INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

MBA (3.5) SMESTER 3rd

FINAL PROJECT ON RESEARCH

PROJECT ON RESEARCH ARTICLE

“Impact of Social Media Advertisement/Marketing on

Consumer Perception”.

GROUP MEMBERS
MB-19-03 AYESHA SIDDIQUE
MB-19-08 RABIA MATEEN
MB-19-10 FATIMA IMRAN
MB-19-49 WAJEEHA IMRAN

COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
PROF. NOSHEEN SARWAT
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Abstract: .......................................................................................................... 2
2. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 2
2.1. Problem Statement: ......................................................................................................3
2.2. Objectives: ....................................................................................................................3
2.3. Significance: ..................................................................................................................4
2.4. Rationale: .....................................................................................................................4
2.5. Conceptual Model: ........................................................................................................4
3. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................4
3.1. Social Media Advertising: ..............................................................................................4
3.2. Product Awareness: ......................................................................................................5
3.3. Communication .............................................................................................................6
3.4. Consumer Perception ....................................................................................................6
3.5. Hypothesis: ...................................................................................................................7
4. Research design and methodology: ...........................................................................7
4.1. Sampling technique:......................................................................................................7
4.2. Data collection: .............................................................................................................7
4.3. Research instruments: ...................................................................................................7
5. Appendix: ........................................................................................................ 8
6. References: .................................................................................................... 10
 TERM REPORT
“Impact of Social Media Advertisement/Marketing on
Consumer Perception”.

1. Abstract:
The presence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for an individual to
communicate with one another all over the world about a product or service. Researchers and brand
managers have limited understanding of the effects of firm-created and user-generated social
media communication on brand equity, brand attitude, and purchase intention. The results of our
studies showed that social media communication had a positive influence on consumer perception.
. With the advent of technology, high-speed internet and ease of shopping on internet, it is observed
that consumers are adapting to online marketing and their buying behavior is being influenced
accordingly. This research paper is conducted by Students of MBA of Bahauddin Zakariya
University and data is collected reliably through questionnaires and determine the impact on social
media marketing and consumer perception and behavior. The aim of this paper is to study the
impact of social media marketing on consumer buying behavior.

2. INTRODUCTION
Through social media people exchange information around the world and through social media
marketing brands create awareness of their products and services. Moreover, marketing through
social media has now become a significant part of business strategies and a modern tool for
creating brand awareness. Consumers look for products/services reviews and recommendations.
So, it is very important to have a significant online presence on different social media platforms.
Social media has the potential to create an impact on people from the start till the stage of
purchasing as well as beyond that. Hence, building public awareness, granting deals and discounts
on social media is a good start for marketing your brand through social media. In recent years, it
is observed that consumers who are influenced by social media marketing are most likely to spend
more on purchases. In fact, the influence might be so high that most of the consumers tend to make
a purchase on the same day they use social media. It is the social media that has made possible for
everyone to communicate with people all over the world about any product, organization or
service. The quick development in the popularity of web-based media platforms lately has raised
the question that whether this situation has decreased the marketer’s control of brand management
(Berthon et al. 2007).

