“An Investigation of the impact of Social media marketing on

customer purchase intent in retail industry of UK: A case

study of ASDA”

A Report Submitted for the Partial Fulfilment of the

Requirements for the Award of

Post Graduate Diploma in Management

2018-20

To
Shanti Business School (SBS)

Faculty Guide Student

(Prof.- Neha singh) (Minu kumari)
(Area of Specilisation-Marketing) (Enrolment number-01-18-075)

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project work entitled ““An Investigation of the impact of Social media
marketing on customer purchase intent in retail industry of UK: A case study of ASDA” prescribed
by SHANTI BUSINESS SCHOOL, AHMEDABAD during the academic year 2017-2019 under the
guidance of Prof. Neha singh (Marketing Head) it is my original work.
The matter presented in this report has not been copied from any source. Also this report has not
been submitted earlier for the award of any Degree or Diploma of Shanti Business School,
Ahmedabad or any other university.
This project work submitted to Shanti Business School for the fulfillment of requirement of grand
project in PGDM (Sem-IV).

Signature of Candidate Signature of the Guide

Minu Kumari

Place: Ahmedabad
Date:

2
 CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that the project work entitled ““An Investigation of the impact of Social media
marketing on customer purchase intent in retail industry of UK: A case study of ASDA” submitted
to SHANTI BUSINESS SCHOOL, AHMEDABAD for the partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the award of the Degree of PGDM program, it is a record of original work done by Minu kumari
under my supervision and guidance and this project work submitted to Shanti Business School for
the fulfillment of requirement of grand project in PGDM (Sem-IV).

Signature of Candidate Signature of the Guide

Minu KUMARI

Place: Ahmedabad
Date:

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Wall needs support of the pillars to be strong, the pillars need the base of the plinth to stand and the
plinth needs the blessing of mother earth to exist. It’s time to thank them who acted as the walls the
pillars and the plinth of my project.
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind
support and help of many individuals and our college.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I highly indebted to Shanti Business School,
for their guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding
the project & also for their support in completing the project.

I would like to express our special gratitude and thanks to Prof. Neha singh for providing the
guidance.

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Abstract:
Social media marketing has become a recent phenomenon in the current business world because
opens a path of free, direct and constant communication between different types customers
which ultimately brings the company closer and familiar with the target customers. The
objectives of the research is to investigate different aspects and importance of social media
marketing enables the company more competitive by generating opinions, reviews and
comments of the different customers which reflects the current market conditions and scenarios
that will help to design more customer oriented strategy for getting more customer insight and
customer preferences. Researcher has successfully attained all the objectives in the research.

The brief discussion about the social media marketing is given in the research by showing
different aspects of it besides the customer purchase intent is fully described here. Social media
is emerging as an important tool for influencing customers and ultimately their purchase intent
which refers that both social media and customers purchase intent are co- related.

Research methodology was properly discussed and the reader can easily get acquainted with
several terms like research design, research strategy, research method and so forth. This chapter
provides the opportunity to the readers to clearly and easily understand the reasons and
justifications of using a particular research design, research strategy, research method, data
collection and sampling method and data analysis and techniques. Besides, the reader can have
an overview over the limitation of the research and ethical aspect that must be considered in the
research.

Researcher found through its survey questions that respondents are highly positive towards the
survey questions regarding the impact of social media on customer purchase intent. Almost
80% of the respondents were agreed about the survey questions about the customer purchase
intent. Regression analysis showed all the independent variables are effective and have some
impacts on the customer purchase intent. Besides, correlation analysis shows positive impacts
on customer purchase intent. The average mean and mode value also support the statement.

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At the end, few recommendation were made to make the situation improve its current social
media marketing strategy for be more effective in gaining customer purchase by influencing
their intent. Social media marketing mainly aims to increase the trafficking in the social
media sites and its websites to present or demonstrate different offers, products, schemes,
reviews, information and other things for influencing customer perception and getting more
response.

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Sn. No. Topic Page no.

1 Abstract 5-6

2 Introduction 8-9

3 Objective of the study, Hypothesis and scope of the study 10-11

4 Structure of the research 12

5 Literature review 13-23

6 Research Methodology 24-32

7 Charts and Interpretation 33-56

8 Conclusion and recommendation 57-67

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Introduction:

Background of the research:

ASDA is the name of largest retail chain stores in UK which was formed by a group of farmers
from Yorkshire (north of Britain) in 1965 and it was expanded in south in seventies and eighties
by the process of bought rival chain of superstores Gateways in 1989 (asda.com, 2015. ASDA
has board range of retail business sector such as food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and
financial services. ASDA’s main aim is to attract customer by offering low price at convenient
and then they express a slogan that is “saving money, everyday’’ and its promotion also based
on solely on price. In 1999, ASDA got the membership of the Walmart family after that they
experienced the number of customers are increased at signified rate.

Social media marketing is the process of using social media channel for promoting and
marketing a company’s product or service that will satisfy customers need at desire level of
expectation. There are some social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Skype,
Instagram, LinkedIn, etc by which a company can reach their potential customers or to current
customers that also helps to gain customers attention about product and service or to attain
customer purchase intent. According to Samson et al. (2014) Customers purchase intent are
always influenced by several factors that is most important for the company increase the
customers purchase intent by which company can achieve their objectives .faults and man gold
(2014) said that Social media is very essential in influencing customer purchase decision
because customers are always influenced by different massage or content that gives a clear idea
about product or service which will purchase or not. It is also important to get desire response
from the customers that helps to the marketer to decide on what media channels work
effectively in the field of social media marketing. Besides, social media will help the ASDA to
tackle competition in very precise way by different visual, verbal and written communication to
meet the query and interest of the customers (Yu et al., 2013). Social media marketing is a
“Next big think” that’s yet temporary but proper understanding and implementing of social
media marketing tools company can gain and attain customer intent that ASDA have. In the
social media very company who are in social media marketing they should recognize their
brand or identities to the audiences or customers that helps to make customer loyalty.

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According to Werbin (2011), When an advertiser provides an ads by using social media such as
Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc. audience can ignore, in this case advertiser needs to know how
attract and influence the audience to read or see the ad and try to provide most attractive and
influential content that helps to attract to users of the social media. Unlike traditional media that
is often cost prohibitive to many company, but social media is a field in which there is no need
of astronomical budgeting for these any company can use social media to promote their product
or service to customer who know or don’t know about them (faulds and mangold, 2014).
Zerralla said in her book, by using social media company can directly connect with customers
in whom customers are also interested to engage with company to review the post about product
and service, rate customer service and ask question from which customers are well informed.
Rationale of the research:
Social media marketing is now widely used tools by ASDA because A is trying to keep balance
and appropriateness in its communication process where customer will directly connected with
the organization, can involve in interactive communication, can be attracted by showing and
giving different current news and offers, can get appropriate and meaningful messages through
different media, which can help ASDA to gain customers’ attention and finally gain their
purchase decision in favor of it(Samson et al., 2014). ASDA always wants to get maximum
number of purchase from the customers by providing value proposition through its message by
using different media where social media marketing is most effective tool in this area. Social
media marketing is effective in increasing message impacts, customer expertise, customer
knowledge, media and audience fragmentation which all are helping in gaining more customers’
purchase through influencing their intent (Werbin, 2011). Asda needs to get customer purchase
for making it more profitable and sustainable where social media marketing is big player .So,
proper investigation is needed together real situation on the basis of ASDA. In Facebook and
twitter, ASDA can post or upload content in which customers or followers express their opinion
by like, comment, and sometimes dislike.

This research will illustrate the co-relation between advertising affects increase in customer
purchase intent. This research will reflect the effectiveness of social media in influencing
customer purchase intent. Besides, different aspects or elements of social media will be
analyzed by taking feedback of the customers which will enable ASDA to get real customer
insight. Customer purchase decision making process will be analyzed with different perspective
which will help to design effective social media marketing process.

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Problem statement
This research is prepared to show investigation of the impact of social media marketing on
customer purchase intent. Here, researcher has faced the main problem which channels or tools
they should use in social media marketing that can reach to the ultimate customers. Besides,
customers are well interested to interact directly with companies by seeing and reviewing the
company’s web site or other channel. On the other hand, researcher also has faced a problem
that they can’t reach to the mass people or audience to collect the accurate information about
the impact of social media on their purchase intent. So, researcher should follow the most
popular social media by which an exact information can collect from the users so that its gives
an accurate research result.

Aim of the research:

The aim of the research is to analyze ASDA’s social media marketing on customer purchase
intent.

Objectives of the research

This research has the following objectives:
 To investigate different aspects and importance of Social media marketing taken by ASDA to
attract customers.
 To analyze customer purchase intent and different factors related with this of ASDA.
 To inquire the relationship between Social media marketing and customer purchase intent of
ASDA.
 To recommend Tesco to reshape Social media marketing in order to influence customer
purchase intent more effectively.

