Table of Contents

1.Introduction..............................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Background............................................................................................................................................2
1.2 Statement of Problem...........................................................................................................................3
1.3 Significance........................................................................................................................................3
1.4 Objectives..........................................................................................................................................3
1.5 Research Questions...........................................................................................................................3
2 Literature review......................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Brand loyalty......................................................................................................................................4
2.2 Customer Satisfaction............................................................................................................................4
6 References............................................................................................................................................7

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 1.Introduction
Social media has recently gained popularity among businesses and marketing of products. Over
the last decade, social media has redefined the living styles of individuals and business activities.
The rising of social media played a very important role. Some social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram transformed as mobile compulsory applications. Almost 100 best
companies use social media and 54% have a Facebook fan page (Gamboa & Goncalves,2014).
After innovation in cellular data technology 3g,4g introduced with the higher speed of internet.
After that innovation everyone is using social media with one finger touch and have great
information about every brand products or different news. Social media allows business to
interact with millions of customers at the same time, and business need. Almost every Firm in
Pakistan is looking to improve his social media marketing and spend a lot money to make strong
brand communication, product promotion and customer relationship (Zhang, Lu, Gupta,
&Zhao,2014). It is worth to study consumer behavior in the area of mobile social media, in
addition to the effects brought by social media to businesses (Lee & Phang, 2015). Moreover,
“are customers really empowered by social media”. The Need to access the social media by
privacy concerns. Customers participation in online social network could indirectly establish
customer loyalty. Mobile social commerce continuous usage could influence brand loyalty
among customers. If customer brand loyalty is influenced by mobile social commerce usage and
post usage satisfaction understand the impacts of deliverable by social media to businesses. E-
commerce has been described as sharing business information, maintaining business
relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks.

1.1 Background
Social media is to the way of communication between different communities in which they
share, produce and exchange thoughts, opinion through networks. It us define as a group of
internet based application that build on the ideological and technological foundations that allow
the creation and exchange of user generated content. Usage of mobile and internet that create
highly interactive platforms through which people of different communities discuss, create user
generated content. It produces change in communities, organization, and institutions by
combining it on a same platform towards individual. The unstable growth of social media
provided millions of people the opportunity to create and share content on a large scale
imaginable a few years ago. Large participation in these social networks are reacted in the
countless number of opinions, news, and product reviews. Now social media is framework like a
honeycomb in the world, which is surrounded all the world in a global way. Social media have
different forms in which it interacts with different peoples.

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1.2 Statement of Problem
In world millions of brands are trying to gain new customers and tend to retain them. In this
competitive world where customer have wide range and varieties of choices. It is difficult for the
brands to stop them switching to other brands and to make them loyal and satisfied with their
products. It is also very difficult to take decision that what factors should be focused to maintain
the brand loyalty and customer satisfaction in customers.

1.3 Significance
If people don’t know about your business, they can’t become your customers. Social media
boosts your visibility among potential customers. Social media boosts your visibility among
potential customers, letting you reach a wide audience by using a large amount of time and
effort. And its free to create business profile on all the major social networks, so you have
nothing to lose. Customers are increasingly savvier and more discerning about which businesses
they support. Before making decision, they will do a quick search to browse your website and
social media. Customer are not interested in businesses that publish dry corporate style media
posts. Let your brands personality shine through in everything you share on social media.
Develop your reputation as a responsive, caring brand by offering support through social
channels. Create system for tracking customer comments, questions and complaints on social
media. Respond as quickly as possible to questions and concerns. Listen to criticism and make
customers feel heard. Marketing costs add up. And not every business can afford huge
campaigns. But you can get a lot of value for your dollar with social media advertising. Your
business, regardless of size or budget, has an opportunity to grow your audience and reach your
objectives through ads on social platforms like Facebook Instagram. Social media is a crucial
part of your business marketing, but it doesn’t have to be stressful to manage. Take the first step,
create a profile, and start engaging with your customers.

1.4 Objectives
 Evaluate the key factors which influence customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
 To know who will be the audience, accurately target the customer or area.
 Strengthen engagement strategies for increased brand loyalty.
 Increase customer satisfaction and positive brand perception.
 Monitor and control customer feedback.
 Grow Revenue.

