Research Methods

Research Area: - Social Media Marketing

1.Research Title:Effects of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behaviour and its implications for
Marketing Strategies

1.1Background:Technology has huge impact on human life.

Although humans have been bit slow in

accepting technological products such as Tv, Radio, and telephone etc as it took long time to
become product of day today use. Humans who are used to live without these products soon
became used to these new products and now no one can imagine their life without these
products. The invention of PC especially internet had huge impact on human lives. On one
side it changed the way of doing business on the other hand it changed the way we think and
spend our lives. (Micheal,2012) .It gave consumers ability to access all kind of information
quickly and easily. That made consumer much more knowledgeable and aware. Todays
consumer is much more smart and understands whats in their best interest. Humans started
to spend more and more time on internet to search for information or communication with
others. A new type of media names as Social media emerged on internet in order to facilitate
people to interact and communicate with each other. This social media empowered users to
connect with millions of social media users online with potential to exchange information
with very large audience very quickly and easily. Few years back no one knew facebook,
twitter and linkedin but todays its part of everyday life of so many people. According to
Brian(2010 ) Internet user are spending more time on facebook and other social networking
websites means that people has more chances or interaction and communications through
social networking website as compare to face to face. This interaction may also include
discussion about choices of products and latest trends that are emerging. (Coskun,
2012).Furthermore social networking may also trigger kind of non verbal communication by
delivering the message/information to other users about new products. It doesnt necessary
that the exchange of information occurs while communicating to each other but the
information can spread by many other means like likes and comments on certain products
may become visible to other and can catch the interest of other people connected with that
user. This phenomena causes spread of information through out the network. Many
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businesses around the world are trying utilize this potential of social media in the interest of
their businesses. Furthermore consumers are using social media to search for products as
well. In many causes the behaviour of other user becomes influential for many others, even
though those consumers might not be actively looking for that information. (Angliene,2012)
Advertising on TV, Newspapers and billboards has been considered as an effective tool to
attract customers since long. however more and more products and their advertising has
confused customers that they feel they feel either the advertising is misleading or not
credible. Consumers take different measures in order to minimize their purchase risk. These
measures include discussion with friends about choice of products and companies.
(Erick,2012). Many consumer recommend same products they use to their family and friends
and it creates sense of confidence in consumers. This phenomena acts differently in social
media environment where consumers are connected with large number of people where
interaction is easily and quick. On the other hand consumers can get access to information
they need. Although many businesses are increasing their spending on social media but it
doesnt necessary means they will successfully influence the consumers decision about
making purchase. ( Miheal,2012).Therefore it is necessary to study consumers behaviour in
context of social media and way its affecting marketing strategies.

Although trend

businesses has increased their spending on social media marketing but business still lack
effective social media strategies in order to fully utilize the potential of social media. Social
media has not only created opportunity for businesses to target global consumers but also
posed challenge to be comparative with comparators in social media as well. Consumers are
increasingly looking for easier way to interact with companies and buy their products
through social media therefore there is huge need to develop such marketing strategies that
can influence more and more customers.(Coskun,2012)
Many companies are still not taking social media seriously as According to Greg (2012 )
Social Media affected

at least 22% purchase decisions in Germany in 2012 but the

businesses spending on social media were just 12% of total advertising budget. On the other
hand huge budget 82% was spent on advertisement through TV, that resulted in influencing
just 16% of total purchase decisions in Germany.
This shows that traditional ways of advertising are not able to influence consumer buying
decision despite lot of budget spending. Therefore budget spent on advertising on traditional
media such as TV. Newspapers etc are becoming less effective while social media is becoming
more important and more influential for people. So Traditional marketing is dieing gradually
its becoming in affective many surveys indicate the social media marketing as decisive factor
in attracting customers as marketing watch survey revels 91% customers searched

information on internet and showed their interest in exploring more about products n social
media.(Chistiane,2013)

1.2Research Question:How Social media influences consumer buying behaviour and what are its implications for
marketing strategies?

1.3Research Objectives:(I)
(II)

To explore the process of consumer buying decisions in context of social media

To identify different factors affecting consumer buying decisions in social media

(III)

environment.
To discuss implications of social media for marketing strategies.

1.4Rational Of Research:Personal: -

The Authors personal interest in the research area is major reason behind

selection of this topic. It is the fact Social media is merging quickly and author has witnessed
many businesses who successfully attracted number of customers. It is very interesting to see
how social media has changed consumers way of buying a products and the way it affects the
businesses.
Business:- The research has significant importance for businesses as Social media is
relatively new while it has created huge impact on consumers as consumers are increasing to
Turing to making purchase decision through social media. Therefore there is huge potential
for businesses to attract global consumers with out much costs. There is huge opportunity for
business to expand customer base without boundaries. However Effective social media
strategies and social media marketing plan is essential for this purpose and this research will
reveals important insight about consumers behaviour on social media that will be helpful for
business in adopting suitable marketing strategies.
Academics: - The proposed research area is relatively new. Therefore it will result in

important contribution academically. This research might also be very helpful for students
researching on similar topics. Furthermore this research will result in providing important
insight about consumers buying behaviour online that will be important contribution to the
knowledge.