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Questions of the research
The very questions of the research hence:

 What are the Social media marketing used as strategy by ASDA to attract customers?
 What are the different social media sites used by ASDA as part of social media marketing?
 What is the importance of Social media marketing for are tailing company a study on the
basis of ASDA?
 What is the current situation of customer purchase intent about the ASDA?
 Is customer’s possessed positive intent about ASDA’s product?
 What are different factors and consideration affecting customer purchase intent of ASDA?
 What is the relationship between relationship between Social media marketing and customer
purchase intent of ASDA?

Research hypotheses

H0: There is a strong relationship between Social media marketing and customer purchase
intent of Asda.
H1: There is no any strong relationship between Social media marketing and customer purchase
intent of Asda.

Scope of the research:

This research is prepared on the basis of the social media marketing and customer purchase
intent; here researcher will discuss these issues thoroughly for getting full insight of them. This
research will reveal different aspects of the social media marketing and its importance on the
perspective of Tesco. This research will also show how customers make their purchase decision
and how organization can influence the purchase intent to get the purchase in favor of it. The
effective ness of social media marketing of ASDA on customer purchase intent will be
discussed with proper analysis and proper investigation. Then required recommendation will be
made to improve the current situation to make it more effective.

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Structure of the research
Chapter name
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
Result and discussion
Conclusion and recommendation
Description
Here, research will give short introductory note
about the research topic and company
information and involvement regarding her
research issues. The objectives, aims, questions,
hypotheses and problem statement is given here
for proper understanding of the research
Here, researcher will discuss about different
findings, statement and conclusion of different
writers, researchers and academicians regarding
the research topic. A conceptual framework is
also given here.
The methods and technics that are used in the
research by researcher are described here with
proper and appropriate justification.
In this part, the result or data analysis will be
given in statistical data and then research will
explain all of them. Besides, research will also
discuss about the research findings and previous
research findings to compare the result.
Conclusion will be made at last part where
research will show how much appropriate and
successful he is in attaining research objectives.
besides, required recommendation will be made
for better and sustainable improvement.
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Chapter Two: Literature Review

Here, the researcher will discuss about different findings, statement and conclusion of different
writers, researchers and academicians regarding the research topic. A conceptual framework is
also given here
Social media marketing

Social media marketing has become a buzzword in the current business world because opens a
path of free, direct and constant communication between different types customers which
ultimately brings the company closer and familiar with the target customers (Saboo et al., 2015).
According to Brennan and Croft (2012), social media marketing enables the company more
competitive by generating opinions, reviews and comments of the different customers which
reflects the current market conditions and scenarios that will help to design more customer
oriented strategy for getting more customer insight and customer preferences. Fotis et al. (2011)
has explained this is an era of information technology and free flow of information needs to be
insured by the organization for making customers’ well informed and knowledgeable for
making purchase decision after considering several factors. Charronetal. (2006) have argued that
user generated contents are getting more preferences by the business organizations as today’s
world is customer oriented and organization always prefer to manufacturer and sell goods which
are preferred by the customers not by them, here social media marketing is doing lo contribution
by collecting customers opinions and providing customers an opportunity to express their
intended products from the company. Fredrich (2009) has found that firms are now make
affiliation with the social networking sites to catch the attention of the customers more at the
social networking sites and create attention and preferences among the customers with lower
cost than the traditional communication sites. On the other hand, Saboo et al. (2015) believed
that social media marketing is good for the organization but to some extent it makes customers
over-powered which ultimately leads the way to creating weakness and potential negative image
in the market, besides some people can intentionally create negative image by commenting
unnecessary and false statements in the social media sites.Robinson(2010)further added that any
confidential information can be leaked unintentionally through the social media sites and for
getting effective result organization must engaged constantly and without any intervene to
provide feedback to the customers which sometimes generate cost for the organization. The
social media marketing of ASDA seems very potential and it is doing great in the organizational

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success perspective, but social media has got some potential pitfalls and to analyze the ASDA’s
social media impact a deep analysis is needed. The proper combination and use of social
networking sites and social media websites to market a company’s product or service can be
stated as social media marketing (Wallack, 2002). According to Werbin (2011), social media
marketing could simply define as promotion of a brand or products through utilization of social
media channels. Wallack (2002) stated that social media marketing is used not only to promote,
but also emphasis the communication with the audiences. On the other hand, Taprial and
Kanwar (2012) has found social media marketing as the buzzword in the current business world
because it opens a path of free, direct and constant communication between different types
customers which ultimately brings the company closer and familiar with the target customers.
Under SMM, users could utilize the platforms of social media to present their own webpage,
products or services to communicate with the mass and listening to their opinions (Natarajan et
al., 2014). As that was what traditional advertising channels could not achieve, stated that SMM
has emerged as a complementary to the historical internet based promotion strategies like email
subscription newsletter and other internet based ad programs that influence consumers
purchasing behaviour. Social media is most often considered as UGC which may include
various elements like streaming videos, audios, blogs, wikis, posts, chats, images, podcasting
etc. that users in the internet system basically create (Veeck and Hoger, 2014). Moreover, Lee
(2014) has found that social media facilitates not only the user generated contents but also
provides the opportunity to build relationship between various individual, groups, communities
and even with particular brand or products. It provides the opportunity to make conversation,
share information and develop online community.

For its diversified nature, social media marketing has become a key concern for the firm as a
critical tool for conducting its communication and marketing programs more quickly, easily
with less cost and more responses.
Importance of Social media marketing
SMM has got some identifiable advantages over traditional marketing communications.
Traditional marketing involves one way communication which often called push based
marketing (Kim and Ko, 2012). Veeck and Hoger (2014) further added that people sometimes
do not expect information but firms push the information regarding their products to the people.
Moreover, the traditional media doesn’t include an interactive mode of communication where
social media marketing involves not only two way or interactive mode of communication but
also facilitates dialogue with people to have a better understanding about their needs (Mangold

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and Faulds, 2009). Social media marketing that passed along or shared among friends had a
more powerful impact on advertisement recall, brand awareness and purchase intention than the
traditional paid advertisements (Charron et al., 2006). Between 2002 and 2004, reliance on
television decreased from 51% to 41%; from 46% to 42% on newspaper and from 38% to 27%
on printed magazines. The only increase shown was the Internet; from 14% to 21% (Chen,
2013). Moreover, in the traditional communication model, the components of promotional mix
were organized in a collaborative way, such as the schedule, format and medium of
communications which were instructed collaboratively between the firms and its paid agency
(Taylor, 2008). However, the existence of social media has changed the situation and
information is no longer wholly controlled by the company. Instead, customers can freely talk
about the brands and products online and can feel free to share with anyone they liked (Wallack,
2002).Apart from the advantages over traditional marketing communications, it has also created
other advantages too for people. First of all, marketing with social media could certainly boost
the exposure and awareness of a firm on the internet and promote the brand and its products and
communicate with potential customers (Taprial and Kanwar, 2012). Besides, social media
marketing was beneficial to both business owners and consumers in the sense that an exchange
platform was created. In addition, activities under social media marketing (SMM) provided an
occasion for reducing consumer’s misunderstanding and prejudice towards the company
(Richard, 2013). Meanwhile, SMM could evaluate company value under the great platform
provided by social media for exchanging sources and opinions (Kim and Ko, 2012). In other
words, SMM helped enhancing and managing customer relationship for brands. More
importantly, through social media marketing, companies can build community for its products
and business. Most social media enable users to freely create and join communities such as
Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn and so forth (Joel, 2015). Communities are extremely valuable and
beneficial to marketers and entrepreneurs due to the extremely high accessibility to the right
group of target customers (Fisher, 2014). On the other hand, it made consumers feeling closer
with the brand and therefore might be a source of loyal customers (Taprial and Kanwar, 2012).
Moreover, it has widened the firm’s ability to motivate the customers purchase intention.
There are few challenges of social media marketing; first, the problem is the nature of social
media –UGC (user generated content). Negative impacts to the reputation of the firm arise as a
large amount of information regarding its products and services were generated and discussed
among individuals without any control (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).Second, there are numerous
choices of social media and many companies are using them. Therefore, how to choose the best

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and differentiate from competitors are also the top concern of marketers now- a-days (Taprial
and kanwar, 2012).
Approaches of Social media marketing
The basic approaches which are called as passive strategies and active strategies have a
significant impact on the social media marketing (Veeck and Hoger, 2014). The passive
approach suggests that SM may be critical source for market related information and it may
have elements like blogs, social community contents and online organizations where people can
express and share their opinions and comment on brands, products and services (katona, 2013).
Business firms can find a critical source to fetch information and analyse them properly to have
thorough review of what customers say about them and their brands and grab the attention of the
customers (Mitchell, 2002).On the other hand Das (2013) has added that these passive media
does not actively involve the marketing of brands and products of the firms. They promote the
brand passively with a limited view. Auker (2014) has found that social media can not only be
used as direct marketing and public relation tools but also can act as a useful tool for
communication through online advertising , sales promotion through the various offers. He
further added that these types of social media fall under the dimension of active approach of
social media. It includes major social Medias like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and
Twitter and many other forms of social networking sites and other creativity – work sharing
sites.
Twitter
Twitter can be said to be as one of the most popular form of social networking sites that creates the
path and opportunity for the firms by enabling them to promote their products, services and brands
through the limited 140 characters that may appear on follower’s home page (Joe, 2012). Twitter
provides the opportunity to many firms to link Twitter’s messages to the various websites photos,
videos, Facebook profile and various products’ websites. Its announcement is considered as reliable
mentorship and often facilitates many companies to come up with certain advertising solution to
some problem (Auker, 2014). The speed of response and the response rate are quite high and it has
got huge number of users and daily tweet volumes are numerous (Schirr, 2013).
Facebook
Facebook is a form of social media which provides pages that are more elaborated and
fascinating than the twitter and other social networking sites (Akyol, 2013). Facebook can act as
an important tool for social media marketing by providing the firm the path for posting various
videos, images, testimonials, short and long description about the firm and its various brands
(katona, 2013). Woo (2014) has identified that Facebook has provided the path for creating fan

