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Table of Contents
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1
Viral Marketing ...................................................................................................................... 2
Social Media & Networks ....................................................................................................... 3
Consumer Perception & Purchase Decision .......................................................................... 3
Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................................... 4
Methodology.......................................................................................................................... 4
Discussions ................................................................................................................................. 5
Findings & Recommendations ................................................................................................. 28

Buying decisions................................................................................................................... 28
Brand image, reputation & awareness ................................................................................ 29
Companys media presence ................................................................................................. 30

Sharing contents .................................................................................................................. 31
Young generations using pattern ......................................................................................... 31
References ............................................................................................................................... 32
The Impacts of Social Networking Sites & Media on Consumer Perception & Buying Decisions
Viral Marketing:
The Impacts of Social Networking Sites & Media on
Consumer Perception & Buying Decisions
A Literature Review
Abstract
Internet is cutting edge in every aspects of day to day life with increasing number of
users worldwide. Social networking sites communication is the most effective and
significant business development tools in the 21st century because of its ability to
connect individuals with others. This paper is aimed for revealing the impacts of social
media & SNSs as a viral marketing medium on customer perception and buying
decisions through literature review. The relationships between relevant literatures and
how these theories depicted the rapport of social sites with customer buying decisions
also a subject matter of this study. Only secondary sources of data like journals, articles
and research papers downloaded from internet are used here to summarize the
information. The prime conclusion we can deduce from the study is social media
marketing is very influential to customers purchase intention and their brand

perception. Since a positive or negative review from a trusted contact can alter buying
decision of a potential buyer of a certain product. Hence, attractive tactics for effective
viral marketing are required.
Introduction
Internet-based advertising is incessantly rising while the conventional advertising
media like as Radio, TV, newspapers and magazines are losing terrain before the Digital
Marketing. The expanded use of social media means has supported the managers to
realize the potential of advanced technology to change the conventional word of mouth
communication through its transformation into online viral ways of communications

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with and between consumers. Technology and other forces have contributed
significantly and positively affecting the ways consumer process communication,
exchange information and interact. Marketing potential through online mode especially
through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn is remarkable in present scenario. In contrast,
however, as an advantage to SNS impact, the adoption of services and products, which
will be regarded as fraction of purchasing behavior of concern. Alteration in customers
behavior and buying decisions are what marketers hope to see through viral campaigns.
Viral Marketing
The concept of viral marketing is by no means new. Word-of-mouth marketing, virals
forefather, has been around for ages. The principle behind word-of-mouth marketing is
simple; use influencers to generate peer-to-peer product recommendations or buzz. This
enables marketers to exploit viral marketing initiatives to achieve great results for
minimal cost and time. It has drastically changed the way information is created and
disseminated to end customers. The term of viral marketing is first used by Steve
Jurvetson and Tim Draper in 1997as network-enhanced word of mouth and as an
effective way in reaching a large number of people rapidly. Viral marketing is a
marketing strategy that encourages consumers sharing marketing messages to other

consumers who are connected with web ties. The advancements in the internet in recent
years have made new systems available to business: social media such as online
communities being a good example (Lu et al. 2010). Kozinets, 2010, said that Social
media marketing and viral marketing can be used interchangeably. the difference
between eWOM and WOM is that eWOM is deployed through a written way and
compared to what is presented through oral way, it usually looks to be more believable
(Ulmanen, 2011). Word of mouth (WOM) communications are defined as informal

communications directed at other consumers about the ownership, usage, or
characteristics of particular goods and services and/or their sellers ( Matos and Rossi,
2008).Viral marketing relies on provocative content to motivate unpaid link to link
communications among social networking sites of persuasive messages from identified

sponsors (Porter & Gollan, 2006).
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Social Media & Networks
Sin, et al., 2012 defined Social networks as websites which link millions of users from
all over the world with same interests, views and hobbies. Blogs, YouTube, MySpace,
Facebook are examples of social media that are popular among all level of consumers.
With the rise in social networks, a new era of content creation has emerged, where
individuals can easily share experiences and information with other users (Chen et al.
2011). In addition, the networking of individuals through social media provides shared
values, leading to a positive impact on trust (Wu et al. 2010). Social media is generally
defined as, " Web 2.0 based sites which bring different people together in a virtual
platform and ensure a deeper social interaction, stronger community and
implementation of cooperation projects" (Brown, 2009).Social media has also

influenced consumer behavior from information acquisition to post-purchase behavior
such as dissatisfaction statements or behaviors (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). In the words
of Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison (2008), Social Network Sites are web based services
that allow individuals to create a public profile, to create a list of users with whom to
share connections, and view and cross the connections within the system. To
summarize, social media is an internet based service that enables people to

communicate with each other about their mutual interests and activities. Web sites or
applications that gain value through user interaction and participation can be defined as
social media.
Consumer Perception & Purchase Decision
Perception is a stage of processing of the senses. Perception is the awareness or

understanding of sensory information. In Latin, perceptio or percipio means
apprehension with mind or senses (Krishna, 2012). In marketing, good messages have
to be persuasive and messages should be uncertainty to create positive perceptions on
consumer's mind. Consumer behavior can be described as a psychological method of

decision-making as well as physical action. The act of purchasing, therefore, is not just
a stage in the sequence of physical and mental activities that occur during a particular
period. Few of the activities occur before the real purchase, whereas others occur later.
The decision process and psychosocial activity involve while evaluating, acquiring,
consuming or ordering of goods and services. So we can conclude that consumer buying
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decision is a process that involves different steps like the recognition of need, search
for the information, evaluation of alternatives, selection and in the last post purchase
behavior. The increasing numbers of consumers facing the issue of confusion by
overchoice and disbelieving the claims of the product, cutting through advertising
clutter with the message has never been more important.(Loudon & Bitta, 1994)
Word of mouth, produced through social media, helps consumers in their purchasing
decisions (Pan & Chiou 2011). Cultural aspects have an influence on consumers usage
of social networks and a great impact over the online purchase intentions.
(Pookulangaran et al., 2011) According to Mir (2012), thousands of internet

newsgroups and online chat rooms have emerged which are influencing the buying
decisions of consumers. Recommendations by friends or connections on social media
also could help consumers on decision-making. Those recommendations could help

brand attitudes, purchasing attitudes, and advertising attitudes. The more good
responses on the products or services, the more attractive it becomes for consumer
purchasing.
Objectives of the Study
The salient purposes of this literature are
To recognize viral marketing /wom, social sites and consumer perceptions and
To figure out influences (positive or negative) viral marketing have on purchase
buying intentions.
decisions through social media.
Methodology
As this is a review paper hence secondary sources of data are used like journals and
research papers, articles. The data were downloaded from online using internet. All
types of social media and networking sites that are used as viral marketing medium are
considered here to study the impact of these in consumer purchase intentions and their
perceptions.
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Discussions
Abedniya & Mahmouei (2010), attempted to explore the role of social network websites
which has influence on viral marketing, and the characteristics of the most influential
users to spread share viral content. The objective of the analysis is to explain the
relationship of social networking variables (Perceived playfulness, Critical mass, Use
and Usefulness etc.) and viral marketing. The data was collected through an online
survey from the students of major Malaysian universities by using questionnaires. The
sample size consisted of 150 students aging between 18 to 30, where 41% of them were
females and 59% were males. Seven-point Likert scale was used to measure all the
variables. The researcher used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for testing and
estimating causal relation and coefficient correlation as statistical tool. The study
interpreted that social network websites are significantly affected d by their

