Social Media and Consumer Behaviour

Introduction

Consumer behaviour is the study which is effective for understanding the customers, their actual needs and preferences in the market, the recent market trend, organisational products and services available in the market, the purchase decision making behaviour and disposes the ideas of goods and services for making effective buying decisions (Alalwan et al., 2017). In the recent era of globalisation and digitalisation, social media is playing a crucial role in influencing the customer’s behaviour and motivate them to make effective purchase decision according o their needs and preferences. Through this study, it is possible to understand the consumer’s behaviour towards making effective purchase decision. In this context, the study also aims to evaluate the impacts of social media in influencing the consumer’s behaviour in the society recently. Recently, many people think that social media as a leisure activity and there is high percentage of people, who think social media is a good platform for effective purchase where the customers can review the products and get proper ideas before purchase. Additionally, the customers think that they can interact with others and social media is an important platform for enhancing two way communications, which would be better for reviewing the products through online activities and make effective purchase decision as per their personal choice and preferences. In this context, for the sellers also, social media is considered to be an effective platform for marketing and successful promotion of the products and services where the organisations try to influence the behaviour of the consumers so that they can encourage the customers to make effective purchase decision for the quality products and services according to their needs and preferences.

Consumer behaviour of the people

Consumer decision making process is affected by external environmental factors including the social class, family and culture, situation and personal influence and in this regard it is necessary to identify the purpose of purchasing a particular products or service. Apart from the environmental factors, there is personal choice, psychological factors which influence the purchase decision of the customers. In the recent era of globalisation, the customers are well acknowledged and they try to gather latest updated information through social media, and most of the people prefer online shopping rather than offline purchasing activities. Hereby, the consumer’s behaviour depends on different steps, which are problem recognition, information search, alternatives, purchase and post purchase behaviour (Varkaris and Neuhofer, 2017).

The first step is problem recognition, where the customers try to recognise the problems as well as acknowledge own choice and preferences so that they can search over particular products and services from a particular brand. The second step is information search, where the customers try to gather vast knowledge and information on a particular product or service where the customers can identify variety of brands available in the market, acknowledge the pricing range, design of the products and others. The information search is important or the customers to make effective purchase decision where the information further influence the customers to make the effective buying decision. In this regard, searching information though social media is the first preferences of the customers and recently all the people across the globe prefer top utilise social media to gather vast range of information and thus social media is playing an important role to provide adequate information and data on a particular product or services.

The social communities are also trying to utilise the platform of social media in order to gain deep insight about the quality and price of the products and services in the market. Hereby, social media is an influencer for the purchase decisions making behaviour of the customers in the society, where the information and data on the particular products and services are influencing the purchase decision of the buyers. The brand symbol, design, products quality and price are the major information that the customers are searching for making effective buying decision. After the information search, the customers try to find alternative options for checking the availability of the products or the substitute products in the market. This is also effective to influence the purchase decision of the buyer, where the customers seek to find alternative solutions of the products or the services in the market, where the alternative products can suit the customers and satisfy the customers by fulfilling their needs and preferences (Bigne et al., 2018).

After the information search and checking the availability of alternative products and services in the market, the customers finally make the purchase decision which can meet the choice and preferences of the buyers. After purchase, there is post purchase behaviour, where the customers aim to evaluate the products and services and identify its satisfaction level and durability, where the customers also share their post purchase experience on social media as a feedback to the peers or the product manufacturers. Hereby, social media is an important platform, which influence the customers to make effective purchase decision and in this regard, the feedback of the customers further influence and motivate others to make the buying decision for that particular products. Hereby, the online environment on social media is plying crucial role which affects the consumer’s decision making behaviour process from need recognition to the final stage of post purchase experience (Akman and Mishra, 2017). The consumer’s behaviour stage is hereby important to evaluate the activities of the customers where social media is an efficient platform to influence the customers to make effective buying decision. The activities on social media, such as the information on products quality, product description, raw materials used for manufacturing the products, as well as quality pictures are effective to review the products and services of the organisations. Additionally, the information such as pricing and offers are also another factor where the customers gain ideas about the pricing of the products through social media and it also influences the purchase decision of the buyers.

