Social Media Impact on Zara's Marketing Department: A Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This project analyzes social media's impact on Zara's marketing.

ETHICS
APPLICATION FORM
Undergraduate Students
Roehampton Business
School
(QA Higher Education March 2019)
The completion of this form should not be seen as an end in itself but as a vehicle to ensure that
you have gone through a process of considering the ethical implications of your research in detail
and that you are able to communicate this clearly.
SECTION 1: PERSONAL DETAILS & DECLARATION
Please complete the header with your name and Department
Name:
Student number:
UR email address:
Programme of Study:
Supervisor:
STUDENT’S SIGNATURE
I confirm that this submission accords with the University Code of Conduct and that
all information supplied on this form is correct
Student’s Signature:
Please use an electronic signature or type your name
Date:
SECTION 2: SUPERVISOR’S APPROVAL
Dissertation supervisors, please:
 scrutinise the Ethics Application and all participant-facing documentation
 suggest and check any changes which need making before your final approval
Please tick the box to confirm that you have approved the application as ethically sound,
and the participant-facing documentation as appropriate
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SUPERVISOR’S SIGNATURE
Signature:
Please use an electronic signature or type your name
Print name:
Date:
SECTION 3: PROJECT DETAILS
Title of project: “To identify the impact of Social media on the marketing department”.
A case study of Zara.
Proposed start date:
Duration:
Purpose of the proposed investigation (max 500 words):
This section should include the material which outlines the rationale for the project, i.e. why this study needs
to be done. This should be done in a way that is both accessible and scholarly, i.e. have proper cited sources.
Social media is said to be a collective online communication way that dedicate to society based input
and collaboration. It seems to be a more helpful to connect with their customer, increase awareness
regarding Zara brand and boost out their sales and overall profitability. It has been observed that
with the emergence of social media most of the companies are looking for a considerable amount of
variation in information and utilisation of technology. Social media has also been played an eminent
role in overall transformation of the Zara company products. The impact of social media could have
witnessed wide growth with total advancement of mobile technology. Customer is spending a wide
share of time on selling their products through using e-mobile services (Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012).
It is one of the crucial marketing tools that can be used for Zara company to promote their particular
brand. Thus, it tends to deal with specific role of business marketing in current period. It could assist
in increasing leads and total sales for the company in near future time.
Purpose:
 The basic objective of social media marketing is to develop a brand as well as increase a
visibility in the brand.
 It would help to build effective building effective relationships and coordination with
potential customers.
Rational of the research:
In relation to become more successful company need to make use of social medial strategy that
would be integrated along with the plan that has been made by Zara for coming future time. This will
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extend prospect and develop strong customer base through offering large prospect base overall social
sites such as Facebook. Social media would also have proper support to overall purchase process that
aimed on intent initiation and promotional media to deliver useful data at every point of buying cycle
that consists of post sales support and research of right customer in the market. It is helpful to build
effective brand loyalty among the customer for very long point of time. Marketers require utilizing
different means to sustain the loyalty of their consumers. The aim of this research is to examine the
effective of social media marketing in increasing maximum people by offering valuable amount of
products to their client. The overall analysis is based on customers that follow at least one single
brand on social media.
Erdoğmuş, İ.E. and Cicek, M., 2012. The impact of social media marketing on brand
loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences. 58. pp.1353-1360.
Outline of the project:
This section should include the details of the research methods i.e. what will be done and how. Please start
by giving a brief summary (one paragraph) including how many participants there are likely to be, where the
research will take place and an indication of how long participation will take for each section (interviews,
questionnaires etc.) and in total.
Research method is an essential way that can be used to gather specific data for the purpose of
making effective business decision in near future time. The methodology would include of both
qualitative and quantitative method (Yu, Duan and Cao, 2013). These seem to be effective process
for analysing the overall performance of the research techniques that can consist of current and
historical data. The research is being taking from conducting marketing research from various
customer through using interview and questionnaires. This will assist in analysing the overall
perception of various customers those are going to use specific products of Zara company. There are
certain methods that are use during the research:
Descriptive method: This research approach has been focused usually leans towards qualitative
approach that can consist of quantifiable data. The aim of this method is to explain some aspects of
hypothesis that it comes to a particular group of customer.
