Social media’s rate of acceptance is gradually increasing as a popular marketing tool (Hudson & Hudson 2017). Social media has become a serious marketing tool in the last decade. Most businesses are adopting social media for marketing and business growth across restaurants. The scope of this current research is to study the impact of Instagram marketing on customers in global restaurant chains. In order to study the impact, four popular global restaurant chains have been taken into consideration, McDonald’s, Subway, Starbucks and KFC. The study considers Instagram marketing on the growth of these restaurant chains by identifying the potential impacts that it creates on customers.
In the recent decade use of social media has been tremendously increasing as different organizations use social media in order to deal with their businesses (Modi, 2017). Use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr acceptance has been increasing gradually. Social media provides an enlarged approach that organizations use for developing their business strategies. Amongst the varied types of social media, Instagram has been viewed to be a popular customer engagement method which has the capability to influence customers. As more and more global restaurant chains are making use of Instagram for their marketing activities, it becomes imperative to analyze the impact that they create on customers (Mäenpää & Brandt, 2016). There have been various studies conducted which reveal analysis of social media popular tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr on impacting customers in hospitality as well as restaurant chains. The scope of this study hence aims at filling the gap in the current research by understanding relevant areas of impact that Instagram marketing has.
Literature Gap: Studying the impact of Instagram marketing on customers
The following are some of the research questions that will be identified in this study.
-What are the impacts of Instagram marketing in the restaurant business?
– How is Instagram influencing the restaurant chain business?
In order to understand an in-depth outcome from the study, the following research questions need to be answered.
-How are the global restaurant chains adopting Instagram marketing for promoting their business?
– What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Instagram in the restaurant business?
Social media marketing is being used as a key tool in marketing strategy for various restaurants.
The survey reflects more than 8 out of 10 restaurants operators prefer social media as their marketing strategy. Gascón, Rodríguez, Bernal, and González (2017) stated more than half the restraint chains reflected upon their intention to undertake social media marketing in the next two years. Amongst the popular social mediums that are being currently in use are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogging websites and Online review sites. Statistica (2017) Facebook is one of the leading social networking sites followed by WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter. Facebook shows1, 871 million users globally, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter have over 1000 million global users. Instagram ranks seventh in worldwide position with over 600 million active users all over the world.
Figure 1: Social Media Network Sites Worldwide with Number of Users
Source: Statistica (2017)
The above data reflects the widespread acceptance and usage of social media. Social media can target a broad spectrum of customers more conveniently. Jenkins (2015) analyzed the popular marketing strategies for profitability in small independent restaurants. According to the author, smaller restaurants are focusing more on social media marketing due to their cost-effectiveness. Similarly, global restaurant chains have their targeted customers spread across the globe. Physical marketing or other electronic forms of marketing can impend huge costs upon the restaurants (Ton Thi Nhat, 2012). Therefore, they are gradually shifting to make use of social media marketing for reaching a broad spectrum of customers in a cost-effective manner.
Instagram is a social media application that allows taking photos and sharing them with their followers similar to Facebook. Varshney and Abdulfattah state the key benefit that Instagram offers is in selecting an image and then changing them into desirable pictures according to desires Initially Instagram upon launch in the year 2010 was only available for iPhone, later in the year 2011, it was launched for the Android version. Instagram saw an increase in growth of 17,319% from the year July 2011 to July 2012, which is regarded as an extraordinary growth in the history of social media.
Instagram with approximately a total of 600 million users is regarded as a perfect medium for fresh stories which allows users to focus on images to speak to their trend spotters. Instagram has been regarded as an ideal tool for small and medium businesses as well as for non-profit and global organizations to connect with their audience, useful for the business. Ukpabi et al (2017) discuss the effective manner in which fast food restaurants are influencing their target customers in order to attract them.
The usage of social media is increasing dynamically in the 21st century and is further set to increase. Peppers and Rogers (2016) identifies internet users has also grown drastically in the last few years. Earlier social media usage in business was considered a failure; such pessimism has gradually declined with 3 billion internet users existing today, with over 2 billion social media users. Social media offers several advantages for business, which has increased its applicability. Some of the advantages are popularity and customer’s vision, it has been seen that being active in social media increases the chances of being popular. Instagram experiences 95 million videos and photos upload regularly. Moreover, promoting the organization in a trendy way with hashtags help raise brand awareness and reliability. Demong, Othman and Bahasa studies the influencing factors on customer satisfaction.
Prosperous customer experience is another impact that is created by social media usage. Customers easily give responses in a quick manner depending upon whether a restaurant is present in social media or not. Restaurants often provide rich information where customers can provide support quickly, it allows increasing annual sales along with financial gain. Customer’s comments being positive or negative helps clear any possible doubts remaining in customer service. Actively making use of social media enhances the experience of customers. It has been seen that people who follow a brand are social media are generally loyal to that brand (Jaffee, 2015). Social media usage is expanding in business as a marketing platform, as it allows developing relationship with loyal customers. Through Instagram usage, an organization can post questionnaire to customers, answers to which can help management enrich future relationship with customers.
Yahoo article about Yelp found out that social media and online rating has a serious influence on the restaurant’s revenues. In the research article, improvement in one-star rating directly transformed into an increase in revenue between 5 to 9% in the market. Earlier serving quality food analyzed to be critical for a restaurant’s success but currently, there is a greater proliferation of social media. A bad experience can be shared at a much faster pace in social media. Restaurants can adopt the social media especially Instagram to post pictures of their food and ambiance and to gain a positive rating. The KFC Double Down is a direct consequence of social media. The chain restaurant impact was limited to a small, local market but with the usage of social media, it became a national topic. With the Double Down, the restaurant operators started talking about KFC, which was the aim of the organization.