Additionally, the customers can acknowledge diversified products or the substitute products available in the market from different brands and design which are also effective information for the customers in making effective purchase decision. Hereby, the social media activities are influencing factors to motivate the customers for making effective purchase decision. Moreover, the activity of comparing the products are also there where the customers can compared the products and services in the social media, where there are diversified views and feedback of the customers for different products and among them the customers can choose the best products according to their affordability and choices. Hereby, online platform is considered to be an effective purchase platform where the customers can gain a vast range of ideas and feedback from the social communities and make their purchase decision efficiently. In addition to this, personal buying behaviour is influence by the social exposure which is made up to their friends, family members and social communities as a whole, where the activities over the social media and the social group further influence the customers to develop effective buying decision.

Evaluating the marketing strategies to influence the behaviour

Social media is important for developing B2C business model, where the business firm scan sell their products and services directly to the customers and the customers also can utilise the social media platform for gathering deep insights about the products and services so that they can make effective buying decision. Hereby, the social media affects the purchase decision of the customers, where the research, engage, purchase post purchase and fan are the stages where the customers become engaged with the social media activities and they prefer to make effective purchase decision from the social media. As per the figure below, in the first stage, the customers aim at research to identify the product options and review the social media platform for gathering and seeing the reviews of the customers. After that, the consumers become engaged with the product related information and purchase prospect to analyse and product the satisfaction level after the purchase decision of the products. After reviewing the alternative products and prices, the customers make the purchase decision and utilise the information to improve the products use and enhance their satisfaction level (Erkan and Evans, 2016). After that, the customers become engaged with social media and focus on review and ratings on that products and thus social media influence the purchase decision making behaviour of the customers.

There are any social media platforms which are utilised for promoting the products. In the recent years all the multinational corporate firms invest a huge amount of financial resources on social media marketing so that the customers can get proper ideas about the products and services of the organisation and they can make effective buying decision. In this regard, FaceBook is considered to be the best platform, where the customers can get proper ratings and reviews n a particular products and it also provides a scope to the organisation to share their information and data about the products and pricing. In this regard, digital context, attractive pictures on FaceBook are effective to attract the audiences in the market. For example, Nike as a famous international sport manufacturing company focus on developing their FaceBook pages, where the FaceBook lives videos on social campaigning as well as the coverage pictures and latest updates are effective to influence the customers in long run.

On the other hand, there are other companies like Walmart as a fashion brand and Tesco which are also focusing on social media platform for influencing the purchase decision of the customers in the market. In this regard, the short videos on YouTube personalise twitter and Blogs are also effective to influence the customers to make effective purchase decision after reviewing the products and getting proper ideas. Hereby, the multinational corporate firm focus on social media platform for marketing and promotion of the products and services in an innovative ways where they can attract the social communities across the globe. Social media platform in this regard is helpful to increase engagement among the social communities worldwide where the information is shared well across the international borders. Pinterest is also another effective platform, where the organisations can share the ides through the pictures by creating their own account from where the customers also can get overview about the products and services (Kizgin et al., 2018). The customers recently are interested in Twitter to follow the celebrity or famous people to discover the products and services that they use and also to identify the companies in the market and thus, twitter is also effective platform for influencing the buying decision of the customers. Hereby, social media activities of the companies affect the advertising attitude, brand attitude, purchasing intension of the customers, where proper branding can be possible and also the customers can get ideas about the brand and the products and services as well as prices which are effective for developing purchase decision according to their needs and preferences.

Consumer buying behaviour and social media

Social media is considered to be an effective platform, here the customers can get variety of ideas about the products and services and thus it is effective for the customers to make effective buying decision after gathering knowledge and feedback over the social media activities. In the recent era of digitalisation, people are trying to gain knowledge and understanding and they seek to update with latest information through social media as social media is a platform from where the social groups and communities as a whole can get proper ideas abut the products and services. Hereby, as per the figure below, 37% purchase decision being made though the online media, which in urn indicates that, social media is a great platform where the activities on social media further influence the purchase decision of the customers in the market (Alalwan et al., 2016).