motivational characters on viral marketing since it is a sufficient marketing strategy and
an important tool for all businesses with limited marketing resources. Therefore, it was
deduced that social network websites characters can potentially have a stronger effect
on user to share viral content as well as social network website is based on network
effects, which increases the possibility that a message will reach the right people. With
the upsurge of Internet usage for communicating with others, bringing out information,
finding recommendations and interacting with family& friends consumers are and will
continue to share their opinions on brands and products with or without company
interaction. Therefore it is recommend that business owners should focus on these
websites for brand awareness and introduce new products by spreading viral content.
Aghdaie et al., (2012), undertook a study with the motive of evaluating the consumers
trust effect on viral marketing acceptance as well as verifying technology acceptance
model TAM. The research was generated from the perspective of the graduated
consumers whose behaviors look different from the average. For collecting required
data a survey was conveyed through a self administered questionnaire on 69 experts
responsible for the selection and purchase of the medical equipment in Isfahan
University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The questionnaire was designed by the

researchers to gather demographic profile of respondents and the viewpoints of the
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participants on the considered variables measured on 5-point Likert scale (1="Strongly
disagree" and 5="Strongly agree"). A census-based methodology and statistical

analysis, Structural Equational Modeling (SEM), "IBM Spss Statistics19" and "Lisrel
8.80" applications, descriptive statistics and path analysis had been applied to calculate
the acquired data. Applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach indicated how
observed indicators are linked to underlying latent variables. The paper divulged the
facts that consumer's trust not necessarily affects the customer's perceived usefulness
in engaging in VM. All in all, trust plays an important role in the attitude toward and in
the intention of the consumers to engage in VM and finally to actual use of VM as the
buyers' trust, determine the attitude and intention of the users and predicts whether the
consumer will forward the received emails to others and will engage in the viral
marketing campaign or not. Therefore, the companies which are planning the viral
campaigns should think of building trust actively and establish and maintain a better
relationship with the consumers in order to have the positive attitude to their viral
marketing campaigns and consequently more intention to be engaged. Furthermore, the
companies are advised to design and alter the performance, advantages and usefulness
of viral marketing campaigns from the consumers perspective.
Ahmad et al., (2014), wanted to determine the word of mouth effects on consumers
buying decision through a research on Karachi based consumers. The salient intentions
were to investigate WOM marketing affect on individuals buying decision and power
of others opinions to alter anyones perception of using products. A survey was

conducted by researchers on 100 random participants to find out impact of close family,
close friend, and other associates on consumers decision by using questionnaires. On
data collection process the researchers used both primary and secondary method and
collected data from different areas of Karachi city of Pakistan from students of colleges,
universities and households as well as from Internet, past trends, past researches and
journals, etc. The structured questionnaire formation was used with the combination of
close-ended and open-ended questions and Primary based information is gathered for
solving the problem and secondary based is collected to find the answers of the raising
questions to solve the problems. Researchers used random sampling technique for
sampling and Frequency Distribution and ranking for data evaluation. The study
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revealed that for purchasing people of different ages, marital status and genders rely on
others comments, opinions and others word of mouth as well as that negative word of
mouth or any negative comments about anything influence strongly than positive. Some
respondents believed that luxurious products are durable and long term so they do not
need more information from word from word of mouth. Further many people said that
they prefer proper research and survey to be confident before purchasing any expensive
items while some people also claim that they like to try any purchase items themselves
because they trust that experience teach a lot, people are satisfied by relying on their
own. Moreover, the results showed that word of mouth can be incredible helpful for
marketers to create the required hype for their items/services, so that persons are very
much aware of its existence. They suggested organization not to rely on WOM
marketing, usage of Viral Marketing had better be positive and consumers should share
their opinion as others can get benefits from them.
Akhtar (2016), intended to figure out the relationship between product promotion
through social networking sites and consumer response in sales and its affects in
marketers brand image. Primary focus of her paper was to find out the impact of social
networking sites on marketing communication and understanding the changing
consumer behavior and consumption pattern of different brands in a multinational
company: Nestle Bangladesh Limited and understand the positive relation between the
present marketing communications and upgraded technological adoption by the global
consumers. The data was collected on the basis of three specific sample brands namely,
Munch, Baby & Me and Nescafe of Nestle Bangladesh Ltd. Primary data was collected
through questionnaire and interview schedule through personal visit to the offices of
Nestle Bangladesh Limited. Secondary data was collected through annual report,
publications different studies on the sample brands and popular customer social
networking sites over the internet on four major consumer segments (teens, women
&mothers, young adults and others). Graphical representation and a SWOT analysis are
used for descriptive analysis. The study concluded that social networks provide the
marketers opportunities to target niche customer segments as internet usage are

increasing gradually and moreover, satisfied customers assist in building a strong brand
reputation. Researcher implied that regular communication helps to attract the

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customers and maintain the customer retention rate as well as constant customer
satisfaction. So Nestle Bangladesh should retain their traditional communication and
adopt the tremendous new social networking sites for reaching consumers mind and
satisfying them which may ultimately improve its sales and brand image.
Alsubagh (2015), tried to dissect the influence and outcome of online social networking
sites such as Facebook on the customers demeanor by using a quantitative research on
the relationships of firms social media presence on consumer behavior. Exploring

insight into the impact of social media on buyer buying decisions and understanding
their relationship with user generated content (UGC) variables as well as attitudinal
behaviors were the main purpose of his study. He conduct a survey on 150 randomly
selected males and females fb users age group of 18 years old and older to find out
how many firms/products they had befriended/liked on Facebook. On data collection
process respondents were asked to indicate their preference of firms among 6 ranges of
numbers on social sites through a simple sample technique and online survey. The
researcher used Pearson correlation along with correlation coefficient as statistical tool
and SPSS as data analysis tool. The study showed that there are five variables on fb
such as friends, likes, sales usage and shop frequency which has a positive influence on
purchase decisions as individuals who like firms on Facebook are likely to shop at these
firms. It also found that male respondents decisions tend to affected by attitudinal
behavior rather than by sentiments. Thirdly, the research discovered a pattern of

utilizing long range informal communication destinations for product and service
advancement that can provide a platform for reaching to a larger audience globally. The
research suggests that SNSs can be helpful and effective for organizations to reach their
customers as it helps building peoples interactions and interpersonal organization
influences consumer purchasing choices.
Altaf (2014), operated a study with an attempt to mark off social medias and their role
and to portray their impact on consumer buying decision by using a descriptive

research. The study has been carried out keeping in mind the major objective of
understanding the influence of social media on customer actions. The research gives
explanation on how individuals are attending, processing, and selecting the information
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on social media before a purchase. The research data was acquired from both the
primary and the secondary sources. Secondary sources of data had collected through
use of internet, consulting past studies on the subject and also books , journals and web
search, primary data had gathered from a sample of 100 respondents representing the
genders, different age groups, education level, and monthly income
through a
structured questionnaire with a five point balanced likert scale by direct survey method.
The data collected from the respondents are tabulated and analyzed into logical
statements using percentage and mean score analysis. The results indicated that
individuals pursue an active role in information search on social media comparing to
mass media. Apart from this, social media plays an important role in influencing the
consumers buying decisions as customers regularly read the blogs on internet to view
online advertisements. They use social media to provide feedback and to keep
themselves aware of the new products/services, they also seek opinions about
products/services via social media. Therefore there is a need for social marketing and a
need for a shift in the business organizations behavior and attitude towards promoting
their products. The author advised to build relationships, to listen customers, to value
their interest and privacy and to make them a part of organization. On the contrary, he
forbade marketers not to disturb customers and share their information and data without
their permission, not to irritate them by passing unnecessary comments, videos, pop-
ups and advertisements, and not to interfere in their other social activities on social
networking sites for greater success.
Barhemmati and Ahmad (2015), conveyed a study which is directed to inquire how
SNM will influence the ultimate consumer purchase intention among frequent user of
social networking websites and to inspect the reckoned connections among social
network marketing activities, customer engagement and consumer buying behavior. A

