RESEARCH PROPOSAL

APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS

Submitted to: Mr. Waqar Akbar

Submitted by: Harris Kamran (1735154-Section F)

Abdul Aziz (1735141-Section F)
Bishal Shantilal Ghouri (1735106-Section E)

Class Section: E & F

1. Introduction:
The fact that digitalization has become a key & dominant feature in every aspect for
businesses operating globally; it has a major part to play especially for the people working in
the field of marketing. With time, digitalization has introduced the concept of digital
marketing which have enforced the managers to modify their marketing plans & budgets
accordingly.
In this era, it has been an important component for businesses to operate digitally. Millennials
are the core target of these digital marketing strategies because they are the profuse users of
all types of digital media. They are the group of individuals which are born between 1982 and
2004. The purpose of this study is to mainly evaluate the impact of digital marketing
strategies targeting the Millennials.

2. Problem statement:
To study the impact of digital marketing strategies targeting millennials.

3. Justification for the proposed research

1. To determine the type of digital marketing strategies preferred by the Millennials.
2. To check the impact of these strategies in terms of their buying behavior leading to their
buying decisions.
3. To highlight the importance of being digitally accessible & active to stay competent in the
market.
4. To understand the fact that the trend of online shopping is increasing rapidly and
businesses needs to work on online advertising in order to be more effective.
5. To determine the potential growth for businesses operating online while targeting the
millennials.
6. To examine the importance of different discounts offered online in order to attract the
millennials.
Generally, as the trends are changing due to continuous innovation, the purchase decisions of
the consumers are also highly influenced by them. They look for convenience with maximum
availability of alternate choices. In this context the millennials are the ones which are being
targeted the most by different businesses and that have made digital marketing more
competitive as the millennials keeps looking for better choices with competitive prices due to
a whole large number of options available for them to look for with higher convenience in all
terms that includes numerous factors. Applying the effective strategies on the right time will
definitely benefit the brands to attract their target market resulting in improving their brand
image along with higher profitability.
4. Preliminary literature review
Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era:-
The fact that the use of the internet is massively increasing across the globe which is directly
promoting the active digital appearance to be an important source of having a competitive
advantage in the field marketing for both, businesses and customers. Digital marketing
presents massive opportunities for marketers along with great amount of challenges as well
for the companies going global. The study focuses on such arising challenges and solutions
by gathering responses from 777 marketing executives around globe which reveal that
companies need to fill up the talents gaps, they need to work on the design of the organization
by improving it in the modern manner and finally implementation of the action plans can help
them to grab the opportunities (Peter S.H. Leeflang, Peter C. Verhoef, Peter Dahlstrom, Tjark
Freundt, 2014).
The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior:-
Andrew T Stephen, (2016).Digital and social media marketing has dramatically influenced
the consumer choices because people are spending most of their time being online. Five
themes were initially identified which included (1) consumer responses to the digital
advertising, (2) mobile marketing, (3) digital environment effects on consumer choices and
behaviors, (4) digital culture of the consumers and (5) online word of mouth which has been
termed as WOM. Thorough study was conducted to identify consumer experiences, that how
digital marketing strategies influence customers and how such techniques are affecting their
daily lives. It turned out to be that word of mouth (WOM) is the key factor amongst all
having a large amount of focus which helps to convince and influence them to make an
online purchase decision.
Internet marketing capabilities and international market growth:-
The impact of evolving technology of internet has facilitated the businesses to grow
internationally in order to grab the opportunities across the borders and build new business
relationships. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is basically a conceptual model which has
been used in this to identify the internet marketing capabilities and its growth internationally.
The results have been quite positive for firms approaching the internet marketing strategies
because of less uncertainty in terms of information handling and increased opportunities of
being connected in the international network. The study has also discovered that these digital
marketing strategies helps in indentifying strengths internally within the organization and that
leads to gain international growth in the respective market (Shane Mathews, Constanza
Bianchi, Keith J. Perks, Marilyn Healy, Rumintha Wickramasekera, 2016).
