Influence of Social Media Marketing

What is the aim of the study

To explore the influence of social media marketing on consumer behaviour in the food and drink industry

What are the objectives of your study?

To investigate how the content posted on social media platforms affects consumer behaviour related to the brand

To establish the effect of incidental exposure to a brand’s information on consumer behaviour regarding that brand

To find out the influence of usage variables (access, length of usage, log-on duration, log-on frequency, and profile update incidence) on consumer behaviour

To explore the effect of demographic variables (age and gender) on consumer behaviour regarding messages posted on social media platforms

What is the rationale

Theoretical Rationale

Over the recent past, social media has changed from a place where friends catch up to a place where organisations market their brands. According to Husain, Ghufran and Chaubey (2016), social media plays a startling role in marketing, which implies that organisations should put more efforts in their social media marketing. On the other hand, Duffett (2017) writes that if approached with a clearly defined strategy, social media marketing promotes brand awareness while influencing consumers to make decisions related to the advertised brands. Social media has become a peer influencer when it comes to marketing: about 71% of consumers are likely to purchase an item based on referrals made on social media (Husain, Ghufran and Chaubey 2016). Additionally, 92% of marketers believe that social media marketing is beneficial for their organisations as it increases the number of potential customers that visit their websites (Husain, Ghufran and Chaubey 2016). Further, research shows that 97% of organisations are using social media marketing but about 85% of these organisations are not sure of the most effective social media marketing tools to drive sales (Husain, Ghufran and Chaubey 2016). With the huge reach of social media by UK residents, it is worthwhile investigating the influence social media marketing would have on consumer behaviour in the food and drink industry. A report by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reveals that in 2018, 90% of the adults in the UK were recent internet users, which was an increase from the previous year record. Of these internet users, 99% were adults aged between 16 to 34 years while 44% were adults aged above 75years. According to (), most of the internet users spend a minimum of two hours every day on the internet. This implies that when an organisation is able to publish its content on social media and update it regularly, there is a higher likelihood for more views and referrals, which would drive sales.

Organisational Rationale

According to Snyder (2013), the top performing firms in the Food and Beverage industry have an integrated active social media presence. Additionally, Poon (2014) write that social media allows firms in the Food and Beverage industry to build up their brands, which drives more sales while offering these firms more ways of understanding customer acquisition and retention. Thus, evidence suggests that the importance of using social media in the Food and Beverage industry is highly relevant. This underscores the need of investigating the role played by social media marketing in influencing consumers in the Food and Beverage industry in the UK.

Perumal, Krisnan and Halim (2017) posit that consumers are looking online to make buying decisions where about 62% of shoppers spend half an hour on internet so as to make informed decisions. This implies that if organisations in the Food and Beverage industry were able to post their information of social media platforms, they are likely to attract more customers to shop at their premises. Thus, it is imperative to conduct a research on the nature of content that organisations should post on social media platforms in order to attract and retain more clients: this is among the objectives of this study.

h4Brief review of relevant literature (Approximately 1500-2000 words) with a minimum of 6 key publications should be cited. (Critically evaluate recent and relevant research that has addressed similar issues to those covered in your objectives)

A study conducted by Duffett (2017) sought to establish the influence of interactive social media marketing communications on teenagers’ affective, cognitive, and behavioural attitude. Through surveying over 13,000 learner aged between 13 and 18 years, the study established that social media marketing has a significant influence on consumer behaviour, which ultimately drives sales. This study also considered some aspects of social media usage such as access, length of usage, log-on frequency, and log-on duration. The findings revealed that social media users that use social media for long time periods displayed the most favourable responses to content advertised over social media platforms. Additionally, the results showed that the participants who frequently logged into social media platforms had a higher rate of responding to social media communications. The research concluded that social media marketing has a significant influence on consumer behaviour. However, the results of this study can only be generalised to teenagers aged between 13 and 18 years. This implies the need for a similar study among adults of various age groups, which is a gap the proposed study seeks to fill. Humphrey, Laverie and Rinaldo (2017) conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of social media advertising and participation by brands through incidental exposure. The study used an experimental approach with controlled image durations that allowed for precise image display times and randomisation of screens. Here, the research participants were categorised into high-involvement and low-involvement product categories. The brand choice exercise was then administered in an on-screen experiment. The findings reveal that incidental exposure affects brand choice but involvement matters. For the low-involvement product categories, the study shows that this type of social media exposure does not have a significant influence on brand choice. On the other hand, the study reveals that for high-involvement product categories, adverts perform better than sponsored story executions while consumer generated brand messages perform better than brand generated messages when it comes to consumers making brand choices. Therefore, the study concludes that firms should increase the rate at which they post promotional messages on social media platforms and should prioritise adverts and consumer generated brands messages over other contents in order to significantly drive sales. Nonetheless, this study is limited in terms of the platform its uses in that it utilises a desktop web environment to draw conclusions. This underscores the need for another study that should test the influence of incidental exposure to a brands message on different social media platforms, which the proposed study seeks to accomplish.