quantitative survey was conducted by using convenience method to distribute the
questionnaires among 50 respondents (62.0% of them were males and 38.0% were
females) in the campus of National University of Malaysia (UKM) and respondents

were offered a briefing about the study being done in return for participating in the
surveys. They were asked to report their demographic information including gender,
age, nationality, occupation as well as income. A five-point Likert scale ranging from
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strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) was used to measure customers
involvement along with purchasing perceptions. An empirical study was planned to test
the research framework and researchers exercised Frequency of variables, crosstabulations, T-test and ANOVA statistical tools to analyze the findings. The study
formed that users are influenced more by the peoples idea and feedbacks rather than a
simple and direct advertisement blinking on their home page. The results also showed
positive relationships between customer engagement of social networking and their

purchase behaviors.
Bilal et al., (2014), wanted to peruse whether or not customers usage of social websites
leads to any influence or change in their purchasing patterns regarding different
products and services. The aim of the research was to investigate the role of Social
Media (YouTube, Blogs, and Twitter etc.) and Social Networks (Facebook, Google
etc.) on buyer decision making in context of the garments industry regarding what effect
does having a strong social media and networks presence has on the customers and
their loyalty for the brand. The data collection method for this research involved the
survey of students and faculty of University of Gujrat, Pakistan by distribution of a self-
administered questionnaire among them. Logistic Regression was used as analysis

technique. The pilot sampling was used in order to obtain data of possible varied groups
on the basis of differences in demographics from 371 respondents and then collected
info was entered in SPSS to be analyzed. The researchers deduced that predominance
of the people are of the opinion that Social Media and Social Networks play a very
influential role when it comes to decision intentions of consumers regarding different

products. The results imply that the companies must exhibit an exceptional online
presence and engage with customers at a personalized level in order to ensure increased
brand awareness and purchase of their brands by the increasingly internet induced
savvy customers.
Chaarlas and Rajkumar (2014), run the study to analyze how viral marketing assists in
raising the awareness among the customers and how it is used for sharing information
about the features and prices of the products. The primary objective of their paper was
to investigate the understanding of consumers on the components of viral marketing.
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The researchers carried out the survey on the 100 selected respondents about their
perception on the five different constituents of viral marketing namely E-mails, Videos,
Blogs, Social networks and Forums. The participants were selected through stratified
random sampling technique and they were the students of MBA from colleges and
institutes in Tiruchirappalli city. On data collection process the primary data of this
study has been collected using an interview schedule, the secondary data were collected
from books, journals, previous studies and World-Wide Websites. The researcher has
applied relevant statistical tools such as percentage table, Karl Pearson coefficient
correlation test, T test and factor analysis to analyze the data collected. It is inferred
from the study that, consumers attach different levels of trust to each of the five
components of viral marketing and there is no significant role of the gender of the
consumers, their domicile over their level of perception the components of viral
marketing. The researchers suggested the corporate bodies to use tactics of displaying
a new viral marketing idea on a web site through any tool like face book and other social
networking sites as this way business can reach out to customers effectively. They also
suggested to the government to be aware of the misleading messages about the product
and services accessible in viral marketing and they ought to form and enforce Cyber
laws in viral marketing campaigns to reduce malpractices, fraud and misuses.
Charo et al., (2015), operated a study to comparatively determine the impact of eWOM
on brand image and impact of brand image on purchase intention. The goal of the
respective research was to seek for factors that may influence and determine the
adoption of online reviews on Facebook groups related to Food discussion. This study
investigates entire process eWOM, from adoption of online information; to how it
impacts purchase intention of recipient of information. A convenience sampling method

and an online survey questionnaire was used to conduct this study and the questionnaire
was posted on Facebook group of Karachi Food Diary and it was also messaged to
profiles of the group members. The sample size was 244 out of which, 63% respondents
were males and majority of them was undergraduate. In this study hypotheses were
tested through Cross tab Analysis, Linear and multiple regression. Study found that
eWOM has significant and positive impact on brand image and purchase intentions of
the online information seekers. The study also found out that electronic word of mouth
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has both direct and indirect impact on purchase intentions of recipient of such electronic
word of mouth. The findings of this research demonstrate that timeliness of online
reviews has potential and youth is more influenced by timeliness of an online review.
Researchers implications was brand managers of different eateries in Karachi should
join such customer communities and create the buzz about their product/service by
providing most up to details on latest offerings, deals and discounts and acquire
potential target audience that in turn will enhance the recipients purchase intention and
generate positive brand image for that brand.
Farooq and Jan (2012), focused in this paper on the product review of customers on
social networking website to promote marketing. The basic purpose of their research
was to find the reasons of not using Facebook platform for marketing and finding users
and organizations views on the tagged based marketing on the social networking
website (Facebook) by using quantitative and a survey based research. The survey
conducted from social network users as well organizatons through offline survey and it
helps in understanding the reason why the tagged based marketing is not successfully
implanted in Pakistan, what are the barriers and what steps could be taken to make it
effective for organizations. The age group of participants of both the surveys is in
between 20 to 40. In the survey for users the information were gathered from100
students of SZABIST Karachi, Bahria University Karachi and other professionals

working in industry out of it 60% are male and 40% are Female. For organizations we
gathered the information from 20 organizations representatives. The research reflects