2.0 Literature Review:Human behaviour highly depends on their needs and personality treats. Different peoples
have different needs and choices according to their knowledge and perception about needs
however most common human needs like need of food, and security are common among
them. Human behaviour differs when it come to buying the products as buying a products
may depends on customers need reorganization, social status and pervious experiences .
(Olenski 2012).Different consumer might have different patterns and choices of products
therefore many companies try to influence consumer in order to attract them. The biggest
tool of influencing consumers is advertising. The availability of information and
reorganization of personal needs such as need of products might trigger a response in
consumer to become active in order to full fill that need or desire.(Pride2013)

The process of consumer buying starts from activities that starts before purchasing a
product and the process ends with after purchase experience. Consumers pass
through different stages like pre purchase, search of information, search of
alternatives, actual purchase, disposing off product after use and post purchase
evaluation. This cycle goes and goes on while consumer make any purchase
decisions. The process discussed above is traditional consumer buying process
however in social media this process works in bit different ways and the process is
triggered due to different factors.(Shive & Stephone,2012)
In todays world social media and internet has taken central stage in consumer
decision making process. It is important to note that there is abundance of
advertisement and information around the customers. Actually there is race of
getting ahead from their competitive by sending more and more information on
consumers however these traditional ways of advertising are becoming less effective
now things are changing quickly with emergence of social media. Companies are
need to do much more efforts than just to through information as consumers now
search more information and like to discuss their ideas and purchase decisions with
other customers and buyers. (Erick,2012) .This ability of consumers to interact with
other consumer through social media has posed another challenge for organization.
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Now organization needs to take more care of customer satisfaction then ever before
as one unsatisfied customer on social media might be very damaging for business.
Social medias ability to broadcast message with limitless boundaries has benefits as
well as challenges for businesses around the world. The flow and exchange of
information plays an impotent role in influencing consumers. The information
exchange in social media occurs in much bigger and in excess that many organization
fear about having no control over information transmitting throughout the social
media .(Menthule,2012). The information on social media can be misinterpreted,
misleading and wrong however generally consumers are the entities who also try to
figure out the misleading and wrong information. This exchange of information can
impacts on complete consumer decision making process from pre purchase activities
that starts where consume search for information however its pretty much different
form traditional consumer buying process as its doesnt necessarily starts with
customers own initiative .(Pride,2013). Many times the process triggers from
product information shared by other people on social media website. Some consumer
might click like button on any product information that might become visible to
other people as well so this information can travel through out social media very
quickly

and

result

in

getting

attention

so

many

people.

(Neil

&

Ruth,2010).Therefore it can be said that in social media environment a consumer

who is already influenced from a product and going through decision making process
can also influence many other people. His comments on social media platform visible
to many other people or his just exchange of information might come source of
influence may other users on internet. It is human nature that human feels more
confidence if they see other buying product.(Olenski,2013). It creates sense of
confidence decreases purchase risk perception in their mind. That might eventually
results in making a purchase. It can be said that other customers, friends and family
plays a role of opinion leaders on social media. the cycle of purchase involves
information exchange and opinion of others rather than just information search in
social media environment. ( Erick,2012)
(i)During product buying decision on social media the social media plays an
important role in triggering the process as result of information exchange and
providing the needed support in favour of hat decision from other customers (Neil &
Ruth,2010).

(ii) The feedback of pervious customers can help crating another groups of new
costumers due to positive reviews and feedback that results in triggering the
purchase process from second stage.
2.1

Conceptual Framework

Research Objectives &

Questions

Literature Reviews

Relevance

To Explore Consumer buying

process in context of Social
Media

Menthule (2013)

Explanation of different stages

of consumer buying process
and how social media has
affected this process

To Identify different factors

affecting consumer buying
decisions in context of Social
media

Menthule(2013)

Explanation different factors

that are involved in affecting
consumer decision making
process , role of information
exchange and word of mouth in
consumer decision process

To analyse implications of
social media for marketing
strategies

Neil & Ruth(2010)

Explanation of challenges and

opportunities for businesses
and marketing due to social
media.

How social media can be

used in best interest of
business keeping in view
consumer buying behaviour.

Shive and Stephine(2012)

Explanation of potential
benefits social media marketing
and selling products through
social media.

What are the impacts of

social media marketing on
consumers buying
behaviour.

Erick(2012)

Pride(2013)

Neil & Ruth( 2010)

Explanation of how social

media has changing consumer
buying behaviour.

