Research Report: Effect of Social Media on Brand Loyalty, BUSN20016

This report examines the impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty within Australian organizations. It begins by introducing the significance of online marketing and the role of social media platforms in enhancing brand effectiveness. The study identifies the benefits of social media marketing, such as increased customer engagement and brand recognition, while also addressing potential negative impacts like the spread of misinformation and the influence of competition. The research includes a conceptual framework, outlining key concepts and relevant literature, followed by a detailed discussion of the methodology, including research philosophy, approach, design, data collection, and ethical considerations. The report aims to analyze the positive and negative impacts of social media marketing on brand loyalty, offering recommendations for businesses to mitigate adverse effects and enhance their brand value through effective social media strategies. The study also provides a project schedule, budget, and Gantt chart.

Running head: EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON BRAND LOYALTY 1
EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON BRAND LOYALTY
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................6
1.1 Introduction................................................................................................................6
1.2 Problem statement.....................................................................................................7
1.3 Research aim and objectives......................................................................................7
1.4 Research questions.....................................................................................................8
1.5 Potential output of the research.................................................................................8
2. Conceptual framework.....................................................................................................9
2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................9
2.2 Concept of Social media marketing...........................................................................9
2.3 Benefits of social media marketing to brand loyalty...............................................10
2.4 Impacts of social media marketing on brand loyalty of Australian organisations. .11
2.5 Recommendation to overcome with the adverse impact of social media marketing
on brand loyalty.........................................................................................................................12
3. Research methodology...................................................................................................13
3.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................13
3.2 Research philosophy................................................................................................13
3.3 Research approach...................................................................................................13
3.4 Research design.......................................................................................................14

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3.5 Data collection.........................................................................................................14
3.6 Sample size..............................................................................................................15
3.7 Data evaluation........................................................................................................15
3.8 Ethical consideration...............................................................................................15
3.9 Research limitation..................................................................................................16
4. Organization of study....................................................................................................16
4.1 Organization of study..............................................................................................16
4.2 Budget, project activities and Gantt chart................................................................17
4.2 Project activities and scheduling.............................................................................18
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................21

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List of table
Table 1: Budget of study.................................................................................................................9
Table 2: Schedule of project............................................................................................................9

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List of figures
Figure 1: Gantt chart......................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction
In the current scenario, marketing through online sources is having the significant impact
on the business, products and brand loyalty of the organizations. The utilization of social media
tools is playing the vital role in marketing and advertising of the products and services and
helping the organizations to increase the brand effectiveness in the market. The social media
tools like FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram are popular among the people and providing the
facilities to engage the people to communicate with them and provide the information in a
creative and understandable manner (Balakrishnan, Dahnil, and Yi, 2014). There are several
strategies are used for building brand loyalty and enhancing the brand value through online
mediums.
The term brand loyalty refers to when people have strong affinity towards the specific
brand and repeat the purchase with the organization. The major concept that has been followed
by the organization for increasing brand value is to offer Life Time Value (LTV) for every
customer. The organizations are developing and implementing creative strategies for engaging
customers (Hajli, 2014). The brand loyalty is helpful for organizations to increase their resistance
to competition and improve the advocacy using the social media tools. Moreover, the social
media marketing functions involve sharing of quality content, respond to customer issues in real
time, and improve the interaction with existing and potential customers and identification of
market opportunities to manage the relationship with the people that help in improvement of
brand loyalty (Ahmad, Musa, and Harun, 2016).

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1.2 Problem statement
The current study will look to identify the strategies and tactics that used by the
organizations of Australia for social media marketing that has the significant impact on the brand
loyalty of organization. There are various factors that have the negative impact on social media
marketing and influence the brand effectiveness of an organization (Godey and et al., 2016). The
modification and utilization of advanced technology in social media and online marketing are the
areas of concern for the study. However, the market research and survey that conducted by the
organizations help them to increase the knowledge about the online marketing functions for
increasing the brand loyalty but the offering of fake information, issues related to payment and
competition level affect the approach of the organization.
The purpose of the report is to find out the sustainable approaches and tactics that could
be beneficial for organizations to meet the goals and objectives of the organization using the
social media marketing tools that contribute in enhancing the brand loyalty. The research will
focus on existing approaches of organizations from Australia over social media marketing
functions and their impact on the brand loyalty in the market (Felix, Rauschnabel, and Hinsch,
2017). Apart from that, the study will also analyze the factors and issues that have the negative
impact on social media marketing functions and affect the brand loyalty of organizations. The
organizations are investing huge amount on promotion and marketing of products, services, and
business through online sources but lack of monitoring and consideration of market trends in the
particular industry is influencing their decisions. Moreover, the study will analyze the reliability
and validity of social media for enhancing the brand effectiveness.
1.3 Research aim and objectives
Aim

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The aim of research is to analyze the impact of social media marketing on the brand
loyalty of Australian organizations.
Objectives
 To find out the beneficial effects of social media marketing on brand loyalty of
Australian organization
 To find out how social media marketing adversely affects the brand loyalty of an
organization.
 To provide effective recommendation for eradicating the negative effect of social media
marketing on brand equity
1.4 Research questions
1. What are the potential benefits of social media marketing on brand loyalty of
Australian organizations?
2. What are the negative impacts of social media marketing on brand loyalty?
3. What strategies can be used for overcome the negative impact and increase the brand
effectiveness?
1.5 Potential output of the research
The research will find out potential benefits of using social media marketing tools on the
Australian organizations. The social media is one of the most powerful tools in the current time
for promoting the products, services, and brand in the target areas. The major output of research
will involve the positive and negative impact of the social media marketing on the retention of
customers and engaging them into repeat purchase (Rodriguez, Peterson, and Ajjan, 2015).
Moreover, the study will focus on strategies for encouraging the brand effectiveness of

