G.

L BAJAJ
INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH

DISSERTATION SYNOPSIS ON

The Impact of Social Media on Customer Purchase Decision

Submitted by
Under the guidance of
Prasoon Pandey PROF. RITIKA
CHAUHAN
ROLL NO: GM18154

Introduction
The social media are increasingly influencing and changing the way the consumers behave,
and how they make the decision to buy. Term "social media" is to refer to online
communication channels, while the term "traditional mass media" is refer to conventional
communication media like TV, radio, newspapers, etc.
The consumer decision making process consists of 5 stages: Need/problem recognition,
information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour.
According to studies, all of these stages are impacted by social media usage, not only in
developed countries, but also in the developing ones, like Kosovo. The Internet penetration
and usage in Kosovo, like in the rest of the world, has increased dramatically over the last
years. This growth is further so driven by the use of smart phones.
According to Internet World Stat, by 2013, Internet use in Kosovo was almost the same as in
the most European developed countries (76.6% of Kosovo population), and it was the
highest rate in region, leaving behind countries like Croatia, and Macedonia. According to a
study by AICTK (Association of Information and Communication Technology of Kosovo),
55.48% of the respondents in their research, have Internet access via smart phones. When it
comes to social media usage in Kosovo, there is far less data. By 2013, the Ministry of
European Integration of Kosovo, prepared a guide to implementing social media in support
of Kosovo’s EU Integration Process. According to this guide, one third of Kosovar Internet
users (around 75%) are Facebook users, and only 6-7% are Twitter users. A similar trend is
witnessed among Kosovar businesses. The Independent Media Commission in Kosovo
reported that 70% of the advertising budget by businesses is spent in traditional mass media
(TV, radio, newspapers, leaflets, bill-boards), whereas only 3% for online advertising. But
this is likely to change in the near future, considering that over one third of Internet users in
Kosovo are under the age of 30, and the target age for businesses still remains 19-30 .
Given this figure, this introduction aims to provide missing information regarding the
impact of social media usage, and bring evidence to Kosovar businesses that using these
media, can help them reach a larger number of consumers, take better care for their
existing consumers, finding new ones, and consequently, to drive business growth.
Literature Review
Social media Social media takes us back to the beginning when people lived in groups and
clans and took decisions together by being affected with each other. By simple definition,
the social media refers to activities, practices, and behaviour among communities of people
who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational
media (Web based applications). Today, a web page is a necessity for the marketing mix of a
company, and the social media content is considered as King. Through the social media, viral
marketing is developed, which refers to the strategy of urging the visitors of web page to
share information published on Internet, to their friends, so that, they can inform more
people for a product or event, through photos, videos, etc. According to Zarella, there are
some types of social media, like: Blog, Microblog , Social Networks (Facebook, LinkedIn),
Media sharing (YouTube, Flickr), Social News and Bookmarking , Rating and reviews pages
(Yelp), Forums and Virtual Worlds (Second Life) [7]. Using them has many benefits for
consumers, such as: saving consumers time, better informing possibilities, more reliable
information, reduced cost of informing, better communication with companies, and reduced
prices. Almost half of the world’s population used the Internet and the social media, and
this trend is in a rapid rise.
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Objectives
1. To study the reason of online consumer’s Social Media usage.
2. To study the customers buying behaviour with respect to Social media advertising.
3. To study the impact of social media advertising on the buying behaviour.
4. To study the effectiveness of Social Media tools like facebook, twitter on the consumer
behaviour.
5. To study the impact of social media advertising on working women belonging to different
demographic factors such as qualification, annual income, occupation and place.

The Research Methodology

Data Collection:
Primary data was collected by questionnaire survey method. Research instrument is
questionnaire, personal interviews.
Secondary data from various published articles from journals, books, internet websites .

Sample Design
The present study has been conducted for the city of Greater Noida. Due to limitations of
time and cost the questionnaires were collected through convenient sampling method. A total
of 150 cases were considered for the analysis.