3.0Research Methods:This section explains research strategies and methods that will be adopted in order to
conduct this research. Researcher has attempted to explore different choices of research
methodologies and selected suitable research methodologies for purposed research and also
discussed justification of research choices.
3.1Research Philosophy and Justification:
It is very important for researcher to identify suitable research philosophy in accordance
with research question and objectives as it helps research process by identifying research
biases. It is very important to understand difference between perception, assumption, reality
and truth as it can affect research process. It enables researcher to visualize research from
different perspectives. The understanding of different perspectives is very important in
research. (Saunders et al,2012)
Although research philosophical choices can be explained in details researcher believes that
following two research philosophies are more relevant to proposed research. Optimistic or
positivistic research philosophy that is based on objectivity and assumption that
generalization population can be made on the basis of collected data. (Gill & Phill,2010)
On the other hand phenomenological philosophical deals with study of phenomena in
natural setting and it believes that and generalization is not always possible as different
people encounter different realities and result in different expressions and views therefore
there are chances of people interpreting reality in different ways.(Norman,2009) Therefore it
can be said phenomena can be interpreted in many different ways and this interpretations
depends on different situations and problems faced by individuals. By discussion both of
these philosophies its clear that it is not always possible to conduct research with out
generalization of data and researcher needs to flexible in this regards. According to Saunders
,et al (2012 ) business research in management sciences can be mixture of two different
philosophies there fore researcher believes this particular research has elements of
positivistic/optimistic as well as phenomenal research at same time. However phenomenal
research philosophy is more related to this research as this research is based on answering
research question based on answers and views of customers and marketing manager.
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3.2Research Approach and Justification:There can two type of research approaches inductive and deductive. Inductive research
approach. Choice of research approach can affect the efficiency of research approach. Both
deductive and inductive research approaches are opposite to research approach. (Alan &
Emma,2007) .Deductive research approach is type of approach where research develops
hypothesis on the basis of existing knowledge and theories these hypothesis are then tested.
While on the other hand inductive research approach is type of research that can be initiated
with simple observation while theories can be developed at the end of research process.
However inductive research approach provides researcher with flexibility to alter the
research in accordance with situation. This proposed research study will be based on
research objectives where researcher will not be rejecting or accepting any hypothesis.
Therefore suitable research approach for this study is inductive research approach.

3.3Research types, Strategy and its Justification:Identification of suitable research strategy at start of research process helps researcher to
procedure with systematic approach towards end of research process. According to Saunders
research strategy can be identified from research questions and objectives as well. There are
many different research strategy like exploratory research, explanatory research, descriptive
research, case study, Survey, Action research, Archival research, and Experiment etc.
(Saunders et al,2012). Exploratory research deals with exploration of some phenomena while
explanatory research is conducted in order to explain some theories, events and facts.
Descriptive research is meant to describe some events. Case study is study related to incident
or event related to specific company or group of people.(John,2012) Survey research is based
on exploring some facts through conducting surveys, experiment are relate to scientific
elements that are conducted in order approve or disapprove some scientific theorise.
Research believe that the proposed research is exploratory research as it will explore the
consumer behaviour in social media environment. Furthermore it will use survey method as
research strategy that will help in exploring the issue in accordance with research question
and objectives.

3.4Research Choices:8

Researchers can choose suitable research methods and choices. According to Saunders ,et al
(2012 )researcher can choose from Mono , Mixed methods and multi methods. Mono
method is research based on single method of research while mixed method research choice
is based on combination of tow types of research choice like mix of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. The proposed research will use mixed methods as research
will be based on quantitative and qualitative research(John,2012). In order to conduct this
research there is need of two types of data that is primary data and secondary data. The
primary data will be collected by researcher through survey based questionnaire. This
questionnaire will be filled by consumers online. The data collected through survey
questionnaires will be analysed in order to drive the results therefore it will be quantitative
data. Another form of primary data will be collected through interview with marketing
manager of

(Daraz.pk). The primary data will help answering research questions. The

secondary data will also be required in order to form conceptual basis of this research. This
secondary data will be collected from different sources where other authors have discussed
similar topics. This secondary data will help in understanding the research area.

