Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF DIGITAL

MARKETING COMMUNICATION

The present chapter deals with the introduction of the study whereby it explains
the impact of digital technologies on consumers, concept and characteristics of digital
marketing communication and contemporary digital channels of communication. The
chapter also gives the details of digital statistics of India and overview of Indian
passenger car market covering its brief history and market share of major players. The
chapter also explains the digital marketing trends in Indian passenger car market. The
chapter briefly describes the purpose, significance, scope and organization of the study.

IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Unremitting technological changes are significantly altering the behaviour of
the consumers across the globe. Pervasive, inexpensive, compatible, easy and advanced
technology has urged customers to become smarter, informed, connected, updated, and
empowered (Miller, Michalski and Stevens, 1998; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004a).
Consumers have become „prosumers‟ whereby consumers are not only at the
receiving end but are also getting actively involved in co-creating, customizing and
passionately promoting the marketing content in socially connected era (Bollier, 2007;
Gerhardt, 2008). Marketers have also understood and appreciated the change brought by
technology that has been registering its stark presence among the consumers. This
change is affecting the lives of both the marketers and consumers in concrete ways.
The greatest example of change is the „internet‟ that has significantly altered the
ways of communication, sharing and finding information and doing business. The
tremendous growth of the internet and particularly the „World Wide Web‟
(WWW) made consumers and firms participating in a global online marketplace
which eventually urged marketers to try and deal with the innovative ways of
marketing in computer- mediated environments (Kothari and Saxena, 2004; Ricciuti,
1995). The steady and swift integration of internet with myriad devices and
proliferation of digital technologies in recent times has further fuelled the change
(Brinker, 2012). This interactive medium of today has crossed the borders of a
conventional computer‟s screen and has embraced many digital devices namely mobile
phones, smart phones, tablets, digital outdoors and digital TV (Dahiya, 2014). This
revolution in digital technologies has urged companies to restructure the marketing
practices, especially in communication to engage successfully with past, present and
potential customers

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(Dahiya, 2015a; Gay, Charlesworth and Esen, 2007). Market players have not been left
with the choice of denial to change. They have to change by practically adjusting their
behaviour and operations; else they will be the victim of „Digital
Darwinism‟ (Schwartz, 2002; Wertime and Fenwick, 2008).
Digital technologies, particularly the internet, has transformed the every aspect
of business namely the business communication, branding, product management,
supply chain management, buying and selling and customer relationship management
to name a few (Hudson, Roth and Madden, 2012). Technology‟s usage in business has
accounted for reducing the numerous business costs along with offering competitive
advantage (Edelman and Heller, 2015). Companies have been able to leverage the
power of digital technologies to obtain accurate customers‟ input that has led
to improvement in overall product development capabilities of the firm. Digital media
provide a broad platform to acquire new customers and engaging with them
meaningfully that helps spreading awareness about brands, building brand image and
positioning the brand in target customers‟ mind (Holliman and Rowley, 2014).
Customers can be targeted profitably due to resultant accurate customer profiling over
digital media. Better customer relations can be maintained with the help of latest
technological tools which unravel the specific needs of the customers to the marketers.
The vital information about target customers obtained through digital channels, leads
to valued customer engagement and augmented customer experience resulting in
sustainable competitive advantage (Adobe, 2014).

DIGITAL MARKETING: THE CONCEPT

Digital marketing as a concept is used differently by different people. Many
times it is used synonymously with „internet or web marketing‟, „e-marketing‟,
„e- commerce‟ and „e-business‟. Although, these terms are inter-related, yet there
lies a difference among all the terms (Rowan, 2002). Internet marketing refers to the
promotion of goods and services over internet requiring a real time live internet
connection (Hanson and Kalyanam, 2007). E-business is a broader term that deals with
application of technology in business‟s internal processes and transactions with
third party. It involves e-commerce which represents its commerce side and e-marketing
which includes its marketing side. E-marketing also known as „electronic
marketing‟ makes use of internet and digital technologies and involves the promotion of
goods or services through electronic methods or media (Hoge, 1993). Rowan (2002)
defined e- marketing as practice of using information technology for completing the
marketing process that involves creation, communication and delivery of value to
customers along with managing customer relationships (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel,
2001). E-commerce which reflects the commercial side of the business refers to buying
and selling using the internet and involves the financial transactions using electronic
media.