that with the increasing growth of social networking websites, people opt to share more
and more information and this growth has open a way for the organization to penetrate
the new domain. From the survey of users researchers found that most of the people
support marketing on Facebook, and more than 70% people agreed that the friends have
much influence in purchasing along with 51% people recommend organizations tagged
based marketing on Facebook and large population has suggested its beneficial for
organizations. The research finding from the organization suggests that approx. 75% of
the organization have their presence on Facebook but only 20% of them are seriously
using it for marketing and most organizations that are doing marketing on Facebook,
defends their existence by describing that its helps in influential marketing, helps
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analyzing target audience, increases the trust of the product among consumers and also
increase the sales and profit. For tagged based marketing, providing feedback is very
critical and it can be seen that majority of the population already providing feedback
to organizations, but most of them are concerned about the revealing of their personal
information to others.
Hajli (2013), conveyed his research to demonstrate the role of social media in the
development of e-commerce into social commerce by proposing a model. The motive
was to examine the relationships between the constructs of this research, namely social
media, trust, perceived usefulness and intention to buy in SNSs and to investigate the
direct and indirect influence of social media on these. The main thrust of this paper
focuses on examining the role of social factors on trust, which can influence an
individuals intention to buy. The study was conducted through online and paper
questionnaires on 237 participants, who were mostly resident in the UK and London
and were members of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in.
Participants ranged from 18 to 45 years old: 60% men and 40% women. This research
developed an online questionnaire, using a 5-point Likert-scale from 1 = Strongly
disagree to 5 = Strongly agree. The dependent variable of this study is intention to buy.
This construct measures the users willingness to purchase on SNSs and their intention
to buy through SNSs. The data emerging from the survey showed how social media
facilitate the social interaction of consumers, leading to increased trust and intention to
buy. An understanding of this issue can aid in identifying factors that establish trust and
social commerce intention through SNSs. In this study, trust measures trust in SNSs
and peers in these networks. Social interaction measures the activity of individuals
through online communities, forums, ratings, reviews and recommendations. The
results also show that trust has a significant direct effect on intention to buy. The results
of data analysis reveal that social media empower participants to generate content
through online communities, reviews and recommendations and when potential
consumers are encouraged to trust in vendors by their peers, and also to trust in the SNS
itself, they are more likely to buy through social networking sites. The main managerial
implication given by the author is building and maintaining trust through social media
as networking on social media sites supports trust-building mechanisms in e-commerce
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and social commerce adoption. E-vendors should encourage consumers to come online
and use social media to develop trust.
Hayta (2013), carried out a research in order to determine the effect of social media on
consumer buying behavior. The study was targeted to learn about social media which
affects our live in recent years and brings a new dimension to Internet and to determine
the effects of social media networks on purchasing behaviors of consumers. The study
group used in this study is made up of young consumers in Turkey who have different
demographic and socio-economic features and use social media tools. The sample
composed of 688 students from different faculties (law, information, engineering,
technology, health sciences and dentistry) at Gazi University, who are within the age
range of 19-24 years of age, and visit social media platforms and have an account in
any of the social networks were selected by a random sampling method. Face-to-face
interview technique was used to obtain the data of the study. To determine the
relationship between purchasing behaviors of young people and social media a 5-point
likert attitude scale was used. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient, SPSS 16.0
package program and suitable statistical techniques were used to analyze the data
collected from the answers of social media users and factor analysis is conducted with
the Varimax Rotation Method. The study results indicate that social media tools create
a statistically significant difference on purchasing behaviors of consumers according to
age groups and educational status of them. It was further found that participants
attitudes towards buying behaviors and social media relationships causes a significant
difference with regard to educational level. The acquired values suggest that
participants enrolled in an associate degree program are affected by social media in
their buying behaviors more than those in an undergraduate program. It is evident that
social media is the right place to communicate with consumers and so businesses should
immediately use social media tools effectively for marketing communication. In
addition to, contents that contribute to communities should be created and the needs of
the communities should be met. Businesses should develop a process to define how and
when to respond to negative content and inaccurate information and these should also
be corrected since, an immediate response can prevent loss of reputation which
otherwise, can take months to repair.
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Hsu and Tran (2013), tried to get an insight into by which way social relationship factors
influence on electronic Word-of-Mouth (EWOM) actions in social networking sites.
The study was aiming to inquire the way three factors - social capital, trust and
interpersonal influence - affect EWOM behaviors in Taiwan and Vietnam. They
conducted a survey resulting in 205 respondents including both Taiwanese and
Vietnamese undergraduate and graduate students who spend more time on social
networking sites aging between 21-30 in order to find out empirical evidence by using
questionnaire and statistical technique. The data was collected using a questionnaire
with 7 points Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. For
collecting data they used both online survey and paper survey and Google.doc was used
to deliver the online questionnaire. Simple regression analysis was utilized to test the
three hypotheses. The results found that bonding social capital and interpersonal
influence have positively significant influence on EWOM behaviors and Taiwans
consumers are found to have more bonding social capital, trust and normative influence
than Vietnam counterparts. Whereas trust and bridging social capital have no
significant effect on EWOM behaviors. It is also deduced from the study that bridging
social capital that have function to bridge people who have never meet each other
together have no significant impact on EWOM actions thus, trust is not a significant
predictor of EWOM behaviors. They suggested the manager to give importance to
understand the factors in social relationships influence on EWOM behaviors which is

a tendency of current consumers, and it tends to lead the managers or companies get
success to reach their consumers
Ioans and Stoica(2014), conducted this research paper to the impact of social media
on consumer behavior by using a quantitative research. The research targeted to observe
whether social networks in any way influence the consumers decisions about
purchasing products from online. An online survey was run on 116 respondents, who
were mostly cyber-consumers and mainly young people aged 25-29 years. The
snowball sampling method was used to choose the sample and the questionnaire was
uploaded on the host platform named www.esurveyspro.com as the research developed
is an online research. The data was analyzed and the conclusions were established in
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terms of the univariate and bivariate analysis and complex statistical tools and SPSS
was used to evaluate the data. The researchers concluded from the study that social
networks do have a role in influencing the demeanor of customers in the virtual

ambience, especially when the degree of disclosure of messages and the relation created
between the variety of information given and the consumer who is about to make a
purchase. They suggests that companies could stock data in cloud servers where both
the company and the buyer would have unlimited and permanent access this way
organization can reach potential buyer or users
Kosarizadeh and Hamdi (2015), attempted to find out whether the social media or
networking sites have influence on brand equity and purchase intention of consumers.
The investigations motive was to reveal the effect of social media on purchase
intentions and other variables namely brand, value and relation equity and social media
marketing. During data collection time random sampling method was used to distribute
the questionnaire and all questions in the questionnaire were assessed in the 5- degree
Likert scale ranged from completely agree to completely disagree and field information
collection was conducted through social networks.
The survey was run on 384 respondents which includes consumers and customers of
leather products (clothing, shoes, bag and side necessaries) using sampling formula of
indefinite society .To analyze the study hypotheses statistical tools such as structural
equations, correlation and SPSS and LISREL soft waves were used. The method used
in this investigation is of descriptive measurement type According to study findings
the Variables of social media marketing acclivities is effective on the variables of value
equity and these variables themselves affect the purchase intention variable. The study
also revealed that the attitude of consumers toward the status of the brand could be
positively affected through selecting social media marketing activities. So adopting
different social networks and creating continuous relationship with customers the
managers could achieve way belonging sense to trade mark which can be increased
through communication equity in the customers brand perception and loyalty. A
positive and distinct image of the brand could be created in the mind and idea of the
customers and consumers of leather products through selecting appropriate trade

strategies and raising marketing activities using networking sites.
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Lekhanya (2014), formed his paper in order to understand the impact of viral marketing
on corporate brand reputation. The main purpose of the study was to analyze and
emphasize the importance of viral marketing on corporate brand reputation and evaluate
to what extent these factors affect corporate brand reputation of South African
companies. He used a five-point Likert scale of questionnaire with a personal interview

with respondents selected from 75 South African companies and private, public, and
government companies while conducting the survey. A mixed approach of qualitative
and quantitative techniques was used to collect primary data a stratified sampling
approach was used to select respondents from four provinces; namely, from the Eastern
Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, and Gauteng provinces. The research divulged that
the higher portion of respondents were either neutral or disagreed that people make
positive comments about their companies via viral marketing. Moreover, the
predominance of South African companies do not consider that viral marketing builds
a strong relationship with customers and that it enhance their brand reputation as well
and they find it difficult to control information obtained via viral marketing.
Researchers recommended for South African marketing managers to encourage their

companies to take advantage of viral marketing along with the aid of social networking
websites and other social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
individual to reach customers, to build brand reputation and to take major tactics to
promote online, community, entrepreneurial knowledge skills.
Mikalef et al., (2013), conducted this research with the purpose of construing which
way specific aspects of social media websites foster user intention to browse products
and the effect that this has in shaping purchasing and information sharing intentions.
They collected data through a custom built electronic questionnaire from 165
respondents of an academic institution with a relatively high educational level and