16
pages and through they encourage the firms to build online community for their brands and by
like and comment button consumers can interact with the firm and its brands. Rojer (2011)
futher added that the fan pages of Facebook involves updated information regarding the firm
and its brands which provides enriched information and motivates the fans and other people to
fetch knowledge about the firm and its brands and ultimately influence their purchase intention.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is another popular form social networking sites that is customized for the business
professionals and provide the opportunity to the firms to prepare a professional profile for
themselves and their businesses to have good contact with the other professionals and
businesses (katona, 2013). Joe (2012) has found that members of LinkedIn can enjoy the facility
to promote their various social networking activities onto their LinkedIn profile page through
the use of various widgets. Woo (2014) further added that LinkedIn facilitates the firms and
various members to stimulate and generate sales leads, make purchase intention among them
and generate business partners as well. Rojer (2011) argued that LinkedIn members have the
opportunity to use Company pages which resembles the Facebook pages and that facilitates the
firms to promote their brands and products and make an interaction with the customers. This site
also acts as a source of information for employee recruitment for the many firms.

Instagram
The user engagement rate of Instagram is increasing at higher rate than that of Facebook and
Twitter (Millson, 2012). A study estimates that Instagram has become more pervasive and
around 93% brands prefer Instagram to be their part of promotional mix.(Veeck and Hoger,
2014). Taylor (2008) has identified the use of Instagram in case of firms and organizations, as to
catch the attention of their prescriptive spectators through storing and sharing imagery in a rich,
visual environment by enabling to interact with actual and potential customer base. Dutta (2014)
has further added that many firms now vigorously encourage and implement their visual
marketing strategy by using this mobile app by capturing the attention of the market segment
and stimulating purchasing interest of them on the company’s products and services. Instagram
is supported by both android system and apple.

YouTube
This social media includes video and audio files that facilitates firms to post their stories, events
and successful entities in form of video blogging which may create a strong stimulation in the
mind of current and potential customers (Taylor, 2008). Millward (2012) considered You Tube

17
as carrying the reach media contents. Firms can also make their ads in sync with various popular
videos and music to promote their items and services. Firms also have the facility to sponsor a
video in the YouTube.
Customer purchase intent:

Customer purchase intent is the most complex scenario of customer psychology because here
customers decided to purchase products from any particular brand or particular products after
evaluating certain key factors (Weinberg and Berger, 2011). Morison (2011) has stated customer
purchase intent can be influenced by several factors and organization must focus on this and
design special strategies to attract this to get purchases in favor of it. Millson (2012) has
narrated that customers generally shows different type of purchase behaviour while purchasing
the products based on the involvement level and quality of the products and organization must
put special consideration on these different behaviour to design different types of strategies
which will be effective towards different types of customers for getting maximum purchases
from them and making them loyal to the company. On the other hand,
Chinomona and Sandada (2013) explained that customer purchase intention can be influenced
by the demographic condition of the customers while geographic dimension is also playing
significant role because customers generally shows different purchase intention based on the
geographic conditions, which must be key consideration for the business organizations at the
time of designing strategies. Fan and Sokorai (2011) believed that for making the organization
successful in the business market authority must take decision for making and designing
appropriate strategies to influence customer purchase behaviour and intention because without
doing so, it is not possible to get customers’ preference to get purchase in favor of the
organization. According to Millson (2012) , sustainable growth and development of the
organization is only possible through proper analysis of the customer purchase intention and
behaviour because it can help to make the organization for profitable, getting more liquid and
overall gaining competitive advantages by getting purchase over the competitors. Das (2014)
has defined customer purchase intent is as the customer’s interest in and likelihood of
purchasing particular items (Kim and ko, 2010). Weignberg and Berger (2011) critically
emphasized that customer purchase intent is the most complex scenario of customer psychology
because here customers decided to purchase products from any particular brand or particular
products after evaluating certain key factors.

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 Figure: Hierarchy of effects model

Human (2012) explained that purchase intention was closely associated with awareness
(cognitive stage) and preference stage (affective stage) towards a brand or a product.
Consequently, the awareness, knowledge and preference would form an attitude towards the
brand and product which in turn affecting consumer’s buying intention. Customer relationship
was formed by the attitude towards a brand and therefore purchase intention was also to be
influenced by this relationship (Lee and Lee, 2013). Customers purchase intention can be
influenced by several factors and firms must focus on this and design effective strategies to
attract them and get purchase in favor of them (Goel,2014). Morison (2014) critically analyzed
and found that customers typically show various purchased behaviour while purchasing the
products which are based on involvement level and quality of the products and organization
must put special consideration on these different behaviour to design different strategies which
will be effective towards different types of customers for getting maximum purchases from
them and making them loyal to the company. On the other hand Huang (2012) explained that
customer purchase intention can be influenced by demographic condition of the customers while
geographic dimension is also playing significant role because customers generally shows
different purchase intention based on the geographic condition of the customers, which must be
key consideration for the business organization at the time of designing strategies. Le Roux and
Kremer (2014) stated that for attaining the success in the business market, marketers must make
effective decision and strategies to influence customer purchase behaviour and intention because
it is not possible to get customers preferences without doing so. According to Marsha l(2011),

19
sustainable growth and development of the firm is only possible through proper analysis of the
customer purchase intention and behaviour because it can help the firm to make the firm more
profitable, getting more liquid assets and over ally gaining competitive advantages by getting
purchase over the competitors.

Schirr (2013) has found that consumers make their purchase intention on a particular brand or
product based on the need of that product, availability of that product, quality and benefit sought
by the product, services associated with product and the available information of that product.
Fisher (2014) further added that before making a purchase of a new product and brand,
consumers go through several stages of buying readiness stages. Akyol (2013) identified that the
buyer readiness stages involve awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and
purchase. Among this the first two stages are called cognitive stage which involves being aware
about the brand and searching information about it. This information search has become more
comfortable because of the different form of social media. According to (Marshal, 2011) in the
present world, information is overloading online and offline. Therefore, consumer’s purchase
intention would easily be influenced by external environmental factors during their decision
process. For example, by participating in social media activities, consumers would be exposed
to tones of products information and promotion and become aware of certain products. Russell
(2012) has identified the fact that by reading information of product and comments of others,
they were able to acquire knowledge so as to form liking and preference to the product. These
are how external environment especially social media, is influencing consumers purchase
intention. Consumers search the information regarding various brands and products from
multiple sources and form their attitude toward the firms’ brands and products (Saluja and
Singh, 2014). Samson (2011) added that Based on the information and previous experiences
about products, they make the preferences and purchase intention regarding the product. Dutta
(2013) further added that In the past, they used to collect information from traditional
communicational channels like TV, Radio, Newspaper, Mail, Magazine, Billboards etc. But,
now they are more willing to search the information that are easily available to them and social
media marketing facilitates that availability of information more easily at their hand. Weignberg
and berger (2011) has got the evidence that consumers are switching from the traditional sources
of information to online information like Social media in the present context. Social media has
become a platform for mass communication and creating influences on the customers mind and
thus creating purchase intention in favor of their brand (Piltz,2013).In sum, purchase intention
can be used to estimate a consumer’s potential contributions to a firm or brand. Thus

20
understanding factors that are influencing customer’s purchase intent is extremely significant to
a firm. In this way, they could forecast their future profits, attract new customers as well as
retain their current customers.
Relationship between social media marketing and customer purchase intent:

Social media is emerging as an important tool for influencing customers and ultimately their
purchase intent which refers that both social media and customers purchase intent are co-related
(Saluja and Singh, 2014). Weinberg and Berge (2011) have argued that people are now engaging
at huge rate in social media as an alternative of mainstream media and also passing a significant
time there, which can be taken as a chance to influence the customers and their purchase intent
by showing picture, live streaming about products, sharing information and creating online
word-of-mouth. Kumar (2014) further added that social media marketing is getting so much
popularity that almost every large organization is now introducing social media marketing
because it opens a path to reach the target customers at cheap cost, which can help the
organization to influence customer purchase intent. Besides, Fan and Sokorai (2011) expressed
that it helps to make the organization transform into a click and mortal company from the
traditional brick and mortal company, which can help the organization to reach both online and
on store customers by influencing their purchase intent. Moreover, Lee (2013) expressed that
social media marketing is really playing a vital role in this information technology era by
engaging more customers and attracting their purchase intent. Levy (2013) has found that social
media is flourishing as a critical tool for influencing customers and persuading their purchase
intention to the firms products and services which indicates that both social media and
customers purchase intent are correlated. Now people are influenced more by external
environmental factors and social media has performed a critical role as a external source of
information to the people and influencing their attitudes. Now, consumers are more cling to
several kinds of social media to conduct research on information to assist their decision making
(Suki, 2011). In particular, social networking sites had significant impact on purchase decision
of internet users visiting those sites (Weinberg and Berger, 2011). They continued to point out
consumers who visited social media to get information made better purchase decision than those
without. According to research done by DEI Worldwide (2008), 70% of consumers gathered
information from participating in social media. Besides, 49% of these customers would make
use of the information they obtained on social media to make purchase decisions.