In order to conduct the study, there would be certain research objectives that will need to be accomplished. The study will be conducted within a period of 150 days. The timescale for the purpose of this study will be used mostly to collect and analyze Instagram posts. There will be few posts uploaded and then the comments and discussion forums on the posts will be analyzed. There will be a survey conducted for the posts made for Instagram posts, transcripts for which will be analyzed in a qualitative manner. Some of the objectives of the study are mentioned below;
In any research, it becomes crucial to decide upon a systematic search strategy in order to arrive at the conclusion easily (Neuman, 2013). The research will be conducted using techniques of primary and secondary information on the topic. A research philosophy will need to be defined for the study for ascertaining its underlying aspects and beliefs regarding the way data is collected, analyzed and then used. Epistemology research philosophy allows evaluating the truth as it exists and there are two ways in which this philosophy can be adopted, interpretivism and positivism (Smith, 2015). In positivism philosophy, observation is made and then analyzed from a particular viewpoint whereas in interpretivism a subjective intervention is taken into consideration. This study will undertake a subjective intervention to analyze the impact of Instagram marketing on customers in global restaurant chains.
The researcher will collect various similar posts from the various global restaurant chains as has been identified in the study (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). The posts will relate to new product introduction, customer surprises, gifts, and discount coupons, new announcements regarding the opening of a new restaurant or any other new announcements and so on. Transcripts will be collected also for customer comments, which reflect a positive association with the restaurant. Some of the examples of transcript posts that will be collected for the study will be as follows;
Restaurant Transcript: “Opening a new restaurant in KFC. Be there”
Restaurant Transcript: “Visit us from 24th December to 2nd January for special offers”
Customer Transcript: “Had a wonderful meal with my family”
Customer Transcript: “The new menu options at ……offers lip-smacking delights”
Then the consecutive comments enclosed in transcripts will be analyzed to develop codes for customer impact. For ease of the study, a total of 10 codes will be developed from the raw data. Codes will be as enclosed below;
|
Codes |
Transcript |
|
Customer Satisfaction |
“Loved the restaurant, will visit again |
|
Prices |
“Affordable and cost-effective” |
|
Location |
“Located at city center” |
|
Food |
“Serves hot, high-quality food” |
|
Menu |
“Innovates menu every time I visit” |
|
Ambiance |
“Well placed chairs and good arrangements inside the restaurant” |
The above codes will have sub-codes, which will ease the procedure of data analysis. Deriving from the raw data collected transcripts and then applied to specific codes and sub-codes, the findings of the study will be completed.
The study will develop the codes and sub-codes by referring to secondary data, such as journals, articles and website sources. However, for the purpose of conducting the study primary data will be collected, which is the first had data (Bell, Bryman & Harley, 2018). The researcher will posts comments and then the subsequently posted transcripts will be taken into consideration for the purpose of analysis. The study will make use of only qualitative data and quantitative data will be not be used for the study. Qualitative data implying subjective data that reflects various thoughts, feelings and emotions will be collected (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Quantitative data or data that can be measured will not be considered for the purpose of this study. Participants for the study will be contacted from Instagram, they will be sent out a message asking their opinion for the study. Once they are ready to take part in the study, then they will be sent out consent forms, which they will need to sign for their approval. Once participants have agreed to take part in the study, they will be provided links for various posts to comment on. A total of 100 participants will form the population for the research. Amongst which participants, who have not responded adequately nor have few posts, will not be considered. Through random sampling technique, a total of 50 participant’s data will be analyzed for the study, after rejecting data from exclusion criteria.
Once the data has been collected for the study, the researcher will aim at conducting a qualitative and descriptive analysis of the data using past literature sources. The data will be analyzed using codes and sub-codes developed in accordance with the transcript. This procedure will allow in-depth and detailed analysis of the data. Moreover, it will allow arriving at the findings of the qualitative analysis of the research. Though the study will aim to accommodate all possible comments and posts, yet there might be some limitations faced in the study. Limitations might include the inability to accommodate demographically or geographically diverse posts, inability to accommodate views for other restaurant chains, inability to understand other factors associated with the comments. Thus, the study will face these possible limitations.
The current study will take into consideration all possible ethical issues. The researcher will provide details of the study to its participants, making clear all the objectives of the study. The participants will be made to sign the ethical form attached in Appendix 1 before taking part in the study. The researcher will not obtain data from the participants in form of force or by any unethical means. The researcher will make clear to the participants the request questions before they can attempt the same. Moreover, there will be no financial benefits arising from the study and participants will be provided with a certificate of participation. Post completion of the work, the participants will be able to view the completed work of the researcher. The researcher will only make use of the data provided by the participants and will not reveal the participant’s name or other personal details in the study. The researcher will refer all works that have been used for this study and will not reproduce anyone else’s work as his own.
In order to conduct the study, a detailed timeline and resources will need to be ascertained. The resources for the research along with their specific budget have been detailed below. A budget is specified with the research as well in order to ascertain that the project is completed in an unhindered manner. Appendix 2
The data that will be collected for the study will need to be analyzed, which can be done either manually or by using NVivo software. Attached in Appendix 3 below is a detailed timeline chart for the study. In the data collection section of the study, tasks have been shown to be broken such as survey, studying or analyzing Instagram posts or reviews, writing, editing, pilot testing, superior’s review and so on with the specific time frame.
Reference:
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Jaffee, A.I., 2015. Customer Loyalty System and Method. U.S. Patent Application 14/535,402. Accessed from https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150127445A1/en
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