The term „digital‟ can be defined as a data transmission technology

which is finite and non-variable in nature (Kaufman and Horton, 2014). Digital is
expressed in contrast to „analog‟ which is a continuous data transmission technology.
A marketing action becomes digital if relies over a digital medium to execute a
marketing function

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(Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009; Yasmin, Tasneem and Fatema, 2015). Kierzkowski
McQuade, Waitman and Zeisser (1996) explain digital marketing as promotion of
products and services via one or more form of digital or electronic media. Techopedia
(n.d.) defines digital marketing as disposition of various promotional practices and
methods to access customers through various digital technologies. Bird (2007) defines
digital marketing as a communication activity conducted over media using digital
transmission that establishes a direct relationship between a company and its customers
or prospects as an individual. The term medium used here refers to the channels,
instruments, applications, manners and devices which for their functioning use digital
codes (Rowan, 2002). Digital media include content based platform like
„websites‟,
„social networking sites‟, „online communities‟, „search engines‟ etc. using
primarily the internet technology and devices such as „mobile phones‟, „digital
TV‟, „digital outdoors‟ using both internet and mobile technology.
Digital marketing differentiates itself from the internet marketing as digital
marketing not only includes the channels that require real time internet connection, but
also includes digital outdoors, digital TVs, SMS (Short Message Service), billboards,
mobile apps, MMS (Multimedia Message Service), call-back and on-hold mobile ring
tones, e–books and games with a digital platform which can run offline too (Scharl,
Dickinger and Murphy, 2005; Pandey and Shukla, 2010; Gayatri and Rekha, 2014). It
uses digital devices, channels and platforms irrespective of their online or offline
nature. Moreover emergence of new age concepts like wearable technology and
augmented reality is pushing the boundaries of digital marketing beyond internet
(Merisavo et al. 2008; Yasmin et al. 2015). So, it can be said that internet marketing is
a subset of digital marketing.

Internet: The Core of Digital Marketing

Internet remains at the core of digital marketing due to its easy integration and
compatibility with various digital devices like mobile phones, tablets, watches, TVs and
many more (Smith, 2011). Internet, probably the most important invention of 20th
century, has changed the scope of marketing. It has emerged as a medium serving
multi-channel function of marketing, sales, distribution and relationship building. Now
products are positioned, marketed, distributed and purchased over internet. Internet has
also altered the traditional marketing mix strategy. It enables the marketer to sell more
variety of mass customized products. Internet facilitates the easy price comparison
among available products for the customers. Internet has added a new channel of
distribution which is convenient, fast and easy. Promotion has experienced the
paradigm shift whereby conversations have taken place of commercial messages and
customers have become story tellers. Marketers are now using many marketing tactics
to implement the digital marketing strategy like SEO * (Search Engine Optimization),
SEM* (Search Engine Marketing), affiliate marketing* and PPC* (Pay-per-click) and
others.
Internet refers to an interconnected network of computers connected globally

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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through dedicated servers and routers (Whittaker, 2002). The computers in this global

