Social Media Marketing in Pakistan: Trends, Impact, and Analysis

This thesis examines the evolving landscape of social media marketing in Pakistan, focusing on trends, user behavior, and the impact of advertising. The study investigates internet usage patterns, social network awareness across different age groups, and the primary reasons for social media adoption among Pakistanis. It further explores consumer perceptions of social media advertisements, identifying which communication strategies are most effective and their influence on user behavior. The research employs a questionnaire-based methodology to gather primary data, analyzing the usage of platforms like Facebook and their effectiveness for small businesses. Findings highlight the increasing significance of social media for marketing in Pakistan, offering insights into how businesses can effectively engage their target audiences and design communication strategies to reach them. The study also provides recommendations for future research in this dynamic field.

Social media marketing in Pakistan trends and impact
Dedication
To my parents and teachers who supported me at every stage of my life.

Acknowledgement
All praises to Allah the most merciful. First of all I would like to thanks my
respected supervisor who helped me throughout my thesis course. His guidance
helped me more in my thesis writing. It was a very difficult task but due to a
proper guidance of my supervisor I completed my work easily. At the end I would
like to thanks my parents, my teachers and my friends who supported me
spiritually throughout writing my thesis.
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Table of Contents
Dedication.................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgement...................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents.....................................................................................................iv
Abstract.....................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1...................................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................2
1.1 Background of the study..................................................................................2
1.2 Problem Statement...........................................................................................5
1.3 Research Questions..........................................................................................6
1.4 Objectives of the study....................................................................................6
1.5 Significance of Study.......................................................................................6
1.6 Organization of the study.................................................................................7
1.7 Limitations of the study...................................................................................8
Chapter 2...................................................................................................................9
Literature review.......................................................................................................9
2.1 Small Business Definition...............................................................................9
2.2 Marketing Opportunities of Small Business....................................................9
2.3 Marketing Challenges of Small Business......................................................10
2.4 Relationship Marketing/One-to-one marketing.............................................11
2.5 Social Media..................................................................................................12
2.6 Social Media Marketing................................................................................13
2.7 Empirical studies on the Topic......................................................................15
Chapter 3.................................................................................................................20
Research methodology............................................................................................20
3.1 Sources of Data..............................................................................................20
3.2 Research Instruments.....................................................................................20
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3.3 Sampling Design............................................................................................20
Chapter 4.................................................................................................................22
Analysis...................................................................................................................22
4.1 Age & Time spent on SNS............................................................................22
4.2 Age & Awareness about SNS........................................................................23
4.3 Usage Pattern of SN.......................................................................................24
4.4 Detail of Accounts on SN..............................................................................24
4.5 Reason Behind Using SN..............................................................................25
4.6 Kinds of Ads Encountered.............................................................................26
4.7 Type of ads users find well communicated...................................................26
4.8 SN Regarding Better Ad................................................................................27
4.9 Satisfaction with the appearance of ads.........................................................28
4.10 Accessing ads...............................................................................................29
4.11 Impact of ads................................................................................................30
CHAPTER 5............................................................................................................31
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................31
5.1 Conclusion.....................................................................................................31
5.2 Recommendations..........................................................................................32
5.3 Future Research.............................................................................................34
References...............................................................................................................35
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Abstract
Internet is the rapidly grown and emerging technology closing the gaps of
distances between the people all across the globe and effectively replacing the
traditional ways of advertising. Social Media are new emerging trends. Due to the
high rush of audiences this media is being targeted by the various advertisers.
Social media marketing is the emerging and rapidly gown new concept in which
attention is gained by the use of social media. Purpose of this study is to explore
out the awareness and usage trends of social networks in Pakistan. Also it tries to
identify what age group spends how much time on internet, their awareness about
social media, and primary reasons for using social networks. Finally this study tries
to explore out the understanding of the Pakistanis towards social media
advertisement, what types of communications attract them and their influence on
their behaviors. Primary data was collected through adapted research
questionnaire. Questionnaires were floated online; Google Docs, emailed and were
also filled by person. Analysis has been done using cross tabs and frequency tables.