21
Moreover, Social media marketing was perceived as a more trustworthy source than traditional
marketing communication tools and promotional mix regarding to information and products (,
2013). Now-a-days, consumers actively search for and sought various types of product and
service related information in the internet by interacting with the people on the social
networking sites. Many of them basically search for other’s comments again and again before
making purchase (Taylor, 2008). According to Blackshaw and Nazzaro (2006), over 60% of
consumers trusted the comments posted by other users. Besides, 78%of worldwide Customers
believed the reviews regarding products and services written by online consumers than any
other sources. Aljasir (2013) critically analyzed and found that social media marketing has got
more popularity that almost every large organization is now introducing social media marketing
as it opens a path to reach the target customers at cheap cost, which can help the organization to
influence customer purchase intent. Tuten and Solomon (2013) stated that it helps the firm to
turn itself from traditional brick and mortar to click and mortar company, which can help the
organization to reach both online and on store customers by influencing their purchase intent.
This social media marketing is really playing a vital role in this information technology by
engaging more customers and attracting their purchase intent.

Though social media marketing has got immense popularity, it is still essential to reappraise the
traditional media and social media marketing can be used in line with the traditional media but
not as the only mean of communication for the firm.
Conceptual framework:

Conceptual framework provides the opportunity to visualize a theoretical concept by

summarizing the theory, assumptions, rules and principles as a broad concept. It provides the
means to make a brief review of the theories at a glance within a short time period. A conceptual
framework regarding social media marketing and customer purchase intent is shown below.

22
 Facebook

Twitter

Customer
Google Plus purchase intent

LinkedIn

YouTube

Instagram

Figure: Conceptual framework of Social media marketing and customer purchase intent

Through this chapter, the readers could have more in depth understanding about the key terms
such as social media marketing, purchase intention which were related with this research. The
useful secondary data collected from journals, books, articles and so forth were well organized
and presented for the purpose of the following study. Conceptual model was also created to get
proper and insights to the research key terms and the implication.

23
 Chapter Three: Research methodology
The research methodology provides the way to systematically analyze the methods and
procedures that used in the field of the research. This consists of the thorough analysis of
procedures and methods that are in connection with the research. This particular chapter of
the research basically described the research methods used by the researcher to analyze the
research findings and proper justification has also been made.
Research design

According to Brace (2008), various empirical study and attempts suggested that research
investigation can be developed from the various activities and those activities will be
described properly on the study. The research design falls on two categories. It can
exploratory which suggests that various empirical and historical researches have done on the
research topic earlier. Besides, Research can also be analytical which involves critical
thinking and thorough evaluation of facts and information relative to the research being
conducted. Descriptive and predictive research design also prevalent to represent the
forecasting the future and upcoming implications (Wenzel, 2012).

The social media marketing has become popular concept in marketing and communication
and historically multiple studies were conducted to find the impact and relationship of SMM
on the customer purchase intent. For this reason, the researcher used the exploratory research
where the researcher reinforced the studies conducted earlier defined by Biddle and Emmett
(2013). The purpose of the research can’t be served well by the alternative approaches. The
researcher here focused on basically from the new dimensions and ideas.
Research Philosophy
In this section, researcher basically show and reflect the vital assumptions of the author where the
researcher portrait the research strategy to develop a link between the knowledge and data which are
acquired through various process.
Epistemology

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, study of knowing the presuppositions and

foundations and its extent and validity. It gives us the idea of how do we know things, what do
we know, why we know, is what we know and what are limitation of the knowledge (Emmett
and Briddle, 2010).

24
Interpretivism

Interpretivism involves researcher to interpret elements of the study, thus interpretivism

integrate human interest into a study. Interpretivism uses the previous studies and information
of the individuals as the input of the research. In case of interpretivism, the outcomes and
comments of the individuals act as the basis of the research and method (Wenzel, 2012).
Phenomenology

Phenomenology refers to a person’s proper perception of the meaning of an event, knowledge,

achievement, accomplishments, as opposed to the event as it exists externally to (outside of)
that person (Kirkwood and Zerbe,2012).
Positivism

Positivism is considered as the most critical method of research philosophy which states that
researcher uses numerical, theoretical and factual data by bringing relevance to the current
situation or objective of the study. Various factual information is sought and collected from
various researches, secondary sources and measurements relating to the past data and
experiences that are considered to be more dependable (Lim and Mcaleer, 2008).

This research is developed on the data which is derived from various types of primary sources
and they are raw in nature for making the outcomes and data more reliable and suitable for the
study. The credibility of the research was also increased by the positivism because it uses more
relevant and accurate data without any manipulation. To ensure the reliability and validity, the
use of assumptions and hypothetical data were avoided which also made this method perfect for
the research to follow. In this research, more realistic and practical data are used to reflect the
realistic situation. No hypothetical data and assumptions are used in this research. That’s why
the researcher decided to use positivism for conducting the research.

Research Approach
For conducting a particular research the researcher can use two approaches. The first one is
inductive approach and the other is deductive approach. The proper jurisdiction and justification
for using a particular approach are described properly with explanation in below

25
 Figure: Research approach

Deductive Research

A deductive approach is related with the development of hypothesis based on the existing
theory and then design a research strategy to test the hypothesis. Deductive theories are used by
the researchers because it provides the opportunity and area to make a proper use of the current
successful works to conduct research which make the research more viable and validate because
of the proper use of knowledge, data and theories and approaches (Rider et al., 2013).

Figure: Deductive research approach

Inductive Approach

There is a profound similarity between interpretivism philosophy and the inductive approach
and this inductive approach allows the researcher to analyze and interpret different real life
stories to get particular rational which facilitates the path of the research (Kahl et al., 2012).
This approach represents the method of creating critically evaluating the situation and current
facts.

Deductive approach seems to be much more important for the research purpose as the
researcher searches for the way to carry on more reliable study. Researcher has used deductive
research approach in this research because researcher needed to develop hypothesis and

26
assumptions based on the existing theories and knowledge because this research technique
emphasizes on using existing knowledge, assumptions and theories to conduct the current
research. Besides, that reason researcher also found it appropriate as it provides the opportunity
to use primary data for this research which is better suited with the deductive approach. That’s
why, this research was based on the deductive research approach.
Research Strategy

Research strategy basically involves case study analysis, observation, experiments, survey etc.
Interview strategy represents that the research will be conducted by collecting information
through taking interview. Case study states the process of conducting research by collecting
data and use logics from the case study analysis of different situations (Joel, 2011) Observation
refers to the act or process of observing something or someone carefully to gain information
and conducting the research on the basis of observation. Experimental research represents that
research must be conducted in the laboratory or under close area. Survey research strategy
represents a way of conducting research that includes collection of data about what and how
people think about particular matter by initializing question based or statistical surveys.

Researcher used the survey method of research strategy because research collected primary data
for this research by using survey questionnaire for collecting responses from the selected
sample size. Besides, experimental strategy might not be appropriate for this research and case
study couldn’t be considered as better choice than survey method. Observation method didn’t
give appropriate and numerical data for the research. This research was based on numerical
data, so survey method was considered as best for conducting this research. Besides, interview
method could also be applied as researcher collected information and data from different
managers, employees and students. So the researcher has used both survey and
Interview method of research strategy for this research because this strategy fits the researcher
and research purpose best.
Research Method

Research method describes the way researchers collect information from the respondents and
other sources. The research methods can vary based on the data collection method, instrument
types that are used in the research, data sources and data sampling methods. Most often,
researchers used the two categories of research method.

27
Quantitative Research Strategy

The quantitative research method represent that numerical data will be collected to conduct the
research which conveys the philosophy of deductive research to determine whether a theory
exists or not. The proper uses and measurements of numerical data are ensured by that research
strategy and hypothesis also made based on numeric data through which researcher find the
relationship between theory and real world. This strategy is said to be affected low by the
biasness and all the data are formed in the mathematical ways in this strategy that yields
standard results.