The concept of social media marketing involves gaining the attention of people or increasing
traffic to the brand website through social media channels. It makes content that stands out and
urges the readers to share it with their social networks. Internet provides the marketers a chance to
interact with the consumers and get their direct feedbacks. Instead of traditional media (magazines,
radio, TV), consumers are now using social media sites for information (Mangold and Faulds
2009). Social media technologies take on many different platforms such as, web-pages, blogs,
online campaigns, social bookmarking. Availing social media and distinctive web shopping sites
through internet, people make their purchases, which is also called internet shopping, web
shopping, and web purchasing (Li and Zhang, 2002). With the revolution of internet and the
increasing use of social media, companies have now understood that interacting with the
consumers through social media sites is a necessary demand of time. To remain in the competition,
companies have to adopt new technologies and strategies using social media. So, in today’s world
companies are using internet/social media to advertise their products and services and to interact
with the consumers. Social media provides user-generated content on daily basis such as product
reviews and online feedbacks of the customers (Math wick et al., 2008; Zhu and Zhang, 2010).
Social media marketing enhances the brand popularity (de Vries et al., 2012). It also provides
consumer the chance of instantly consulting the buyer (Christodoulides and Jevons, 2011;
Christodoulides, 2009). In fact social media marketing is very economical for the small companies
as compared to TV advertisement, door to door selling and promotional marketing (Mukesh,
2013).
Information that has been consumed by many people is shared on social media and this information
becomes a source that impacts consumer and their buying behavior. A significant rise was
observed in the use of social media platforms as a marketing tool for Fortune 500 companies.
According to the study of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2012, 73 percent of these
companies have official twitter accounts on Twitter, whereas, 66 percent of the companies have
official Facebook pages (Barnes et al., 2012). This research paper will assess the influence of social
media on consumer perception.

2.1 Problem Statement:

Media advertisement is a prime instrument to increase the profits of the firms. The very purpose
of every business is to rise profits and reduce the cost. Several media platforms are used for
advertising products. Internet has easy access for people. The reviews, perceptions, likes and
dislikes of customers can be known using media for promoting products and taking reviews and
comments from users on the same platform. The boom of social media is urging firms to use it in
their favor by combining people of the world.

2.2 Objectives:
 To investigate the relationship among social media advertisement and consumer
perception.
 To identify the moderating effect of communication on social media advertisement and
product awareness.
 To identify the mediating effect of product awareness on social media marketing and
consumer perception.
The need for social media advertisement, consumer perception, product awareness and
communication will vary based on gender, age, income.

2.3.Significance:
The importance of this research is to study the impact of media advertisement on the consumers
mind that how they percept the marketing of several brands they like and how they set their
purchasing pattern based on it. Nowadays people have awareness about social media and its
importance in their lives. The communication between the brands and consumers/users is done
through social platforms. We as a customer always do research before purchasing any product
about its advantages and disadvantages. Brands always try their best to maintain a positive
image of their product using social platforms.

2.4.Rationale:
The rationale of this research is to study effect of advertisement using social platforms on the
consumer perception. It is done to gather information regarding how the marketing done on
social platform can affect their behavior regarding the purchase of products. The use of social
platforms is increasing day to day so it is the reason firms are using it for advertisement. This
research is done to study the effect on consumer perception regarding the advertisement done
on social platforms.

2.5.Conceptual Model:

Social Media
Advertisement Product Consumer
Awareness Perception

Communication

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1.Social Media Advertising:

Social media advertisement are the advertisements served to users on social media platform.
Many companies’ marketers are now engaged in marketing activities especially in social media
sites to influence consumers (Sama, 2019). It has been suggested that, social media marketing is
having the use of internet and social media networks to advertise a company product or a
company service (Kenton, 2018). In a general view, companies have to spend about 34% of total
cost in advertising expense especially in social media promotional activities recall (Sama, 2019).
This is important because, the marketer want to get the higher gain and it is only possible by the
advertising (Singh, 2012). Social networking through online media can be understood as a
variety of digital sources of information that are created, initiated, circulated, and consumed by
Internet users as a way to educate one another about products, brands, services, personalities and
issues (Chauhan and Pillai 2013). Social networking sites are used because they have exceptional
connectivity between customers and communities that have already formed in it (Assael, 2001).
social media platform has created an exemplary scope for any brand to advertise its product
through exposure, attention and perception; to develop opinions; and to create values (Kim and
Ko, 2010). Social media, in a way, converts consumers into marketers and advertisers, who generate,
edit, and share online information about companies, products and services. That may attracts attention
and encourages online users to share it with their social networks (Akar and Topçu, 2011).

The companies market performance and the products influenced by the huge quantity and quality
of data and information, which are generated by users on the Internet like on blogs, wikis and
websites (Keitzmann et al., 2011).

