Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Submitted by
HARIKARAN K
Associate Professor
External Examiner
UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES
DECLARATION
HARIKARAN K
Register No - 32319124
University of Madras,
Chennai - 600005.
I hereby state that the project report entitled, “A study on the impact of social media
marketing on consumer purchase intention and the mediating role of brand
awareness” submitted to University of Madras, Chennai in partial fulfilment of
Master of Business Administration Degree is a record of original work done by me
and no part of this project report has been submitted for the award of any other
Degree, Diploma, Fellowship or any other similar studies.
Date: Signature
Place: (HARIKARAN K)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am obliged to thank all those who have helped me to finish the project
successfully. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the persons working in
the organization and helped me out with their abilities.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family members who have been a
source of inspiration and support during my project.
ABSTRACT
1.1 Introduction 1
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Definition 23
4.2 Definition 30
4.3.4 Occupation 35
38
4.4 Reliability Test
5.1 Findings 48
5.2 Conclusion 49
6. REFERENCE 52
7. ANNEXURE 57
LIST OF TABLES
4.3.2 Gender 33
4.3.4 Occupation 35
4.3.4 Occupation 35
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with
the audience to build brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This
involves publishing great content on social media profiles, listening to and
engaging with followers, analysing results, and running social media
advertisements.
The major social media platforms (at the moment) are Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat. With social
media, we have the opportunity to highlight all the best aspects of your business
with one click. Social media’s importance is seen when we realize our social
pages become a hub for users to easily find out more about your business and
what you care about, without clicking away from the app or website they’re
already browsing. Social platforms provide an opportunity to legitimatize the
brand. Social media allows to demonstrate our expertise in a variety of ways along
with the ability to write staff bios, share posts and produce content that can
creatively highlight your company’s core values, brand voice and unique qualities
that your services provide.
Social media can be used as a platform to distinguish the brand from
competitors, too. Showing consumers that brand personality is clearly defined
and consistent is valuable, but you also want to make sure you are also wrapping
your brand identity in with common trends on the internet (as appropriate) to
show your audience that you are up-to-date on the world around you. Having a
strong familiarity with all aspects of your brand allows you to have a better idea
of your social media platforms’ influence when interacting with clients.
Social media is important because it allows you to reach people locally,
regionally, nationally and even internationally. If you understand the
characteristics of your target audience, you will be able to personalize your
messages to resonate with that audience more appropriately. For example, how
you communicate with a teenager online isn’t the same voice you would use with
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a baby boomer. You are in control of reaching your marketing targets with more
ease than ever. The importance of social media is seen in that it provides value
while also creating a low-cost way to market your business. Plus, social media
allows you to have direct control over the messages you share with the world.
Although increasing and maintaining your presence effectively on social media
is important, it is essential to be realistic about the amount of energy and time you
might need to invest in reaching larger audiences.
While social media increases our ability to connect, social media’s
importance is also seen by allowing you a variety of options when evaluating
which channel is best for you.
Having diversity in your social media content (through varying topics,
content structure, etc.) is a valuable way to connect with your target audience and
maximize your return on investment. Although maintaining a presence on a
variety of platforms is important for your Brand image and branding.
Traditional marketing and social media marketing: Emergence of social
media marketing has totally changed the technique of marketers that how they
advertise their business now compare to the methods which they were using a
few decades ago. As social media marketing has remarkably replaced the
traditional methods of marketing campaigns. In past few years traditional method
was way too expensive for firms to adopt and to consider it the only source of
marketing and at that time it also takes so much time of the firms to target their
desired market. Therefore, nowadays businesses are adopting new ways that is
social media, to advertise their business because it is one of the faster ways to
reach the potential customer as compared to traditional marketing
Marketing through social media or marketing in traditional ways are totally
different techniques which a marketer needs to understand to run a successful
campaign and according to the requirement of firm, marketers need to adapt most
suitable marketing technique for their businesses. These two ways are completely
different because in social media marketers use pull strategy i.e. attracting
customer towards their brand which can be execute as firstly brands need to find
new potential customer through the electronic word of mouth. As Electronic word
of mouth plays an important role in social media marketing and can provide
dialogue situation for their customers and on the other hand traditional marketing
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involves only monologue communication that is also called oneway
communication.
In the old era of marketing, brands only concentrate on the basic principles
of marketing that is marketing mix to achieve their goals. According to the
literature, marketing mix define 4Ps of marketing and that is Product, Promotion,
Price and Placement on the basis of which brands advertise their products and sell
their products by considering the price factor, how these product can be promote
and how these product can be delivered to the current target market. However,
social media marketing is also contributing a lot in marketing theories and come
up with a new P that is Participation. According to Tuten & Solomon (2015),
Participation allow marketers to improve the level of consumer satisfaction,
consumer relationship to enhance their brand image by providing two-way
communication method.
