Research Project Report

On

Effect of Digital Marketing on Consumer Buying Behaviour

Submitted in the partial fulfilment of requirements for the award of Post Graduate Diploma in
Management

Batch (2021-2023)

ANKIT SINGH
GNIOT/GIMS/21/240
TRIMESTER - V

Under the Supervision of

Submitted By
Prof. Manpreet Singh
Ankit Singh
Assistant Professor
00921DM

GREATER NOIDA, UTTAR PRADESH-201306

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 Declaration

I, Ankit Singh of GNIOT Institute of Management Studies (GIMS), Greater Noida hereby submit this report in
particle fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from
GIMS, Greater Noida. I declare that the work presented in this report is my original and is not submitted anywhere
else for the award of any other degree/diploma by any other institution/university. To the best of my knowledge and
belief, this report contains no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due
reference is made.

Date: -----------------------------
Ankit Singh

Countersigned:

Prof. Manpreet Singh

Assistant Professor

Seal/Stamp of the Institute

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I offer my sincere thanks and humble regards to GNIOT Institute of Management Studies, Greater
Noida for imparting us very valuable professional training in Post Graduate Diploma In
Management (PGDM)

I pay my gratitude and sincere regards to Prof. Manpreet Singh my project Guide for giving me
the cream of his knowledge. I am thankful to him as he has been a constant source of advice,
motivation and inspiration. I am also thankful to him for giving his suggestions and encouragement
throughout the project work.

I take the opportunity to express my gratitude and thanks to our computer Lab staff and library staff
for providing me an opportunity to utilize their resources for the completion of the project.

I am also thankful to my family and friends for constantly motivating me to complete the project
and providing me an environment, which enhanced my knowledge.

Date:

Name: Ankit singh

Enroll. No.: GNIOT/GIMS/21/240

Course: PGDM (V-Trimester)

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Introduction

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 The internet as we know it took off during the early 1990s, when the World Wide Web (WWW)
protocol was invented, and has since then become incorporated as the backbone of advanced
economies such as North America and major parts of Europe and Asia. Around 1.3 billion
people were estimated to use the Internet at the end of 2007 (Internetworldstats, 2008). In
relation to the world’s population, this gives 20 % as a total amount of the world’s Internet
users. While the less developed countries show a very low percentage, the developed countries
have shown a 120 % annual growth in Internet use during the past seven years.

Ever since the creation of the Internet, the world of business has changed greatly with a
redefinition in areas like marketing and customer relations. This medium opened up the doors
for the conditions of conducting business through electronic methods. The growth of the internet
eventually lead to hundreds of thousands of companies setting up shops online, gaining
millions of consumers worldwide as their customers. In the early days, the average computer
user might not have been able to use the Internet as we use it today. With the arrival of easy-to-
useweb browsers, this medium went from being an advanced, text-oriented, and specialized
application into a massive multimedia tool on a global scale. Some early speculators like Hein
and Rich (1997) quoted in Goldsmith and Lafferty (2002) suggested that advertising on this
medium would be more effective due to its interactive nature. At that time, the most used
marketing channels were banner advertisements. Although the Internet users click through-rate
of this marketing method went from 30 % in 1994 to 0.3 % in 2002, marketers still spent many
billions of dollars each year on internet advertising with banners.

However, a web site purely presenting the business will not add any value for the potential
consumer. According to Cronin (1994), traditional marketing e.g. sending out raw advertisements
through e-mail accounts,is not the online way of reaching out to the customers. Online marketing

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is just like its regular offline counterpart about sales promotion, public relations and direct
marketing to customers, mainly through advertising. Online advertising has the crucial role of
persuading and informing consumers of the available selection of products and services (Goldsmith
and Lafferty, 2002). During the past decade, companies have learned this procedure to be difficult
without information about the consumers. Through the use of various customer databases and the
location of surfing habits, firms have been able to evolve their marketing strategy, becoming more
customized and personalized for each user. As a result, they are adapting products and messages
through the study and analysis of each user’s demographics, preferences and purchases (Maclaran
and Catterall, 2002). A great knowledge of the clients is of essential use for a firm’s success.