Findings suggest that Facebook is the mostly used social network having well
communicated and very effective ads. Results show that there is great opportunity
to use Facebook as a new medium to aware customers about the new products.
Findings also suggest that there is an increasing trend of social networks usage in
Pakistan. Not only among the age group of 18-25 but also in the adults of 50 and
plus. This study can help to understand and design the effective communication
strategy to reach the target market in Pakistan, using social media networks.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
Internet is the rapidly grown and emerging technology closing the gaps of
distances between the people all across the globe and effectively replacing the
traditional ways of advertising (Jothi et al, 2011). Internet is something that can be
used for as a source of communication and since its emerging use in business, one
of its basic reasons is to do a marketing (Jothi et al, 2011). According to the David
Aaker (1996) due to the development of new media it is becoming way more
difficult for the companies to create awareness about their brands and the only
thing important is to manage their message and marketing efforts effectively across
all the media.
Social Media or networks are new emerging trends, due to the high rush of
audience, are being targeted by the various advertisers (Jothi et al, 2011). Social
Media defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2009, p. 61) is “group of internet-based
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web
2.0, and that allow for the creation and exchange of user generated content.” Web
2.0 is a web application on which social media networks are based (Rothschild,
2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009). Growing importance of social media raised the
concept of social media marketing. Social media marketing defined by
searchengineland.com “refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through
social media sites.” Pakistan is a country which has the fastest growing social
media population in the world, with more than 4 million Facebook users (Martin,
2011).
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This paper tries to explore out the awareness and usage trends of social networks
of Pakistani people. It tries to identify what age group spends, how much time on
internet, their awareness about social media, and primary reasons for using social
networks. At the same time this paper tries to explore out the understanding of
the Pakistani people towards social media advertisement, what types of
communications attract them and their influence on their behaviors.
Due to the emerging importance of social media a lot of work is being done on it.
But a very few work has been done in the context of Pakistan. This paper, so far,
tries to help in understanding the behavior of Pakistanis towards social media. This
study can help to shape up the communication strategy to reach the target market
in Pakistan over social media networks.
In today world social media is used to create relation and do advertisement.
Especially small business are using social media as a tool of advertisement.
Because of no proper understanding of the platform many small businesses do use
social media as an advertisement tool but missed to engage customer. In a result
they suffer great loss in term of sale and grabbing customer to the business. The
study is aim to understand the basics for small business related the use and
engaging the customer through advertisement in their advertisement.
It is the most significant industrial sector of economy as it not only contributes
46% of total manufacturing in Pakistani Industry, employed 40% of industrial
workforce but also shares around 10.20% in Pakistan’s growth domestic product
(GDP). Pakistan comes fourth as cotton producer worldwide, still contributes a
small share in exports (The Garment Industry of Pakistan, 2015). However,
Pakistan has a huge garment market; middle class is ready to pay high price for
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durable & high quality apparels (Arifeen, 2017). Apparel industry in Pakistan has
gone through many changes from tailor’s stitched dress to readymade dresses
(Ghani, 2010). Although still most of the sales are accomplished by the physical
outlets of fashion brands, at the same time online sale of fashion brands are gaining
ground in Pakistan as youth typically prefer e-commerce instead of physical outlets
(Arifeen, 2017). The term e-commerce means that a business which is executed
electronically, that is exchange of product, services or information. Kuker-Kinney
rather simplifies the term and suggests that buying of any good or services on
internet are e-commerce (Adnan, 2014). Consumers now can not only seek
information but can also share it with other consumers. Yet it can be equally
beneficial for marketers as social media has provided them an alternate media to
interact directly with individuals (Lee, 2013). This revolutionary two-way
communication has created ties between marketers and consumers which
eventually provides opportunities within trade and commerce (Husnain & Toor,
2017). This modern approach let brands and consumer interconnect with each
other, regardless of time and locations. It facilitates two-way communication that is
participation of both buyer and seller instead of conventional one-way that was of
sellers only (Kim & Ko, 2012).