According to the “Social Influence Theory” by the Kelman (1958), “Social Influence brings
many changes in action; attitude and that change may occur in many levels. These differences in
changes can be attributed by the differences in the process through which individuals accept
influence”. As a result, we can say that social networks and social media promotional activities
can bring changes to the consumer perception. As chi (2019), described the about the social media
promotional activities that, “Social Media Advertising activities is providing a way to consumers
for the centered networking and social interaction”.

3.2.Product Awareness:
It is the degree of knowledge that consumer has about the product. It’s the first step in
purchasing a product is developing the knowledge that a product exists. Research from Wang et
al., also explains that advertising that appears too often on social media will actually inhibit the
purchase intention. As Keller and Davey (2001) describe, building product awareness to ensure
potential customers in different categories. We propose that product awareness is the information
about a particular category of product and service. Product awareness is known to be the one of
the most important pillars for making the company’s brand equity (Aaker, 1991). According to
Anand et al (2009) every advertisement strategy includes two main characteristics which are targeting
and information content of the advertisement. The information is presented to the target audience
through firm’s selected advertising medium. Traditional media, such as television and magazines, are
demonstrated to have limitations in terms of interactivity or vividness, whereas websites have a higher
level of interactivity and vividness in the context of hypermedia (Fortin and Dholakia, 2005; Hoffman
and Novak, 1996).

Ackerberg, D. A. (2001) also argued tha t advertisement containing product information influences
prospect’s opinion about pro duct, while advertisement with prestige or image effects influences
both prospect’s and produc t users opinion about product.Brand awareness is all about the
communication. Aaker (1991, pg. 63) said that; “a name is like a special file folder in the mind
which can be filled with name related facts and feelings.

Without such a file accessible in the memory, the facts and the feelings become misfiled and
cannot be readily accessible when needed”.
Product awareness can focus on the internal factors such as feelings etc.

3.3.Communication
Effective communication has brought great riot due to the exponential growth in Information
Technology in online businesses. Communication is a meaningful way to communicate with
customers to promote brand through Social media platforms. In recent era, social media is
becoming a worldwide international face and prodigy. Large companies in worldwide are taking
benefits of WEB 2.0 by using social media communication to renown and commotion of their
brands globally (Kaplan & Haenlein 2012). Information and Purchase process of a company
about their brands are authorized dynamic consumer behavior by using internet and Web 2.0
(Burmann and Arnhold 2008). Many companies are now sensible to create direct face-to-face
communication with their potential customers to increase brand loyalty (Li and Benioff 2011).
Hoch et al (1986) advertisement plays a significant role in deciding product’s quality when the physical
evidence provided for the product is somewhat ambiguous.

According to Expectancy Violation Theory (Burgoon, 1978), Human reaction having

unanticipated manners towards different things like brands & products. In response to social
media, non-relational theory is concerned. As a White-collar social media communicator,
understand the consumers' needs and wants, inaugurate compatible brand sculpture to meets the
expectations of customers, and make them involved and happy.

3.4.Consumer Perception
In marketing, Customer's recognition, imitations and belief towards brands or company is known
as Consumer Perception. Multiple variables like Direct and indirect interactivity with customers
to offer brands and product, which meets the wants and needs of consumers, mold consumer
perception. Consumers are now called as “KINGS OF MARKETS” in present scenario of
marketing and to know the present marketing scenario, consumer perception is an important field
for study (Khan & Velayudam, 2013). Previous studies indicated that perceived usefulness
positively affects the purchase intention (Sin et al., 2012; Lee et al., 2011; Cho & Fiorito, 2009;
Ahn et al., 2007).
Perceived fit determine which distribution channel is suitable for particular product. That's means,
Perceived fit is important for distribution of goods & services as compared to consumer perception
(Morrison & Roberts, 1998). To boost better consumer perception social media marketing play
requisite role in this scenario (Kim et al., 2003). The factor like quantity of product, packaging and
quality are influencing the consumer perception according to current literature (Chen, 2014).
According to the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein 111980), outlook
towards behaviors is important for prognostic customer's intent. In research of CB (Consumer
Behavior), intent toward promotion, brand is used to predicate the effectiveness of communication
in social media marketing (Trivedi, 2017b). Consumers’ actions and reactions always on the basis
of their perceptions which are usually not formed on the reality. It is made by the advertisement.
Reality for every individual is completely a personal phenomenon which is based on individual
needs, experiences, values and wants. Perception is the process, through which a person selects,
organizes and understand stimuli into a significant and a rational picture of the globe. It defines
“how we see the world around us” (Shiffmanet al.,2010)