belonging to a young age categories (15-44) in its majority and links were e-mailed to
respondents and users of social media websites and posted on 20 forum boards which
ranged in subject (Fashion, computers, hobbies etc) and were measured by applying a
7-point likert scale. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis is performed on data obtained
17 | P a g e
to test our research model along with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Outcomes
from the analysis indicate that both utilitarian and hedonic motivations have a
significantly positive impact on influencing user intention to browse products over such
websites with the prior being a stronger motivator than the latter. The outcomes from
respondents replies confirm that social media users check their accounts very
frequently, thus inferring that almost all users are accustomed to online purchasing with
respect their online spending habit and users who browse products via social media,
prefer to do so uninterrupted by others. Therefore, since the product browsing and word
of mouth intention are inextricably linked, firms must be very careful on all the
customer responses they can collect and act accordingly and in a timely fashion since
dissatisfied consumers could potentially backfire on these investments. Merchants need

to integrate their online shops on attractive social media as the phenomenal growth of
such websites and the strong connection of product browsing and purchase intention.
Furthermore, business executives can focus on them without placing unnecessary
emphasis on aspects which are proven to be less important by recognizing what

antecedents affect the browsing of products on such sites.
Mohr (2013), prepared a paper with a intention of addressing social media as a
marketing strategy to manage market shrinkage in fashion and luxury markets.

Acquiring specific insight about fashion professionals usage of social media in
evaluation of fashion and its relationship to fashion week was the principal objective of
his study. A survey was conducted on attendees of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in
NY to examine the relationship between social media and fashion and its relationship
to fashion week for understanding social media as a marketing tactics for managing
marketing shrinkage for an upscale segment, A total of 2,082 email invitations to
Mercedes Benz Fashion Week attendees including top designers, buyers, editors,
retailers, celebrities, VIPs, etc. from around the world, of which 134 questionnaires
were initiated, and the final including 74.The researcher exercised sample T test to
analyze the influence of networking sites on fashion week attendees along with oneway frequency tables for the variables in the data set were gathered to comprehend the
relationship between media and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The study showed
strong, positive, significant effect of fashion related media, including social networks
18 | P a g e
(e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace), magazines, newspapers, and blogs in

intensifying fashion week attendees perceptions about fashion, moreover, the majority
of respondents noted the information provided was either essential or important. It also
indicated strong impact of social media in molding the opinions of professionals at
Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, coupled with their influence in impacting the opinions
of bloggers and as far as usage of social sites in the evaluation of the quality of the
shows seen and/or designers in general, there was a strong influence. The
recommendations inferred from this study is that new innovative business models had
better incorporate social media to allow firms to build strong bonding with customer
and encourage loyalty as well as interact with customers through new channels,
formats, or revenue models.
Park et al.,(2011), examined determinants influencing eWOM effects in China in their
paper. They developed a structural model of eWom effects including customer

susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII), using experience, perceived credibility,
and effects of eWOM. They conveyed survey data analysis over 209{includes 108 men
(51.7%) and 101 women (48.3%)} internet consumers who had previously used online
review for shopping online. They collected data from personal survey with students and
business workers in Beijing and Qingdao, two main cities in China. Researchers
measured using experience of Ewom, perceived eWOM credibility, perceived CSII and
eWOM effects using five items, four items and three items respectively on a five-point
agreement scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). For assessing the validity
and reliability of the constructs by a factor analysis, path coefficients and regression
coefficients were used. The survey revealed that CSII influences using experience,
perceived eWOM credibility, and the eWOM effects, and using experience of eWOM
affects perceived eWOM credibility and eWOM effects, and perceived eWOM
credibility had effects on eWOM effects. There was a commendable relationship
between CSII and eWOM effect, particularly in Chinas online market, which was
rapidly increasing but was not that ripe that time. Furthermore, compared with
advertisement, Chinese young consumers prefered to believe the words written by

others in the internetonline review. After they used online reviews a lot in shopping
sites, blogs and other portal sites a lot, online reviews become a kind of power to
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control them to make decisions, just like online purchase decisions So, online marketers
and researchers should know that Consumers who are highly susceptible to
interpersonal influence are more likely to be affected by eWOM. The research suggests
that the e-business firms who want to raise the rate of selling need to care about the
section of consumers with much experience and online shoppers need some ways to
avoid risks by keeping credibility of the information source plausible.
Pescher et al., (2014), looked into for recognizing and comprehending the factors that
affects consumer referral behavior via mobile devices along with analyzing stages of
consumers' decision-making processes by proposing a three-stage model of consumer
referral behavior via mobile devices within mobile viral marketing campaign. The
model consisted of a funnel of three successive decisions: (i) reading the message, (ii)
visiting the homepage (interest) and (iii) forwarding the message (decision to refer).The
main goal the work was, to analyze consumers' decision-making processes regarding
their forwarding behavior in response to mobile advertising via text messages, to

understand referral behavior. They integrate psychographic (e.g., usage intensity) and
sociometric (e.g., tie strength) indicators of consumer characteristics for enabling them
to determine the factors that influence a consumer's decision to refer a mobile stimulus
and to identify the factors that lead to reading the advertising message and to the
decision to learn more about the product. In field study 26,137 randomly chosen
participants had previously agreed to receive mobile advertising text messages on their
cell phones (opt-in program) were sent a text message that included a link to a website
and the notice that they could download a recently released music CD for free followed
by a online survey. Items were measured on a seven-point Likert scale, using scale
points from do not agree at all (1) to totally agree (7). From the survey, consumers
who place higher importance on the entertainment value of exchanging text messages
and who place higher importance on the purposive value demonstrate an increased
likelihood of entering the interest and decision to refer stages. The receivers of the
message tend to make their purchase decisions based on the content that they received
from strong tie contacts because such ties are perceived to be more trustworthy. In
contrast, consumers are more likely to pass messages on to weak ties (i.e., low-quality
contacts). Thus the results indicated that one reason for the failure of mobile viral
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marketing campaigns is that consumers tend to forward messages to consumers on

whom they have limited impact.
Rezvani et al., (2013), tried to answer the critical question about the effect of viral
marketing as an effective way of entrepreneurial promotion on consumer-based brand
equity in mobile market of Tehran, Iran in an article. The salient intention of the
research was finding the aftereffect and affinity of viral marketing constituents on
customer based brand equity dimensions in mobile market. In terms of research
classification, the research is practical and in terms of data collection method it is

descriptive of correlation based on structural equations. Researcher chose four widely
used brands namely Nokia, Sony Ericson, LG and Samsung to conduct research via a
survey method on sample (study population of research) of 500 consumers and the data
was gathered by using questionnaire and the range used in the study was Likert range.
The collected data was evaluated through Lisrel 8.54 version software and with SEM
method. The results indicate that viral marketing has a significant impact on costumerbased brand equity. The study also demonstrates, volume and Visual cues of messages
is effective on brand awareness as well as the volume and attraction of viral marketing
are effective on brand loyalty. Nevertheless, it showed that viral marketing is low cost
but has high impact on the viable investment. Therefore, along with other marketing
components a special attention should be on viral marketing because it is the most
crucial factor influencing brand equity and brand awareness among potential buyers.
Schivinski and Dabrowski (2013), wanted to point out clear understanding about the
effects of firm-created and user-generated communication on social media. The central