Honeycomb model identifies seven functional blocks of social media
websites: identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and
groups. Each block allows us to understand the structure of the social media site
based on the facilities it provides to its users. This study attempts to understand
the functions of the social media websites and their role in social media
marketing. These building blocks are not mutually exclusive and also they are
not part of every social media site. These building blocks are the constructs
which helps us to understand how different levels of social media functionality
can be configured.
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1.2.1 Social Networking Sites.
Social Networking Sites (SNS) are platforms where one can connect with other
individuals, like Facebook and Instagram. According to Weinberg “Social
Networking sites connect those users who have same interests”. These sites have
some same components–
I. Users can create their own private and personalized profile instead of
public profile.
II. Create his own friend list.
III. They can manage their own friend list and if there is no privacy on
other’s profile then they can also see other’s friends list.
For most of the consumers, social networking sites are the good source of income
as they can create their own brand pages, celebrity pages, fan pages and groups
to run a successful business.
In India, most commonly used social networking sites are Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter which gives an opportunity to upload and share different types of
content that includes pictures, videos, statuses, stories and live chats.
Consumers have three main gratifications or motives for using the Internet as a
medium, namely, information, entertainment, and social aspects. The relationship
between social media and consumer decision-making present that social media
affects advertising attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchasing intentions of
consumers. “Social Media influence the way consumers behave during the
different stages of their purchase decision-making processes. It has changed the
way consumers behave in their consumption. Before consumers were waiting for
companies to push messages toward them, they are now directly seeking for
information on Social Media.”
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1.2.2 Social News and Bookmarking Site
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1.2.3 Media-Sharing Sites.
Media-Sharing sites like YouTube and Daily Motion etc. are the platforms where one
can upload, store, and share their photos, videos, and music, with other users. These
sites allow users to create their own channels. Tagging plays a vital role in media
sharing sites as tag is a word assigned to an uploaded content that describe the relevant
content, which help businesses to promote their businesses through search engine
optimization.One of the most popular forms of media sharing sites are video sites, the
most popular of which is YouTube.com. YouTube allows members to upload videos
for free that can then be viewed by anyone on YouTube.com or embedded on another
website or blog. YouTube has such a massive audience that people have actually
become world wide stars after having videos posted there.Media-sharing platforms
allow businesses to create images and videos that portray the image and value of the
brand as well as to expand their influence and support to a targeted base of users. The
massive appeal of these platforms is the use of visuals for creating an image that
consumers can relate or aspire to. Social media is a space that is crowded which
means that making use of images is a fantastic method of grabbing the attention of
people.
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1.2.4 Blogs
Further, as blogging has grown in ease and popularity, many people have
created businesses from blogging all on its own, as opposed to having a business
first and then blogging. For example, some food blogs are businesses in and of
themselves. Blogs also integrate other social media marketing to share videos and
pictures.. It seems that new social networks come out every month. There are big
social networks and niche social networks. There are tons of opportunities for you
to promote you blog on every one of the social networks, but for most people it’s
not reasonable to try to use them all. Some have tried using every social network,
but the common result is multiple accounts with little to no interaction. A better
strategy is to focus on just a couple social networks or even one social network.
Sharing your blog content on social media is an art. There is no right way to do
it. People have success sharing blog content in their own unique ways. Some will
share only their blog links on social media. Others will share a high percentage
of unique content on social media.
As is with most things in life, sometimes the best approach is somewhere in the
middle.Blogs also integrate other social media marketing to share videos and
pictures.. It seems that new social networks come out every month. There are big
social networks and niche social networks If you follow the strategies in this post
you should be able to build sustainable traffic from social media to your blog and
over time, you’ll learn how to adapt the strategy to fit your unique blog and
business.
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1.2.5 Micro blogging
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1.3 NEED OF STUDY
There has been an explosion of growth in popular social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and many others.
It’s safe to say that the era of social media is just getting started, and the need for
social media in business will only become stronger over time. The whole world
has seen the impact of the expansion and adoption of social media tactics, and the
rising stats speak for themselves. Small retailers also need to start utilizing non-
traditional methods of marketing in creative and engaging ways to make certain
that they attract a larger number of consumers. This study is helpful for the B2B
marketers, moreover it will also help small businesses and startups who tend to
advertise their businesses on social media and found social media platform as a
most convenient platform for advertise because for them is convenient to use, less
time taking and less costly.The study focuses on how the various social media
sites helps to increase the brand awareness and convert the audience of
advertisements in social networking sites into customers. The report focuses on the
customers perspective on the influence of social media on consumer purchase
decisions and their perceptions on brands that involve in social media marketing
and advertises their products on social networking sites.
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1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
Internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other
type of site. For content contributors, the benefits of participating in social media
have gone beyond simply social sharing to building reputation and bringing in
career opportunities and monetary income. Maintaining brand presence through
social media is an ongoing trend in B2B and B2C companies.
This report is intended to provide a detailed overview of the use of Social media
marketing of E-learning companies, the process and the growth. Through this
report it will be understood how social media sites can be used to influence the
purchasing intention E-learning courses among customers, thereby creating
brand awareness of E-learning companies among them.
