INTRODUCTION

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing
strategies by understanding issues such as how:

The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between
different alternatives (e.g., brands, products, and retailers);

The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her environment

(e.g., culture, family, signs, media);

The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing

decisions;

Limitations in consumer knowledge or information processing abilities

influence decisions and marketing outcome;

How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that
differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer;
and

How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and
marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

One "official" definition of consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or

organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of
products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these
processes have on the consumer and society." Although it is not necessary to
memorize this definition, it brings up some useful points:

Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g.,
friends influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization
(people on the job make decisions as to which products the firm should use).

Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the
study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the
marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how
we can encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental
problems result from product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage
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systems to save the recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also
an area of interest.

Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.

The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For example,

aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy credit,
may have serious repercussions for the national health and economy.

There are four main applications of consumer behavior:

The most obvious is for marketing strategyi.e., for making better marketing
campaigns. For example, by understanding that consumers are more receptive
to food advertising when they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack
advertisements late in the afternoon. By understanding that new products are
usually initially adopted by a few consumers and only spread later, and then
only gradually, to the rest of the population, we learn that (1) companies that
introduce new products must be well financed so that they can stay afloat until
their products become a commercial success and (2) it is important to please
initial customers, since they will in turn influence many subsequent customers
brand choices.

A second application is public policy. In the 1980s, Acutance, a near miracle

cure for acne, was introduced. Unfortunately, Acutance resulted in severe birth
defects if taken by pregnant women. Although physicians were instructed to
warn their female patients of this, a number still became pregnant while taking
the drug. To get consumers attention, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA)
took the step of requiring that very graphic pictures of deformed babies be
shown on the medicine containers.

Social marketing involves getting ideas across to consumers rather than selling
something. Marty Fishbein, a marketing professor, went on sabbatical to work
for the Centers for Disease Control trying to reduce the incidence of
transmission of diseases through illegal drug use. The best solution, obviously,
would be if we could get illegal drug users to stop. This, however, was deemed
to be infeasible. It was also determined that the practice of sharing needles was
too ingrained in the drug culture to be stopped. As a result, using knowledge of
consumer attitudes, Dr. Fishbein created a campaign that encouraged the

cleaning of needles in bleach before sharing them, a goal that was believed to
be more realistic.

As a final benefit, studying consumer behavior should make us better

consumers. Common sense suggests, for example, that if you buy a 64 liquid
ounce bottle of laundry detergent, you should pay less per ounce than if you
bought two 32 ounce bottles. In practice, however, you often pay a size
premium by buying the larger quantity. In other words, in this case, knowing
this fact will sensitize you to the need to check the unit cost labels to
determine if you are really getting a bargain.

There are several units in the market that can be analyzed. Our main thrust in this
course is the consumer. However, we will also need to analyze our own firms
strengths and weaknesses and those of competing firms. Suppose, for example, that
we make a product aimed at older consumers, a growing segment. A competing firm
that targets babies, a shrinking market, is likely to consider repositioning toward our
market. To assess a competing firms potential threat, we need to examine its assets
(e.g., technology, patents, market knowledge, and awareness of its brands) against
pressures it faces from the market. Finally, we need to assess conditions (the
marketing environment). For example, although we may have developed a product
that offers great appeal for consumers, a recession may cut demand dramatically.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

DEFINITION:
The term consumer Behavior can be defined as the behavior of consumers display in
searching for purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products services idea
which they expect will satisfy their needs, want and demand. In other words we can
say that the behavior of customer are affected and influence by money, time and effort
for the maximum satisfaction.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR MODEL

FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Factor effecting Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior refers to the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and
services for the satisfaction of their wants. There are different processes involved in
the consumer behavior. Initially the consumer tries to find what commodities he
would like to consume, then he selects only those commodities that promise greater
utility. After selecting the commodities, the consumer makes an estimate of the
available money which he can spend. Meanwhile, there are various other factors
influencing the purchases of consumer such as social, cultural, personal and
psychological. The explanation of these factors is given below.
1. Cultural Factors: Consumer behavior is deeply influenced by cultural factors such
as: buyer culture, subculture, and social class.
a) Culture: Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important
cause of person wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying
behavior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very
careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries.
b) Subculture: Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions,
nationalities, geographic regions, racial groups etc. Marketers can use these
groups by segmenting the market into various small portions. For example
marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular
geographic group.
c) Social Class: Every society possesses some form of social class which is
important to the marketers because the buying behavior of people in a given
social class is similar. In this way marketing activities could be tailored
according to different social classes. Here we should note that social class is
not only determined by income but there are various other factors as well such
as: wealth, education, occupation etc.
2. Social Factors: Social factors also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The
important social factors are: reference groups, family, role and status.
a) Reference Groups: Reference groups have potential in forming a person
attitude or behavior. The impact of reference groups varies across products and