intention of their research was to generate new knowledge about in which way social
media communication influences brand equity and brand attitude and therefore affects
consumer buying decisions through an empirical study. They inquired 504 Facebook
users using a standardized online survey across Poland for collecting data. Three
product categories (non-alcoholic beverages, clothing, and mobile operators) of 60
brands were selected for examining the impact of brand communication on consumer
responses and for testing the proposed model. This selection was based on
considerations as regards to relevance and variance criteria and the items were
21 | P a g e
measured through a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 for "strongly disagree" to
7 for "strongly agree" to measure the added value of a branded product in comparison
with an unbranded good with the same characteristics. All of the items loaded on a
single factor, suggesting that user-generated social media communication, firm-created

social media communication, brand equity, brand attitude, and brand purchase
intentions are unidimensional. For data analysis, they exercised the structural equation
modeling technique and data were evaluated by using Cronbachs alpha, exploratory
factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory techniques. The researchers figured that usergenerated content on social media communication had a positive influence on both
brand equity and brand attitude. In addition, the analysis pointed out that firm-created
social media communication influenced only brand attitude and not only brand equity
but also brand attitude showed a positive impact on purchase intention. Finally, firmcreated social media communication showed a negative influence on brand equity but
it had a tangible effect on consumers brand behavior. Concerning the behavioral

outcomes in this research, the effect of brand attitude is almost twice as strong as the
effect of brand equity on customer purchasing decisions. However, it is strongly

recommended that managers illicit user-generated communication by marketing action
programs while maintaining an active profile of social media advertising. As firmcreated social media content can create a viral response that can assist in spreading the
original advertising to a larger public thus, the optimal scenario for communication
managers is to attract or encourage consumers to generate content that reflects support
for the brands and products of their companies.
Shashikala and Mahapatro (2015), undertook a research with a prime motive to analyze
the effectiveness of viral marketing with reference to Whatsapp mobile messenger.
Specific purposes were to understand the attraction and frequency of use of WhatsApp,
to peruse the causes that affect customers to accept viral messages and their preference
for types of viral messages and to study the influence of WhatsApp on viral campaigns
on consumer buying behavior. Descriptive research method was used in this study and
both primary and secondary data was collected. Primary data was collected using a
structured questionnaire resulting in sample of 100 respondents who were selected
using a non-probability sampling technique and questionnaires were administered

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personally in Bangalore among the people who own and use Smartphone. SPSS,
Percentage analysis, Cross tabulations and Pearson Chi-square analysis were used to
analyze the data to answer the research objective and to test the hypotheses. Data
analysis depicted that WhatsApp was the largest social messenger with 94% of
respondents compared to other social messengers where more than 3/4th of them use it
daily and prefered among the youngsters. Further, it revealed frequency of use of
WhatsApp is strongly associated with age where as no such association found with
gender. It was astonishing that viral messages with Celebrities, Visual impact and
Content catch the attention more than the sender of the messages. Interestingly, viral
messages were relished both for their entertainment value and affected consumer
actions successfully. In addition, most of the WhatsApp users agreed that viral
messages do influence in the buying of product/service and this buying behavior is
strongly and positively related with frequency of use. This is certain that mobile
messaging apps have offered a new medium which allows viral idea/message to spread
instantly to millions of customers at lowest cost. Therefore, it is advised to marketers

to cleverly harness the amazing power of viral marketing to reach the mobile-bound
audiences with the challenge to create an exciting idea and get the users to engage and
propagate the idea.
Torun (2015), aimed his study to investigate the effect of persuasion and uncertainty on
the cognition of viral marketing activities. On data collection process a survey was run
on 300 university students aged between 21-23 years old who were participated in e-
marketing, advertising and marketing in social media courses, selected via convenience
sampling method .With regard to gender, 68% of the sample is female and 32% is male.
In this survey five point Likert scale was used (1: Strongly Not agree; 2: Somewhat not
agree; 3: Neutral; 4: Somewhat agree; 5: Strongly Agree) and there were 2 independent
variables (persuasion and uncertainty) and one dependent variable (perception of viral
advertising (VM)). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA), KMO scores and Cronbachs alphas were used for computing the scales. The
findings disclosed that persuasion of viral marketing had both positive and negative
effects on customers mind which occurred as like and dislike. Positive persuasion had
positive and negative persuasion has negative impact on understanding. On the other
23 | P a g e
hand, uncertainty had positive influence on perception of viral marketing. The research
revealed that people are more likely to recline on viral marketing actions that contain
entertainment and have more details and using celebrities. In addition to, people really
enjoy viral marketing activities and they find these differ than other types of advertising
(newspaper, radio, TV). People who use social media tools were agreed on that viral
marketing activities try to catch consumer attention and also to create desire on
consumers. On the other hand, respondents point out viral marketing activities are
trying to increase remember ability of a product/service and the aim of these are to make
the people believe what they say. However, viral marketing activities have less effect
on purchase decision. Consequently, firms that use viral marketing have to increase
positive persuasion and reduce the uncertainty to increase perception.
Uddin et al., (2014), had put their efforts to uncover the underlying factors those affect
customers in choosing and purchasing mobile phone. The objective of the research was
to figure out the underlying factors those have a role to determine the brands while
customers purchase mobile phone. Primary and secondary data were collected from
appropriate sources for collecting data. Data were collected from those people live in
Khulna city maintaining equal ratios of various groups like male, female, businessmen,
employees, students and others (mostly housewives). To select desired respondents,
convenient sampling method was used. A structured questionnaire with five point likert
scale was used to interview and to collect the opinions of respondents. A total of 200
respondents aged between below 18 to 40 were interviewed from them 160 were found
flawless thus used for data analysis. Factor analysis and descriptive statistical tools were
applied with SPSS for data analysis to extract the underlying factors affect mobile
phone purchasing decision. To analyze the strength of association among variables the
Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was applied. The results

revealed that in case of choosing mobile phone brands the most important factor is
physical attributes. In addition to, other crucial factors are pricing, charging and
operating facilities, size and weight, friends and colleagues recommendations,

neighbors recommendations and advertising. At the time of survey, it was observed
that various types of facilities are expected by the customers. The research has identified
the factors that are deemed as selection criteria of mobile phone. Not necessarily all the
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variables influence a person in the same way and same extent. A lot of consumers
choice may be having both rational features (e.g communication, time management) as
well as emotional features (e.g. games, music, camera, and application).
Vinerean et al., (2013), wanted to offer an answer to this question (who are the people
interacting online and how much involved are they in online activities?) in their paper
and it refers to a detailed understanding of the customers perception and customs as

regards to the usage of social media through an exploratory research The predominant
purpose was providing apprehension of a marketing phenomenon, namely students
pattern of using social media and networking sites, and particularly their reaction to
advertising in a medium where they decide and choose the information they engage
with. An online survey was run over targeted 236 social media user, the students of
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu in Romania, studying for a Bachelor, Master or Ph.D.
Degree concerning their online activities .The data was collected via a primary research
which involved getting original data by conducting a field research via the Internet
(Free Online Surveys) and the data analysis was quantitative. The researchers used the
statistical analysis program SPSS, the factor analysis and the Kaiser-MeyerOlkin(KMO). They tried to provide insight through an examination of seven influential
variables (Clicking the ad, Experience using social media, Networkers, Watchers and
Listeners, Concern for privacy, Log in pattern, Engagers) on developing positive
reactions to online advertisements by identifying different types of users and a linear
model to examine whether social networking sites have a positive influence on the
respondents perception of online advertisements. The study revealed that the students
who often click on social media advertisements have a complimentary reaction to such
marketing instruments even though they have privacy issues. They suggested the
managers to become aware of the significance of social media sites in influencing