Almost every study has some limitations and so as in our study. One of the limitations
in this study is that the survey was conducted only with the help of responses to the
questionnaire. The study was conducted using a questionnaire and may have the
limitations of using a questionnaire. Though more than 150 respondents were
approached, I could get complete responses only from 110 respondents .
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CHAPTER-2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social networking sites had been emerged as one of the most powerful
media for advertising across the world. Companies on globally level are
allocating large part of their advertising budgets towards SNS for the purposes
of much better reaching and interactive (Hays et al., 2016). Companies are
looking at social networking sites as low-cost method, which could yield results
in less possible time for the targeted ‘Facebook generation’ (Ndiege, 2019).
Such facts motivate researchers to study advertisements value by using social
networking sites such as Facebook, and other sites (Saxena, & Khanna, 2016,
p., 17). Social networking platforms rapid growth has changed the way that
many consumers interact with others and organizations. Such change extended
to cover the way in which organizations attract and retain their consumers
(Leung et al., 2015). Therefore, marketers create their own advertising messages
and acquire a space in such media hoping that consumers will aware and
develop their preference and purchase marketers’ brand. SNS has change
marketing communications through changing ways in which consumers select,
share and appraise information (Hughes et al., 2019).While (Gil Appeal, et al,
2019), defined social media as a collection of software-based digital
technologies, that usually presented as apps and websites, which provide users
with digital environments, in which they can send and receive digital content or
information over some type of online social network. In this sense, social media
is considered as the major platforms and their features, such as Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter.
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Social Media
Social media cannot be understood without first defining Web 2.0: a term
that describes a new way in which end users use the World Wide Web, a place
where content is continuously altered by all operators in a sharing and
collaborative way (Kaplan and Haenlein 2019). “It is much more to do with what
people are doing with the technology than the technology itself, for rather than
merely retrieving information, users are now creating and consuming it, and
hence adding value to the websites that permit them to do so” (Campbell et al.
2014, 87). In today’s technology driven world, social networking sites have
become an avenue where retailers can extend their marketing campaigns to a
wider range of consumers. Chi (2014, 46) defines social media marketing as a
“connection between brands and consumers, [while] offering a personal channel
and currency for user centred networking and social interaction.” The tools and
approaches for communicating with customers have changed greatly with the
emergence of social media; therefore, businesses must learn how to use social
media in a way that is consistent with their business plan (Mangold and Faulds
2018). This is especially true for companies striving to gain a competitive
advantage. This review examines current literature that focuses on a retailer’s
development and use of social media as an extension of their marketing strategy.
This phenomenon has only developed within the last decade, thus social media
research has largely focused on (1) defining what it is through the explanation of
new terminology and concepts that makeup its foundations, and (2) exploring the
impact of a company’s integration of social media on consumer analysed. Social
media sites are comparatively new platform for electronic Word of Mouth and
brought a new aspect of electronic Word of Mouth by allowing consumers to
interact with their current networks. Now customers can easily share their views
and feelings related to product and services with their social groups and friends
on social media (Chu & Kim, 2017; Kozinets, de Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner,
2016). Dann and Dann (2017) have shown the interconnected components of
social media i.e. social interaction, content, and communication media. Social
media is converting and integrating into the new media. Social media has brought
a revolution in information sharing due to which the mode of communication
became more convenient and the audience is increased as well firms can target
more customers as well.
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Safko and Brake (2019, 6) agreed with the theory of Kaplan and Haenlein
(2019), as they consider social media as “one platform for people to perform
activities among them to show up and share the photos, videos, files, information,
data, knowledge, feedback and opinions with the help of effective two way
communication”.
As a matter of fact, Apeal, G. et al. (2019) reported in their research
paper, aiming to discuss the future of social media in marketing, that, social
media is used by billions of people around the world and has fast become one of
the defining technologies of our time. Facebook, for example, reported having
2.38 billion monthly active users and 1.56 billion daily active users as of March
31, 2019 (Facebook, 2019). Globally, the total number of social media users is
estimated to grow to 3.29 billion users in 2022, which will be 42.3% of the
world’s population. Therefore, this research paper main objective is to examine
the effectiveness of social media marketing, and its challenges. That is through
enabling marketers to build marketing strategies through social media with
confidence in its effectiveness as a marketing tool and its ability in achieving
the desired goal. In addition to clarifying the most important aspects of building
effective marketing strategy in terms of target group and marketing content, and
discussion of main challenges expected to face social media marketing
Apart from public relation content, marketers share a large number of
contents on social media to grab the attention of the customers. Nowadays
marketers are focusing on social media marketing because it enables them to
provide quick customer service through which they can resolve the queries of
their customers in a personalized way. It has become very easy for marketers to
share information and get response immediately as social networking sites are
two-way communication platforms. Furthermore, it also allow marketers to
increase customer engagement and enrich interactive communication at low cost
which also enhance the significance and usefulness of social media platforms.