Qualitative research strategy

In case of qualitative research strategy, the researcher searches for information in the qualitative
form and tries make a theory based on various assumptions. In this strategy, there is a huge
chance of biasness because of the researcher’s own assumption and evaluation and researcher
uses generally interview method for collecting information from the respondent.
This qualitative approach can be considered by the researcher if there is not enough numerical
data and the research requires the personal insights and knowledge to make relation with the
theory and real example. The researcher must put more emphasis on the quantitative approach
as this methods provide more precise and accurate information and result where different
statistical and mathematical tools are used that represent that represent true results (Saunders et
al., 2009). That’s why the researcher has used the quantitative research strategy in this research
as the researcher also applied deductive research approach and collected the research data in
numerical form.

28
Data Collection Method

For making the research more validate and informative, research data provides the researcher
more opportunities than any other factors. Researcher uses primary data as well as secondary
data to conduct the study. By using appropriate data investigation method researcher usually
collects research data. Researcher chooses to use whether primary data or secondary data or
both of them by analyzing the findings of data investigation. The data that are collected
specifically for a particular research and collected directly from first-hand experience are often
called primary data. Secondary data means data which have already collected for another
purpose and they exist already in some cases, studies and sources.

The data sources are shown in following figures

Figure: Data collection method

The researcher used both primary and secondary sources of data for preparing the research and
those would be sought by survey and interview technique. Researcher’s objective of preparing
this research paper would properly be served by merging primary and secondary data collected
through survey questionnaire. Secondary data were collected from different books, online
journals, and newspaper, article and research papers.

Data Sampling Method

Sampling is known as the procedure for marking a vital part of a population for making
assumption of the whole populations more easily and within limited time frame. Sampling can
be classified as probability and non-probability sampling. Non- probability sampling is a
technique of choosing the samples which will represent the characteristics of the population in a
subjective and more intuitional and judgmental way. In case of non- probability sampling
technique, the researchers gather samples in a way that doesn’t yield equal opportunities for all

29
the items in the population of being selected (Brace, 2013). Besides, it is based on the
subjective and factual information where probability sampling ensures collection of numerical
information.

Probability sampling can be identified as the technique of choosing the samples from the
population in a way that facilitates each unit in the population of having equal chance of being
selected Probability sampling can be made through three techniques as stratified sampling,
random sampling and systematic sampling. Among the probability random sampling the simple
random sampling is considered to be easiest and mostly used probability sampling technique.
According to Sinkovics et al., (2005), sampling is the act or process of choosing respondents to
participate on the research process. Wenzel (2012) classified sampling technique as random,
cluster and stratified sampling.

In this research, the researcher has decided to use probability sampling method as researcher
found that this method served well the concept of quantitative research strategy where he found
that non- probability sampling technique served well the qualitative research strategy.The
researcher also used the random sampling method for this research because he researcher found
it this method as devoid of biasness and this sampling method served the researchers objectives
well by ensuring that each respondent of the population has equal chance to be selected as
sample. The researchers basically used to search for several arguments and opinions that
facilitates finding actual estimation. Considering all the sampling techniques, the researcher has
found the random sampling best suitable for matching the research purpose and in this research
a particular class of respondents were not highlighted. This research included a wide variety of
sample which represented strong observations and alternative arguments. On the contrary, the
researcher often found it pretty rigid and difficult to use cluster sampling because of its inherent
difficult nature and stratified sampling might not fulfill the requirements and expectations of the
researcher.
Researcher decided to collect sample size of 80 respondents based on some criteria income,
profession etc. which were assumed to properly reflect the all segments of the population. The
researcher has found it quite difficult for studying and analyzing whole population because
ASDA has several limitation in analyzing all the age group people, income people thoroughly.
That’s why the researcher determined several criteria like income and professions as the basis
for collecting 80 samples from various stores, professionals and university students from
several locations and another reason for choosing 80 sample sizes is inadequacy of time and
resources of the researcher.
30
Data Analysis tools and techniques

The researcher can use descriptive technique to investigate background and profile of the
respondents to estimate their perception regarding the associated the risk of trusting social
media as a reliable source of information and making purchase decision based on that
information. Some typical measurement such as mean, frequency distribution as well as
presentation of data through charts used to investigate data gathered through questionnaires.
Mean as well as frequency analysis used to measure the actual influence which is sought with
performance evaluation. Regression analysis is popularly used technique to measure the result
of independent parameters over reliant variable (ketchen and Bergh, 2004). Regression analysis
can be used to measure such situation to find out the relationship and effect amongst the
dependent variable and independent variables. The qualitative analysis of data was not included
as the researcher focused basically on the analysis of relationship and impact of social media
marketing on the customer purchase intent. Result and data analysis was conducted by using
SPSS that enables the researcher to perfectly interpret the statistical tools for data analysis and
result presentation. In this approach, the researcher also made sure the proximity and intensity
of variables.
Limitation of the study

The probability of partiality and biasness pops up, as the researcher might hide various critical
data in the survey possess and question’s responses from the respondents also might possess
risk of biasness. A major limitation had been that the respondents personally made a decision to
participate in the interview process despite there spondents are basically chosen randomly. If
the respondents made any distinction or become overly aware of the final results of the study, it
might harm the overall results of the research and representative nature of population by the
sample. One question always pops up whether the respondents are providing true or false
information. This research is focused on the specialty of several groups. If it happens then the
research result just become specific and limited to people who participated within the study.

Ethical consideration
The researcher must put a caution as well as consideration in relation to the investigation and
interview process to ensure that the respondents were not possessed any harm either physically
or mentally throughout the interview process. The first thing researcher has to ensure that the
respondents can end up the interview voluntarily and they must be informed about the purpose,

31
character and period of the investigation. Voluntary involvement, informed permission,
confidentiality of respondents provided information basically formed the ethical rights
regarding the respondent of the research. The theory of knowledgeable consent says that the
respondent must be notified or informed about the purpose of the research and the period it
takes during the interview process as well as the associated risk popping up in the research and
the researcher must ask for permission from the respondents. This research must consider the
IRB acclaimed knowledgeable consent type of research. The actual participants must be
informed by the researcher about the purposes of the research, ask for permission through
written document, inform the time duration and associated risk active in the risk before
documenting begins.

32
Chapter Four: Result &Discussion

Result
This part includes the result analysis and discussion of the result that has been found by the
statistical analysis of the data collected from the sample. In the questionnaire, the customers
were asked several questions regarding the store layout and design of the Sainsbury stores and
if these factors influence the customer buying decision in the retail industry. The researcher has
found several findings that might be shocking to the business world along with taking
contradictory opinion to some other related results.
Demographic Profile of the Respondents

In the sample, 80 customers of ASDA were selected to whom several question was asked about the
layout and design of the Sainsbury stores. The respondents were selected based on race, gender, age
and profession. However, both male and female customers got the preference to get selected into the
survey. There was a requirement to be more than 17 years old for every customer. However, Most of
the customers were from the British and Other Europe areas.

33
Table 1: Descriptive result of Demographic Profile of the Respondents

34
Cronbach's alpha

Cronbach’s alpha refers the reliability and consistency of the independent variables in providing
actual and reliable information and output. The value of this analysis varies from 0.00 to 1.00
where value for than 0.5 refers high consistency and reliability. Almost all the variables scores
more than 0.50 which refers the variables that are used in the research are reliable enough and
respondents were consistent in their responses to the survey questions.
Table 2: Descriptive result of Cronbach's alpha

Variables Cronbach's alpha

Independent Variables Facebook 0.83

Google Plus 0.74

Twitter 0.66

LinkedIn 0.72

Friend feed 0.53

Orkut 0.49

Dependent variable Customer Purchase Intent (CPI) 0.56

Facebook

Facebook is the most widely used social media sites throughout the world because of its
acceptance throughout the world. Facebook is really affecting anf created a new dimension in
the social media marketing by adding different features for advertising. Researcher has asked
three questions regarding the Facebook to the respondents in the survey. The 35% of the overall
respondents were strongly agreed with the research questions, 30% were agreed and only 4%
and 8% consecutively were somewhat agreed or disagreed with survey questions which refer
35
the respondents are very much positive about the positive impacts of Facebook on Asda’s
customers. Besides, the average mean is more than 6 and average mode is also 6 which refer the
positive influence of Facebook on Asda’s customers’ buying intent.
Table 3:Descriptive result of Facebook

Facebook

Strongly Agree 35%

Agree 30%

Somewhat agree 19%

Neither agree nor disagree 3%

Somewhat disagree 4%

Disagree 8%

Strongly Disagree 1%

Total Number of Respondents 100%

Mean 6.19

Mode 6

36
Figure 1: Descriptive result of Facebook

GooglePlus
Google Plus is now getting popularity in social media world but not as much popular as
Facebook. ASDA also uses the Google Plus for its social media marketing. From 80
respondents, 25% were strongly agreed with the survey questions GP1,GP2 and GP3 where
11% were somewhat agreed. 19% were somewhat disagreed whether only 2% were strongly
disagreed. The average mean of the survey questions’ frequency is .74 which all refers the
positive opinion of the respondents regarding the Google Plus. Besides, the mode value is 3.9
which refers the somewhat agreed of the respondents. Overall survey findings show that
respondents are somewhat agreed about its impacts.
Table 4: Descriptive result of Google Plus

37
Google Plus

Strongly Agree 25%

Agree 15%

Somewhat agree 11%

Neither agree nor disagree 2%

Somewhat disagree 19%

Disagree 6%

Strongly Disagree 2%

Total Number of Respondents 100%

Mean 5.74

Mode 3.9

Figure 2: Descriptive result of Google Plus

38
Twitter

Twitter is widely used social media site mainly in the western countries; it can enable the users
to give 130 words short tweet facilities with the photo and video sharing opportunity. ASDA
uses twitter to conducts social media marketing. Researcher has used TW1, TW2 and TW3
code to use three survey questions for getting the response from the respondents. 27% of 80
respondents were strongly agreed, 10% were somewhat agreed, 9 % were neutral whether 15%
strongly disagreed, which refers

Twitter
respondents are positive towards to the
effectiveness of the twitter. The average

Strongly Agree 27% mean was 5.32 which refers the

somewhat agree of the respondents

Agree 12% whether the average mode is low which

also justify the mean’s findings.