Understanding how Millennial shoppers decide what to buy: Digitally connected unseen
journey:-
The purpose of this study conducted is to mainly focus on the purchase intentions followed
by the decision making of online millennial customers in the digital environment provided by
this era. It has been identified there is a key role of social media marketing on Millennials
right from shopper journey till the final purchase decision. Numerous other medias and
devices are also used by this generation in the online shopping journey with different
experiences as well as expectations due to the fact that Millennials do a thorough research
before purchasing a product because they have numerous alternate choices and options to
avail. Another factor that they look into before making the decision is that they like to
gather reviews from their social networks and they seek content from various sources to
make the best choice (Angela Hall, Neil Towers, 2017).
Interactive media usage among millennial consumers:-
Marguerite Moore, (2012). Millennials are the most common users of the interactive
technologies in this digital era of innovative marketing techniques and tactics. The study
shows that their interest in these technological changes has a lot to do with their actual
behaviors. Two models were implemented to compare the data, first one emphasized
millennial versus the generation X and second was millenials versus the baby boomers,
millennial consumers being the common among both. As the data was collected and
compared, study has shown that the millennials have the most increased usage of digital
media compared to both the generation X and baby boomers. It has also shown that they are
the ones which are proved to be the most adaptable generation to accept the technological
changes happening often. However, there is still adequate space in between to conduct a
study and find out whether this generation likes to purchase online compared to their other
counterparts.
Selling to Millennials with online reviews:-
Social media evolution have been proved as an important source of platform for brands to
showcase their products and content related to it due to the fact that millenials have heavy
influence on it. Information collected from online reviews is considered to be a key factor to
influence their behavioral choices. This study was conducted among 227 millenials which has
shown that they are the ones who post most of the online reviews & also the ones who get
heavily influenced by it. Facebook has been the most common platform among different
social media and the other is company websites. Significantly it has also shown that most of
the online buyers are males rather than females among the millennials generation, the
respondents have also mentioned that they see more positives rather than negatives but there
is still whole a lot of room for improvement especially in product categories on which both
the genders were agreed (W. Glynn Mangold, Katherine Taken Smith, 2012).
Engaging Millennials in an evolving web environment: some key points for e-retailers:-
E-retailers & online marketers are facing great amount of challenges every-day in order to
reach out to this modern millennial generation in this fast moving digital era. The study has
focused on numerous key issues of this evolving web environment and has mentioned six of
the most important ones that included, first impression of the customers that needs to be more
effective by developing user-friendly content, trust building of customers which can be
created by delivering the promised value, right use of social media available so that effective
target marketing can be done, user experiences should be more then positive, focusing on the
importance of usability and finally customer retention strategies needs to be top-notch by
providing them the best after sales support so that they can become your permanent clients.
The only way to survive in this digital era and lead the market is to stay ahead of the
competition by implementing the changing marketing strategies. Finally the e-retailers should
understand that they have to adapt and identify the needs of the millennials generation rather
than expecting the vice-versa from them (Jasmine Yeap Ai Leen, Ramayah Thurasamy,
Azizah Omar, 2012).
 5. Theoretical Framework:

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

MILLENNIALS ONLINE PURCHASE

DECISIONS

INDEPENDANT VARIABLE

IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING

STRATEGIES

REACH ACT & CONVERT ENGAGE

Build Awareness Achieve conversion to Building customer

marketing strategies relationships to engage
repeat visits and sales

Display Advertising Site-wide content and

Content marketing
design effectiveness

Email Marketing Home page design

Blogs
effectiveness

Social Media Search and browse Customer support

Marketing page efficiencies
The dependant variable factors displayed in theoretical framework emphasizes on these key
points:-
 Reach: Primarily the businesses needs to focus on maximizing its “REACH”
because that’s the key factor in building awareness among the target market
therefore Millennials. The reach can be increased by display advertising as
that creates a powerful first impression. Email marketing and most importantly
social media marketing is the best tool to create awareness as our target
market are the most profuse users of it.

