What Is The Role Of Social Media To Influence The Consumer Behavior?
Which Factors Could Impact On The Purchasing Decision Of Consumer?
Which Strategy Can Persuade The Purchasing Behavior Of Customer?
Woolworths is largest supermarket chain in the Australia. It deals in 995 stores across the Australia. Woolworths employed approximately 115,000 employees in its distribution centers, stores, and support offices by offering the quality services, value, convenience, and range. It prides itself on performing closely with Australian growers and farmers to make sure that best products are presented for the customers. It also sources 96% of all fresh vegetables and fruits and 100% of fresh meat from Australian farmers and growers. It also constructs Woolworths Australia’s fresh food people. It is one of leading innovative retailers in Australia as it focuses on new and simple ways for customers to shop. Consumers can purchase from the ease of their computer on the train or at home and on the way by using Woolworths supermarket app (Woolworths, 2018). The significant feature is that groceries could be delivered straight to the bench of kitchen.
In the digital era, social media marketing has an impact on the behavior of consumers as social media technology facilitates the power to the consumer for assessing the product features with unfavorable and favorable reviews. The previous research was conducted on the characteristics of consumer purchasing intention through social media. It is addressed that there are certain factors, which may affect the behavior of consumer with regards to affordable price, the loyalty of brand, product features, and its quality. A current development has taken place in the retail industry while entailing the social media channels (Zeng and Gerritsen, 2014). Australian retail marketing is one of the foremost industries due to emphasizing on the high amount of middle-income customers. It is determined that Woolworth can arrive at the millions of customers in the future. Hence, research was conducted to access the social media channels and its impact on the business. The growth and wider uses of internet technologies may have altered the way of interaction within communities as it may affect the both professional as well as personal life (Mkono and Tribe, 2017).
Conceptual and theoretical understanding about consumer behavior and social media
According to So, King, Sparks, and Wang (2016), social media is computer-mediated technologies, which provides the innovation and sharing of data, career interests, ideas and other forms of expression through virtual networks and societies. There are some theories, which assess the role of social media in influencing the consumer behavior. In this way, social cognitive theory determined that consumer behavior is a mutual and dynamic interaction with personal traits and expressions. It is also opined that social environmental components assess the intention of customers with regards to purchasing of goods and services.
In support to this, Lim, Hwang, Kim, and Biocca (2015) evaluated that there is a certain model with respect to consumer purchasing behavior, which specifies the correlations amid social media and purchasing procedure of customers. These models are known as a contemporary model and traditional model. The traditional model focuses on economic, learning and sociological aspects. As well as, the contemporary model contains the Howard-sheth marketing aspects.
Westberg, Stavros, Smith, Munro, and Argus (2018) Discussed that social media has a fundamental role in each phase of marketing in the current international business circumstances. It is significant to spread the awareness amid engaging and new customers, and also aids to develop products and acquires customers with regards to brands. In Australia, mobile screen is widely used by individuals but, there is dynamically alteration in the path of media and communicate with others. It is assessed that social media is widely used by customers before and after the purchase as it aids to get the description of products and services and get the review of others with a particular brand.
In opposed to this, Munar, and Jacobsen (2014) opined that social media provides the opportunity to the company for connecting with the perspective of customers and also extend the behavior of stickiness for the purchaser and creates the imperative association with prospective customers. Another theory is trust, which illustrates that trust should be maintained by the advertiser to connect the customers with their products and services. This theory also influences the customer to prefer the specific brand in the concerned area.
Dolan, Conduit, Fahy, and Goodman (2016) assessed that there are certain factors which could influence the consumer behavior like psychological, behavioral, cultural and social factors. Culture plays a significant role to identify the behavior of customers. In such circumstances, culture plays a vital role to analyze the behavior of the consumer. In such case, culture is the vital perception of individual behavior, which considers the human culture, functions that community plays, community behavior, and its customs value and tradition. Hence, the culture should be extensively analyzed as it is a key factor, which may affect the behavior of consumers.
In favored to this, Kim, Li, and Brymer (2016) evaluated that there is a certain social factor, which may influence the behavior of consumers. Under the societal factor, reference group has positively or negatively influenced the behavior of the consumer. Its effect could be distinct from one brand and product to another. This group includes the ideas and beliefs of leaders. Further, the attitude of customers is not only affected by the motivation and personality but also affected by the family and their members who have more than two people as well as influenced by marriage and blood relationship.
Hajli (2015) recommended that recognized individual could generate five times more trust rather than the marketing of the brand. Furthermore, a corporation should exercise sports person, celebrities, and another renowned individual to endorse their brand. It would be effective to persuade the buying decision of consumers.