(Evans, 2016). Boyd (2017) defined Social media as an “umbrella term that
refers to the set of tools, services, and applications that allow people to interact
with others using network technologies. Social media encompasses groupware,
online communities, peer-to- peer and media-sharing technologies, and
networked gaming. Instant messaging, blogging, micro blogging, forums, email,
virtual worlds, texting, and social network sites are all genres of social media.”
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Evans (2016) said that “Social media is the democratization of information,
transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift
from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to many models, rooted in conversations
between authors, people, and peers. Social media uses the “wisdom of crowds”
to connect information in a collaborative manner. Social media can take many
different forms, including Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis,
podcasts, pictures and video.” Whereas Kim et al stated that “Social websites
are those websites that make it possible for people to form online communities,
and share user-created contents (UCC).”
In regard to social media marketing benefits Icha, O. (2016) believed that,
social media marketers make use of social media sites to raise visibility on the
internet and to promote products and services. Social media sites are useful for
building social (and business) networks, and for exchanging ideas and
knowledge. That is social media sites are becoming the go-to place for
consumers who want to learn more about a business. Therefore, because the
previous mentioned sites allow businesses to offer the most upto-date
information about anything from products, services, or upcoming events. In line
with that, II-Hyun, B., & Zamrudi, M., F. (2018) argued that, in order to
elaborate the significance of social media, as a marketing tool, it is essential to
highlight the newly evolved way of usage of World Wide Web by the users. The
new pattern of usage includes the active participation of users, where in they
constantly participate in generation and consumption of the digital content.
Based on that, the users are not merely passive viewers of the information, but
also, they continue to add value to the internet platforms, which encourage them
to do so.
Social media in the contemporary world played an important role to make
consumers interact online effectively and exchange the information on various
platforms. In regards to that, Hofacker, C. F. & Belanche, D. (2016), report that,
Social media remain in continuous growth and by some accounts have become
the main channel for consumers to experience and interact with the world. To
help attain their goals, people join general or more specialized networks and
search, share, participate, consume and play. Among the most important
challenges of social media marketing is that, social media turns consumers into
marketers, so consequently, there is a created danger, which meaning consumers
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can put more pressure on companies, as users increasing reviews comments
about product or services brands, which expressed as a word of mouth (EWOM)
from C2C (Gafni et al., 2016).
According to Turban E (2018) “Social media refer to the online platforms and
tools that people use to share opinions and experiences including photos, videos,
music, insights and perceptions with each other”.Kaplan and Haenlein (2019)
describe social media “As a group of Internet-based application that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2 0 and allow the creation and
exchange of User Generated Content. They further suggested that firms must be
aware that social media tools such as user profiles, customer ratings and reviews
are trending toward becoming the main source of information for many
consumers when they are making an important purchase decision.”
Social Networking
The phrase social networking sites’ is often used interchangeably with social
media. However, social media is different because it allows participants to unite
by generating personal information profiles and inviting friends and colleagues
to have access to those profiles (Kaplan and Haenlein 2019, 63). Thus, social
media is the environment in which social networking takes place and has altered
the way in which consumers gather information and make buying decisions.
Consumers’ Sentiment toward Marketing (CSM) is a factor consider by
researchers to measure how well consumers will perceive social media
marketing. CSM is defined as a concept which refers to the general feelings that
consumers have for marketing and the marketplace (Lawson et al. 2001as cited
by Mady 2016). An individual’s perception of the overall marketplace plays a
major role in whether or not they are motivated to partake in consumption
activities (Mady 2016). In order to create a successful marketing campaign via
social media, a consumer must be open to the technology. Brands not only use
social media website to expand their business and to advertise their business. It is
a platform where brands can actually interact with their customers and can create
long term relationship with their customers and can turn them into loyal
customers by rightly answer their queries on time. As customer relationship
already exist before but social media platforms provide a way to strengthen their
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relationship with their future customers also. Social media websites also help
brands to monitor and track the ongoing activities and promotions of the
competitors. These social media websites also help brands to analyse the
marketing campaigns and marketing strategies of brands and what these brands
are currently offering to their customer. Therefore, after analysed the marketing
campaign of competitors, brands can create their own strategies and offer
discounts to their customers according to it. Consumer buying behaviour has been
revolutionized by social media .it directly affect the way they buy goods and
services. Now retailers have to shift themselves on social media and change their
perception from ‘fun to have’ to ‘must focus on’. Over the last few years, the use
of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube has considerably increased. The growth of social
networking sites has opened new opportunities for retailers to connect and
communicate directly with consumers. (blogposition.com, 2015).
Due to development of web 2.0 technologies, social media has been gaining
increasing popularity around the world in recent years (Mikalef et al., 2013). It is
a broad term, commonly known as a new class of information technologies,
providing interpersonal communication and collaboration on Internet-based
platforms (Kane et al., 2014).
Due to the wide access of population, social media offer positive values for
business:
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prefer their own profiles to state their contents in social sites. Retailers should
emphasis on these sites because Consumers are more affected by sharing on
social networking sites. It is the right place for communication with consumers
Therefore marketers should share their product, and services related information
on social media.