3.5.Hypothesis:

H1: Social media marketing has a positive impact on consumer perception.

H2: Social media marketing along with product awareness has a positive influence on consumer
perception.

H3: Product awareness will mediate the relationship between social media marketing and
consumer perception.

H4: Communication will moderate the relationship between social media marketing and product
awareness.

4. Research Design and Methodology:

For better understanding the influence on social media marketing on consumer perception, the
nature of this study is quantitative. We are using the strategy of survey research with a minimal
interference with the study of non-contrived (field studies). The unit of analysis is individual and
the time horizon is cross sectional. We are having the causal studies.

4.1.Sampling technique:
We are conducting the convenience sampling. The samples was taken from the individuals who
are using social media.

4.2.Data collection:
The data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed and
are properly filled. The questions were asked with a 5-point Likert scale from “1- strongly agree”
to “5- strongly disagree”. To test the hypothesis we are using the “IBM SPSS software”.

4.3.Research instruments:
The research instrument of this study was questionnaire that was adapted from the previous
research. Social media marketing is measured with 6 questions adapted from Smith T.M. (2014),
consumer perception is measured with 4 items from Chen, L. (2014), product awareness is
 measured with 6 questions from Keller, K. L. and Davey, K.K., 2001 and communication is measured
with 8 items from Mägi, A.W. 2003, Tsiros, M., V. Mittal, and W.T. Ross, Jr. 2004 and Schivinski, B., and
D. Dabrowski. 2013

5. Appendix:

1) Social Media Marketing

Sr. Statement

1. Do you think consumer perception of a brand changes by social media marketing activities?

2. Content should be present, which the consumer expect to see from a brand on social media.

3. People mostly buy which brand posts are most popular.

4. Social media innovates the ways of advertising product or services in an efficient manner.

5. Social media outlets should be a brand utilize to engage with consumer.

6. Consumer perceive information posted by the other consumers on brand s social media
outlets to be trust worthy.

2) Purchase intention
Sr. Statement

1. Using social media platform help me make the decision better before purchasing goods and
services.

2. Using social media platform increases my interest in buying product and services.
3. If I find out that, the utility of the product or services is larger than personal devotion in term
of money, time and energy. I will consider buying this product and service.

4. I am very likely to buy product and services recommended by my friends on social media
platform.

3) Communication
Sr. Statement

1. I really like to talk about this brand with others.

2. I am always interested in learning more about this brand.

3. I would be interested in merchandise with this brand name on it.

4. I am proud to have other know I use this brand.

5. I like to visit the website for this brand.

6. Compared to other people I closely follow news about this brand.

4) Consumer perception
Sr. Statement

1. I am satisfied with the company’s social media communications for [brand]

2. The level of the company’s social media communications for [brand] meets my expectations

3. The company’s social media communications for [brand] are very attractive

4. This company’s social media communications for [brand] perform well, when compared with
the social media communications of other companies
1. I am satisfied with the content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand]

2. The level of the content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] meets
my Expectations
3. The content generated by other users about [brand] is very attractive

4. The content generated on social media sites by other users about [brand] performs well, when
compared with other brands

6. References:

 Smith T.M. (2014). Consumer Perceptions of a Brand's Social Media Marketing. Retrieved
May 6,2016 from: http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3184

 Chen, L. (2014). The influence of social media on consumer behavior: An empirical study
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