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Kyule (2017) sought to examine the influence of social media on consumer behaviour. In specific, the study sought to establish how social media directly influences consumer behaviour, the social media tool that directly influence consumers into taking buying actions, and how customer target identification promotes sales. The study analysed the views and opinions of 95 respondents that were selected through stratified sampling. The findings reveal that there is not positive correlation between influence of social media on consumer behaviour and the social media channels thought to directly influence consumer behaviour. However, the study revealed that inclusion of the factors that influence consumer behaviour in social media marketing platforms significantly influence purchase decisions. The study findings also indicated there is no clear relationship between social media channels and targeting consumers on social media. Thus, the study recommends once advertisers identify their target population, there should be influencing factors suited to the taste and preferences of this population in order to influence consumer behaviour. Among the influencing factors mentioned in this study is the use of images that appeal to the desires of the target population. Given that images play a very crucial role in driving sales in the food and Beverage industry, there is need for future researchers to investigate the most effective type of content that should be posted on social media platforms in order to influence consumer buying behaviour. This is among the objectives of the proposed study. Ioanăs and Stoica (2014) aspired to establish the influence of social media on consumer behaviour from a quantitative approach. The study sampled the views of 116 respondents based on the channels used as well as demographic information on social media users. The results revealed that most of the consumers who purchase goods online are young people aged between 25 and 29 years. From this finding, the study recommends that firms targeting young consumers could potentially and successfully profile social media users to drive more sales. The study results also indicated that before making purchase decisions, social media users normally inform themselves from forums, company’s websites, peer reviews, and Facebook accounts. This implies that these are among the platform organisations advertising on social media could target in order to influence buying behaviour. The study results also reveal that potential customers normally review the comments made by people that have previously purchased the item they wish to buy. This implies that consumer generated information is very essential when it comes to influencing consumer buying behaviour over the social media. The study concludes that social media has an active role in influencing consumer behaviour but this is dependent on the degree of exposure to messages, their nature, and the social media platforms the message is displayed. From the perspective of this study, the authors focussed on consumers that deliberately interact with online messages about a brand. Thus, it is not evident whether consumers that are incidentally exposed to the same information would take similar actions. The proposed study will investigate the influence of incidental exposure on consumer’s buying behaviour to fill this gap. Continue your exploration of Influence of Social Media Marketing with our related content.

Farook and Abeysekara (2016) focused on the influence of social media marketing on customer engagement. To attain this aim, the study had three objectives that if considered, social media marketers would be able to create brand trust that in turn would influence consumer buying behaviour. First, the study sought to establish the type of posts in terms of content best encourage customer online engagement. Second, the study examined the factors that influence customer online engagement and third, the study focused of the relationship between social media marketing and customer engagement. The findings reveal that most of the social media users enjoy photos and images and therefore, organisations should be sure to use many images of their brands in their advertising messages. The study also identified five factors necessary to encourage customer engagement. These include trust in information, reliability, concern for privacy, social media security, and use of social media. Here, the study concludes that consumers are more willing to interact with an organisation they feel is trustworthy and secure. The study is not clear about the exposure frequency that generates a positive consumer behaviour, which underscores the need for future researcher to look into this perspective. The proposed study will fill this gap. A study conducted by Liu and Lopez (2013) explored the impact of social media exposure on the extent to which customers value a products and are willing to purchase it. The study collected data from 18 carbonated soft drinks brands that were promoted over social media channels for a period of 17 months and above. The study revealed that exposure to social media significantly influences the way consumers value soft drinks and this ultimately affects their buying decisions. In particular, the study reveals that messages about a specific brand increases consumer awareness about the brand, which increases the value the consumer attaches to that brand and willingness to purchase the brand. Additionally, the results reveal that consumers that are exposed to social media are more knowledgeable about products and are more likely to make referrals than consumers that are not exposed to social media. Therefore, the study recommends that organisations should have informative posts of social media sites so that consumers acquire more knowledge about the product. This is was established to increase the value consumers attach to the products as well as their willingness to purchase the products and make referrals. This study only examines the effect of social media exposure on consumer behaviour but does focus on other factors such as demographic characteristics on the consumers and the effect this might have on consumer behaviour. The proposed study will bridge this gap.

Mhlanga and Tichaawa (2017) focused on the influence of social media on consumers’ experiences in restaurants in South Africa. The study hypothesised that most of buyers in restaurants are influenced by what others say about a restaurant and many people would change their mind if other consumers negatively profiles a restaurant they buy their meals. Thus, the study sought to establish the impact of social media marketing on the consumer buying behaviours in restaurants. The study considered various social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Trip Advisor among others. The findings revealed peer interaction on social media channels affects the restaurants consumers purchase their meals and the most influential sites are Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. This is so because many consumers have access to these sites and they regularly share their experiences in a restaurant on these sites, which directly affects how others perceive that specific restaurant. The study also concludes that for restaurants seeking to improve its image, it is advisable to have consumer generated content in that it is more trusted by other consumers that content generated by the restaurants. This implies it is imperative to have testimonials among other content posted on social media platforms by advertising restaurants. This study focuses more on the role of consumers in social media advertising leaving out the role of the restaurant, which underscores the need to examine the role restaurants need to play in order to influence consumer buying behaviour with social media marketing. This will be achieved in the proposed study.