In their study Gros (2017), indicated that” the influence of Social Media Was
different according to the stages of the consumer’s purchasing decision-making
process. The influence of Social Media appeared to be stronger at the first stages
and become weaker at the last stages of the process.” Whereas young consumers
are positively affected by Facebook advertisements in comparison with female
consumers (Rehman et al, 2017)
Consumers frequently use social media and see advertisements. They analyse the
past performance of product/services via social media by checking likes and
dislikes for it and give their feedback about the products/services they use .even
various subscriptions are made by consumers to keep themselves updated with
the new launches and the changes in the existing products/services. (Nufazil
Altaf, 2014) Jha and Balaji, (2015) suggested that marketers should engage their
consumers with multiple blogs, forums and wikis covering issues relating to their
products or brands. There has to be frequent comments and should try to create a
dialogue with the social media users. (Jha and Balaji, 2015)
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with social media and their perceptions and trust on products are highly
influenced by social media.”
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and/or brand name (Aaker, 2019; Seo & Park, 2018). We based our
conceptualization of brand awareness based on Keller (2016) model of brand
equity.
The above mentioned five purchase decision making stages has been used
by many researchers to investigate the relationship between online shop design
and consumer purchase intention and in the vital role of social support in the
association between quality and social commerce (Hajli, 2014). In addition, to
explore the difference between consumer adoption of traditional channels and
electronic channels (Choudhury & Karahanna, 2018). According to Yadav et al.
(2013), argued that marketer should pay attention to the all five stages of
consumer purchase decision making rather than focusing in the final decision
purchase alone. Researchers such as Kang and Park-Poaps (2011), indicated that
the evaluation and search stages elements can effect consumer purchase intention
on social networking sites platforms. Furthermore, the five main stages of
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consumer purchase decision making have been used in understanding the
behavior of consumer in social commerce ( Vila & Kuster, 2011; Liu et al., 2017;
Ellahi & Bokhari, 2013; Hajli, 2014; Sadovykh et al., 2015; Huang &
Benyoucef, 2017; Zhang & Benyoucef, 2016). More recently, Huang and
Benyoucef (2017) used the decision making processes to understand the effect of
the factors of social commerce design such as functionality, sociability and
usability on the consumer decision making stages.
According to Khaniwale (2015) “Consumer behaviour involves the study
of individuals and the method they employ to choose, utilize, and set out
products and services to fulfil their wants and the effect that these methods have
on the consumer and the society as a whole. Consumer behaviour refers to all the
thought, feelings and actions that an individual has or takes before or while
buying any product, service or idea. Buyer behaviour is the concept which
answers what, why, how, when, and where an individual makes purchase. As a
result, the outcome of buyer behaviour is the buyer’s decision.”
According to Rani (2014) “Consumer Buying Behaviour refers to the
buying behaviour of the ultimate consumer. Many factors, specificities and
characteristics influence the individual in what he is and the consumer in his
decision-making process, shopping habits, purchasing behavior, the brands he
buys or the retailers he goes. A purchase decision is the result of each and every
one of these factors”. Understanding behavior of consumers is a key to the
success of business organizations. Marketing personnel are constantly analyzing
the patterns of buying behavior and purchase decisions to predict the future
trends. Consumer behavior can be explained as the analysis of how, when, what
and why people buy. (Kumar et al, 2014)
According to Khaniwale (2015) “Consumer behaviour involves the study
of individuals and the method they employ to choose, utilize, and set out
products and services to fulfil their wants and the effect that these methods have
on the consumer and the society as a whole. Consumer behaviour refers to all
the thought, feelings and actions that an individual has or takes before or while
buying any product, service or idea. Buyer behaviour is the concept which
answers what, why, how, when, and where an individual makes purchase. As a
result, the outcome of buyer behaviour is the buyer’s decision.”
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 DEFINITION
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Descriptive research is used to obtain information concerning the current status
of the phenomena and to describe “what exists” with respect to variables or
conditions in a situation. A descriptive study involves the following steps:
3.3 DATASOURCE
Primary data is defined as the data that is obtained through first-hand Investigation,
it includes information collected from interviews, experiments, surveys,
questionnaires, focus groups and measurements. The key point in primary data is
that the data collected is unique.In this study questionnaire is used as primary data
collection method.
Secondary data is data that is widely available and obtained from another party.
Secondary data can be found in publications, journals and newspapers.
For this study the data is collected from journals, websites and also from google
analytics.
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3.4 SAMPLING PLAN
3.4.1 SAMPLE
Sample refers to a set of observations drawn from a population. Often it is
necessary to use samples for research, because it is impractical to study the whole
population.
3.4.2 SAMPLE SIZE
Sample size is an important feature of any empirical study in which the goal is
to make inferences about a population from a sample. Sample size is the number
of individuals measured or observations used for the study. The sample size of
the study is restricted to 110.
The data collection is done using survey method. Here the data are systematically
recorded from the respondents.