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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network hold files known as web pages that can be accessed by the other
interconnected computers (Tanenbaum, 1996). „Intranet‟, „Extranet‟ and „Web‟ are
three main types of network that form internet. Intranet runs internally in an
organization using hypter text markup language (HTML) and browsers. Extranet is
comprised of two or more proprietary networks which are connected with the purpose
of sharing information. Web supports a graphic user interface for hypertext navigation
with a browser (Beal, 2010). One can trace back the underpinning of internet back
to1960‟s when two of the MIT‟s researchers namely J.C.R. Licklider in 1960 and
1968 and Leonard Kleinrock in 1961 wrote about galactic networks and packet
switching theory. In 1972, first public demonstration of Advanced Research Project
Agency Network (ARPANET), the precursor of today‟s internet and electronic mail
was made. By 1985, internet was already well established as a technology supporting a
broad community of researchers and developers. Till 90‟s internet was not open for
business (Leiner et al. 2009). It was Tim Berners- Lee‟s development of World Wide
Web (WWW) in the year 1991 that fuelled the internet revolution of today. In the
year 1993, internet was fully opened to commercial traffic.
„Mosaic‟, the first web browser was released in 1993 which was followed by
„Netscape Navigator‟ browser released in mid-1994 (Ratliff and Rubinfeld, 2010).
„WebCrawler‟, first search engine service was launched in the year 1994. This
was rapidly followed by a proliferation of search engines, such as „Lycos‟,
„Magellan‟,
„Excite‟, „Infoseek‟, „Inktomi‟, „AltaVista‟ and „Yahoo‟. „Google‟, incorporated in the
year 1998 became the world‟s leading search engine. Slowly internet became the main
tool for searching information and technological advancements like wireless connection
and digital data transmission technology paved the way for digitalization. Digital
marketing was then related to wireless connection (Merisavo et al. 2007).
There is no consensus on when advertising on the internet began. Tim
O‟Reilly, founder of the web portal Global Network Navigator (GNN), states that the
first advertising appeared in the year 1993 on GNN (O'reilly, 2007). Some others
mention
„HotWired‟ site on which banner ad sold to the company called AT&T was displayed
in the year 1994 (Medoff, 2000; Evans, 2009). Google launched its „AdWords‟
service in October, 2000 that placed ads on the search results pages on
„google.com‟. By March 2003, Google had over 100,000 advertisers who bought
search ads through the
„AdWords‟ program. Google by the year 2003 was serving 200 million searches per
day on all of its sites worldwide (Levy, 2011).
Internet also evolved overtime and allowed people to generate and share content
with others with web 2.0* technology. It offered features like interactivity,
customization, connectivity and personalization that altered consumer behaviour also.
Media proliferated further with new services, network and devices that exerted
profound effects on consumers and marketers and digital channels became the most
important medium of marketing. Now, consumers are using internet for different
reasons ranging from socializing, downloading, uploading, reading, searching,
*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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comparing, buying and selling to giving feedback. Internet is emerging as a primary

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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destination for searching information. Most of the customers are starting their decision
making journey with internet.
VSNL in 1995 launched public internet services in India. It was followed by major
newspapers like „Indian Express‟, „Hindustan Times‟ and „Times of India‟ set up their
websites in 1996. ICICI opened first online banking site in the year 1997. Private internet
service providers were allowed to operate in the country and „Sify‟ became the first national
internet service provider. Year 1999 was marked as „dot com‟ boom year when „sify.com‟
bought „India world‟ for 499 crores and listed on NASDAQ, large no. of dot.com companies
were formed, number of internet kiosks* were opened and satellite international gateways
were established for Indian internet service providers. Parliament passed Information
Technology Act in the year 2000. In last 15 years, Indian internet industry has seen splendid
growth and one can see the application of internet in every sector and category like railways,
stock market, shopping, banking, gaming, news, aviation, education, entertainment, tour,
travel and many others. Emergence of social networking sites and internet compatible
devices has also significantly affected internet‟s adoption and popularity in India (Rao and
Manzar, 2013).

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The effect of digital marketing communication on product categories like
books, music, fashion accessories, clothing, banking and online gaming and many
others has been well researched by the researchers but automobile industry despite
being one of the largest digital spenders has faced dearth of academic studies
especially in India. Moreover, few studies have thoroughly documented the effect of
digital marketing communication on each stage of consumer buying decision process.
This gap in existing body of knowledge was identified and this study was envisaged
to fulfill the gap. An empirical academic study emphasizing upon explaining the
impact of digital marketing communication on entire consumer buying decision
process along with discovering the most preferred digital channel, would not only help
the car marketers who are spending considerable amount of money on various digital
media platforms, but would also help the customers in taking an informed decision.
There remains little research about the preferred digital channels of communication while
searching for information about cars as majority studies have used the term digital media
as a collective term for representing all the content based digital platforms and device. So,
a study that could identify the specific digital channel used at particular stage of buying
decision process would ascertain the most appropriate digital channel to be used for
each stage of CDM for the marketers.
Although, many studies tried to examine the demographic details of the
consumers using digital media, yet there remained a need for a study that could
precisely analyze the demographic variables so that marketer might use them for
effective segmentation. Moreover, an important geographical variable namely the place
of living was not considered by majority of the studies. Integrating this important
geographic variable with demographic variable could help marketers fine-tuning their
targeting strategies which would ultimately result in better return on investment. The
current study tries to overcome this limitation by comprehensively understanding the