brands. For example if the product is visible such as dress, shoes, car etc then
the influence of reference groups will be high. Reference groups also include
opinion leader (a person who influences other because of his special skill,
knowledge or other characteristics).
b) Family: Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family.
Therefore marketers are trying to find the roles and influence of the husband,
wife and children. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced
by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement.
Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer
lifestyles.
c) Roles and Status: Each person possesses different roles and status in the
society depending upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which
he belongs. For example a woman is working in an organization as finance
manager. Now she is playing two roles, one of finance manager and other of
mother. Therefore her buying decisions will be influenced by her role and
status.
3. Personal Factors: Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of
the important personal factors that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle,
economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self concept.
a) Age: Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying
behavior. It is obvious that the consumers change the purchase of goods and
services with the passage of time. Family life-cycle consists of different stages
such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples etc which help
marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage.
b) Occupation: The occupation of a person has significant impact on his
buying behavior. For example a marketing manager of an organization will try
to purchase business suits, whereas a low level worker in the same
organization will purchase rugged work clothes.

c) Economic Situation: Consumer economic situation has great influence on

his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he
will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low
income and savings will purchase inexpensive products.
d) Lifestyle: Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the
consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a
society and is expressed by the things in his/her surroundings. It is determined
by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole pattern of
acting and interacting in the world.
e) Personality: Personality changes from person to person, time to time and
place to place. Therefore it can greatly influence the buying behavior of
customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears; rather it is the totality
of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different characteristics
such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc which can be useful to
determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service.
4. Psychological Factors: There are four important psychological factors affecting the
consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and
attitudes.
a) Motivation: The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of
customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs,
biological needs, social needs etc. The nature of the needs is that, some of
them are most pressing while others are least pressing. Therefore a need
becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the person to seek
satisfaction.
b) Perception: Selecting, organizing and interpreting information in a way to
produce a meaningful experience of the world is called perception. There are
three different perceptual processes which are selective attention, selective
distortion and selective retention. In case of selective attention, marketers try
to attract the customer attention. Whereas, in case of selective distortion,
customers try to interpret the information in a way that will support what the
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customers already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers

try to retain information that supports their beliefs.
c) Beliefs and Attitudes: Customer possesses specific belief and attitude
towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand
image and affect consumer buying behavior therefore marketers are interested
in them. Marketers can change the beliefs and attitudes of customers by
launching special campaigns in this regard.

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INTERNET
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the
standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a
network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business,
and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of
electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an
extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked
hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW), the infrastructure to support
email, and peer-to-peer networks.
Most traditional communications media including telephone, music, film, and
television are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services
such as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol television (IPTV).
Newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or
are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The Internet has enabled and accelerated
new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and
social networking. Online shopping has boomed both for major retail outlets and
small artisans and traders. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet
affect supply chains across entire industries.
The origins of the Internet reach back to research commissioned by the United States
government in the 1960s to build robust, fault-tolerant communication via computer
networks. While this work, together with work in the United Kingdom and France, led
to important precursor networks, they were not the Internet. There is no consensus on
the exact date when the modern Internet came into being, but sometime in the early to
mid-1980s is considered reasonable.
The funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation in the
1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial backbones, led to worldwide
participation in the development of new networking technologies, and the merger of
many networks. Though the Internet has been widely used by academia since the
1980s, the commercialization of what was by the 1990s an international network
resulted in its popularization and incorporation into virtually every aspect of modern
human life. As of June 2012, more than 2.4 billion peopleover a third of the world's
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human populationhave used the services of the Internet; approximately 100 times
more people than were using it in 1995.Internet use grew rapidly in the West from the
mid-1990s to early 2000s and from the late 1990s to present in the developing world.
In 1994 only 3% of American classrooms had the Internet while by 2002 92% did.
The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or
policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own policies. Only the
overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet
Protocol address space and the Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer
organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6)
is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization
of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by
contributing technical expertise.