Literature review

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 (2011, 46) defines social
media marketing as a “connection between brands and consumers, [while] offering a personal
channel and currency for user centered networking and social interaction.”The tools and approaches
for communicating with customers have changed greatly with the emergence of social media;

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therefore, businesses must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their
business plan (Mangold and Faulds 2099).“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. 2011, 87). Web 2.0 has evolved from simple information retrieval to interactivity,
interoperability, and collaboration (Campbell et al. 2011).According to AMA (American Marketing
Association 2013) it is defined as such: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes
for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers,
clients, partners, and society at large.” The twofold goal of marketing is to attract new customers
and keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction. It is a process by which companies
create value for their customers and build long-lasting and strong customer relationship in order to
gain value from customers in return. (Armstrong 2012: 8).Scott states (2010: 6) that the web has
created a huge opportunity to reach niche buyers directly with targeted information that costs a
fraction of what big-budget advertising costs. As such, smaller companies can even reach their
target market via digital marketing without necessitating huge marketing budgets. They only have
to find the best and more suitable digital marketing tools such as newsletters, social media, online
banners, blogs, and pay-per-click marketing. Only problem is that digital marketing requires
innovation, since it can reach millions of people with well-planned marketing, or only few. Creative
campaigns usually get the most attention and sometimes even have to be a bit bold and annoy the
public.According to Garbey’s survey (2013), the top priority in digital marketing investment will be
to improve commerce experiences through social marketing, content creation and management and
mobile marketing. Key findings also revealed that a companies’ marketing success relies mostly on
their website, social marketing, and digital advertising, which are all parts of digital marketing. In
addition, savings made by using digital marketing can be reinvested elsewhere. Normally,
companies spend 10 percent of their revenue on marketing and 2.4 percent on digital marketing,
which will increase to 9 percent in the future. (Garder 2013)

Online retail firms buy products and resell them online. Physical products are delivered by using
traditional transportation methods and digital products, such as software and music, can be
delivered via the Internet. (Strauss and Frost 2009: 33).According to Kril (2013) online shopping
can be considered to be a sub-category of ecommerce as it strongly refers to business-to-consumer
transactions such as online retail or online auctions. Online shopping also refers to online purchases

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from bricksand-mortar retailers or from online retailing corporations. Online shopping has increased
significantly in recent years and therefore many traditional department stores have expanded to
include online sales. In addition, some new companies have concentrated on selling only through
online store.Ryan and Jones state in their book (2011: 14) that the shift towards social media is
perhaps the most significant recent development in online marketing. It can be seen that social
media represents a great opportunity for companies and brands to gain positive favor with
consumers.

ResearchMethadology

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be under stood
as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. It is a system and
in-depth study for any particular subject. Its purpose is to find out answer to questions through the
application of scientific methods. It involves collection, analysis and interpretation of data. It deals
with the application and utilization of data.

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3.1) Objectives of the study

Primary objective
 The main objective of the study is to understand the impact of Digital Marketing
on the consumer buying behaviour.

Secondary objectives
 To know affinity in customers for collecting information before purchase.
 To understand the media consumption of Indians.
 To understand post-purchase behavior of Indian

3.2) Scope
This study is useful for determining the consumer buying behavior of Indians. It will also help
brands to reach their target group through appropriate media. It will present an idea to brands, based
on where to invest to achieve their marketing objectives.

Universe
Universe means the total population available for the study. In this study, the universe constitutes all
Indian, who have online presences.

3.3)Research Design

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of the data in a
manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure. The
research design used for this study is of the descriptive type.

Descriptive research studies are those studies which are concerned with describing the
characteristics of a particular individual or a group Research design is broadly classified into three
types as-

 Exploratory Research Design

 Descriptive Research Design
 Causal Research Design

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For the purpose of the present project the Descriptive and experimental type of research design can
be said to be most effective and most suitable, because in descriptive type of study the main
emphasis is laid down over the existing situations and experimental helps in finding the behavior of
the consumer. Thus for that purpose Descriptive type of study has been selected as it seems to be
most appropriate to fulfill the objective of the project.