Yu, Y., Duan, W. and Cao, Q., 2013. The impact of social and conventional media on firm equity
value: A sentiment analysis approach. Decision Support Systems. 55(4). pp.919-926.
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You should attach all the research instruments you are planning to use in your research,
e.g. interview questionnaire, online questionnaire template, etc. These should be checked
by your supervisor prior to Ethics application approval)
Please confirm that
1) you have attached all research instruments you intend to use, and
2) you will notify your supervisor of any major changes.
YES
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SECTION 4: ETHICS ISSUES
Ethical issues raised by the project and how these will be addressed:
Points that should be considered include:
 Participants and consent
 Confidentiality and anonymity
 Right to withdrawal
 Deception
 Permissions from organisations involved
 Whether any vulnerable populations are involved (including under 18s) (also see Section 6)
This section should have some comment and not left blank.
This particular section deals with the various ethical issues that are associated with the promotion of
social media marketing. The participation of customer toward providing their overall perception
toward the brands is taken into account. Confidentiality is primary based of analysing the overall
ability of customer towards products that are offered by Zara.
SECTION 5: HEALTH & SAFETY ISSUES
Health & safety issues raised by the project, including any risks to participants and/or
researcher and sole working. Think of hazards, who can be harmed, how can someone be
harmed, number of people affected, what are the consequences, what are the existing or
possible control measures.
You should clearly indicate how these H&S issues will be addressed. This section should
have some comment and not left blank.
 Please discuss these with your Supervisor, who should contact the Head of Health & Safety if
necessary.
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Health and social care services is being reformed across the nation through putting customer in more
control of care and providing them right products as per their demand. It is specific kind of problem
that needs an individual to select among best alternatives that can be analysing as ethical or unethical
aspects. The supervisor needs to take crucial action or make use of effective control measure so that
it would not make any future damage to the people.
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SECTION 6: RESEARCH INVOLVING PARTICIPANTS
 You should amend the attached Participant Consent Form template to be given to
participants as required
 You should also attach any other information to be given to participants
You should consider carefully what information you provide to participants, e.g. scope of
study, number of participants, duration of study, risks/benefits of the project. It is
recommended that the participant has two copies of the consent form so they can retain one
for information.
 If images or anything else which might allow the identification of participants is to be
publicly accessible (e.g. on the web), further written consent must be secured.
A separate section regarding this should be included on the participant consent form.
Please confirm that
1) you have attached the amended consent form and information sheet (if applicable) to be
given to participants, and
2) you will notify your supervisor of any major changes.
YES
Give details of 1) the method of recruitment, and 2) potential benefits or incentives to
participants if any (include any financial benefits where appropriate).
(NB: Please remember that written permission will have to be sought from any organisations where
recruitment is carried out or posters placed (e.g. if you recruit in GP’s surgeries you will require NHS approval)
1) External recruitment is a right method to select skilled and capable candidates.
2) Additional allowance and facilities are needed to be provided to them.
Please confirm that you have attached written permission from any organisations where
recruitment is carried out or posters placed
YES
Will your research involve participants who are aged under 18?
YES NO
Will you be approaching participants who might be considered to be vulnerable (please give
details if not addressed elsewhere on this form)?
YES NO
If you have answered Yes please refer to the Ethics Guidelines (especially section 3.4.j if
your research involves participants who are aged under 18) and highlight the particular
issues raised by working with these participants and how these issues have been
addressed.
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If you have answered yes to either of the above you will need to obtain DBS clearance.
Please contact your supervisor.
(Please note: if you are unsure whether DBS clearance is required, please discuss it with
your supervisor)
Please tick the box to confirm that the appropriate DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service)
check has been applied for.
If you have already obtained DBS clearance, please provide details of DBS check (date,
disclosure number, issuing organisation (if applicable) and place of issue).
If issued by another organisation please advise if you have registered this with the DBS
Update Service and provide reference number and date.
SECTION 7: DATA PROTECTION
Before completing this section of the form, you should read the Data Protection and Storage
Guidance for Researchers. It is the responsibility of students to ensure that they comply
with the University’s policies and procedures regarding data protection.
