FY028 Inquiry Project: Tesco's Social Media Marketing Strategies

This report investigates the impact of social media marketing on the retail industry, with a specific focus on Tesco. It identifies the social media channels used by retail companies to promote their offerings, evaluates the importance of social media marketing as a retail trend for Tesco, and examines the impact of social media marketing on Tesco's ability to attract customers. The research employs a positivism philosophy and a deductive approach, utilizing survey methods and quantitative data collection. The findings highlight the importance of social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in reaching a wider audience and enhancing customer engagement. The report concludes that social media marketing is crucial for Tesco's growth and success in the competitive market by enabling the company to understand customer needs, promote products online, and build strong relationships with customers.

FY028 Inquiry Based Learning CW1
Inquiry Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
What are the social media channels used by retail industry to promote their offerings.............5
What are the importance of the social media marketing as one of the retail trends for TESCO 5
What are the impact of social media marketing for TESCO in gaining attention of customers
towards their offerings................................................................................................................6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................7
DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Background of the topic
Marketing is one of the practices within retail sector that helps in promoting and
advertising their different offerings to the customers. It is necessary for an organisation to
promote promote products so that customers can be familiar and purchase company's offerings.
Social media marketing is one of the greatest trends within retail industry because it is helping
brands to reach out large audience in short time period (Nash, 2018). The current research is
focusing over highlighting the significance of social media marketing along with its different
types used by company to attract potential customers and retain existing customers.
Research Aim
To identify the importance of social media marketing and its impact over gaining
attention of customers towards offerings of retail industry. A study on TESCO
Research Objectives
 To determine the social media channels used by retail industry to promote their offerings
 To evaluate the importance of social media marketing as one of the retail trends for
TESCO
 To examine the impact of social media marketing for TESCO in gaining attention of
customers towards their offerings
Research Questions
 What are the social media channels used by retail industry to promote their offerings?
 What is the importance of social media marketing as one of the retail trends for TESCO?
 What is the impact of social media marketing for TESCO in gaining attention of
customers towards their offerings?
Rationale of the research
The main purpose that has motivated an investigator to conduct an investigation on social
media channels is its relevancy and need in this competitive business world. Social media
marketing holds great power when there is need to engage large number of customers with the
different offerings of the organisation (Aiello and et. al., 2020). Thus, in this competitive
business world, company's main motive is to grab attention of large number of customers. So,
this report focuses over showcasing how retail brands are using trend of social media marketing
for their own success and development. There are two other objectives which are aimed by this

study which are: personal and professional objective. In respect of personal perspective,
researcher will learn how an individual's needs, requirements and behaviours get changed as per
the changes happening in the market. On the other hand, in terms of professional perspective,
researcher will increase their knowledge about the trends in the retail companies. They will also
learn how an organisation uses different channels of marketing to reach out customers and take
their offerings to the existing as well as potential customers.
Problem statement of the research
The major problem identified in the current investigation is that retail brand face
challenge in selecting right social media channel from available different alternatives.
Sometimes, company does not select right social media channel according to their different
offerings and this becomes barrier in gaining attention of the customers. If company is using fast-
fashion clothes then it is advised to use Instagram as their social media marketing rather than
depending upon Facebook. The main reason behind selecting Instagram over Facebook is that
former one has more number of young users who like fast fashion clothing.

LITERATURE REVIEW
What are the social media channels used by retail industry to promote their offerings
As per the perspective of Hjorth and Hinton (2019), there are different types of social
media channels which are used by retail industry in order to promote their offerings such as
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and many others. These social media channels helps in
increasing the profitability and performance of business by reaching to large number of target
audience. Retail company generally use Facebook channel as it has large number of active users
due to which they can target wider audience and also promote their offering in effective and
efficient manner. Retail industry also focuses on using YouTube channel due to which they
create video content and provide brief information related to the products and services. YouTube
channel is one of the effective channel in promoting offering as it provides relevant information
related to the products and services. Organisation also uses Instagram channel in order to
promote their brand and products. They focuses on promoting their products through
collaborating with influencer and other celebrities.
What are the importance of the social media marketing as one of the retail trends for TESCO
As per the view of Garg and et. al., (2020), social media marketing is considered as the
most important factor that helps in bringing overall growth and success for the company in the
highly competitive market. With the help of social media marketing, TESCO can sale and
promote its product on online websites in order to attract customers from everywhere in the
marketplace. Social media marketing helps in delivering new ideas and methods to promote the
goods and services of the company so that they gain more share in the market and also for
gaining high profitability in the business market. This helps the company in delivering products
to the customer by online platforms where they can choose from a variety of options and also
gets the product at their doorsteps by the option of proper delivery. It is necessary for every
company to choose the right channel of social media for the promotion of products to the
customers as it helps in targeting the right market and customer base.