3.5) Sample
Sample means a representation of the whole universe by a small population. Samples for this
research are under Indian youth and young Indians, who come under 17 to 45 year age groups and
who have online presences.

Sample size
The number of sample units selected from the total population is called sample size. Sample size
selected for this study is 200. Among them 146 are males and 54 are females.

Data Analysis and Interpretations

1) How do you get information about new Products?

Other Sources 7%

News 13%

Advertisements 40%

Family 10%

Friends 30%

Interpretation
The above chart shows that 40% of responded are get information from advertisement, and 30%
from friend, and 13% from news, and 10% from family, and 7% from other sources.
2) Do you Collect information before purchasing the products?
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 5%

Yes
No

95%

The above information shows that 95% collects the information before purchasing any product.

3) What type of information do you collect?

Customer's
21%
Experience
Quantity 11%

Attributes 10%

Quality 32%

Price 26%

Interpretation:

Samples are highly information seekers, 95 % of the sample will do reach before purchase. Only
40% of the samples saying they get to know about a product through advertisements, 30% get to

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 know from friends and 10% from family. 32% of samples are collecting information about quality
of product the and 26% about price and 21% about customer experience

4) Did you ever purchase from an online site?

19%

Yes
No
81%

The above information shows that 81% people had purchased from an online site and 19% people
had not purchased in their lifetime.

5) If yes, then what type of product / services did you purchase from online?

Electronic 22%

Books 11%

Travel products 17%

Fashion accessories 19%

Kichen an home items 2%

Toys 2%

Sport equipments 11%

Gifts 13%

Automotives 3%

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 Interpretations for 4 and 5: 81% of the sample did make online purchases and mostly they
purchased electronic products, followed by fashion and travel accessories through online.

6 Do you watch television?

7%

YES
NO

93%

The above data shows that 93% have watched television and 7% have not watched television.

7 Do you watch television programs through online?

47% Yes
53% No

(8). Do you read the News through online?

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 26%

YES
No

74%

Interpretation

93% of the samples are watching T.V. 53% of the samples is watching T.V programs through
online portals. 74% are reading newspapers through online portals.

(9). Do you have mobile phone or smartphones?

6%

YES
NO

94%

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The above data shows that 94% use mobile phone and 6% people do not have mobile phone.

(11). Do you have an internet connection in any of the above mentioned gadgets?

4%

YES
NO

96%

Interpretation

 22% of samples will do research on online and purchase from retail shop, 21% of the
samples will do research in mobile and purchase from retail shop. But 19% of the samples
will purchase directly from a retail shop only.
 67% of the samples will like to express their experience with others; it may be a nice deal,
good experience or bad experience with product.
 37% will share their experience through face to face talk, 32% through social networking
sites and 24% through messaging.

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 FINDINGS

 Indian customers are highly information seekers. They collect more information about
quality, price and refer customer’s experiences before purchasing a product.
 Advertisements have high impact for creating stimulus in Indian customers. But this
stimulus will get in to action only through opinion leaders.
 Indian consumers have high tendency to go for online purchase. They have high affinity to
go online for electronic products and apparels.
 One of the current trends in Indian youth and young Indians are watching the T.V programs
via online portals. May be the main reason is convenience of time, they can watch programs
which they had skipped due to some reasons.
 The same thing is happening for the newspaper also, people have more affinity towards
online news portals. Here's the reason may be they can get news updates very early; they
don’t need to wait for daily newspapers.
 In both of these cases, one opportunity is lost for marketer and one opportunity is emerging
for them to reach their T.G.
 More than 90% of the samples have a mobile or Smartphone and laptops or PC. 96% of
samples have an internet connection is any of these gadgets, this showing the penetration of
internet in India.
 If we take tablet, penetration in Indian is low. But it doesn’t mean that no one is using tabs.
More than 30% of samples have tablet. For brands they are getting three more platforms to
reach their T.G and engage them.
 33% of the samples are using these gadgets while they are with their friends, so just think
about the reach. If one person noticed something which is cool and awesome they will
surely communicate to others.