In support of this, Kedzior, Allen, and Schroeder (2016) suggested that marketers should emphasize on the expected needs of customers to influence their behavior. In such case, marketers should combine the marketing with their experience to persuade the purchasing decision of customers. It is also recommended that marketers should emphasize on developing the long-term liaison with their customers as compared to emphasizing on quick selling. Since, customers suppose to obtain authentic product and obtain the specific extent of personalization in purchasing the high amount of goods with the upscale matter.
Under this research, research design is effective to provide the significant instruction to collect the facts and figures and assess the outcome of research concern. There is a different type of research design, which is exercised by an investigator to meet the research objectives such as quantitative and qualitative research design (Tuten, and Solomon, 2017).
For completing this investigation, an investigator will implement the following procedure as it is beneficial to conduct the qualitative research.
Initially, an investigator will construct the research question with respect to specified research concern. After that, appropriate research topic will be selected by an investigator. Subsequent, gathered relevant facts and figures will be interpreted in a comprehensible form by the researcher. Later, a researcher will construct the theoretical and conceptual knowledge with regards to conducting the investigation and write up results (Goodrich and De Mooij, 2014). These procedures would be implemented to analyze the role of social media in influencing the behavior of consumer in Woolworths Limited, Australia.
The inductive approach will be exercised by an investigator due to qualitative nature of research concern for completing this research. In addition, this approach would be implemented for this investigation as it will make competent to an investigator for constructing theories and conceptual knowledge with regards to research concern. As a result, this investigation approach would be significant to improve the validity and reliability of investigation result. In opposed to this, the deductive approach will not be implemented by the investigator as there is no requirement for generating the hypothesis (Dijkmans, Kerkhof, and Beukeboom, 2015). Moreover, the deductive approach will not be implemented because research concern relies on subjective nature.
Sampling is a process of choosing the participants from the high amount of population in order to pool the desired facts and figures in order to meet the main aim and objectives of the investigation. With the intention of this investigation, non-probability sampling process will be exercised by investigator because research concern is based on qualitative nature. But, this step does not offer the identical chances to each participant. Although, this sampling technique will be less costly yet, it would be time taking because of using open-ended questionnaire framework under the survey (Brown and Knight, 2015).
For obtaining the qualitative based survey, 5 marketing manager will be chosen from Woolworths limited, Australia with the purpose of the interview. Under this interview, an investigator will say to the participant to share their beliefs and opinion with regards to the role of social media to influence the consumer behavior in Woolworths Limited, Australia.
The primary facts and figures are the first hand information that is pooled by investigator to obtain valid and reliable result. It is collected by using the experiment, observation, survey and questionnaire. By using this technique, an investigator will be competent to obtain the facts and figures associated with research concern as it will improve the research quality. With the purpose of this investigation, an investigator will use survey through questionnaire as it aids to collect the high quantity of data from targeted population (Valos, Haji Habibi, Casidy, Driesener, and Maplestone, 2016). As well as, it provides the valid facts and figures to attain the goal and objective of research.
Under this investigation, the investigator will use two variables named dependent and independent variable. In such concern, the independent variable is social media and the dependent variable is consumer behavior towards the product of Woolworths Limited, Australia (Wakefield, 2016).
The below steps will be implemented by an investigator for completing the quantitative investigation (Tsiotsou, 2015).
As per the above chart, it could be demonstrated that initially, an investigator will construct the conceptual understanding and create the hypothesis. Afterward, research design and certain concepts associated with research concern will be framed. After that, an investigator will choose the feasible investigation sites and select the feasible subjects. Subsequently, data will be pooled and analysed by an investigator through distinct technique. Later, findings will be estimated by an investigator to reach at the specific conclusion (Tsiotsou, 2015).
Research instrument is defined as measurement tool that is framed to pool the facts and figures as per the research subject matter. With the intention of this investigation, secondary data will be used to accomplish the objectives and aim of research. Secondary data will be pooled from specific sources, which are already available on different journal and websites. These secondary sources would be company websites, academic publication, journal articles, offline, and online websites (Dahl, 2018). These tools would be implemented by an investigator as it takes less time and expenditure.
The below chart depicts the process of quantitative data analysis that would be practiced by an investigator:
The above diagram depicts that an investigator will prepare the facts and figures that would be assessed and choice the feasible data from them at the initial level. Later, a researcher will increase the knowledge with regards to frequencies, mean and recoding. After that, data will be assessed by an investigator through distinct tools like statistical. Further, Ms-excel software would be used to demonstrate the data via distinct charts, tables and graphs. Subsequent, it will construe and describe the outcome and suggest the strategies to improve the research study (Dahl, 2018). Consequently, it would be beneficial to attain the aim and objective of investigation at the particular time.