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organization using social media tools. Moreover, the research will find out the alternative
functions that can be used for overcome the gaps that find out in the literature review related to
potential benefits and strategies that applied by the organizations to meet the determined goals
and objectives.
2. Conceptual framework
2.1 Introduction
The review of literature or conceptual framework is an important section which displays
the knowledge and understanding collected by the researcher on specific topic. This section
develops a theoretical base with the help of different concepts and theories on similar topic
carried out by renowned scholars in their past studies. Currently, the conceptual framework
would include the details about the impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty of
Australian organization specifically.
2.2 Concept of Social media marketing
In accordance to (Heggde and Shainesh, 2018), social media has become most used
technology in the recent trends for every segment of population. The social media marketing is
basically a form of internet marketing activity which makes use of social networking sites as a
marketing tool. It mainly includes the usage of social networks and social media websites so that
to market the products and services of the companies. The social media marketing assists the
organisations with the ways to approach new customer and get engaged with the existing
customers as well. It contributes in developing their brand recognition and promotes desired
values and mission among the wide customer segments. In addition to this, it is been identified
that social media marketing plays a significant role in approaching customers, interacting with
the target segment, communication and branding, conducting effective marketing and developing

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strong relationship with the customers (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017). The direct
approach to the customer segment also leads the organisation to build a brand loyalty among the
target segments effectively.
2.3 Benefits of social media marketing to brand loyalty
According to Ismail (2017), the social media marketing activities had vitally changes the
ways in which businesses communicate with their target customers and the population at large.
The innovative and unique way of approaching the larger customer platform had provided the
business organisations with new avenues. There are various benefits of using social media
marketing as the promotional base with the intention to enhance the brand loyalty. Developing
brand loyalty is a crucial act could which lead the business towards either success or failure. The
social media marketing provides the businesses with a large number of audiences at single
platform which also enhances the time and cost efficiencies to the organisations (Alalwan, Rana,
Dwivedi and Algharabat, 2017). It is been found that social media helps in making the brand
more competitive and enhances the interest of the customers as well.
The increased promotional activities and online presence makes the brand noticeable
among the customers and thus establish a brand loyalty as well. The social media users acts as
the best advocates for the brand and works with the word of mouth as the most trusted source.
The word of mouth promotion leads towards the addition of loyal customers as well as
establishes a brand loyalty among them (Thompson, Martin Gee and Geurin, 2018). Moreover,
it has been also seen that the social media marketing develops a strong reliability and trust
among the customers about the brands. It constructs a brand loyalty among the consumers having
higher satisfactions and reliabilities over the same.

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2.4 Impacts of social media marketing on brand loyalty of Australian organisations
Social media marketing have become a new sensation for the current generation and had
covered a huge segment of the population all over the world. In the opinion of Zahoor and
Qureshi, (2017), the innovative techniques initiated to approach the marketplace had emerged as
an essential tool for the customer service, marketing activities and public relations. Having
immense benefits and ease to connect with the customers, social media marketing also come up
with few drawbacks to the organisations. It has been seen that the Australian consumer segment
is much adaptable and active on social media.
The new techniques initiated by the Australia organisation through social media had
made remarkable impacts in building their brand loyalty among customers (Potgieter and
Naidoo, 2017). As the brands establish a positive and prominent image of brands in the minds of
huge customer segment, they become over powering and irreplaceable and thus win the loyalty
of customers. The enhanced brand loyalty contributes in bringing sales revenues, profitability,
market share and brand positioning in the marketplace.
Kumar, Choi and Greene (2017) had discussed that brand loyalty is basically the
commitment of customers towards the brand to repurchase the products and services despite of
all the competitive actions. The customers with higher loyalty commit to become a client of that
business in future in regular basis. The social media marketing had impacted the brand loyalty in
both the positive and negative manners of Australian organisations. It has been found that the
brand loyalty of customer is been positively impacted by the social media marketing. The brands
influences the customers by offering advantageous campaigns, appearing on different social
media platforms, getting feedbacks and reviews and offering application on social media. These
acts had made the Australian organisations develop their brand loyalty among the customers at

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wider platforms (Crosby, 2017). However, there are some negative impacts also being laid by the
social media marketing activities on brand loyalty of the organisations. The negative feedbacks
of the customers could influence the other people as well and affect the brand loyalty of the
organisation.
2.5 Recommendation to overcome with the adverse impact of social media marketing on
brand loyalty
According to Ramadan, Abosag and Zabkar (2018) that having a social media marketing
strategy for brand loyalty includes wide range of benefits as well as difficulties for the business.
It has been seen that a single negative word of mouth over social media could lay an adverse
impact over the brand loyalty of the customers. Lacking in responding towards the feedbacks
could make the brand loyalty suffer and affect the organisation specifically. Therefore, So, Wu,
Xiong and King, (2018) had stated that making a smart use of effective strategies to eradicate the
negative impacts of social media marketing over the brand loyalty is important. It is essential for
the organisation to ensure the quick responses to the feedbacks of the customer so that to keep
them satisfied out of the issues. Customer and trust in brand are the most important keys to
sustain brand loyalty and gain higher profitability out of social media marketing. It has been seen
that the customer often desires to develop relationships with the brands.
Thus, it is recommended that the Australian organisation must develop strong public
relation by establishing two way conversations with the customer and the business effectively.
Responding to the customer queries and feedbacks would highly contribute in developing a
positive relationship with the customer (Colicev, Malshe, Pauwels and O’Connor, 2018). It
would even lead in eradicating the negative aspects over social media and would also reduce its
impact over brand loyalty of the Australian organisations.