Today’s consumer is more lively, participating and manipulative than a
submissive one before social media era (Kozinets et al., 2008). In research
conducted by Marketing Science Institute (MSI), customer engagement was
concluded as the main factor in customer buying decision making process (MSI,
2016). Later on, it was highlighted in researches that consumer engagement is the
main driver that eventually helps in building trust, loyalty whose outcomes are in
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the form of customer satisfaction. In Social Media Marketing (SMM) customer and
stakeholders both participate and every participating customer eventually becomes
component of marketing department. Social Network Marketing (SNM) as a subset
of SMM is the most successful tool of advertising and it enables marketers to
initiate bilateral relationship with customers without restriction of time or place
(Ahmed, 2015). Correlation between social network marketing and ecommerce of
women apparels has not wide been studied yet.
1.2 Problem Statement
Due to the emerging importance of social media a lot of work is being done on
it. But a very few work has been done in the context of Pakistan. This paper, so far,
tries to help in understanding the behavior of Pakistanis towards social media. This
study can help to shape up the communication strategy to reach the target market
in Pakistan over social media networks.
The primary objective of the research is to recognize the strategies that help
SME`s to build strong relationship and interact with its consumer using social
media. As a whole the following study is covering two major objectives which are;
marketing strategy and social media. Maximum of academic research focus on
strategy of social media in large organization. However, the weakness of such
literature is that the same strategies may not work in small businesses.
This paper tries to explore out the awareness and usage trends of social
networks of Pakistanis. It tries to identify what age group spends how much time
on internet, their awareness about social media and primary reasons for using
social networks. Finally this paper tries to explore out the understanding of the
Pakistanis towards social media advertisement; what types of communications
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attract them and their influence on their behaviors.
1.3 Research Questions
Keeping in view the research problem following are the research question
to be observed in the study:
This paper tries to explore out the awareness and usage trends of social
networks of Pakistani people. It tries to identify what age group spends, how much
time on internet, their awareness about social media, and primary reasons for using
social networks. At the same time this paper tries to explore out the understanding
of the Pakistani people towards social media advertisement, what types of
communications attract them and their influence on their behaviors
1.4 Objectives of the study
To answer the above questions following are the study objectives:
 To identify the age group aware about internet and social networks
(SN)
 To identify the mostly used SN and the primary reason of use
 To identify the kinds of ads users are aware of and which one are
communicated well
 To identify SN regarding best communicated ads
 To identify response towards those ads.
 To identify the impact of ads appearing in SN on users
1.5 Significance of Study
Social media is an essential part of human life. As it reduces the physical
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existence of person, yet it creates millions of business opportunities of earnings.
Therefore, it is important for small and medium industry to get full utilization of it.
Because small business plays its vital role in the economy therefore it is important
to understand the strategies of success used by them. In this case we will be finding
out the successful strategies of small business in using social media.
1.6 Organization of the study
This study will consist of the following sections/Chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter will state the background of the
study, problem statement, questions raised during research, main objectives to
attain and the scope of the study.
Chapter 2: Review of literature: it consists of different reviews of previous
literature of different authors and also explains different variables of the study with
its theoretical framework and hypothesis to be test.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology: How the study will be conducted is
included in that chapter. All information about Sample size, population, data
collections, instruments for the study, and sources of data and model of the study
will include.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis: It will contain all the analyzed results from the
research instruments and their evaluation & Interpretations.
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Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendations: that part of research will
conclude the study and summarize the analysis portion. It will also suggest
different recommendations.
1.7 Limitations of the study
The following research is based upon the findings of social media
implementation by Pakistan regulations. The study scope cover the companies
based in Peshawar. My contribution to this study is related to the study of factors
which has an impact on the success of small business using social media as a tools
of marketing and interacting with customers.
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