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SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural
communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking
is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is
most popular online. This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or
workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet
other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about
cooking, golfing, gardening, developing friendships or professional alliances, finding
employment, business-to-business marketing and even groups sharing information
about the end of the Mayan calendar and the Great Shift to arrive December 21-2012.
The topics and interests are as varied and rich as the story of our world.
When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These
websites are known as social sites. Social networking websites function like an online
community of internet users. Depending on the website in question, many of these
online community members share common interests in hobbies, religion, or politics.
Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can begin to
socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of other members
and possibly even contacting them.
The friends that you can make are just one of the many benefits to social networking
online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives
individuals from all around the world access to social networking sites. This means
that although you are in the United States, you could develop an online friendship
with someone in Denmark or India. Not only will you make new friends, but you just
might learn a thing or two about new cultures or new languages and learning is
always a good thing.
As mentioned, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or
organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that
focus on particular interests, there are others that do not. The websites without a main
focus are often referred to as "traditional" social networking websites and usually
have open memberships. This means that anyone can become a member, no matter
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what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online
community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate
members that do not share common interests or goals.
As I'm sure you're aware, there are dangers associated with social networking
including data theft and viruses, which are on the rise. The most prevalent danger
though often involves online predators or individuals who claim to be someone that
they are not. Although danger does exist with networking online, it also exists in the
real world, too. Just like you're advised when meeting strangers at clubs and bars,
school, or work -- you are also advised to proceed with caution online.
By being aware of your cyber-surroundings and who you are talking to, you should be
able to safely enjoy social networking online. It will take many phone conversations
to get to know someone, but you really won't be able to make a clear judgment until
you can meet each other in person. Just use common sense and listen to your inner
voice; it will tell you when something doesn't feel right about the online conversations
taking place.

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SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

A social network service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on
building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who
share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a
representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of
additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means
for users to interact over the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Although
online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service. In a
broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service
whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow
users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.
The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places
(such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually
with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular
methods now combine many of these, with Facebook and Twitter widely used
worldwide; MySpace and LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America;
Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), StudiVZ
(mostly in Germany), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in Spain), NaszaKlasa (mostly in Poland), Decayenne, Tagged, XING, Badoo and Skyrock in parts of
Europe; Hi5 in South America, India and Central America; and Friendster, Mixi,
Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, renren and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands and
Twitter, Orkut and Facebook in India.
There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate
entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source
Initiative).
Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion of digitizing
real world connections, many networks focus on categories from books and music to
non-profit business to motherhood as ways to provide both services and community to
individuals with shared interests.

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TYPE OF SITES
1) A categorization based on content
Web sites, like other "worldly" things, can be classified into various
categories. This page has a list of the different types of web sites based on the
content and features offered. However, content can be varied, and with this in
mind, I have tried to make segregation as intuitive as possible. Please note that
these categories of the web sites are not distinct and can overlap... sometimes
to a large degree.
2) Search engine, directories, yellow pages and portals
These are some of the most popular types of web sites in the world. Some
search engine companies, like Google or Gigablast, prefer to keep their
homepage simple and stress on only one service, while Yahoo! and MSN have
a more "portal" like look via which many services are pushed to the surfer like
email, news etc.
The portal look provides a broader platform for the company to promote their
different services but it also fragments the visitors.
Classified directories and yellow pages web sites list businesses (both online
and offline) segregated into different categories or geographic locations. These
may also include an internal search engine that helps users quickly locate
information.
3) Information web sites
These are the types of web sites are dedicated to the purpose of providing
information - whether free or paid. These information web sites might be
catering to a niche industry or be wider in their scope because of which they
can be labeled as "news portals". Information web site can also contain
updated time tables, TV guides, reference material, sports data (like cricket
scores), weather and stock data.