General Objective
The purpose of this research is to identify and examine consumers’ purchase
intention in Malaysia through social media marketing, brand loyalty and electronic
word of mouth. Besides that, this research is keen to ascertain the relationships
between of both social media marketing and electronic word of mouth towards
brand loyalty among the consumers in Malaysia leading to purchase intentions.

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Specific Objectives
The following are the specific objectives of this research derived from the general
objective in the previous section.
RO1: To investigate the association between social media marketing and, brand
loyalty.
RO2: To considers the relationship between electronic word of mouth towards
brand loyalty.
RO3: To identify the significant influence of social media marketing towards
consumers’ purchase intention.
RO4: To examine the correlation between brand loyalty and consumers’ purchase
intention.
RO5: To investigate the significant impacts of electronic word of mouth by
communities’ members towards consumers’ purchase intention.

1.5 Research Questions

 Credibility is becoming a challenge in the world of social media, how to overcome this?
 How does social media marketing influences consumer’s behavior on purchase intention
of product or service?
 How does brand loyalty affect consumers behavior on purchase intention of product?
 How does electronic media positively affect consumers brand loyalty?
 How does electronic word of mouth impact the consumers’ purchase intention of a
product or service?

2 Literature review

2.1 Brand loyalty

Brand image is the set of concepts, feeling, and attitudes that a consumer has regarding a brand.
Brand image is a representation of a product in consumers’ minds he also added that product can
be divided into three images; functional, social and perceived and many determinants of brand
image is exist including appearance, attributes, and functions of products as well as the roles that
products play in consumers lives. This image incorporates not only the functional properties but
also emotional and symbolic consideration (Tsai-Yuan & Chang, 2013). Brand image is one of
the most complex factors it strongly and significantly influences consumer preference to present
his or her image. People define themselves by the possession of the products they have. Studies
showed that attractiveness of brand personality indirectly affects brand loyalty. brand image is
affects loyalty in two ways; first is consumer prefer to present his own image and the second is
people tend to classify themselves into different social categories. Brand image attracts
consumers to purchase the brand and trigger them to repetitive purchasing and reduce in price
does not affect their switching behavior and it is very important for the brand having minor
physical differences take competitive advantage. In emerging markets, consumers are willing to
adopt change and lifestyle oriented and use a brand to express themselves and they are more
likely to be loyal.

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Frame Work

2.2 Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction has a strong relationship with brand loyalty furthermore researcher claim
that customer satisfaction could not be clearly understood without loyalty. There is a positive and
strong relationship between brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Satisfaction brings loyalty
towards brand and dissatisfaction become a reason to switch the brand mostly. In most of
literature satisfaction was integrated as a dominant factor which leads to brand loyalty. They also
explore that purchase decision of loyal customers become a habit in nature. Customer
satisfaction improves reputation in services markets and relationship of customer satisfaction and
brand loyalty. According to researcher retaining, existing customer is easier than gaining new
customers (Farhan Ullah & Adeeba, 2013).

3 Research Methodology

Research can be defined as “an activity that involves finding out, in a more or less systematic
way, things you did not know” (Walliman and Walliman, 2011, p.7).
“Methodology is the philosophical framework within which the research is conducted or the
foundation upon which the research is based” (Brown, 2006).
Research Methodology chapter of a research describes research methods, approaches and designs
in detail highlighting those used throughout the study, justifying my choice through describing

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 advantages and disadvantages of each approach and design taking into account their practical
applicability to our research.
O’Leary (2004, p.85) describes methodology as the framework which is associated with a
particular set of paradigmatic assumptions that we will use to conduct our research. Allan and
Randy (2005) insist that when conducting a research methodology should meet the following
two criteria:
Firstly, the methodology should be the most appropriate to achieve objectives of the research.
Secondly, it should be made possible to replicate the methodology used in other researches of the
same nature

3.1 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy deals with the source, nature and development of knowledge. In simple
terms, a research philosophy is belief about the ways in which data about a phenomenon should
be collected, analyzed and used.
Although the idea of knowledge creation may appear to be profound, you are engaged in
knowledge creation as part of completing your dissertation. You will collect secondary and
primary data and engage in data analysis to answer the research question and this answer marks
the creation of new knowledge.
Addressing research philosophy in your dissertation involves being aware and formulating your
beliefs and assumptions. 