Somewhat agree 10% Table 5: Descriptive result of Twitter

Neither agree nor disagree 9%

Somewhat disagree 12%

Disagree 15%

Strongly Disagree 15%

Total Number of Respondents 100%

Mean 5.3239

Mode 3.9
Figure 3: Descriptive result of Twitter

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is now become the biggest professional sites in the world with huge coverage of
corporate personnel. Asda uses LinkedIn for attracting potential employees and find the
corporate buyers. Respondents showed that average 15% were strongly agreed the three survey
questions, 12% were agreed with survey questions but 16% were somewhat disagreed and 9%
were strongly disagreed. The average mean is 5.14 and mode is 4.5 which all refer the
respondents’ positive opinions regarding the impact of LinkedIn in customer purchase intent.
So, it can be concluded that respondents are somewhat agreed with the survey questions
Table 6: Descriptive result of LinkedIn

Linkedln

Strongly Agree 15%

1
Agree 12%

Somewhat agree 11%

Neutral 7%

40
 Somewhat disagree 16%

Disagree 10%

Strongly Disagree 9%

Total Number of Respondents 80

Mean 5.11

Mode 4.5

Figure 4: Descriptive result of LinkedIn

41
YouTube

YouTube is another great medium of social networking sites which huge number of video. It has
become a biggest platform to exhibit the products and its services through video clips. Asda
uses the YouTube as a part of social media marketing. Of all the 80 respondents, 16% of the
respondents were strongly agreed with the researcher’s three survey questions. 20% were
somewhat agreed, 19% were neutral whether 9% were disagreed and 8% were strongly
disagreed. The mean and mode is consecutively 5.56 and 4.9 which all refer the respondents
showed positive impacts about the YouTube on customer purchase intent.
Table 7: Descriptive result of You Tube

YouTube

Strongly Agree 16%

Agree 18%

Somewhat agree 20%

Neither agree nor disagree 19%

Somewhat disagree 10%

Disagree 9%

Strongly Disagree 8%

Total Number of Respondents 100%

Mean 5.56

Mode 4.9

42
 Figure : Descriptive result of YouTube

Instagram

Instagram is the most popular medium of the photo sharing social media site. Respondents
showed that average 8% were strongly agreed the three survey questions, 8% were agreed with
survey questions but 16% were somewhat disagreed and 16% were strongly disagreed. The
average mean is 4.23 and mode is 3.21 which all refer the respondents’ positive opinions
regarding the impact of Instagram on customer purchase intent. So, it can be concluded that
respondents are somewhat agreed with the survey questions.
Table : Descriptive result of Instagram

Instagram

Strongly Agree 8%

Agree 8%

Somewhat agree 11%

Neutral 18%

43
Somewhat disagree 16%

Disagree 23%

Strongly Disagree 16%

Total Number of Respondents 100%

Mean 4.23

Mode 3.21

44
45
Customer Purchase Intent(CPI)

Customer purchase intent has become the biggest focused issue in the whole business world.
Customer are now getting more preferences and organizations are trying to influences the
customer purchase intent. Researcher has designed 3 questions for the survey to identify the
customer purchase intent and researcher has found that 55% were strongly agreed, 25% were
agreed, 7 were neutral whether 3% were disagreed and 2 were strongly disagreed. It refers
respondents were very positive about the customer purchase intent. The average mean and
mode are consecutively 6.44 and 6 which also refers respondents showed positive opinion about
customer purchase intent.

Table : Descriptive result of Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

Customer Purchase Intent

Strongly Agree 55%

Agree 25%

Somewhat agree 7%

Neither agree nor disagree 2%

Somewhat disagree 6%

Disagree 3%

Strongly Disagree 2%

Total Number of Respondents 100%

Mean 6.44

Mode 6

46
Figure: Descriptive result of Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

47
Correlation Analysis

The researcher applied statistical analytical tools to calculate the correlation of the variables.
The researcher has found the relation between the customer purchase intent and social media
marketing of Asda stores by the following correlation analysis,

Table 10: Correlation Matrix

Correlations Matrix

Facebook Google Twitter LinkedIn FriendFeed Orkut

Plus

Facebook 1.00

Google Plus 0.94 1.00

Twitter 0.27 0.39 1.00

LinkedIn 0.57 0.00 0.19 1.00

48
 FriendFeed 0.61 0.90 0.82 0.67 1.00

Orkut 0.93 0.99 0.36 0.20 0.76 1.00

CPI 0.96 0.85 0.55 0.79 0.85 0.85

This research findings showed that all the variables are highly correlated with each
other because almost all the values are more than 0.5 which refers the positive
relationship exist between the variables.

Table : Model Summary of Customer purchase intent

Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate

1 0.214 0.858 0.846 0.737

a. Predictors: (Constant), Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn

The researcher has found that there is a positive relation of 84.6% between the
determinants. So the R square is calculated 84.6%. This means there is 45% impact
of the social media marketing on the customer purchase intent. This explains that
1% change in the social media marketing of the ASDA stores changes the
customer buying intent by 0.45%.

Table 12: Coefficient of Regression

49
 Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients

Std.
Error

1 (Constant) 7.121 1.220 5.835 0.000

Facebook 0.078 0.137 0.644 0.570 0.570

Twitter -0.141 0.115 0.543 -1.229 0.222

Google Plus -0.162 0.101 0.237 -1.609 0.111

Instagram -0.188 0.105 0.442 -1.802 0.075

LinkedIn 0.233 0.122 0.478 0.689 0.605

YouTube 0.058 0.185 0.309 0.130 0.235

From the following table, the effects of the independent variables on customer
purchase intent can be measured and referred. The independent variable attention
towards detail has the value of beta 0.644 on Employee Motivation, Twitter has
0.543, Google Plus has 0.237, Instagram has 0.03, LinkedIn has 0.36 and YouTube
has 0.15. it can be said that independent variables has positive effects on the
dependent variable.

Which one is the most attractive and influencing social media?

For finding the most perfect social media marketing tools, researcher has added a
question on the survey for getting response from the respondents. From 80
respondents, 47% referred that Facebook is the most attraction and influential
social media site. Besides, twitter has got 23%, YouTube has got 20% and
Instagram has got 10% responses. So, it can be concluded that Facebook is the
50
most effective and influential social media marketing tools.

Which one is the most attractive and influencing social media?

Figure : Descriptive result of Most Attractive social Media

Through which social media you are getting influenced mostly for purchasing the
products of ASDA?

Influencing customer purchase, Facebook has scored 55% from the respondents
overall response. On the other hand, Google Plus scored 12%, Twitter has got 10
responses and YouTube has got 23% responses. So, it can be concluded that
Facebook influences the customers to purchase products from Asda most.

Through which social media you are getting influenced mostly for purchasing the
products of ASDA?

51
Figure : Descriptive result of Which Social Media Customers are influenced to
purchase the products

52
Facebook’s advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social media?

Social media marketing’s most important part is advertising policy because advertisement is
one of the most important ways to influence customer purchase intent. Respondents responded
that Facebook’s advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social media which is
supported by 78% respondents whether 22% gave negative responses regarding this question.

Facebook’s advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social media?

Figure: Descriptive result of Facebook’s advertisement policy is less disturbing the another social
media

Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than Facebook?

For this question, 39% respondents were agreed, 7% were strongly agreed, 6% were neutral and
12% were disagreed. So, it can be said that Twitter has more customized features for its
advertising policies than Facebook and it is supported by the majority respondents.

53
Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than Facebook?