All research data must also be processed in line with the University’s IT Policy, which
states,
You must not create, download, store or transmit unlawful material, or material that is
indecent, offensive, threatening or discriminatory or extremist.
QA Higher Education (University of Roehampton partnership) has procedures to enable
students to store downloaded research materials and data, electronically via email into a
specially provisioned university secure safe storage area
[e-mail].
SAFE STORAGE AREA – DOCUMENTS TO EMAIL
Before dissertation submission:
Please send the completed Ethics form and attachments (e.g. consent/access/survey forms
and letters) for approval to [e-mail].
After dissertation submission on Turnit In:
After submitting the final dissertation on Turnitin, please also email a copy of the
dissertation with your data collection instruments and attach all of the electronic data
collection/analysis files (all participant related/anonymised documents and ‘personal data’
(also see below): questionnaires, interview forms, interview transcripts, focus group data
and observation records etc.) to [e-mail].
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Questions relating to personal data processing:
‘Personal Data’ is defined as, “Any information relating to an identified or
identifiable person (a ‘data subject) or from which a person can be identified
either directly or indirectly.” Examples of personal data include:
 Name
 Age
 Address
 Job title
Will the research project involve collecting, storing or processing personal data relating to
research participants?
YES NO
If yes, other than signed consent forms, what types of personal data will be collected/
stored/ processed as part of the research project?
Please give details of how this data will be anonymised:
Will you be storing your research data (both raw and processed data) and documents
containing personal details of any participants using University IT facilities?
YES NO
If no, please specify the storage medium you intend to use, e.g. personal laptop, USB stick,
etc.
Please give details of how they will be kept secure (please ensure that all electronic data is
password protected, and also encrypted if on personal devices):
Please confirm that personal data will NOT be transferred to any party or organisation
outside of the University.
YES
All research participants should be provided with information about how their personal data
will be used. The attached Data Privacy Notice for Research Participants document should
be given to participants along the Participant Consent Form.
Please confirm that the Data Privacy Notice for Research Participants will be handed out as
a hard copy along with the consent form (unless using an online questionnaire etc). ( Please
include the Privacy Notice along with your other documentation when submitting your
ethics application).
YES
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PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM (and Privacy Notice)
Title of Research Project:
Brief Description of Research Project, and What Participation Involves:
Note: Please include what participation involves (if appropriate), where it will take
place, how long it will take and how many participants there are likely to be.
For interview based studies: State any limits on confidentiality
Please use wording along the lines of:
The interview will be tape recorded, and transcribed with any identifying details
removed. The transcript, or extracts from, may appear in my report and in
publications arising from it. The tapes may be heard by my supervisor and others
who might be involved in examining the report.
Everything you say will be treated confidentiality, but there is a limit to this: if you
disclose a risk of serious harm then I may need to take appropriate action (this
adheres to the ethical guidelines of the …………).
For questionnaire based studies:
State that the data will be collected in a way that makes it fully anonymous.
Please use wording along the lines of:
No identifying details will be recorded on your questionnaire response so that your
data will be completely anonymous and it will therefore not be possible to link your
consent form to your questionnaire response or to the data arising from it. You will be
asked to assign a code number to your data which only you will know, so if you wish
to withdraw your data you will be able to do this by providing the research with your
code number.
Investigator Contact Details:
Name
Department
University Address
Postcode
Email
Telephone
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Consent Statement:
I agree to take part in this research, and am aware that I am free to withdraw at any
point without giving a reason, although if I do so I understand that my data might still
be used in a collated form. I understand that the information I provide will be treated
in confidence by the investigator and that my identity will be protected in the
publication of any findings.
By signing this form, you are confirming that you have read, understood and agree
with the University’s Data Privacy Notice for Research Participants.
Name ………………………………….
Signature ………………………………
Date ……………………………………
Please note: if you have a concern about any aspect of your participation or any
other queries please raise this with the investigator or the Supervisor. However, if
you would like to contact an independent party please contact the Head of
Department.
Supervisor Contact Details: Head of Department Contact Details:
Name Name
Department Department
QAHE University Address QAHE University Address
Postcode Postcode
Email Email
Telephone Telephone
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