Discussion of research philosophy in your dissertation should include the following:

1. You need to specify the research philosophy of your study. Your research philosophy can
be pragmatism, positivism, realism or interpretivism as discussed below.
2. The reasons behind philosophical classifications of the study need to be provided.
3. You need to discuss the implications of your research philosophy on the research strategy
in general and the choice of primary data collection methods in particular.

3.1.1 Positivism

As philosophy, positivism adheres to the view that only “factual” knowledge gained
through observation (the senses), including measurement, is trustworthy. In positivism studies
the role of the researcher is limited to data collection and interpretation  in an objective way. In
these types of studies research findings are usually observable and quantifiable.
Positivism depends on quantifiable observations that lead to statistical analyses. It has been noted
that “as a philosophy, positivism is in accordance with the empiricist view that knowledge stems
from human experience. It has an atomistic, ontological view of the world as comprising
discrete, observable elements and events that interact in an observable, determined and regular
manner”. Moreover, in positivism studies the researcher is independent form the study and there
are no provisions for human interests within the study. Crowther and Lancaster (2008),argue that
as a general rule, positivist studies usually adopt deductive approach, whereas inductive research

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 approach is usually associated with a phenomenology philosophy. Moreover, positivism relates
to the viewpoint that researcher needs to concentrate on facts, whereas phenomenology
concentrates on the meaning and has provision for human interest.
Researchers warn that “if you assume a positivist approach to your study, then it is your belief
that you are independent of your research and your research can be purely objective. Independent
means that you maintain minimal interaction with your research participants when carrying out
your research.” In other words, studies with positivist paradigm are based purely on facts and
consider the world to be external and objective.
The five main principles of positivism research philosophy can be summarized as the following:

1. There are no differences in the logic of inquiry across sciences.

2. The research should aim to explain and predict.
3. Research should be empirically observable via human senses. Inductive reasoning should
be used to develop statements (hypotheses) to be tested during the research process.
4. Science is not the same as the common sense. The common sense should not be allowed
to bias the research findings.
5. Science must be value-free and it should be judged only by logic.

3.2 Research Approach

There are three types of research approaches use in research methods.
1- Deductive
2- Inductive
3- Abductive
 Deductive
 If you have formulated a set of hypotheses for your dissertation that need to be confirmed
or rejected during the research process you would be following a deductive approach. In
deductive approach, the effects of labor migration within the EU are assessed by
developing hypotheses that are tested during the research process.
 In a deductive inference when the premises are true, the conclusion must also be true.
 Dissertations with deductive approach follow the following path:

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  Inductive
 Alternatively, inductive approach does not involve formulation of hypotheses. It starts
with research questions and aims and objectives that need to be achieved during the
research process.
 In an inductive inference known premises are used to generate untested conclusions.
 Inductive studies follow the route below:

 Abductive
 In abductive approach, the research process is devoted to explanation of incomplete
observations, surprising facts or puzzles specified at the beginning of the study.
 In an abductive inference, known premises are used to generate testable conclusions

3.2.1 Deductive
In this research paper. The researcher will tend to use the deductive approach to find the best
results out of this research.
A deductive approach is concerned with developing a hypothesis (or hypotheses) based on
existing theory, and then designing a research strategy to test the hypothesis.
It has been stated that deductive means reasoning from the particular to the general. If a causal
relationship or link seems to be implied by a particular theory or case example, it might be true
in many cases. A deductive design might test to see if this relationship or link did obtain on more
general circumstances.
Deductive approach can be explained by the means of hypotheses, which can be derived from the
propositions of the theory. In other words, deductive approach is concerned with deducting
conclusions from premises or propositions.

Deduction begins with an expected pattern “that is tested against observations, whereas induction
begins with observations and seeks to find a pattern within them”

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Deductive approach offers the following advantages:
 Possibility to explain causal relationships between concepts and variables
 Possibility to measure concepts quantitatively
 Possibility to generalize research findings to a certain extent

3.3 Research Strategies

Research Strategies is to define the plan how researcher will follow and how researcher will
answer the researcher questions. It is a connection between philosophy and choice of method to
collect and analysis of data.