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demographic profile of the consumers along with making an attempt to discover the
important customer segments for marketers to target.
It was observed that digital marketing communication offers several advantages
to customers over traditional mode of communication, yet there are issues of trust,
authenticity and technicality involved with the usage of digital marketing
communication. It was seemed appropriate to see the integrated effect of various
benefits and issues on the digital marketing communication‟s usage while
making a buying decision as majority of the studies have examined them separately.
The study identified this gap demanding due attention as results might detail the
difficulties faced by the customers while using the digital marketing communication
which if solved by the concerned marketers would lead to an effective and successful
marketing campaign. The findings could yield more sound practical implications for
the marketers if they know why at all people don‟t use digital marketing
communication while buying a car.
Consumers‟ attitude which deals with a predisposition to behave in a
favorable or unfavorable way towards any object, person or phenomenon, was cited as
one of the most important reason leading towards increased usage of digital marketing
communication in buying decision process across product categories. However, studies
concerning attitude towards digital marketing communication in Indian passenger car
market were not sufficient enough to demonstrate the importance of this worthy
marketing construct. Any study that would highlight the general attitude of consumers
toward digital marketing communication would result in better understanding of
customers‟ needs by the marketer. It was apprehended from the past researches
that apart from attitude, influence of other people, belief in one‟s own
capabilities and technology related factors like cost, easiness, and trust were also
found as motivating factors leading towards usage of digital marketing communication
in buying decisions. A study that might see the combined effect of attitude and
other people‟s influence given the constraints of one‟s capability, resources and very
nature of technology might reveal the meaningful insights for the marketers.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
It was observed from the past studies and recent reports that digital marketing is taking
center stage in the lives of both customers and marketers. Customers‟ spend on digital
devices and data plans are increasing and customers are making use of digital marketing
communication in buying decision making. Digital statistics of India, including the number of
internet users, mobile devices ownership and subscription, mobile internet users and social
networking sites subscription are also experiencing a steep increase. Marketers are increasing
their marketing budget on digital platforms to promote their goods and services. So, taking a
review of the state of affairs and past researches, it was thought appropriate to assess the impact
of digital marketing communication in Indian passenger car market on the consumer buying
decision process. Myriad digital channels are available in the market offering instant, cost
effective and relevant information to the customers throughout their buying decision making
journey. The purpose of the study was to know the impact of digital marketing communication
on the entire car buying decision process. The study also aimed to identify the channels through
which customers got access to digital information across various stages of car buying decision
process. The study intended to understand the most preferred digital channels of communication
and demographic profiles of the customers using digital marketing communication in their
buying decision process. The study also proposed to reveal the attitude, general difficulties
faced by customers, influence of other important people and factors related to oneself,
technology and resources towards usage of digital marketing communication while buying a
car.
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SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study aimed to understand the impact that digital marketing communication made
on consumer buying decision process while buying a car in India. The study didn‟t minutely
differentiate among the technology like internet and mobile communication,
devices like mobile phones (including feature phones and smartphones), digital TV and
platforms like websites, online communities, social networking sites and YouTube as the
study was customer oriented seeking to understand the impact on their decision making. The
study didn‟t include „computer‟ as a digital marketing communication channel as it was
believed that computer, the device, depends upon internet technology in order to make an
individual contact with the customers for marketing purpose. Moreover, marketers use
content based platforms to promote its offering which are accessed by users through
computers and internet or mobile technology enabled computer screens. The study for the
sake of understanding collectively combined these technical terms into one namely channels.
So, in this study a „channel‟ was defined as a „medium‟ used to communicate the marketers‟
messages to the customers. Digital channels were the „media‟ offering quick, relevant,
customized, measurable and individual information to the customers while being reliant over
digital technologies. This was done to see an encompassing impact of contemporary digital
channels used for digital marketing communication on buying decision process of customers.
Website in the study collectively referred to a manufacturer‟s website, search engine and
third party comparison websites.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study was to understand the impact of digital
marketing communication on consumer buying decision making process in Indian Car
market. Apart from the main objective, several sub-objectives pertaining to
demographic profile of people using digital channels, most preferred digital channel,
consumers‟ attitude, trends of digital marketing in Indian passenger car market, general
difficulties faced by people and scope of leveraging any factor related to digital
marketing communication were conceptualized. Precisely, objectives of the study were
as follows:
 To know the demographic profile of the customers using different digital channels
while buying a car.
 To identify the preferred digital channels used by the consumers while buying a
car.
 To measure the consumers‟ attitude towards digital marketing communication
in Indian Car Market.
 To understand the impact of digital marketing communication on consumer
buying decision making process in Indian Car market.
 To study the factors if any, related to digital marketing communication which can
be leveraged by the marketers to alter the consumer behaviour.