For quantitative analysis, probability sampling technique will be implemented by an investigator as it provides the equivalent chances to participants for giving their response. Consequently, it would be significant to reduce the possibilities of partiality from the investigation (Valos, Haji Habibi, Casidy, Driesener, and Maplestone, 2016). With the intention of performing the quantitative-based survey, 50 users will be chosen who uses the social media to purchase the products and services of Woolworths Limited, Australia. This investigation would be prominent to obtain the valid and reliable result in minimum time because of using close-ended questionnaire under the survey.
Validity is described as the extent to which wide range of concept is appropriately evaluated in the quantitative investigation. For example, survey through questionnaire will be implied by an investigator to address the role of social media in influencing the consumer behavior in Woolworths Limited, Australia. Another technique is reliability, which will be practiced to analyze the quality in a quantitative investigation (Dahl, 2018). An investigator will apply certain instrument of research like survey through questionnaire because of quantitative nature of research concern.
After pooling the facts and figures, statistical data analysis technique will be used by an investigator to pool the data and construe it in a comprehensible form. With the intention of this investigation, Ms-excel software will be implied by an investigator to depict the facts and figures via different bar diagram, pie chart and column diagram (Tsiotsou, 2015). As a result, it would be competent for readers to create the broad understanding with respect to research subject matter.
An investigator will implement the data protection regulation 1988, where they have no authority to disclose the personal information to another person before research completion. An investigator will also not compel to any respondents to share personal information and cannot demonstrate it by handling. Moreover, an investigator will enlighten regarding the research purpose to the superior before pooling the facts and figures (Wakefield, 2016). As a result, an investigator would be competent to engage the respondents in the investigation.
Table 1: Time plan for completing the research
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Activities which would be practiced |
Number of days to complete the practices |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
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Choice of feasible research concern |
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Choosing the aim and objectives |
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Collection of primary and secondary information |
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Framing the questions |
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Choosing the sample from a large amount of population by sampling technique |
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Evaluating findings |
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Writing of report and drafting for final submission |
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Project submission |
The above time plan shows that conducting the survey through questionnaire and gathering the data via secondary sources will take more time as compared to other practices, which would be performed.
References
Brown, A., & Knight, T. (2015). Shifts in media images of women appearance and social status from 1960 to 2010: A content analysis of beauty advertisements in two Australian magazines. Journal of aging studies, 35, 74-83.
Chung, N., & Koo, C. (2015). The use of social media in travel information search. Telematics and Informatics, 32(2), 215-229.
Dahl, S. (2018). Social media marketing: Theories and applications. USA: Sage.
Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P., & Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, 58-67.
Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2016). Social media engagement behavior: A uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(3-4), 261-277.
Goodrich, K., & De Mooij, M. (2014). How ‘social’ is social media? A cross-cultural comparison of online and offline purchase decision influences. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(1-2), 103-116.
Hajli, N. (Ed.). (2015). Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing. UK: IGI Global.
Kedzior, R., Allen, D. E., & Schroeder, J. (2016). The selfie phenomenon–consumer identities in the social media marketplace. European Journal of Marketing, 50(9/10), 1767-1772.
Kim, W. G., Li, J. J., & Brymer, R. A. (2016). The impact of social media reviews on restaurant performance: The moderating role of excellence certificate. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 41-51.
Lim, J. S., Hwang, Y., Kim, S., & Biocca, F. A. (2015). How social media engagement leads to sports channel loyalty: Mediating roles of social presence and channel commitment. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, 158-167.
Mkono, M., & Tribe, J. (2017). Beyond reviewing: Uncovering the multiple roles of tourism social media users. Journal of Travel Research, 56(3), 287-298.
Munar, A. M., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2014). Motivations for sharing tourism experiences through social media. Tourism Management, 43, 46-54.
So, K. K. F., King, C., Sparks, B. A., & Wang, Y. (2016). The role of customer engagement in building consumer loyalty to tourism brands. Journal of Travel Research, 55(1), 64-78.
Tsiotsou, R. H. (2015). The role of social and parasocial relationships on social networking sites loyalty. Computers in human behavior, 48, 401-414.
Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2017). Social media marketing. Sage.
Valos, M. J., Haji Habibi, F., Casidy, R., Driesener, C. B., & Maplestone, V. L. (2016). Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication frameworks: Perspectives of services marketers. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(1), 19-40.
Wakefield, K. (2016). Using fan passion to predict attendance, media consumption, and social media behaviors. Journal of Sports Management, 30(3), 229-247.
Westberg, K., Stavros, C., Smith, A. C., Munro, G., & Argus, K. (2018). An examination of how alcohol brands use sport to engage consumers on social media. Drug and alcohol review, 37(1), 28-35.
Woolworths (2018). About us. Retrieved from: https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-brands/supermarkets/Woolworths
Zeng, B., & Gerritsen, R. (2014). What do we know about social media in tourism? A review. Tourism Management Perspectives, 10, 27-36.
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