What are the impact of social media marketing for TESCO in gaining attention of customers
towards their offerings
According to the viewpoint of Ayodeji and Kumar (2019),there is a huge impact of
social media marketing on company as it helps in increasing the customer base and also
enhances the business performance. Social media marketing attracts large number of customers
and improves the profitability of business. It attracts customer by building product awareness and
also creating strong relationship with them. Through using social media marketing, company can
influences the purchasing decision of customer by making them aware about the product and
services so that they can prepare their mind to buy the product. Tesco must focus on creating
strong presence on social media channels so that they can attract large number of customer and
also enhance their customer base. Social media marketing also helps in increasing the
performance and productivity of business due to which they can gain competitive advantage in
market.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is considered as an important process of analysing and
interpreting quality data in an effective and scientific manner. This section helps the researcher
in conducting the research in a more reliable and valuable manner so that information can be
analysed in a proper way.
Research philosophy – It is mainly divided into three types such as positivism, interpretevism
and realism philosophy (Cr, 2020). Positivism philosophy is selected by the researcher in the
current research. This helps the researcher in gathering and interpreting the data in an effective
and efficient way.
Research approach – Research approach are of two types and they are known as inductive and
deductive. Deductive approach is the best method that helps in collecting quantitative data easily
and is selected by the researcher in the present research (Pandey and Pandey, 2021). It helps the
researcher in understating and calculating the numerical data in a more simpler manner.
Research strategy – Research strategy can be classified into different factors such as survey,
focus group, interview, questionnaire, systematic literature review and many more. Survey
method is selected by the investigator in the current investigation as it helps in collecting
accurate and reliable information. It helps the researcher in interpreting data from the large
population.
Research choice – This is mainly classified into two parts and they are defined as quantitative
and qualitative method (Mohajan, 2018). Quantitative method is selected by the researcher in the
present research as it is more easy to interpret. This method helps the researcher in gathering
more accurate and valuable information from the numerical data.
Data collection – Data collection can be divided into two types such as primary and secondary
methods (Zangirolami-Raimundo, Echeimberg and Leone, 2018). In the present research primary
and secondary both research methods are used by the researcher. It helps the researcher in getting
detailed and more authentic data from the following collected and interpreted data.
Sampling – Sampling can be divided into following two parts and are defined as probability and
non-probability methods (Willmott, 2020). Probability method is considered as the most reliable
method and is selected by the researcher in the present research. It helps the researcher in
collecting data from the huge sample data in an effective manner. The researcher has selected 30
employees of Tesco.

Ethical consideration – While carrying on the current investigation, ethics are considered as the
main element because it helps in making the study more authentic, valuable and reliable. Ethical
principles helps in guiding the researcher in providing to the present work and in also taking care
about no person is harmed in in the whole research process (Bairagi and Munot, 2019).
Reliability and Validity – Reliability is defined as how consistently a method can be used to
measure and analyse the information about the topic (Säfsten and Gustavsson, 2020). Whereas
validity is defined as how accurately the chosen method is used by the investigator in order to
analyse the right mode of information about the research study or topic.

DISCUSSION
Social media channels used by retail industry to promote their offerings
From the above gathered information using literature review this can be concluded that
there are various social media channels that can be used by the organisation in terms of placing
social media marketing strategies in their organisation. These channels are associated with
developing business existence into the market and providing knowledge to customers in term of
business offerings (Hjorth and Hinton, 2019). The channels are considered as Instagram,
Facebook, YouTube and many others. The retail industry may use these channels so that to reach
out to their customers and to acquire significant edge into the market. These channels are used in
order to promote organisational offerings and to communicate with their customers in direct
manner without facing any barrier. For retail industry their customers are treated as asset for the
organisation so that using of social media in their marketing strategy this would be helpful in
reaching out to business goals in easy manner.
Importance of social media marketing as one of the retail trends for TESCO
From the above collected information using secondary data collection methods this can
be examined that social media is considered as one of the major element which is considered as
the aspect of the organisation which helps in reaching out to the customers in easy manner. This
has been analysed that social media is one of the major platform which is used by almost every
individual in current time (Ayodeji and Kumar, 2019). So that this could be considered as the
major method for the organisation that to manage their business objectives and to reach out to
mass audience.
Impact of social media marketing for TESCO in gaining attention of customers towards
their offerings
From the collected information using literature review this can be concluded that with
the help of of social media customer needs and preferences can be examined by the retail
business in such a manner that the same can be fulfilled by them. The major benefit of social
media marketing is related with understanding needs of customers and interacting with them so
that proper edge within the business can be attained (Garg and et. al., 2020). This is stated that
with the help of social media marketing customer attention can be gained by the organisation in
which business offerings can be communicated to the customers so that competitive edge can be
attained.

CONCLUSION
From the above report this can be summarised that social media marketing is considered
as one of the major trend in the retail industry which helps the business to grow and acquire
higher range of customers. This is stated that using social media marketing information can be
provided to the customers in easy manner and at the same time their needs can be catered in
appropriate manner. Using such methods business edge can be acquired and unique position into
the market can be acquired.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aiello, L.M. and et. al., 2020. Tesco Grocery 1.0, a large-scale dataset of grocery purchases in
London. Scientific data, 7(1), pp.1-11.
Ayodeji, O.G. and Kumar, V., 2019. Social media analytics: a tool for the success of online retail
industry. International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 10(1), pp.79-95.
Bairagi, V. and Munot, M.V. eds., 2019. Research methodology: A practical and scientific
approach. CRC Press.
Cr, K., 2020. Research methodology methods and techniques.
Garg, P. and et. al., 2020. Examining the relationship between social media analytics practices
and business performance in the Indian retail and IT industries: The mediation role of
customer engagement. International journal of information management, 52, p.102069.
Hjorth, L. and Hinton, S., 2019. Understanding social media. Sage.
Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 7(1), pp.23-48.
Nash, J., 2018. Exploring how social media platforms influence fashion consumer decisions in
the UK retail sector. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International
Journal.
Pandey, P. and Pandey, M.M., 2021. Research methodology tools and techniques. Bridge Center.
Säfsten, K. and Gustavsson, M., 2020. Research methodology: for engineers and other problem-
solvers.
Willmott, H., 2020. On research methodology. The Journal of Organization and Discourse, 1(1),
pp.1-4.
Zangirolami-Raimundo, J., Echeimberg, J.D.O. and Leone, C., 2018. Research methodology
topics: Cross-sectional studies. Journal of Human Growth and Development, 28(3),
pp.356-360.