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4) Personal web sites

With tons of tools and services available, creating a web site is no longer
"rocket science" (actually, it never was; but for some...). The astronomical
number of personal web sites one finds on the web is mind-blowing! Personal
web sites and blogs would probably be the fastest growing types of web site.
Personal web sites can contain any kind of information and are usually
administered by a single individual who can choose whatever to put online.
Anyone can now create a web site using online free hosting accounts that
might also offer pre-made templates that are like ready-to-go web sites, or
with free and commercial versions of WYSIWYG HTML editors like
Frontpage, DreamWeaver etc.
5) Blogs and online diaries
Blogs are like online diaries (the irony is, though you keep your hardcopy
diary under lock-and-key, you want more and more visitors to read the online
one). Blogs can be created by anyone using free services like Blogger.com
(Google) or Windows Live Spaces (Microsoft). You can also install blog
software, like the free WordPress on your pre-existing web site and start
putting your thoughts online in a matter of minutes!
Because blogs are so easy to create, manage and even earn from (there are a
lot of profitable blogs online, if you didn't know), the web has increased
manifold. And it's all thanks to the many free blog services and a strong
enthusiasm by the ever growing blogging community who keep maintaining
and updating their web space regularly.
From ramblings of a wandering mind to detailed and specific information on
technical fields, the content of blog types of web site can vary widely.
6) Company web sites
Most company web sites have just a few pages of information on the business,
its services and clients. These are more like "online brochures"

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7) Forums
Forum types of web sites serve as platforms and promote interactions amongst
the users. Unless specifically blocked and requiring a special invitation, you
can join any forum on the web. Most forums cater to a specific industry or a
field. So, for example, you will find forums on web design and development,
banking and finance, biotechnology... I even came across one to help people
share their phobia of butterflies (take a look at IHateButterflies.com - yes, I
am mortally scared of butterflies and moths.
Forums on web sites, typically, contain categories that further narrow down
the subject. Registered users can post questions or start a topic which other
users can reply or add to. A lot of valuable information and knowledge exists
in online forums and I urge you to join and actively participate in online
discussions with people that share the same interests.
Ready-to-use free software such as phpBB or SMF help you set up a forum
web site in a matter of minutes. If you already have a web site, check with the
hosting company; they would probably provide such forum software for free
which you can install via the control panel.
8) Online shops and auctions web sites
Though the web is primarily used for communication (email!) and information
search, many companies have set up shops online. In fact, some companies
like the popular Amazon don't have brick-and-mortar shops - the entire buying
and selling takes place online. Online shops are not restricted to selling
tangible products; they can also provide services and a good example of this
would be travel and matrimony web sites.
If you are planning to sell your products (or services) online the tons of free
and commercial ecommerce software, make will get you up and running in no
time. Furthermore, you can integrate payment gateways, like Paypal.com and
moneybookers.com, in your online shopping mall and process the orders and
receive funds.

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9) Web2.0 web sites

Web 2.0 is an amorphous concept and primarily encompasses web sites that
offer a particular service. The purpose of these web sites can be varied information storage, communication etc. Sites like Flickr.com, Google docs,
del.icio.us fall into this category.
10) Social networking
The new mantra on the web is social networking. These web sites can be
classified as Web 2.0 sites but their sheer number and popular demands we
have a separate category. Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter have been the
rage past couple of years. From helping you locate schoolmates and past
colleagues to "microblogging" (whatever that means), these web sites have a
whole array of utilities and features with more being "invented" and added
each day.
Dating web sites have grown over the years and now offer services quite
similar to those of social networking (the idea is basically the same) hence
they are a good fit in this category.
11) File sharing type of web sites
As internet speeds have increased and more and more people are using
broadband connections, the importance of file sharing types of web sites has
grown. Megaupload,com and RapidShare.com are two prime examples of such
kind of web sites. You can not only find images, but also music (sometimes
even full albums) and video (entire movies). These web sites offer both free
and paid memberships - the former is usually a cut down version of the latter.
However, because of the huge number of files stored on these sites, it is almost
impossible to find the file you are looking for unless you know the direct link.
Web sites like loadingvault.com provide a decent enough search engine that
helps you locate files based on your query.

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DIFFERENT TYPE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Forums
Blogs.
Micro-Blogging.
Photo Sharing.
Video Sharing.
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 Professional.
Social.
Bookmarking.

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

ADVANTAGES

Connect with lost classmates, lost family members or lost loves on social
networking websites.
Career advantage.
Fun way to kick back and relax.
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 Interaction on one-to-one basis.

Overcome timidity.
Promotion of business or site for free.
Stay in touch anywhere.
Brings business and opportunities.

DISADVANTAGES
Risk of identity theft and fraud.
False information.
Online harassment and stalking.
Safety and security issues.

