first and foremost is the participation of the respondents in research.
Moreover, the authenticity of the collected data is also questionable as the respondent might be
reluctant for providing authentic information perceived data. Moreover, the demographic profile
of the country also communicates that the females of the family are likely to visit the retail stores
which limits the collected data to only one segment of the society keeping the data incomplete.
In addition, India is a multicultural nation where the cultural differences considerably change the
customers’ purchasing behaviour. This will considerably modify the collected data and will
widely vary in different parts of the country. Moreover, the country is in its developmental
phase, which makes it hard to address the complete population of a particular society. Lastly,
social media is in a constant change, which makes it harder to base the research on specific social
media channels. Some of the major recommendations are provided based on which these
limitations can be overcome.

14RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Ethical and Professional Issue
Ethical consideration is one of the important parts of research that helps the researcher
identify and limit the research within the boundaries of ethics. The ethical guideline as proposed
by Faden et al (2103) identifies the need of safeguarding the interest of the respondents. Hence,
the personal information of the respondents needs to be kept secret. By making face to face
communication prior approval from the respondents should be taken before extracting
information (Miller et al 2012). Furthermore, the manipulation of the source of the data is also
unethical as it will reduce the authenticity of the research. Lastly, the copy right should be issued
in prior for avoiding the charges of data theft.
Ethical Considerations Made
 Approval is taken from the informants and is encouraged to participate in the research
process.
 The identity and personal information of the informants are kept secret where necessary
for safeguarding the safety of the informants.
 No forceful extraction was considered in research for extracting authentic data from the
respondents
 Proper citation is provided to the data collected from the existing literature to maintain
the authenticity of the research and avoid plagiarism.

15RESEARCH PROPOSAL
References
Cia.gov 2018. The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency. [online] Available at:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2153rank.html [Accessed
6 Jan. 2018].
Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and
postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan.
Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
methods approaches. Sage publications.
Draper, N.R. and Smith, H., 2014. Applied regression analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Eriksson, P. and Kovalainen, A., 2015. Qualitative methods in business research: A practical
guide to social research. Sage Publication
Ertemel, A.V. and Ammoura, A., 2016. The role of social media advertising in consumer buying
behavior. International Journal of Commerce and Finance, 2(1), p.81.
Faden, R.R., Kass, N.E., Goodman, S.N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S. and Beauchamp, T.L., 2013.
An ethics framework for a learning health care system: a departure from traditional research
ethics and clinical ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1).
Hudson, S. and Thal, K., 2013. The impact of social media on the consumer decision process:
Implications for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), pp.156-
160.

16RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R. and Kannan, P.K., 2016. From social to
sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of
Marketing, 80(1), pp.7-25.
Lee, E., 2013. Impacts of Social Media on Consumer Behavior-Decision Making Process, Turku
University of Aplied Science, Bachelor’s Thesis, International Business Bachelor of Business
Adminitration (BBA).
Levy, P.S. and Lemeshow, S., 2013. Sampling of populations: methods and applications. John
Wiley & Sons.
Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M. and Jessop, J. eds., 2012. Ethics in qualitative research.
Sage Publications Inc.
Öztamur, D. and Karakadılar, İ.S., 2014. Exploring the role of social media for SMEs: as a new
marketing strategy tool for the firm performance perspective. Procedia-Social and behavioral
sciences, 150, pp.511-520.
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2015.
Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation
research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services
Research, 42(5), pp.533-544.
Panda, R., Swar, B.N. and Mukerjee, K., 2014. Factors affecting brand trust: An exploratory
investigation among Indian retail consumers. Indian Journal of Marketing, 44(7), pp.7-17.

17RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Prashar, S., Vijay, T.S. and Parsad, C., 2015. Antecedents to online shopping: Factors
influencing the selection of web portal. International Journal of E-Business Research
(IJEBR), 11(1), pp.35-55.
Rapp, A., Beitelspacher, L.S., Grewal, D. and Hughes, D.E., 2013. Understanding social media
effects across seller, retailer, and consumer interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 41(5), pp.547-566.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Solomon, M.R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why
bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), pp.703-708.
Vinerean, S., Cetina, I., Dumitrescu, L. and Tichindelean, M., 2013. The effects of social media
marketing on online consumer behavior. International Journal of Business and
Management, 8(14), p.66.
Zikmund, W.G., Babin, B.J., Carr, J.C. and Griffin, M., 2013. Business research methods.
Cengage Learning.

18RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Appendix
Customers
1. Where did you receive information about the product?
2. How did you react viewing the advertisement?
3. What information did you collected from the source of advertisement?
4. What made you purchase the product?
5. How much the advertisement influenced you for purchasing this?
6. Why did you select purchasing this product over the other similar products?
7. What were the messages communicated in the advertisement?
Retail Employee
1. What are the number of customers come with made decisions of purchasing particular
product?
2. How many customers come seeing the promotion on social media?
3. What are the features they verify in the products with the viewed advertisement?
4. What is your comment on social media influencing customer purchasing behaviour?
5. How much the customers are interested in the particular product advertised in social
media, while they have option of purchasing other similar product?
6. How does the customers compare the quality of the product that view in social media
with the one that has not?