The study involved both primary and secondary data for making a meaningful
inference on the topic of the study
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3.6 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT
A structured questionnaire has been prepared to get the relevant information from the
respondents. The questionnaire consists of a variety of questions presented to the
respondents for their despondence. Questionnaires have advantages over some other
types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from the
questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that
make it simple to compile data. However, such standardized answers may frustrate
users. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able
to read the questions and respond to them. Thus, for some demographic groups
conducting a survey by questionnaire may not be concrete.
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3.8 STATISTICALTOOL
Data was analyzed using SPSS Software 23.0. The Statistical Tools used here are as
follows.
Reliability analysis
Correlation analysis
Regression analysis
H4
H1
Figure 3.9
H4: Brand awareness will mediate the positive relationship between social media
marketing and consumer purchasing decision.
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3.10 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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CHAPTER 4
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II. Brand awareness
Social networks can be a great way of sharing knowledge specially regarding any new
product or feature that the company is going to introduce. Under this variable, the
attempt was made to understand how effectively social media marketing are useful to
spread knowledge about the brand and its products, whether advertisements on social
media contribute to improved attitudes toward the brand, positioning the brand name
on top of other brand.
4.2 DEFINITION
Correlation is a statistical technique that can show whether and how strongly
pairs of variables are related. For example, height and weight are related; taller
people tend to be heavier than shorter people. The relationship isn’t perfect.
People of the same height vary in weight, and you can easily think of two people
you know where the shorter one is heavier than the taller one. Nonetheless, the
average weight of people 5’5’’ is less than the average weight of people 5’6’’,
and their average weight is less than that of people 5’7’’, etc.
30
Correlation can tell you just how much of the variation in peoples’ weights is
related to their heights. Although this correlation is fairly obvious your data may
contain unsuspected correlations. You may also suspect there are correlations,
but don’t know which are the strongest. An intelligent correlation analysis can
lead to a greater understanding of your data.
1. Brand awareness
2. Consumer purchase intention
31
4.3.1 DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
Data analysis using percentage analysis and charts represent the demographic
profile of the respondents with inference table showing details of the
respondents.
DISTRIBUTION OF REPONDENTS
1 Gender Male 83
Female 27
2 Age 18-21 14
21-26 87
26-35 7
Above 35 2
3 Education Student 68
Employed 32
Unemployed 10
4 Years of 0-3 93
Experience 3-5 5
5-10 9
Above 10 3
Table 4.3.1
32
4.3.2 GENDER
Male 83 75.5
Female 27 24.5
Total 110 100
Table 4.3.2
Figure 4.3.2
Inference:
It is observed that the respondents comprise of 75.5% of Male and 24.5% of
Female.
33
4.3.3 AGE GROUP
21-26 87 79.6
26-35 7 6.1
Above 35 2 2
Table 4.3.3
Figure 4.3.3
Inference:
The above chart shows that 12.2 % of the respondents are below 21 years of age,
79.6% of the respondents are in the age group of 21 to 26 years and 6.1% of the
respondents are in age group of 26-35 and 2% of them above the age of 35 years.
34
4.3.4 OCCUPATION
Student 68 63.3
Employed 32 28.6
Unemployed 10 8.2
Table 4.3.4
Figure 4.3.4
Inference:
The above chart shows that 63.3 % of the respondents are Students, 28.6 % of the
respondents are Employed and 8.2 % of the respondents are Unemployed.
35
4.3.5 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
0-3 93 85.7
3-5 5 4.1
5-10 9 8.2
Above 10 3 2
Table 4.3.5
Figure 4.3.5
Inference:
The above chart shows that 85.7 % of the respondents have 0 to 3 years of work
experience, 8.2 % of the respondents have 5 to 10 years of experience, 4.1 % of the
respondents have 3 to 5 years of experience and 2 % of the respondents have work
experience of more than 10 years.
36
4.3.6 EEFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE
LinkedIn 23 20.4
Facebook 31 28.6
Instagram 49 44.9
Twitter 7 6.1
Table 4.3.6
Figure 4.3.6
Inference:
The above charts shows that 44.9 % of respondents think Instagram as most widely
used social media site by companies for advertising their products, 28.6 % of the
respondents think Facebook is widely used for Social media marketing, 20.4 % of the
respondents has selected LinkedIn and remaining 6.1 % of them has said Twitter is
used widely.
37
4.4 RELIABILITY TEST
The reliability test is conducted to know the correctness and exactness of the research
design used in the study. The reliability gives the inter-item consistency of the scale
and it is measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The value of the said coefficient
ranges from 0 to 1 i.e. very low to very high. It gives the internal consistency of the
items in the scale to measure a construct. The closer Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is to
1.0 the greater the internal consistency of the items in the scale.
.742 3
Table 4.4.1
We can see that Cronbach’s alpha is 0.742, which indicates a high level of internal
consistency for our scale with this specific sample.
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s
Alpha N of Items
.739 4
Table 4.4.2
We can see that Cronbach’s alpha is 0.739, which indicates a high level of internal
consistency for our scale with this specific sample.