3.3.1 Survey Method

The essence of survey method can be explained as questioning individuals on a topic or topics and then
describing their responses. In survey method of primary data collection is used in order to test concepts,
reflect attitude of people, establish the level of customer satisfaction, conduct segmentation research
and a set of other purposes. Survey method can be used in both, quantitative, as well
as, qualitative studies.
Survey method pursues two main purposes:
 Describing certain aspects or characteristics of population and/or
 Testing hypotheses about nature of relationships within a population.
 Survey method can be broadly divided into three categories: mail survey, telephone
survey and personal interview.
For many of these kinds of questions and assumptions, the use of quantitative method is
appropriate.
3.3.2 Quantitative Method
In quantitative data analysis you are expected to turn raw numbers into meaningful data through
the application of rational and critical thinking. Quantitative data analysis may include the
calculation of frequencies of variables and differences between variables. A quantitative
approach is usually associated with finding evidence to either support or reject hypotheses you
have formulated at the earlier stages of your research process.
The same figure within data set can be interpreted in many different ways; therefore, it is
important to apply fair and careful judgement.
For example, questionnaire findings of a research titled “A study into the effect of social media
on brand loyalty and customer satisfaction” may indicate that the majority 52% of respondents
assess brand loyalty is effective by social media.
This specific piece of primary data findings needs to be critically analyzed and objectively
interpreted through comparing it to other findings within the framework of the same research.
Moreover, literature review findings conducted at the earlier stages of the research process need
to be referred to in order to reflect the viewpoints of other authors regarding the causes of people
dissatisfaction with this statement. Also, secondary data needs to be integrated in data analysis in
a logical and unbiased manner.

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3.4 Research Methods
Multiple methods are vital to understanding development as a dynamic, transactional process.
This article focuses on the ways in which quantitative and qualitative methodologies can be
combined to enrich developmental science and the study of social media effect, focusing on the
practical questions of "why" and "how." Research situations that may be especially suited to
mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches are described. The authors also discuss potential
choices for using mixed quantitative- qualitative approaches in study design, sampling,
construction of measures or interview protocols, collaborations, and data analysis relevant to
developmental science. Finally, they discuss some common pitfalls that occur in mixing these
methods and include suggestions for surmounting them. 
Mono Method is used when both data gathering methods are focus of researcher.

3.5 Research Time Horizon

According to Saunders et al. (2007), time horizons are needed for the research design
independent of the research methodology used. There are two types of time horizons namely
Longitudinal and Cross-sectional. Longitudinal studies are repeated over an extended period.
Cross sectional studies are limited to a specific time frame. This research is also limited to a
specific time frame and hence the cross-sectional time horizon is used.

3.5.1 Cross Sectional

The defining feature of a cross-sectional study is that it can compare different population groups
at a single point in time. Think of it in terms of taking a snapshot. Findings are drawn from
whatever fits into the frame. However, cross-sectional studies may not provide definite
information about cause-and-effect relationships. This is because such studies offer a snapshot of
a single moment in time; they do not consider what happens before or after the snapshot is taken.
The benefit of a cross-sectional study design is that it allows researchers to compare many
different variables at the same time. These studies can be helpful in determining how many
people are affected by social media on creating brand loyalty and customer satisfaction by
collecting data from cross section of people who are using social media.
6 References
[1] Wilson, J. (2010) “Essentials of Business Research: A Guide to Doing Your
Research Project” SAGE Publications, p.7
[2] Gulati, PM, 2009, Research Management: Fundamental and Applied
Research, Global India Publications, p.42
[3] Babbie, E. R. (2010) “The Practice of Social Research” Cengage Learning, p.52
[4]Essays,UK.
(November2018).https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/research-
methology-is-a-study-which-raises-types-of-philosophical-psychology-
essay.php?vref=1
[5] https://www.iwh.on.ca/what-researchers-mean-by/cross-sectional-vs-longitudinal-studies
[6] Collins, H. (2010) “Creative Research: The Theory and Practice of Research
for the Creative Industries” AVA Publications, p.38

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[7] Crowther, D. & Lancaster, G. (2008) “Research Methods: A Concise
Introduction to Research in Management and Business Consultancy”
Butterworth-Heinemann
[8] Wilson, J. (2010) “Essentials of Business Research: A Guide to Doing Your
Research Project” SAGE Publications

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