Provide a concise outline of research methodology, including justification for choices. Please ensure each sub section is completed

Research Strategy

The proposed research will take the specific applied approach. According to Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls and Ormston (2013), applied research is an original investigation that is aimed at acquiring knowledge but primarily directed towards a specific practical aim or objective. From this definition, the proposed study qualified to be an applied research because it seeks to examine the influence of social media marketing on consumer buying behaviour in the Food and Beverage industry. This study is not completely new in that there are many researchers that have studied the impact of social media on consumer behaviour in different industries and using other specific objectives. The study therefore reviews some of these existing related studies and identifies a gap to fill. Thus, the study can be said to be a new insight into existing research. The proposed study is both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research is exploratory in nature and is essential in gaining an understanding of underlying opinions, reasons, and motivations (Neuman 2013). On the other hand, quantitative research is used to quantify a problem through generation of numerical data, which helps generalise the study results (Neuman 2013). In the proposed research, the study participants will be given a questionnaire to fill, which will be comprised of open-ended and closed-ended questions. Through the open-ended questions, the researcher will be able to understand the opinions, views, and factors motivating the responses of the respondents and through the close-ended questions, the researcher will be able to quantify the defined variables. The proposed study will adopt the survey method. According to Saris and Gallhofer (2014), in survey research, the researcher selects a sample of respondents from a population and administers a standardised data collection tool to them. The data collection tool can be a questionnaire, face-to-face interview, an online questionnaire, or an online interview that helps the researcher generate information from the respondents. The data collection tool to be used in the proposed study is a questionnaire.

Research Design

Both qualitative and quantitative data will be collected in the proposed study. Qualitative data will be essential in identifying the reasons, views, and the factors that motivate social media users to purchase brands as influenced by the content they view on social media platforms. On the other hand, quantitative data will be essential in coming up with numeric data that will help draw conclusions concerning the identified factors and opinions. This will also help establish the extent to which the study findings will be generalizable. Data will be collected through the use of questionnaires. The researcher will design a questionnaire comprised of open and close-ended questions. A sample population will then be selected and each of the respondents (upon consent) given the questionnaire to fill. After completion, the filled questionnaires will be submitted to the researcher for analysis. The data will be collected from 19 to 22 August after the proposal has been approved and permission to collect data from the identified organisation sought. The researcher aspires to collect data from one of the organisations in the Food and Beverage industry. The most preferable organisation is McDonalds. The researcher will first inform the management of this organisation of the desire to conduct the study in this hotel as well as the aims of the study. Upon approval, the researcher will at random select the study participants from the customers the hotel serves. With a sample size of 120, the researcher will for four days visit thee hotel and at random select participants. First, the researcher will communicate the aims of the study and then request the identified persons to be part of the study. To those that consent, two options will be available. First, to complete a hand copy of the questionnaire while at the restaurant or two, to complete a soft copy of the questionnaire away from the restaurant. For those that will prefer the second option, the researcher will collect contact details and email them the questionnaire and the timeline for which the completed questionnaire should be submitted for analysis.

References

Duffett, R.G. 2017, "Influence of social media marketing communications on young consumers' attitudes", Young Consumers, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 19-39.

Farook, F.S. and Abeysekara, N., 2016. Influence of Social Media Marketing on Customer Engagement. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 5, pp.115-125.

Humphrey Jr, W.,F., Laverie, D.A. & Rinaldo, S.B. 2017, "Brand choice via incidental social media exposure", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 110-130.

Kyule, M.M., 2017. The Influence of Social Media Marketing On Consumer Behaviour: A Case of Britam Holdings Limited(Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).

Mhlanga, O. and Tichaawa, T.M., 2017. Influence of social media on customer experiences in restaurants: A South African study. Turizam: međunarodni znanstveno-stručni časopis, 65(1), pp.45-60.

Neuman, W.L., 2013. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Pearson education.

Perumal, I., Krisnan, U.D. and Halim, N.S.B.A., 2017. Social Media in Food and Beverages Industry: Case of Klang Valley, Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Management, 12(6), p.121.

Poon, S.T., 2014. Designers’ Role In Marketing Lifestyle Brands To The Shopping Culture Generation. In International Conference on Innovation Challenges in Multidisciplinary Research & Practice (Vol. 1, pp. 71-88).

Saris, W.E. and Gallhofer, I.N., 2014. Design, evaluation, and analysis of questionnaires for survey research. John Wiley & Sons.

Snyder, D. (2013). Social Media in the Food and Beverage Industry. Green Hasson Janks & Food Digest, 1-3.