 Act & Convert: After creating awareness and brand image, marketers needs to
“ACT & CONVERT” of what they have achieved so far. This can be simply
done by powerful content creation and design effectiveness which needs to be
consumer-friendly that can lead your consumer to make a purchase decision.
Whether the brand is targeting through web or social media, in both the cases
design effectiveness is vital to engage your target market.

 Engage: Last but not the least, “ENGAGE” your customers by building better
customer relationships so that you can become their foremost choice for future
purchases as well. Most importantly, something on which digital businesses
need to work hard is customer support policies because your customers can
not touch or see the product physically in the online world so they can come
up with number of queries especially when you’re targeting Millennials,
which needs to be responded efficiently. Future deals & discounts also need to
be communicated properly on priority basis with your past-customers so that
you can retain those by making them realize how important they are for your
business.

6. Contribution of the research

The importance of conducting this research can primarily be determined by understanding the
power of the digital media due to its extremely high out-reach. Millennials are a large part of
the generation which is considered to be the multi-tasking force with having considerable
alternatives regarding their buying pattern.
Our research will help businesses to learn & understand those factors that directly influence
the millennials to make a purchase decision online, which would eventually help to draft
effective digital marketing strategies in order to maximize their sales leading to higher
profits. Another key reason for this research is to understand the fact that the outcome will
highlight those key platforms which can be used online to attract the target market i.e.
millennials. It will also be a helpful study in terms of analyzing the level of competency
arising among the businesses in order to make their digital appearance available at any cost.
7. Proposed research methodology

 Method of Data collection

Primary data will be collected from the millennials. Qualitative data collection method will
be used for the research study and a comprehensive questionnaire will be developed on close
ended likert scale method in order to collect the data from the respondents. Online survey
form will also be made in order to collect the data. All the respondents will be assured that
the data will be completely confidential and is being collected for the use of research purpose
only. The questions will be related to impact of digital marketing strategies targeting
millennial purchase decisions.

 Sampling Technique

The “Unrestricted non-probability sampling technique” will be used for the purpose of data
collection because we have a particular target that is millennials generation.

 Sample Size & Variables

The sample size of 100 respondents will be surveyed. “Millennials online purchase
decisions” is the independent variable while the “Effective digital marketing strategies” is the
dependant variable.

8. Research plan

 Close ended questionnaire will be distributed among the group of millennials in order
to gather the data which will be later analyzed on SPSS.

 Regression statistical technique will be used to analyze the collected data to find the
results regarding the impact of digital marketing strategies targeting millenials
followed by the interpretation of results.

9. Research Time table

Chapter Topic % Words Time Duration

1 Introduction 10% 300 1 Week
2 Literature 45% 1350 3 Weeks
Review
3 Methodology 5% 150 1 Week
4 Data Analysis 20% 600 1 Week
5 Conclusions & 20% 600 1 Week
Implications
TOTAL 100% 3000 2 Months
10. References

Leeflang, P. S., Verhoef, P. C., Dahlström, P., & Freundt, T. (2014). Challenges and solutions
for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), 1-12.
Stephen, A. T. (2016). The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer
behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, 17-21.

Mathews, S., Bianchi, C., Perks, K. J., Healy, M., & Wickramasekera, R. (2016). Internet
marketing capabilities and international market growth. International Business Review, 25(4),
820-830.

Mathews, S., Bianchi, C., Perks, K. J., Healy, M., & Wickramasekera, R. (2016). Internet
marketing capabilities and international market growth. International Business Review, 25(4),
820-830.

Moore, M. (2012). Interactive media usage among millennial consumers. Journal of

Consumer Marketing, 29(6), 436-444.

Mangold, W. G., & Smith, K. T. (2012). Selling to Millennials with online reviews. Business
Horizons, 55(2), 141-153.

Yeap Ai Leen, J., Thurasamy, R., & Omar, A. (2012). Engaging Millennials in an evolving
web environment: some key points for e-retailers. Business Strategy Series, 13(3), 111-117.