online shopping by recognizing and targeting different types of consumers and taking
initiatives to perceive and emphasize customer interests. Moreover, companies should

create a buyer persona and then develop and constantly adjust the online marketing
strategy according to the interests of customers to be successful in social media

marketing for long-term success.
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Xiaofen and Yiling (2009), attempted to find out the outcomes of online word-of-mouth
on the attitudes of apparel buyer along with consumers attitudes to willingness of
buying. On the basis of communication persuasive theory, this paper put forward a
model about the influence of online word-of-mouth to the attitude of garment
consumers and their purchase intention. Data for this study were collected through
online and offline questionnaire approach from 540 respondents who were 20-29 yearold younger generation in, Hangzhou city the students who have online buying
experience. They were asked to point out accordance with each statement in a measure
using a five-point Likert-type scale (1, strongly disagree; 2, disagree; 3, neutral; 4,

agree; 5, strongly agree). The measurement model were tested by factor analysis and
Cronbachs and structured equation modeling (SEM).The paper begun the research
from two aspects: massage impression of online word-of-mouth and opinion leaders,
use the orientation of consumers orientation of brand and product as a mediating

variable, research the impacts of online word-of-mouth to the apparel consumers
purchase intention. The research is divided into two parts: Pioneering assumptions and
verify assumptions. The study found that perceived brand orientation and product
orientation had most significant effect on apparel consumers behavioral intention, and
were the two important determinants of consumers behavioral intention. Meanwhile,

massage impression and opinion leaders of online word-of-mouth via make function on
apparel consumer attitude to impact purchase intention. Moreover, it divulged that the
lower education level of consumer, there will be more remarkable effect by Online
Word-of-mouth. This observation thus suggests that apparel firms should make efforts
to improve reputation of apparel brand; after all, a good criticism comes from the
product itself. Furthermore, clothing enterprises should concern about the online wordof-mouth and get consumers opinion of the brand to improve brand competition force
constantly.
Yasin and Zahari (2011), looked into the role played by family and viral marketing on
the formation of brand equity specifically the brand equity of personal computers and
mobile phones on this study. To analyze the significance of family and viral marketing
on the structure of customer-based brand equity and as factors contributing to brand
equity was their main intention through an empirical study. The study sample comprises
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of 300 respondents (Generation Y aged between 18 to 32 years old) who vary on such
demographic characteristics such as gender, age, ethnic, education level, job position
level, income level and marital status captured at shopping malls in the Klang Valley,
Malaysia. Generation Y, this segment of consumers is young and generally approach

their opinions leaders for advice. Data were collected from consumers of mobile phone
and personal computer using non probability (mall intercept) method and five-point
Likert Scale. Independent variables in this study are family influence and viral
marketing. Obtained data was analyzed using statistical tools i.e. Statistical Package of
Social Science (SPSS), descriptive analysis, factor analysis, reliability test and
regression analysis. The findings indicate that only viral marketing has a significant and
positive influence on all dimensions of brand equity namely perceived quality, brand
loyalty and brand awareness/association. Family recommendation was found to have a
significant influence on two of the dimensions of brand equity i.e. perceived quality
and brand loyalty. Meanwhile, all dimensions of brand equity were found to have a
significant influence on brand equity. Again, in determining the relationship between

the independent variables and brand awareness/associations, only viral marketing has a
positive and significant influence on brand awareness/associations. However, with the
emergence of the Web and e-WOM communications, the influence is even greater and
information is spread even wider. Thus, marketers should consider utilizing the social
media mix such as blogs, feeds, social networking, Wikis, Facebook, Twitter in their
advertising campaign in order to have a higher impact in their marketing

communications and they also need to develop viral marketing management (VRM)
department which will control the effects of viral marketing.
Zaman (2016), opted for delineating the significance of social media communication in
the process of creating awareness of a renowned brand of the company, Nescafe in her
study with a purpose of calculating the impacts of it. The leading motives were building
a clear idea regarding the existing customer involvement with the brand through social
media, recognizing the influential factors that improve it, marking the gap between
consumer expectation and brand offerings and providing suggestive measures in order
to ensure a sustainable rapport with the brand through social media communication. A
questionnaire was developed for an online survey to collect the primary data on a
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sample size of 100(who comment frequently in Nescafe page) to generate an idea about
the perception of consumers regarding the fan page and judgemental sampling method
was used on the process of sampling. Several personal interviews were executed with
the Consumer Engagement Manager and some other employees of Nestle Bangladesh
Limited to acquire information relevant to the recent condition of Digital Media
Marketing in the entire industry. Some related articles were used as secondary sources
of information. The data analysis was conducted through Facebook insights from the
Nescafe fan page as well as by using an advanced digital platform Radian 6-Social
Studio. It is concluded from the analysis that the buyers are connected with the fan page
at a satisfactory level along with their perception of a positive image of the brand.
Moreover, some properties in contents like inspiration, motivation, emotional appeal,
self-empowerment, aspiration and admire have been picked out as highly appreciated
by the users. Few consumers have developed some negativism with the TVC of Nescafe
because of being dubbed from a foreign version. It is deduced from the analysis that the
users feel more connected when they can associate their daily happenings with the
brand itself and todays target consumers are more aware of health and wellness, more
informed, expressive and festive. So for retaining this image it is recommended that the
brand should take more initiatives considering the target market and a strategic planning
through use of advanced tools and subjective analysis can ensure better success in social
media communication for NESCAF.
Findings & Recommendations

In this section, the overall findings from available literature about SNSs impact on
various factors will be discussed.
Buying decisions
From the study of several literatures above it is evident that social media marketing or
using social networking sites as viral marketing tool has strong effects on consumer
perceptions as well as in their purchase intentions. These findings mean that for
purchasing people of different demographics rely on others opinions and word of
mouth in contrast to purchaser of luxurious goods who doesnt as well as that negative
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word of mouth or any negative comments about anything influence strongly than
positive (Ahmad et al., 2014). (Alsubagh, 2015) found that friends, likes, sales usage
and shop frequency has commendable influence on buying decisions as individuals who
like firms on Facebook shop at these firms and males decisions are less affected by
sentiments. But, according to Chaarlas and Rajkumar, 2014 there is no role of the
gender of the consumers over their level of perception the components of viral
marketing. Moreover, individuals pursue an active role in information search on social
media comparing to mass media (Altaf, & Bilal et al., 2014). Barhemmati and Ahmad,
2015 figured that users are influenced more by the peoples idea and feedbacks and
social networking users and their purchase behaviors has strong rapport. Hayta, 2013
concluded participants attitudes towards buying behaviors and social media
relationships causes a significant difference with regard to educational level.