Additionally, as per the figure below, there are 83% consumers, who feel that social media interaction increases the likelihood of the purchase where the customers can improve trust and loyalty through developing and enhancing the social media conversation. Moreover, there are 81% customers who prefer friend’s social media post before making their own purchase decision and thus they seek to get proper ideas from the friends and social communities members for better purchase decision (Dahl, 2018). 78% customers agreed that, the company’s post on social media further influence the purchase decision making behaviour of the customers and thus socials media is influencing factor in motivating the customers to make effective buying decision successfully.

The figure below, explains that, FaceBook is one of the important platforms, where the people are interested to gain proper insight about the products and services for making effective purchase decision and there is significant percentage increase in using the social media for making effective purchase. The customers recently, trust the reviews and feedback on FaceBook and other social media sites as it further helps to influence the purchase decision of the customers and motivate the customer’s behaviour.

Hereby, social media is one of the influencing factors to enhance the customer’s behaviour towards making effective purchase decision. In this regard, there are several reasons, for which the customers prefer social media to be effective platform for making the purchase decision according to their needs and preferences (Duffett, 2015). In this regard, the reasons are such as to see the products, looking the new range o products for checking alternative availability of the products in the market, getting ideas for next purchase, getting inspired by the gifts and pricing offers and updating themselves with latest fashion trend. These are the major reasons where the customers seek to prefer to social media platform for making effective purchase decision so that they can get the right products and services, which can satisfy themselves successfully in near future.

In addition to this, the figure below explains that, there are different social media platform which are beneficial for enhancing the B2C in the market, which is the business model of business to customers where the customers can get products and services directly to the company or the business. Hereby, the social media channels are such as FaceBook, twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google. FaceBook is one of the major social media platforms, where most of the deals of purchase are developed. Hence, it can be stated that, the customers are satisfied with the social media platform of FaceBook to make effective purchase decision, where they get satisfied answers and information ad thy also enhance the communication among the social communities which in turn influence the customers to make effective purchase decision (Perez-Vega et al., 2018). After that, YouTube videos and digital content on twitter are also effective to influence the customer’s buying process where the video clips and digital content raise trust and loyalty among the customers which in turn helps the buyers to make the effective purchase decision.

Apart from the above social media channels, there are Google, Pinterest Instagram and LinkedIn which are also effective to hare the information about a particular product or service in the market from where the customers can develop ideas about the particular products and make effective purchase decision. Hereby, social media is one of the effective platforms which influence the customer’s behaviour toward making an effective purchase decision and in this regard, the activities of social media further help the customers to gather ides about the products and services which are important to make the buying decision. The consumers recently are engaged with social media activities, FaceBook posts, YouTube videos and pictures and digital context from where they can develop ideas about the products and services and they also identify alternative substitute products available in the market. The information and data on social media in this regard are important to influence the customers so that they can make effective purchase decision according to their personal choice and preferences. As per the analysis, over 80% customers in the recent years are interested to make effective purchase decision on social media, where they try to check the ratings and reviews through the social media activities and thus it can be stated that the social media is an important platform which influence the buying decision making behaviour of the customers across the globe (Alalwan et al., 2016).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be evaluated that, the activities on social media are effective to influence the purchase decision of the customer and thus the social media activities are influencing the consumer’s behaviour towards making effective decision for buying a particular product or services in the market. The FaceBook posts, Instagram pictures, YouTube videos as well as Pinterest and Twitter, Blogs, Google search are effective to influence the customers to make effective purchase decision. In this regard, social media is a platform, where two way conversation can be built and the customers can share their feedback and reviews as well as talk about their experience through the social media activities, which in turn influence other buyer in the market to get overall ideas of the products and services and they can make effective purchase decision according their personal choice and preferences. In this regard, the consumer attitude can be influence by the social media where the buyers can get different ideas as well as compare the products with other substitute products and services in the market and also they can search for availability of the alternative products in the market and these activities and pricing reviews and product quality reviews are effective to influence the customers for making the best purchase decision as per their personal needs and affordability.

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