38
SCALE : SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s
Alpha N of Items
.782 6
Table 4.4.3
We can see that Cronbach’s alpha is 0.739, which indicates a high level of internal
consistency for our scale with this specific sample.
39
Correlations
Consumer Social Media Marketing
Purchase Intention
As the Pearson’s correlation coefficient with the P-value =0.263 and the significance
0.006 is lower than conventional 5%(p<0.05) the correlation coefficient is called
statistically significant and therefore the H0 is low positively correlated.
Hence the null hypothesis H0 is rejected, there is significant relation between Social
media marketing and Consumer purchase decision.
40
Correlations
Social Media Brand
Marketing Awareness
N 110 110
N 110 110
As the Pearson’s correlation coefficient with the P-value =0.396 and the significance
0.000 is lower than conventional 5%(p<0.05) the correlation coefficient is called
statistically significant and therefore the H0 is low positively correlated.
Hence the null hypothesis H0 is rejected, there is significant relation between Social
media marketing and Brand awareness.
41
Consumer Purchase Brand Awareness
Intention
N 100 100
As the Pearson’s correlation coefficient with the P-value =0.449 and the significance
0.000 is lower than conventional 5%(p<0.05) the correlation coefficient is called
statistically significant and therefore the H0 is low positively correlated.
1 SOCIAL . Enter
MEDIA
MARKETING
42
a. Dependent Variable: Purchase intention
b. All requested variables entered
Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of the
Model R R Square Square Estimate
1 .263a .069 .060 .70786
A. Predictors: (Constant), SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
B. Dependent variable: PURCHASE INTENTION
Table 4.6.1
Coefficients
Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
Decision &Conclusion:
The regression test is conducted to find the degree of relation between the Social
Media marketing and the consumer purchase intention. This indicates that for 6.9
percentage of the respondents there is influence of social media marketing on their
purchase intention of E-learning courses.
Variables Entered/Removed
Variables Variables
Model Entered Removed Method
1 SOCIAL MEDIA . Enter
MARKETING
43
a. Dependent Variable: BRAND AWARENESS
b. All requested variables entered.
Model Summary
Adjusted R Std. Error of the
Model R R Square Square Estimate
1 .396a .157 .149 .55500
a. Predictors: (Constant), SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
b. Dependent variable: BRAND AWARENESS
Table 4.6.2
Coefficients
Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
This regression test is conducted to find the degree of relation between the Social
Media marketing and brand awareness. This indicates that for 15.7 percentage of the
respondents the awareness of brand increases with the influence of the social media
marketing of E-learning courses.
44
4.6.3 PURCHASE INTENTION AND BRAND AWARENESS
Variables Entered/Removeda
Variables Variables
Model Entered Removed Method
1 BRAND
. Enter
AWARENESSb
a. Dependent Variable: PURCHASE
INTENTION
b. All requested variables entered.
Model Summaryb
Adjusted R Std. Error of the
Model R R Square Square Estimate Durbin-Watson
a
1 .449 .201 .194 .65564 1.841
a. Predictors: (Constant), BRANDAWARENESS
b. Dependent Variable: PURCHASEINTENTION
Table 4.6.3
Coefficientsa
Unstandardized Standardized 95.0% Confidence Interval
Coefficients Coefficients for B
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. Lower Bound Upper Bound
1 (Constant) 1.252 .410 3.055 .000 .440 2.064
BRANDAWARENE
.544 .104 .449 5.216 .000 .338 .751
SS
a. Dependent Variable: PURCHASEINTENTION
45
Decision &Conclusion:
This regression test is conducted to find the degree of relation between the Purchase
intention and Awareness about brand. This indicates that for 20.1 percentage of the
respondents, their Purchase intention of E-learning courses has been influenced by the
Brand awareness.
0.254*
Note: Paths are significant at ** p < 0.001.
Figure 4.6.4
46
mediates the positive relationship between social networking site advertisement and
consumer purchase decision (Beta= 0.048, P= 0.000, CI =0.271:0.721). Thus, H4 was
accepted. This result showed that there was a statistically significant relationship
between social networking site and purchase decision through brand awareness. This
result contributes to the social media marketing by investigating the most important
construct of consumer behavior towards brands advertisement in social media which
in turn improves and enhances customer purchase intention.
Decision &Conclusion:
The results in table validating the mediation effect of brand awareness which indicate
that the effect of Social media marketing on purchase intention is partially contingent
on the mediation effect of brand awareness, that is, Social media marketing only
becomes effective on consumer purchase decision through its effect on brand
awareness.