Nevertheless, the lower education level of consumer, there will be more remarkable
effect by Online Word-of-mouth (Xiaofen and Yiling 2009). So we can conclude that
WOM has great impacts on SNS users purchase actions as predominant of the authors
support the decision (Charo et al., 2015; Hajli, 2013; Ioans and Stoica, 2014;
Shashikala and Mahapatro, 2015 & so on). Torun, (2015) argued that viral marketing
activities have less effect on purchase decision. Not necessarily all the variables
influence a person in the same way and same extent (Uddin et al., 2014).
Brand image, reputation & awareness
Various studies show that positive WOM communication helps the Web consumers
cultivate solid brand trust. The study concluded that social networks provide the
marketers opportunities to target niche customer segments as internet usage are

increasing moreover, satisfied customers assist in building a strong brand reputation
(Akhtar, 2016). Zaman , 2016) disclosed the fact that the users feel more connected
when they can associate their daily happenings with the brand itself and todays target
consumers are more aware of health and wellness, more informed, expressive and
festive. In the view of Kosarizadeh and Hamdi (2015) the attitude of consumers toward
the status of the brand could be positively affected through selecting social media
marketing activities. So adopting social networks and creating continuous relationship
with customers the managers could achieve way belonging sense to trade mark in the
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customers brand perception and loyalty. Mikalef et al., (2013) the product browsing on
attractive social media websites and word of mouth intention are inextricably linked
and dissatisfied consumers could potentially backfire the investments. Moreover, social
media allow firms to build strong bonding with customer and encourage loyalty as well
as interact with customers through new channels, formats, or revenue models in terms
of luxury products
as social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), magazines,
newspapers, and blogs intensify perceptions about fashion (Mohr, 2013). Rezvani et
al., (2013) volume and Visual cues of messages is effective on brand awareness as well
as the volume and attraction of viral marketing are effective on brand loyalty.
Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2013, stated that user-generated content on social media
communication has a positive influence on both brand equity and brand attitude.VM
has a significant influence on perceived quality, brand loyalty and brand

awareness/association (Lekhanya, 2014) and family recommendation influence on
perceived quality and brand loyalty (Yasin and Zahari, 2011).
Companys media presence
E-WOM maintains the trust and integrity of the message. Whereas consumers are quick
to delete messages from marketers, a message from a known person is less likely to be
deleted (Phelps et al., 2004). Exceptional online presence and connection with
customers at a personalized level ensure increased brand awareness and purchase of the
(Bilal et al., 2014). In addition to, people who use social media tools were agreed on
that viral marketing activities try to catch consumer attention and also to create desire
on consumers (Torun, 2015). Using tactics of displaying a new viral marketing idea on
a web site through any tool like face book and other social networking sites business
can reach out to customers effectively (Chaarlas and Rajkumar , 2014). Rezvani et al.,
(2013) viral marketing is low cost but has high impact on the viable investment.
Schivinski and Dabrowski (2013) argued that though firm-created social media
communication showed a negative influence on brand equity but it has a tangible effect
on consumers brand behavior.
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Sharing contents
With the upsurge of Internet usage for communicating with others, bringing out
information, finding recommendations and interacting with family friends consumers
are and will continue to share their opinions on brands and products with or without
company interaction. Social networking websites potentially have a stronger effect on
user to share viral content as well as social network website is based on network effects,
which increases the possibility that a message will reach the right people (Abedniya &
Mahmouei ,2010). Trust plays an important role in the attitude toward and in the
intention of the consumers to engage in VM and predicts whether the consumer will
forward the received emails to others and will engage in the viral marketing campaign
or not (Aghdaie et al., 2012). Furthermore, with the increasing growth of social
networking websites, people opt to share more and more information and for tagged
based marketing, providing feedback is very critical as most of them are concerned
about the revealing of their personal information to others (Farooq and Jan, 2012). Most
interestingly consumers are more likely to pass messages and forward messages to
consumers on whom they have limited impact to weak ties i.e., low-quality contacts
(Pescher et al., 2014).
Young generations using pattern
Generation Y, is the segment of consumers who are young and generally approach their
opinions leaders for advice and the larger portion of internet user. Timeliness of online
reviews has potential and youth is more influenced by timeliness of an online review
(Charo et al., 2015). Additionally, compared with advertisement, young consumers
prefer to believe the words written by others in the internetonline review and
consumers who are highly susceptible to interpersonal influence are more likely to be
affected by eWOM (Park et al., 2011). The study further revealed that the students who
often click on social media advertisements have a complimentary reaction to such

marketing instruments even though they have privacy issues (Vinerean et al., 2013).
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References
1. Abedniya, A. & Mahmouei, S. S. (2010). The Impact of Social Networking
Websites to Facilitate the Effectiveness of Viral Marketing. (IJACSA) International

Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 1 (6), 139-146.
2. Aghdaie, S. F. A., Sanayei, A. & Etebari, M. (2012). Evaluation of the Consumers
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Table of Contents

Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................................... 4

Findings & Recommendations ................................................................................................. 28

Companys media presence ................................................................................................. 30

Young generations using pattern ......................................................................................... 31

marketing is very influential to customers purchase intention and their brand

communication through its transformation into online viral ways of communications

The concept of viral marketing is by no means new. Word-of-mouth marketing, virals

simple; use influencers to generate peer-to-peer product recommendations or buzz. This

effective way in reaching a large number of people rapidly. Viral marketing is a

marketing strategy that encourages consumers sharing marketing messages to other

(Ulmanen, 2011). Word of mouth (WOM) communications are defined as informal

2008).Viral marketing relies on provocative content to motivate unpaid link to link

communications among social networking sites of persuasive messages from identified

Social Media & Networks

implementation of cooperation projects" (Brown, 2009).Social media has also

summarize, social media is an internet based service that enables people to

Consumer Perception & Purchase Decision

Perception is a stage of processing of the senses. Perception is the awareness or

consumer's mind. Consumer behavior can be described as a psychological method of

behavior. The increasing numbers of consumers facing the issue of confusion by

(Pookulangaran et al., 2011) According to Mir (2012), thousands of internet

decisions of consumers. Recommendations by friends or connections on social media

also could help consumers on decision-making. Those recommendations could help

Objectives of the Study

The salient purposes of this literature are

To figure out influences (positive or negative) viral marketing have on purchase

decisions through social media.

interpreted that social network websites are significantly affected d by their

trust effect on viral marketing acceptance as well as verifying technology acceptance

data a survey was conveyed through a self administered questionnaire on 69 experts

University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The questionnaire was designed by the

participants on the considered variables measured on 5-point Likert scale (1="Strongly

disagree" and 5="Strongly agree"). A census-based methodology and statistical

of others opinions to alter anyones perception of using products. A survey was

consumer behavior and consumption pattern of different brands in a multinational

marketers opportunities to target niche customer segments as internet usage are

reputation. Researcher implied that regular communication helps to attract the

sites such as Facebook on the customers demeanor by using a quantitative research on

the relationships of firms social media presence on consumer behavior. Exploring

behavior rather than by sentiments. Thirdly, the research discovered a pattern of

and to portray their impact on consumer buying decision by using a descriptive

network marketing activities, customer engagement and consumer buying behavior. A

females) in the campus of National University of Malaysia (UKM) and respondents

positive relationships between customer engagement of social networking and their

administered questionnaire among them. Logistic Regression was used as analysis

influential role when it comes to decision intentions of consumers regarding different

impacts purchase intention of recipient of information. A convenience sampling method

students of SZABIST Karachi, Bahria University Karachi and other professionals

gathered the information from 20 organizations representatives. The research reflects

conducted a survey resulting in 205 respondents including both Taiwanese and

understand the factors in social relationships influence on EWOM behaviors which is

networks do have a role in influencing the demeanor of customers in the virtual

customers and consumers of leather products through selecting appropriate trade

companies. He used a five-point Likert scale of questionnaire with a personal interview

government companies while conducting the survey. A mixed approach of qualitative

Researchers recommended for South African marketing managers to encourage their

respondents of an academic institution with a relatively high educational level and

dissatisfied consumers could potentially backfire on these investments. Merchants need

emphasis on aspects which are proven to be less important by recognizing what

Mohr (2013), prepared a paper with a intention of addressing social media as a

marketing strategy to manage market shrinkage in fashion and luxury markets.

marketing shrinkage for an upscale segment, A total of 2,082 email invitations to