ANALYSIS VIEW POINT

Some companies motivate to use Social Networking Sites
It increase the knowledge sharing
It help in understanding the behavior of Employee
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 Act like news TV

Fast information transformation

MAJOR PLAYER
Facebook
Youtube
Twitter
Google+
Yahoo! Answers
LinkedIn
Instagram

SOURCES OF THEIR INCOME

Internet services (digital goods, game subscriptions, micro-transactions)
Mobile Subscriptions
Online Advertising
App Store
Trend analysis
on-demand merchandise
online music store

ABOUT FACEBOOK

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Facebook is a social network service and website launched in February 2004 that is
operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. As of January 2011, Facebook has
more than 600 million active users. Users may create a personal profile, add other
users as friends and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they
update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups,
organized by workplace, school, or college, or other characteristics. The name of the
service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of
the academic year by university administrations in the US with the intention of
helping students to get to know each other better. Facebook allows anyone who
declares them to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow
computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz andChris Hughes. The
website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but
was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford
University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before
opening to high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over.
A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network
service by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace. Entertainment
Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on earth did we
stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a
rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?" Quantcast estimates Facebook has
135.1 million monthly unique U.S. visitors in October 2010. According to Social
Media Today as of April 2010, it is estimated that 41.6% of the U.S. population has a
Facebook account.
Some facts and figures about facebook:
More than 175 million active users.
Fastest growing demographic: 30 years old and older.
More than 3 billion minutes spent on Facebook daily.
More than 4 million users become fans of pages daily.
More than 850 million photos uploaded monthly.
More than 7 million videos uploaded monthly.
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Market Share

As we can see in the above graph, all social networking sites except Facebook have a
more or less a stable market share, which is a big growth as compared to other social
networking sites.
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STRATEGIES OF FACEBOOK FOR THEIR PAGE MARKETING

Set community expectations.
Provide Cohesive Branding.
Be up to date.
Live Authentic.
Participate in Dialog.
Enable peer-to-peer interactions.
Foster Advocacy.

BEHAVIOR OF USER
The average male Facebook user with 120 friends:
Leaves comments on 7 friends photos, status updates, or wall
Messages or chats with 4 friends
The average female Facebook user with 120 friends:
Leaves comments on 10 friends photos, status updates, or wall
Messages or chats with 6 friends
The average male Facebook user with 500 friends:
Leaves comments on 17 friends photos, status updates, or wall
Messages or chats with 10 friends
The average female Facebook user with 500 friends:
Leaves comments on 26 friends photos, status updates, or wall
Messages or chats with 16 friends.
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UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

Security.
Extent amount of Involvement.
Appearance.
Speed.
Regular Updates.
Minimum Advertisement.
Applications.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is the process used to collect data and other types of
information for use in making business decisions. Examples of this type of
methodology include interviews, surveys, and research of publications. All of these
types include the use of present and historical information. When someone is doing
theoretical work, paradigms can be used to satisfy most of the criteria that are set forth
for methodology. The use of paradigms work because they are a constructive frame
work.

SAMPLE SIZE:
There are 50 respondents.
Our primary research was carried out by two methods namely,
1. Questionnaires.
2. Ethnographic Research.
QUESTIONNAIRES:
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other
prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are
often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The
questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton.
Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are
cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone
surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data.
However, such standardized answers may frustrate users. Questionnaires are also
sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and
respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups conducting a survey by
questionnaire may not be practical.
As a type of survey, questionnaires also have many of the same problems relating to
question construction and wording that exist in other types of opinion polls.

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ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH:
Ethnographic research usually involves observing target users in their natural, realworld setting, rather than in the artificial environment of a lab or focus group. The
aim is to gather insight into how people live; what they do; how they use things; or
what they need in their everyday or professional lives.
How ethnographic research works:
Ethnographic research relies on techniques such as observation, video diaries,
photographs, contextual interviews, and analysis of artifacts such as for example
devices, tools or paper forms that might be used as part of a persons job.
Observations can be made at home, at work, or in leisure environments. People can be
studied with their family, on their own, with work colleagues, or as part of a group of
friends. Often one participant may be recruited, but several more may be studied as
part of that persons family or friends.
Data collection can range from a 4-5 hour contextual interview, through to following a
participant for several days, or even a longitudinal study over several weeks or
months to investigate, for example, how a particular product or service might be used
over time. It doesnt necessarily involve full immersion in a persons life: it can
involve a depth interview in a persons home or it might involve a person simply
maintaining their own video diary over a period of time.
Where and how you might use it:
Ethnographic research can provide extremely rich insight into real life behaviour,
and can be used to identify new or currently unmet user needs. This approach is most
valuable at the beginning of a project when there is a need to understand real end user
needs, or to understand the constraints of using a new product or service by a
particular audience.