3.5Data Collection Methods:The proposed study will require researcher to collect two types of data quantitative and
qualitative data. The quantitative data will be collected by researcher through survey
questionnaire. This questionnaire will collect required information from customers about
their behaviour and choices of purchase on social media. the questionnaire will be hosted on
surveymonkey.com and the links of this survey will be posted on Daraz.pk`s facebook page.
The researcher has also decided to post these survey links to other facebook pages from
different businesses that advertise and sell their products through social media. A small gift
will offered to customers who successfully completes this survey. Researcher believes it is
necessary to attract consumers to fill questionnaires by offering them some reward.
Researcher will be conducting pilot research through questionnaire in first week of research
process. This pilot research will help understating issues and problems related to research
process furthermore it is also important to conduct pilot research to ensure the
questionnaire is good enough to achieve it purpose. Researcher has also decided to conduct a
structured interview from marketing Manager at Daraz.pk . this interview will conducted
through email or phone. Researcher has already contacted with marketing manager at
daraz.pk and he showed his willingness in this regards. Furthermore researcher has also
contacted with Gap UK, and Next UK in order to include them in this research. Researcher is
hopeful he will be able to include more companies in this research. The questionnaires for
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quantitative and qualitative data collection will be based on conceptual framework that will
be developed through literature review. The questionnaire will be developed keeping in view
research questions/objectives and exiting theories related to consumer behaviour and social
media marketing. This research will use combination of both qualitative and quantitative
data collection.

3.6Research Data Sources:As discussed earlier there will be two types of data that will be required for this research that
is Secondary data that will form conceptual basis of this research. the secondary data will be
mainly used in Literature review and data analysis parts . The Secondary data will be
collected from multiple different sources like Books, Journals, research articles, and
websites. Most of data will be searched from internet through search engine with help of
different search strings. Search Engines like Google scholar and ask.com will be used for
this purpose. Furthermore Anglina Ruskin`s digital library (http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/)
will be accesses to search books related to research area. Primary data will be collected by
researcher himself through survey.

3.7Sampling Method & Size and Justification:It is not possible to include whole population i.e. ( all social media users) in this research.
However researcher has decided to include the consumers who are subscribed to different
products and business and has already shown their interest in buying the products.(Gill &
Phill,2010) Keeping in view research aims and objective researcher has chosen non
probability sampling method as sampling will be based on this research will be purposive
sampling technique.
In order to generalize the findings the researcher will use non probability sampling. The
researcher believes that 150 samples will be reasonable in order to generalize the finings.
However researcher has decided to take 50 samples from daraz,pk and remaining 100
samples will be collected from other retailers selling and advertising their products on social
media. It will help include samples from customers of different products and different
geographical locations.

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3.8Data Analysis Methods:As this study is mainly based on primary data therefore this primary data will help answering
the research question. Therefore data analysis will be an important step in turning collected
data in meaningful and understandable form (Alan & Emma,2007). The quantitative data
collected through survey questionnaire will be analysed through automated software like
SPSS. This software will help researcher in data analysis. The results of data collection will
be presented in the graphical form with help of MS office 2007.

3.9 Ethical Issues:Ethics ,rules and regulations are very important for a civilized society. As social research
might involves different methods that might raise some ethical and legal issues therefore it is
very important for researcher to careful about ethical and legal issues that may raise the
concerns of companies/individuals involve in the research. (Bryman 2007)Researcher has
already submitted complete Anglina Ruskin university`s ethics check list and ensured that
this research doesnt compromise any rules and regulations. However researcher has also
considered other ethical issues as well. A formal permission has already been taken from
daraz.pk to conduct the research. The questionnaire links will be posted with prior consent
facebook Page Admins. Furthermore the data provided by customers included personal
information will not be disclosed to any one.

3.10 Research Credibility/ Validity Issues:it is very important to ensure credibility and validity of research. The credibility and validity
of research can be ensured by following systematic research approach. Therefore researcher
will ensure to strictly follow previously discussed research methodologies. Although
Researchers personal choices, likes and dislike might have an impact on research process
however strict control over research process decreases the risk of personal influences on
research process and design.

4.0 Resources and Budget Requirements:11

Researcher believes that there no special requirements or resources are required to conduct
this research. Most of the items required for this research are easily available. The most
important resources for this research are Computer and Internet. Furthermore researcher
already has MS office installed in computer. SPSS software will also required for the purpose
of data analysis where trail version of SPSS software package will be installed in order to
complete the tasks. Furthermore Researcher will be offering free gifts for the questionnaire
respondents that will require some extra budget. Researcher is currently discussing gift
offers like t shirts with the help of daraz.pk and plans to finalize it with in next week time.
Researcher believes total budget of 400 should be enough to complete the task.

4.1Time Table/ Gantt Chart:It is very important to manage available time in effective way on order to complete the
research work. A time table or Gantt chart with identification of tasks to be completed with
allocation suitable time can help researcher in completing research process with in time.
Researcher has divided different tasks in different weeks and believe this research will be
completed in 8-9 weeks time. However researcher has kept 2 weeks as reserve week that will
be used in case of some un expected events. Researcher has kept two weeks for bigger tasks
like literature review and data collection and analysis where questionnaire responses are
required and has potential to delay research process in case respondents doesnt respond the
research question with in given time.

Tasks

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Problem
Statement
Research Obj/ Quest
Literature
Review/Pilot
Study
Research Methods
Data
Collection/Surveys/interview
s
Data Analysis
Thesis Writing
Conclusions
Recheck/Review

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Reserve Week

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