Social Media's Impact on Buying

Introduction

The technological revolution and the ubiquitous use of social networking sites have shifted marketing from traditional media like TV, radio and magazines to social media. The aim of the research is to evaluate how social media influences consumer buying behaviour. The dissertation will use Primark as a case study for this purpose. The objectives of this research are to identify the factors that encourage social media promotions, and influence consumer buying behaviour, explore consumer experiences with social media promotions and critically analyse how these experiences affect consumers, and identify the opportunities generated for a business while influencing consumer buying behaviour. The research will be conducted with primary data. The data will be collected using mixed methods using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to critically investigate the factors that affect the purchasing decision of the consumer on social media. The research will also use Primark as a case study.

Literature review

Social media networks have significantly large number of visitors and therefore they are now an essential hub to market products or services (Miles, 2013). Businesses have now started using different social network sites to communicate with customers (Kumar et al., 2016). To a great extent, the cultural shift with the advent of new internet technology and social media is responsible for the shifts in the way businesses market themselves (Harvey, 2014). Social media has a number of advantages: it allows a two-way communication between customers and organizations allowing the formation of a relationship which leads to loyalty; it allows the business to find customer needs and preferences which allow them to target these areas; it helps generate word of mouth publicity from consumer to consumer as they share their experience with others creating brand awareness (Lee and Hong, 2016; Ertemel and Ammoura, 2016). Social media is related to brand equity, brand awareness and brand image, which are the main three causes in changing consumer buying behaviour (Berthon et al., 2012; Godey et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2016; Ather et al., 2019). Brand equity may lead to brand preferences and loyalty and contributes in changing consumer buying behaviour (Godey et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2016). Some argue that brand awareness is the most prominent aspect affecting consumer buying behaviour (Lee and Hong, 2016; Goh, Heng and Lin, 2013). According to Ertemel and Ammoura (2016), social media allows retailers to use direct marketing to promote their products which results in the creation of new channels. Ertemel and Ammoura (2016) identify five steps to understanding consumer buying behaviour: the need of the consumers, search for information, search for alternatives, purchasing decision and experience post purchasing decision.

Godey et al. (2016) argue that luxurious brands can influence consumer buying behaviour through five perspectives: entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and word of mouth. This is supported by the findings of eMarketer (2010) study showing that 81% of teenage girls use friends as a source of trends related information and 45% look for opinions on social media on which clothes to purchase. Another research done by Forbes (2013) has showed that people rely on others’ opinion to purchase a product. These studies support the contention that social media can play a major role in influencing consumer purchase decisions because social media creates platforms on which consumers can look for new trends, and seek out opinions of others, which have an impact on their own decisions. The above studies do suggest reasons why brands are spending a significant amount on social media advertising. Primark has adapted the social media market by creating its own following “Primania” to promote their brand and to influence the purchasing decision of costumers. “Primania” is where customers share their outfit ideas on social media (Jones, Temperley and Lima, 2009; Arriaga, Andreu Domingo and Berlanga Silvente, 2017).

Research Design

Research philosophy

The research will follow an inductive approach to critically investigate how consumer buying behaviour is affected by social media. The research philosophy adopted is critical realism. Critical realism differentiates between what the actual reality of an idea and our knowledge or perception of the idea(Bryman & Bell, 2015). Critical realism is suitable for this research as it will focus on the actual reasons affecting consumer buying behaviour and also use a critical framework to analyse these reasons. Zachariadis, Scott and Barrett (2013) argue that some researchers may have more valid interpretations or theories with more accuracy than others. Therefore, there is scope for different interpretations. Critical realists argue that there are two relationships between entities: necessary and contingent; the former are relationships that will affect others and the latter are relationships that may affect others (Easton, 2010; Zachariadis, Scott and Barrett, 2013).

Research design

This research will have a descriptive as well as an explanatory research design. The aim of descriptive research is to accurately represent people, events or situations (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). Descriptive research will only provide descriptive data without explaining the relationship between variables (Basham et al., 2016; Leavy, 2017; Black, 2001). However, to find out more about how purchasing decision of different people is influenced by social media, explanatory research will be used. The purpose of explanatory research is to explain the relationship between variables (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). Explanatory research will allow the explanation of causes and effects and this is suitable for the research purpose (Leavy, 2017).

Sampling

The participants for the interviews will be selected on the basis of purposive sampling. Purposive sampling allows the researcher to choose participants on the basis of the characteristics required for objective of the study (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2012). One limitation of this method can be existence of bias in the selection of participants and may not identify all the contributing factors and characteristics (Leavy, 2017; Black, 2001). One interview will be conducted with Primark to explore what the company does to influence consumer buying behaviour through social media. Four focus groups will be planned with five participants in each group. The sampling method will be self-selection. It is challenging to find people who are willing to participate in a research and therefore, self-selection sampling is the most suitable method. Self-selection will save time spent trying to find participants. However, the sampling method may not represent the whole population (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012; Oppong, 2013; Sharma, 2017).

Data collecting methods

Mixed methods will be used to collect data. Mixed methods research enhances the results to be more accurate and valid and it facilitates the interpretation of results by combining data to create stronger results (Golafshani and Salehi, 2010; Malina, Nørreklit and Selto, 2011). Questionnaires, semi structured interviews and focus groups will be used as the mixed methods for the collection of the data. Questionnaire will be used to collect numerical data, in addition it will allow to set variables. An online questionnaire will be created using SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics as this will facilitate the collection and analysis of data. A link with the questionnaire will be sent to participants online so all the data collected can be kept confidential together in one place. Online questionnaires are not expensive and can be sent to a large number of people, and data collection can be quick and non-biased. However, there is a possibility that there are low number of respondents as this is not in control of the researcher (Hair et al., 2007; Waters, 2011).Interview with Primark will be arranged through an email, the purpose of this is tofind out how Primark use social media to promote their brand. Semi structured interviews with the managers will allow the collection of in-depth information which will result in more accurate results and explanation (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2012). Focus group will be used to find out more in-depth information from consumers about how social media influence their purchasing decisions. Participants will be asked if they want to participate in focus groups through a questionnaire, at the end of which there will be a box to tick if they would like to participate in the focus group. Interviews and focus groups will give in depth data. Having the right participants can facilitate the collection of a big amount of data in short time and therefore it is important to know the purpose of the focus group before the interview (Beyea and Nicoll, 2000). Focus groups are time saving and will give clear and direct information. On the flip side, they are not easy to conduct, and the presence of other individuals might influence the participants’ answers (Wilkinson and Kitzinger, 2000; Acocella, 2012).

Data analysis techniques

Questionnaires will be analysed using excel as the data is numerical, and will be presented in charts and diagrams. Excel is reliable and can analyse large amount of data into charts and graphs which can facilitate the understanding and association between variables (Sahay, 2016; Warner and Meehan, 2001). Interviews and focus groups will be analysed using NVivo QSR as it is simple to use, common themes can be identified (Welsh, 2002; Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2011). The research can be managed easily, and large amount of data could be analysed in less time. Codes can be easily added and deleted, and notes can be made. NVivo search facility facilitates the interrogation of data and is reliable. NVivo is expensive, but it is simple to use once the researcher learns how to use the system properly (Dollah, Abduh and Rosmaladewi, 2017).

References

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