An Analysis of Effectiveness of Social Media Campaign on Buying Intent

Question: An analysis of effectiveness of social media campaign on buying intention in retail business. Answer: Introduction Background of the Research Within a very short period, the social media advertising has come a long way. As opined by Tuten and Solomon (2013), at the time of its launching in May 2005, Facebook provided its first promotional option, about which it has never been predicted thatthe social media publicity returns would be more than $8.4 billionby 2015. Hence, it can easily be said that, over the years, the growth and popularity of internet has been widespread across the world. This has significantly changed or altered the overall approach of people towards shopping. Especially, the social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter provides the platform to change the traditional way of marketing. As mentioned by Liu and Lopez (2014), Facebook has more than 700 million regular active users along with 1.5 million business pages and 30 pieces of content shared on each month. With the growth and popularity of internet, social media has significantly emerged to be one of the most prominent and innovative platform in terms of marketing and promotional activities (Noreen and Han (2015). According to Kemp, Eagle and Verne (2010), Business organizations across the globe have significantly recognized the importance of social media as a major marketing tool for influencing the overall buying behaviour or patterns among the customers. Owing to the growth of modern technologies, in terms of communication, along with the enhanced aids of information, Park and Jun (2012) observed that the modern day consumers are highly inclined towards online or internet shopping which specifically refers to the distinctive process of buying or purchasing of products and services through internet by using the social media websites. As opined by Biddle and Emmett (2011) in 2014, mobile promotion comprisedalmost 68% of the profit share of Facebook and almost 84% of the profit share of Twitter. As mentioned by Liu and Lopez (2014) in the global context, two-thirds of media promotion spend is anticipated to go to the mobile ads in 2018, which will create almost $9.1 billion sell via mobile. The growth and advancements in the field of social media is said to have an influential impact on the different life aspects of people across the globe. Social media is seen to support its users in the fields of business, advertising, marketing and education (Hudson, 2013). As mentioned by Biddle and Emmett (2011), considering the perspective of business, social media offers an effective platform for the respective buyers and business for directly interacting to each other, which makes it easy for the businesses to market their products and services among a large number of social media users across the globe. Market observations have significantly highlighted the fact that modern day consumers are seen to make progressive use of technology especially social media as a major tool for the purpose of online shopping (Grnroos, 2014). This overall process is an electronic one, which enables the respective customers in dealing with the business people for meeting their purchasing needs and requirements. Thus in this context, it can be widely said that social media plays a proactive role in this specific process, thereby allowing the business organizations to develop or maintain proficient relations with their respective consumers or buyers in the respective marketplace. Through social media marketing, business organizations and enterprises can implement advanced strategies or approaches for influencing the buying behaviour or patterns among the respective customers or consumers (Par Jun 2012). It is by the virtue of social media marketing, that business enterprises across the globe can implement new and advanced marketing strategies, which provide them with an additional advantage over that of the traditional marketing strategies or approaches. Through proper utilization of the innovative marketing platform provided by social media, business organizations can substantially convey the overall benefits of their products and services to their customers thereby attracting more customers towards their products and services. In this respect, it can be said that the social media platforms enable the business organizations across the globe to develop a long-term relationship with their customers, which in turn facilitates the generation of customer trust a nd loyalty. This enables the organizations to influence the buying or purchasing behaviour among their respective customers or buyers in the market. Social media platforms also enable the business organizations and enterprises to enhance the levels and quality of their customer services and facilities. Through the proper incorporation of social media in their marketing and promotional activities, business organizations across the globe can essentially improve and enhance the levels and quality of their customer support and services (Noreen, 2015). The social media websites enable the organizations to offer quick responses and support to the respective customer or consumer queries, which result in the generation of high satisfaction levels of the customers. In addition, through social media marketing campaigns, organizations can also gather the necessary feedbacks from customers regarding the offered products and services. This enables the organizations to make the necessary changes to their prod ucts and services as per the needs and requirements of the customers for positively influencing their buying behaviour towards the products and services offered by the respective organization (Subramani Rajagopalan, 2013). This research will aim in exploring and analysing the impacts which social media marketing has on the consumer buying behaviour in the retail business of UK. Research Rationale: With the modern marketing campaigns, social media marketing campaigning is making the retail customers change their perception towards the buying process as well the purchasing decision, which may have an impact on the competitive nature of the retail firms operating in the UK. Therefore, with constant brand visualization in these social media websites, people gets attracted toward the brand and take a buying decision ultimately (Sashi, 2012). The degree of influences on the consumer is of utmost importance Promotion through social media is a new marketing strategy for an organization and is essentially a part of online marketing. Moreover, from the perspective of the company, it is important to mention that, it requires a huge amount of cost for buying the digital space of the social media websites. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the social media marketing for creating awareness about the brand among the prospective consumers. According to the view of Noreen and Han, (2015), promotional and marketing activities in traditional media has been effectively used by corporate and organizations around the world. A number of companies have successfully utilized the traditional media i.e. print media and advertisements through hoarding and banners. They have used those in making the brand popular among the targeted consumer for in-numerous numbers of organizations around the world. Therefore, it is important to throw some light and research in the quiet new marketing strategy through social media for its influence in creating consumer-buying decisions. Importance of the Research: The promotions through the social medium are at the nascent stage, that organizations around the world are using extensively. As per the reports published by Kadie Regan an internet analysts, it is estimated that more than billion will be actively using social media by 2020 around the world (Noreen and Han, 2015). Thus, this portrays the fact of the inherent potential of the social media to be one of the most sought after platforms for the corporate for promotional and marketing platform. However, at the same time, it is important to understand the effectiveness of the medium to create a positive influence on the overall decision-making the process of the consumers for the promotional activities that are done through the online social media platforms. Research Aims and Objective: Research Aims: The main aim of this research study is to evaluate the effectiveness of introducing social media marketing campaigns for the analysis of the consumer buying intention for the retail business in the UK. Research Objectives: The main objectives of the report, which this particular research paper will try to investigate, are mentioned below: i) To evaluate the effectiveness of social media campaigns in the retail business in the UK ii) To investigate the impacts of social media campaigning on the buying behaviour of the customers in retail business in the UK iii) To explore the relationship between social media marketing and sales performance of the retail business in the UK iv)To explore the advantages of social media marketing over the traditional marketing campaigns in the retail business Research Questions: The research questions that the entire research activity will try to answer are mentioned below: 1) What is the possibility of social media becoming one of the most sought after promotional platforms by the organizations and marketers? 2) What are the different techniques that are adopted by corporate and organizations for promoting their respective brand through a social medium? 3) What is the extent to which the marketing activities through social media can enable a positive buying intention among the prospective consumer base? Research Structure: A research must be done in a proper structure so that the all the relevant steps for conducting a research can be done and presented in an effective manner. So a proper approach to the research structure is followed in this case. The research structure which will be followed for conducting this research, titled, evaluating the Effectiveness of Social Media Campaign on Buying Intention is given below: References Books: Evans, D. (2008).Social media marketing. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley. Samli, A. (2013).International consumer behaviour in the 21st Century. New York, NY: Springer. Tuten, T. and Solomon, M. (2013).Social media marketing. Boston: Pearson. Journals: Artusi, M. and Maurizzi, A. (2011). The involvement process through social media in 2010 UK elections: is it a real Facebook-based participation?.International Journal of Technology Marketing, 6(4), p.305. Grnroos, C., (2014). 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