Figure: Descriptive result of Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than
Facebook

Discussion
Facebook has become the best media for social media become it has got the largest account
holder in the world. According to the customer feedback, the Facebook of the ASDA is well-
decorated with all the information which can meet the customers’ demands and queries, besides
it also helps them to communicate direct with the company to learn many things directly.
Pietrobruno (2013) expressed similar opinion about the Facebook because opens the path to
communicate with them directly, demonstrate them different pictures and videos which can
help them attract the customers and their purchase simultaneously. The survey findings showed
that Facebook is very effective as a tool of social media marketing which can actively helping
ASDA to influence the customer purchase intent in favor of them by providing different
facilities and scopes towards the customers. From the data analysis it is clear that ASDA has
designed it focusing on the customers and customers are very positive towards the Facebook
facilities which are reflected in the frequency of the response of respondents regarding the
Facebook where maximum respondents responded positively and agreed with its effects.
Besides, the average mean of the responses of the respondents regarding the three survey
questions revealed that overall basis respondents agreed with the positive impacts of the social
media on customer purchase intent. Them ode, correlation and regression analysis report also
54
shows the similar findings regarding Facebook’s impacts. Howard et al. (2014) concluded that
Facebook is giving the scope for the business organization a chance to advertise their company,
making a page on it which can help to build a strong presence in the social media to increase the
customer value as well as brand image, all of which ultimately helpful in gaining customer
perception for influencing the customer purchase intent. Walker (2014) have concluded
Facebook is the best medium of the social media marketing because of its user friendliness and
the scopes to use different tools and apps which make it unique and lucrative for the business
organization for increasing their business activities to attract customer purchase.

Google plus is not that much popular as social media sites but it contains a large number of
subscribers which can help it as a potential social media sites. Besides, it is now growing
popularity among different part of the world and also among the business community. It is
found that the presence of ASDA on Google plus is very appreciable because it puts efforts on
this to attract different customers which can help it to be more effective in the business arena.
The survey findings also support that Google Plus is a very effective tool to conduct the
marketing for influencing the customer purchase intent. Respondents showed positive motion
about the Google plus through their responses or feedback for the three survey questions which
refers concur of them about the positive relationship and positive impact. Besides, the mean and
mode of the frequency of the respondents’ responses is supporting the above mentioned
statement. Regression, cronbach’s alpha and correlation analysis in the data analysis part
reflected that Google plus have positive relationship with other variables and have positive
impacts on the dependent variable as well. According to Veeck and Hoger (2014), though
Google plus has not got so much popularity but it has got potential the market because of its
strong backup and also effectively gaining popularity in the business world as part of social
media marketing because Google has taken many steps to make it more friendly and attractive
by adding many facilities. Walker (2014) have concluded that Google plus is very effective tool
because it gives a proper mixture of different facilities that are not present in some popular
social media sites which makes it very lucrative for the customers and ultimately lure the
business companies to present there for reaching vast number of people or potential customers
there.
Twitter is one of the popular social media sites in the world and that’s why, ASDA has targeted
this site as tool of social media marketing for increasing traffic on its sites and websites. It is
found that ASDA is using twitter to increase the trafficking by sharing different information and
creating direct communication with the customers .Natarajan et al. (2014)have explained that
55
twitter is very effective in attain customer attention because it describes everything in short
notes, which is convenient for the users and easy to understand, besides it helps the business
organization to share different things to generate trafficking on its websites and create a brand
image in the social media. ASDA uses the Twitter for sharing different pictures and videos
which are helping the customers and also creating awareness about different things, beside
company can get user generated content from twitter with appropriate feedback. Researcher has
found in his survey that, maximum number of respondents gave positive feedback about the
survey questions, besides the average mean and mode is also supporting the idea of positive
impacts of twitter on customer purchase intent. The regression, correlation analysis are also
supporting the same conclusion about positive relationship other variables and high impact on
customer purchase intent. Howard et al. (2014) concluded that twitter is getting priority in
social media marketing because it is getting more and more subscribers day by day and
organizations are trying to grab this vast potential customers by using the twitter’s scope of
talking, communication, exchanging information, generating feedbacks, creating buzz by
showing different picture and videos to the followers.

According to Pietrobruno (2013), YouTube is the largest video sharing and blogging site in the
whole world with vast amount and collection of videos. Respondents believes that YouTube has
become a big part of social media marketing which opens the platform to share different videos
of the business organization by demonstrating different positive and benefits to attract the new
customers and potential one. The researcher found that the content of the ASDA on YouTube is
satisfactory to attract the customers because there are many attractive and videos related to
review of different goods are given which help the customers to choose the best one and choose
ASDA as their suitable store to shopping. The survey findings also support that YouTube is a
very effective tool to conduct the marketing for influencing the customer purchase intent.
Respondents showed positive motion about YouTube through their responses or feedback for
the three survey questions which refers concur of them about the positive relationship and
positive impact. Besides, the mean and mode of the frequency of the respondents’ responses is
supporting the above mentioned statement. Regression, cronbach’s alpha and correlation
analysis in the data analysis part reflected that YouTube have positive relationship with other
variables and have positive impacts on the dependent variable as well. Saluja and Singh (2014)
found that YouTube opens a path for the business organization to show different benefits and
uses of the products to the customers and also can post customer review about the products
which all are creating a scope for the business to influence the customers buying pattern and
56
intent.

LinkedIn is the world biggest professional networking sites where different kinds of
professionals are gathered together for creating a virtual community. According to
Damnjanovic et al. (2012), LinkedIn opens the path of digital marketing where it can reach
business buyers and different professionals by using rich visual content and by offering Value in
Discussion Groups. The researcher found that from the above data analysis it is clear that the
LinkedIn of Sainsbury makes it more aristocratic and attractive where the company maintains a
special system to be filly attentive towards customer purchase intent. The respondents’ average
response was around 5 that mean they are slightly satisfied and attracted with the LinkedIn of
the ASDA and to some extent they are neutral. The regression of the result also shows that there
is a positive effect of the LinkedIn on the customer purchase intent. So, it clear that LinkedIn is
effective social media marketing to influence the customer purchase intent. On the other hand,
Natarajan et al. (2014) disagreed that it is not effective in influencing customers rather it is
appropriate in attracting potential and qualified employees as it is a sites of professionals around
the world.

Customer purchase intent is the dependent variable here and researcher has focused excessively
on this variables to find effectiveness of the social media marketing on its. Kim and Ko (2010)
expressed that Customer purchase intent refers the customer purchase behaviour which he or
she usually shows during purchasing a product and by which he or she always is always
influenced to choose a particular product. The customer purchase intent of the ASDA is
satisfactory which is proved by the recent growth and increase of market share, besides the
social media marketing is really important for it in this era of information technology. ASDA is
trying hard to influence its customers by the social media sites which are proved by the use of
social media sites in its websites with special consideration.

Researcher found through its survey questions that respondents are highly positive towards the
survey questions regarding the impact of social media on customer purchase intent. Almost
80% of the respondents were agreed about the survey questions about the customer purchase
intent. Regression analysis showed all the independent variables are effective and have some
impacts on the customer purchase intent. Besides, correlation analysis shows positive impacts
on customer purchase intent. The average mean and mode value also support the statement.

katona (2013)concluded that customer purchase behaviour is now depended on many factors

57
where social media marketing is another big element which are now influencing customers at
high rate and the current technological surge has made the importance of social media
marketing more acute for influencing the customer purchase intent.

According to the survey, Facebook is the most popular social media site of the ASDA because
it gives profound opportunity to communicate and involve customers. Customers are getting
influenced mostly by the Facebook for purchasing the products of ASDA which also concur
with the recent survey. Besides, customers are agreed that Facebook advertising policy is more
user friendly than other social media sites in the world. But many people agreed that Twitter has
more customized features for its advertising policies than Facebook.

58
Chapter Five: Conclusion and recommendation

Conclusion

ASDA is using social media as great tool of marketing by which it is now generating or
attaining potential benefits which is helping towards its sustainability and profitability. Social
media marketing refers the process of using social media, such as- Facebook, Twitter, Myspace,
Skype, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. in marketing and thus social media marketing enables the
company more competitive by generating opinions, reviews and comments of the different
customers which reflects the current market conditions and scenarios that will help to design
more customer oriented strategy for getting more customer insight and customer preferences.

Exploring the different aspects and importance of Social media marketing for a retailing
company on the basis of ASDA is the first objective of this research. Researcher has
investigated how social media marketing is helping ASDA in influencing customer purchase
intent by using different theories, tactics and statistical tools. Social media marketing has got
some identifiable advantages over traditional marketing communications. Traditional marketing
involves one way communication which often called push based marketing. That means people
sometimes do not expect information but firms push the information regarding their products to
the people. This doesn’t include an interactive mode of communication where social media
marketing involves not only two ways or interactive mode of communication but also facilitates
dialogue with people to have a better understanding about their needs. Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn are the key elements of ASDA’s social media marketing.
Researcher has clearly identified different aspects and importance of social media effectively.