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 25% of the samples are using these gadgets while watching T.V; it’s again a barrier for
brands which use TVC only. 21% of the samples are using this gadget for chatting and 16%
are using for surfing. What they are surfing? It can be about a product, local events or
locations...etc.
 In this situation, one opportunity is again losing to brands and one opportunity is emerging
for brands to reach their T.G.
 More than 90% of samples are noticing ads, among them 35% of samples noticed ads
through online media, followed by TVC and Newspapers.
 48% of samples are telling they give more importance to online ads and 34 % of samples
give importance to T.V.C.
 From the first part of this research itself, we know that customers are highly information
seeker. It may be the reason for high trust in online ads. They can search for more
information after seeing an ad or online is the only two way communication channel for
customers.
 22% of the samples do research through their lap or PC before purchasing a product from
the retail shop and 21% do research via mobile.
 Most of the Indians prefer to purchase from a retail shop only, but before going to retail
shop they will seek information about the product through an online platform. Here is
actually change happens in consumer buying journey, early times consumer belief a product
only after seeing the product in a retail shop.
 But now Indian customers want to get conviction about a product before going to retail
shop. So from a marketers view they want to convince their customers before going to a
retail shop.
 Brands want to build a cool presence over digital platforms because the customer will do
research about the product after seeing an ad or after getting stimulated.

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 CONCLUSIONS

The successful completion of this internship indicates that the future of marketing is in the hands of
digital. Digital marketing is not only concerned with placing ads in portals, it consists of integrated
services and integrated channels. Marketers want to use these components in an effective way to
reach target groups and to build a brand. In this digital era marketer is not the custodian for a brand,
people who are connected across the digital platforms are the custodians.

Brands want to build their presence over digital platform, because customers have high affinity
towards digital media than other media’s. More than that customers are highly information seekers
and digital media is the only platform for two way communication between brands and customers.

Digital media is the best platform to convert a product to a brand. Because it is more cost effective
and it provide lot of touch points to marketer. Brands can able to engage their target group in an
effective way through digital platforms. Digital media is not only for engagement, brands can
increase their customers or they can retain their existing customers. Digital platforms help to
increase the impact of brand recall in target groups.

The research focused on the consumer buying behavior shows that, Indian consumers are highly
information seeker and they will do research about a product before going to a retail shop. So
brands want to give platforms to consumers to understand their product or to get a really feel of that
brand.

I honestly believe that this project report will be at most useful for marketers to understand the
digital marketing and also to plan for future strategies.

I conclude my research by quoting again that “Brands can’t sustain without digital presence”.

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 Bibliography
Appendix : Questionnaire
Understand Consumer Buying Behavior of Indians

This questionnaire will be used to understand the consumer buying behavior of Indians.

1) How do you get information about products?

 Friends
 Family
 Advertisements
 News
 Other sources

2) Do you collect the information before purchasing the product?

 Yes
 No

3) What type of information will you collect?

 Price
 Quality
 Attributes
 Quantity
 Customer's Experience

4) Did you ever purchase from an online site?

 Yes
 No

5) If yes, then what type of product/ service did you purchase online?

 Apparels
 Electronic
 Books
 Travel Products
 Fashion accessories  
 Kitchen and Home items 
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  Toys
 Sports equipments 
 Health and Beauty Products
 Gifts
 Automotive 

6) Do you watch television?

 Yes
 No

7) Do you watch television programs through online?

 Yes
 No

8) Do you read newspaper?

 Yes
 No

9) Do you read News through online?

 Yes
 No

10) Do you have mobile phone or smartphones?

 Yes
 No

11) Do you have internet connection in any of the above mentioned gadgets?

 Yes
 No

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BOOKS

 Marketing Management – Philip Kotler

 Online Marketing - A Customer Lead Approach - By. Richard Gay / L.N. Charlesworth&
Rita Esen.
 The Online Customers: New Data Mining and Marketing Approaches - ByYinghui Yang.
 Marketing Research - By C.R. Kothari, Vikas Publications.

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