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

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AGE:
Based On Age we can conclude that there are 41% of the users are between 21 to
25 and the remaining are among other. And if we take it from broader view we
can say that the people between age of 16 to 26 cover 77% of the users.

AGE

36 to 45; 2%
26 to 35; 10%

21 to 25; 41%

10 to 15; 13%
16 to 20; 34%

GENDER:
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By this we can select that 67% are male and 33% are females who use these sites.

GENDER

Female; 40%

Male; 60%

OCCUPATION:
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These are showing the category wise distribution of graph as per their occupation.

OCCUPATION

15

5 5
75

Student
Service
Housewife
Business
Other

E-MAIL:
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By this we can conclude that most of the social networking users are using yahoo
mail to login. This is imagine but this also show the behavior towards mail ID.

E-MAIL

Other; 15%
Rediff; 5%
Hotmail; 10%

Gmail; 45%

Yahoo; 25%

NETWORKING SITES:
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61% among the respondent are using Facebook and remaining 39 are distributed
among others.

Networking Site

Instagram; 8% Other; 3%
Twitter; 3%
Youtube; 25%

Face Book; 61%

TIME SPENT:
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TIME SPEND BY USERS

Hours
40
35
3027
25
20
15
10
5
0

37

21
Hours

11
4

FEATURES:
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Different features that Every Respondents like in their social networking sites.

Features
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Features

37

CONTINUE IF CHARGED:
This is Imagine to see that if these site will charged money for registration only
9% will ready to continue & remaining 91% stop using it.

Charged

YES; 9%

NO; 91%

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PARENTS BEHAVIOR:
Most of the parents do not like that their children used to use computer whether
the things are useful or not & we can see the same situation in this criteria.

7
15

5
24

Addiction 24
Not Good 15
Waste of Time
7
Beneficial 12

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ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCHS RESULT

Target Person 1: We targeted a single person who uses Facebook more than 5 hrs. a
day and the behavior analysis of that person is given below:
Behavior Analysis: More Productive: The person is now so productive not with the product
quality but with the product quantity.
Now not aggressive: If we consider the same person before using these sites
and after that, the person is totally different guy if we consider his
aggressiveness. Now he is more calm and cool nature.
Conservative in nature: All this show the positive things but there is also some
disadvantages of these site on the person. The person is now conservative in
nature; he used to share his ideas, problem, feeling etc through these sites only.
Not roaming: Whenever the person get time he used to login into these sites.
Not speaking very much: He speaks very less or vice versa.

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CONCLUSION
Part of Day to Day Life.
Beneficial for some.
Can be addictive.
Change in Behavior.
Used Mostly by Students and Youngsters.
Status increases with increase in number of friends.
Everything depends on how you use.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
Can put some knowledge based books, Video and Audio.
Can put options like Wikipedia.
Include Search Engines.
Option to change themes.
They can introduce their own mails like Zapak.

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ANNEXURES
QUESTIONNAIRES
Name:

Age: .

1) What is your Age?

10 to 15

16 to 20

36 to 45

21 to 25

26 to 35

45 & above

2) What is your Gender?

Male

Female

3) What is your Occupation?

Student

Service

Housewife

Business

Others

4) Which companys mail id you use to login?

Gmail

YahooHotmail

Rediff

Others

Instagram

Twitter

5) Which networking site do you use?

Facebook

Youtube

Others

6) Time spent by you on the social networking sites?

Less than1

1 to 2

2 to 5

5 to 10

7) Which feature do you like in your networking site?

User-Friendly

Games

Regular updating

Appearances

Application

Chat option

Security
Speed

8) Will you continue if these sites start charging for registration?

Yes

No

9) What is your parents behavior towards their children who use it computer for
accessing these sites?
Addiction

Not good

Waste of time

Beneficial

10) Do you have any Suggestion?

.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) http//www.wikipedia.org/marketshare/socialnetworkingsites.php
2) http://tutor2u.net/business/presentations/marketing/cons
umerbehaviour/default.html
3) http://www.marketingprofessor.com/socialmarketing/facebook-for-business-3-useful-applications/
4) http://ezinearticles.com/?Influencing-ConsumerBehavior-Through-Social-Networking&id=5680660

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