Analyzing customer purchase intent and different factors related with this of ASDA is a
research objective and researcher put different efforts to accomplish this objectives. Researcher
found that customers’ purchase intention can be influenced by several factors and firms must
focus on this and design effective strategies to attract them and get purchase in favor of them.
Customers typically show various purchased behaviour while purchasing the products which
are based on involvement level and quality of the products and organization must put special
59
consideration on these different behaviour to design different strategies which will be effective
towards different types of customers for getting maximum purchases from them and making
them loyal to the company.Social media marketing and customer purchase intent are related to
each other and to show the relationship between is an objective of the research. Researcher
found that Social media is flourishing as a critical tool for influencing customers and
persuading their purchase intention to the firms’ products and services which indicate that both
social media and customers purchase intent are correlated. Now people are influenced more by
external environmental factors and social media has performed a critical role as an external
source of information to the people and influencing their attitudes. Now, consumers are more
cling to several kinds of social media to conduct research on information to assist their decision
making (Suki, 2011). In particular, social networking sites had significant impact on purchase
decision of internet users visiting those sites (Saluja and Singh, 2014). Besides, the correlation
analysis and regression analysis also justified the statement that these two topics are related to
each other.

From the above discussion and whole research analysis, it is clear that Social media marketing
is crucial to influence customer purchase intent of ASDA which is proved by the research
findings and also there is a strong relationship between Social media marketing and customer
purchase intent of ASDA which is also proved by the research findings. So, it can be said that
both of the research hypotheses are justified as truth and both are accepted by the researcher.

Recommendations:

For better outcomes, ASDA needs to improve its current social media marketing strategy for be
more effective in gaining customer purchase by influencing their intent. Social media marketing
mainly aims to increase the trafficking in the social media sites and its websites to present or
demonstrate different offers, products, schemes, reviews, information and other things for
influencing customer perception and getting more response. In following some
recommendations are made which will accomplish the last of objective of this research:

 ASDA needs to be more active in social media sites by increasing its present in more
networking sites because many sites, like- my space, Orkut, friends feed, are still
untapped by it which is creating some communication gap with the subscribers of
60
 these social media sites. Besides, it can use Skype to conduct direct communication
with them to make them understand about different topics for influencing customers’
perceptions. Research findings revealed that customers are very eager for the social
media marketing and it will be more effective if ASDA can cover other potential
social networking sites to cover more potential customers. More coverage on the
social medias its will enable it toga in more potential customers which will increase
the impact of social media marketing more.
 Researcher found that mismanagement or inappropriate handling of the social media
marketing can cause potential problem. Besides, for effective conduction of SCM, it is
needed to give responsibility to separate fully employed employees for this purpose.
ASDA can create a separate division or department for the social media marketing for
making its more focused and appropriate with the current situation because many
competitors are now focusing more on this and gaining competitive advantages. So,
ASDA can recruit a social media marketing manager for gaining more specialization
on this sector. Besides, prompt and instance service or feedback must
beinsuredtocapturecustomers’attentionwhichwilleventuallymakeitacustomer
Oriented company and will help to influence customer perception.
 Researcher also found that customers are very eager to create communication among
them to take information and reviews. So, ASDA can create a separate social media
sites for its customers which will mainly focus on its loyal and most preferred
Customers to be in a group. ASDA can name it as “ASDA family” where the
customers of the ASDA can communicate with each other and can give feedback to
the ASDA regarding different issues, which will create new dimension towards its
business and
Also attract the customers.
 ASDA needs to give more emphasis on the quality of the social media sites content
because if it is not updated or up-to-mark certainly will demoralize customers and will
create negative image which eventually will negatively influence customers’
purchases. Besides, it must regularly update its info and page content with new
changes for making its more effective and rich in nature. On the other, it must keep
eyes on handling the social media sites because any fault and fake promise; news can
damage the company image severely. It is found in the research that the more
presence in social networking sites is good but maintaining quality is the main way to
Create enthusiasm and keep interest of the customers.
61
  The complaints and nay kind of negative comments in the social media sites must be
handled properly for proper brand of the organization because if customers see any
bad comment automatically he or she will perceive a negative image about the
company. So, ASDA needs to be careful about these issues for better management of
brand image in digital marketing. Besides, prompt and instance measure must be
taken to handle the complaints of the customers. Research reveals Customer handling
and complaints management good huge priority ,so better idea and way is needed to
Formulate for better management of brand image in digital marketing.
 Separate strategy, game plan and goals must be designed for each social media entity for
making the strategy for customized and appropriate with the surrounding situation
because different social media may demands different situation, so for being more
specificandappropriateitmustfortheorganisationtodesignseparatestrategyfor
Separate site.
 Customer service strategy and action plan must be designed to define the code of
conduct for each of the social media sites. Besides, ASDA must go above and beyond
to satisfy the customers. Proper evaluation of performance must be done for better
understanding of the situation. ASDA needs to focus on giving customers a chance to
express their feeling which will help to generate new ideas from there.

Limitation and future research scope:

This research is an academic research and this is not for any business purpose, so the researcher
has faced the shortage of resources and some knowledge lacking. This research covered
different aspects of the social media marketing on customer purchase intent. In future,
researcher can conduct research based on how each of the social media sites is eligible and
important to influence the customers purchase intent. Besides, more research can be conducted
on how the social media marketing should be designed and what should be content of the social
media marketing. The research needs to be conduct regarding the current topic in future for
understanding what the current scenario is. In future researcher can conduct research how can
social media marketing can target the customers and can segment the market to design its
contents and influence the customer purchase intent.

62
References

 Auker, C. (n.d.). Social Media and Its Application in Business Marketing. SSRN
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 Balakrishnan, B., Dahnil, M. and Yi, W. (2014). The Impact of Social Media
MarketingMediumtowardPurchaseIntentionandBrandLoyaltyamongGeneration
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Within The Group Of Entrepreneurs? The Role Of Motivation And Procedural
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 social media, computational things and applications. New Media & Society.

www..google.com
www.slidesharecom

Appendix A

Survey Form
Serial
Number:

“An Investigation of the impact of Social media marketing on customer

purchase intent in retail industry of UK: A case study of Asda”

Dear participant,

I am conducting a survey for completing the Project Report related to the social
media advertisement for finding the impact of it on the consumer buying
behaviour especially focusing the study on ASDA, UK. For that purposes the
below mentioned information is needed to fill up. I will use that information for
the academic purposes only.

Thank You for your help.

PARTICIPANT SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Personal Information
15-21 22-29

64
 30-39 40 and above

Age

Less than high High School

school
Education Level Diploma BCs.

MBA PHd.

Less than 10000-20000

10000
Monthly 20000-30000 30000-50000

65
 Income 50000-70000 More than
70000

Nationality British (UK) Asian

African Other European

Gender Male Female

Survey Questions Representatives

Strongly Disagr Somew Neutr Somew Agree Strongly
Disagree ee hat al hat agree
Disagre Agree
e

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Survey Questionnaire
Code Questions Stro Disa Som Neutr Som Ag Stro
ngly gree ewh al ewh ree ngly
Disa at at agre
gree Disa Agre e
gree e

Section One: Facebook

F1 Facebook is an
important tool of
social media
marketing

F2 Facebook content
of Asda is rich and
appropriate for the
current situation

F3 Facebook of
Asdahas
influenced my
purchase intent

66
 Positively

GPSection Two: Google Plus

GP1 Google Plus of
Asda is effective to
influence
customers

GP2 I think the content

of Google plus is
appropriate to
meet customers
query

GP3 Google plus of

Asda is efficient
enough to
influence customer
purchase intent.

Section Three: Twitter

TW1 Twitter is becoming
a great tool of
social media
marketing now-a-
days

TW2 I personally visited

the Twitter of Asda
and it is
satisfactory

TW3 Twitter is helping

Asda to influencing
customers
positively

Section Four: LinkedIn

LI1 LinkedIn has linked
Asda with different
potential
customers

LI2 It effective tool of

social media
marketing

LI3 It effective to
influence customer

67
 purchase
behaviour

Section Five: YouTube

YT1 YouTube is
influecng the
customers through
it content

YT2 I believe YouTube

can help Asda to
be more
competitive in
social media
marketing

YT3 It really efficient

tool to influence
customer purchase

Section Six: Instagram

IT1 Instagram content

of Asda is
satisfactory and
appropriate to
meet customers’
demands and
query

IT2 Asda is using it to

influence customer
purchase
behaviour

IT3 Asda has regularly

update its content
to make it more
dynamic

Section Seven: Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

CPI1 Customer
purchase intent of
Asda’s customer
are positive
enough

CPI2 Social media

marketing is really
influencing

68
 customer purchase
intent

CPI3 Customer
purchase intent
can be increase if
the customers’
demand of
knowledge and
information is
fulfilled fully which
can be done by the
social media
marketing.

Other Questions

1. Which one is the most attractive and influencing socialmedia?

a) Facebook
b) Twitter
c)Google Plus
d) LinkedIn

2. Through which social media you are getting influenced mostly for
purchasing the products of ASDA?
a) Facebook
b) Google Plus
c) Twitter
d) LinkedIn

3. Facebook’s advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social

media?
a) Yes
b) No

4. Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies

thanFacebook?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Somewhat Agree
d) Neither Agree nor Disagree
e) Somewhat Disagree
f) Disagree
g) Strongly Disagree

69
70