47
CHAPTER 5
48
5.2 CONCLUSION
With the introduction of social media, we have a powerful tool at our fingertips
that can share pieces of content all over the world in seconds. With this being
said, social media marketing increases your brand’s awareness. Many small
business owners struggle with implementing an effective social media marketing
strategy that drives sales. Displaying your business’ personality through social
media is one of the best ways to connect with your target audience. Your social
media channels are just expanded opportunities for your brand’s voice, content,
and interactions. Brands are placing a bigger emphasis on customer experience
because of the impact it has on reputation. Brands who engage on social media
channels receive higher loyalty from their customers. Every post, ad, follower,
blog post, and email is an opportunity for customers to convert. Whether you’re a
B2C or B2B company, social media can be a very effective tool for gaining new
leads and moving people through your sales funnel. the reason that is most likely
to lead to ROI: increased inbound traffic. Without social media, your leads are
limited to people who are familiar with your brand and people who find you by
searching ranked keywords. By increasing your social media content frequency
and expanding your social media channel presence, you are adding another path
back to your site. And as a result, you’ll receive higher traffic, as well as more
conversions. Social media is a long term approach, meaning, you won’t be
reaping these benefits overnight. But if you can effectively see why social media
marketing is important, then get ready to dive into why creating a social media
marketing strategy only enhances these benefits.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between brand
awareness and purchase intention of the brand and social media marketing
focusing on consumers of E-learning companies. The study implies that social
media marketing has strong relationship with informing the consumer about our
product and offerings, building good attitude and perception towards our brand
and conversion or actual sales. The study also shows that there is strong degree
of mediating relation between social media marketing and purchase intention of
consumers by the brand awareness. This implies that when people know more
about the brand and its product, they have more chance of making purchase
decision.
49
5.3 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTION
The current study, like any other research, is not without limitations that needs to be
taken into consideration in future studies. First, the main aim of this study was to
investigate the relationship between Social media marketing and consumer purchase
intention. Hence, the main objective of any advertising is the consumer actual
behavior after they saw the advertisements in the social media platform. Future
researchers are highly recommended in investigating the effect of Social networking
site Ads on actual buying behavior. Second, our research model focused in the brand
awareness as the main factor which could influence the relationship between Social
media marketing and consumer purchase decision. Therefore, future research could
combine affective and cognitive factors such as online trust and emotional responses,
which may mediate the relationship among the study constructs which can provide a
more comprehensive picture of consumer behavior in responding to the brand
advertisements in social media platform. In addition, we measured consumer purchase
decision using the three short measures validated, over the full measures of 36
developed by Huang and Benyoucef (2017). These three items may be not be
reflective to the five stages of consumer purchase decision making processes (need
recognition; searching for information; the evaluation of alternatives; purchasing; and
post-purchasing) conceptualized by Liang and Lai (2002). Future research may
supplement our measure of consumer purchase decision with the full measures of the
five stages of consumer decision making processes. Further studies, therefore, must
build upon these limitations in order to attempt to provide further insights into the
nature of the relationships between social media marketing, brand awareness, and
consumer purchase intention.
Finally, the main focus of this study was Education products only (i.e., E-learning
courses), more investigation is needed on other product categories such as high touch
involvement products e.g. smart phone. Future research may provide a holistic picture
of the nature of the relationship between Social media advertisements and consumer
purchase decision by extending our research model.
50
5.4 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
51
CHAPTER 6
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56
ANNEXURE
The Impact of social media marketing on consumer purchasing intention and the
mediating role of brand awareness
1. Name
2. Gender
Male
Female
3. Age
i. 18-21
ii. 21-26
iii. 25-35
iv. Above 35
4. Occupation
i. Student
ii. Employed
iii. Unemployed
5. Years of experience
i. 0-3
ii. 3-15
iii. 5-10
iv. Above 10
57
6. Is it important for E-learning companies to have their social media business page?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Maybe
7. The social medium you think is widely used for reaching customers
i. LinkedIn
ii. Facebook
iii. Instagram
iv. Twitter
8. Social networking sites have become an avenue for companies to extend their marketing
campaigns.
i. Yes
ii. No
9. Has the information received about E-learning courses on various social-
networking sites ever persuaded you to buy their product?
i. Yes
ii. No
10. Do you think promotional activities through social media helps to create a brand
awareness of a company‘s product/service?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. Maybe
11. Have you ever purchased a E-learning course influenced by social Media
Marketing
i. Yes
ii. No
12. Social media sentiment has a stronger impact on purchase decision than
58
conventional media
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
Social Media Marketing
13. Social Media Ads generates more traffic thereby increases brand recognition.
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
14. Social Networking sites Advertisements are valuable source of Product/service
information
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
15. Social Networking sites Advertisements help me keep up to date
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
59
16. I feel that Social networking sites advertisements are entertaining and pleasant
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
17. I use Social Networking sites Advertisements as reference for purchase
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
18. I trust Social Networking sites Advertisements
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
60
20. After viewing the web advertisement, After viewing the web advertisement,
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
21. After viewing the web advertisement, I will probably purchase the product being
advertised
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
vi.
Brand awareness
22. I recognize the brand often that advertises their products in Social networking sites
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
23. I easily recall its advertisement
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
61
v. Strongly agree
24. I remember the brand often
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
25. I feel familiar with the brand that advertises in social networking sites
i. Strongly Disagree
ii. Disagree
iii. Neutral
iv. Agree
v. Strongly agree
62