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DATA COLLECTION
The present study is „empirical‟ in nature which aimed to understand the
impact of digital marketing communication on consumer buying decision
process on the basis of knowledge derived from actual experience rather than
theoretical beliefs. Empirical studies of such nature normally measure the
observed phenomenon and bank heavily upon the primary data to arrive at the
conclusion. The theory was developed on the basis of secondary data obtained
from secondary sources like books, journals, magazines and internet.

a) Primary Data
Primary data refers to the data collected by the researcher himself for a
specific purpose. Primary data was collected from the respondents (actual and
potential car buyers) with the help of research tool questionnaire. The
questionnaire made use of nominal and interval data. Both open-ended and
close-ended questions were used in the questionnaire. Survey method was used
for collecting primary data. Physical and online modes were used for collecting
primary data.

b) Secondary Data
Secondary data refers to the data collected by someone else and used by
researcher for the problem in hand. The present study made use of secondary
data to have an in-depth understanding of the concept of digital marketing
communication. Secondary literature including journals, books, internet,
newspapers and magazines, was reviewed to understand the conceptual
framework of the study.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The present study made use of quantitative data whereby it sought the
desired information from 801 respodents. The study made use of cross sectional
descriptive research design whereby respondents were contacted once.
2.The proposed study can produce different results with longitudinal
research design and increased sample size. It is also quite possible to have
different results if the study is conducted in non-metro cities.
3.The questionnaire statements were explained to the rural respondents in
Hindi by the researcher. It is possible to obtain different results in similar studies
if language barriers are ignored for rural respondents.
4. Moreover restrictions of time, money and other resources can‟t be
avoided in such descriptive studies, which held true for the present study as well.
The present study collected the data revealing important aspects of

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consumer behavior. However, it is really difficult to accurately predict the
consumer behavior based on this data as it keeps on changing according to the
time and moods of the consumers.

CHAPTER II
Industry Overview

DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Marketing communication can be defined as an exchange process dealing with
ideas, thoughts and information between two parties i.e. the marketer and consumers with
the aim of achieving commonality (Smith and Taylor, 2004). Marketing communication
is an activity aimed at conveying information like promoting a product, new product
launch and community initiatives that a marketer wishes to share with public or
customers (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Communication process is an organized and
systemic activity in which message travels from the sender to the receiver(s) via some
media or channel (Steinberg, 2007). A business must choose and invest in the most
suitable channel keeping in mind the cost, benefits and communication flows. Today,
with the expansion and universal acceptance of information communication technology,
the most commonly used channels are digital relying heavily on internet and mobile
network services and communication flows are digital packages including data, text,
sound, images or combination of these (Corniani, 2006).
Digitalization of communication channels has enabled corporate to build both
the private and public channel of communication. Private channels have high
development cost whereas public communication channels have very low development
cost. Corporate are increasingly using the public channels of digital communication
which are not only less costly to set up and maintain but are also becoming very
popular among the masses. These channels have the inherent capacity to profile target
audience, track the activities of an individual, personalize, customize and generate
feedback (Salehi, Mirzaei, Aghaei, and Abyari, 2012.). Digital technologies enable
marketers personalizing the customer experience that ultimately leads towards an active
interest of the customer. Active interest by the customer in digital communication
represents a

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shift towards pull communication* whereby target audience actively seeks the content
or information rather than being passively subjected to the marketing communication.
The Digital Marketing Institute, Dublin, Ireland explains digital marketing
communication as an integrated, targeted and measurable communication with the
customers by using digital technologies which in turn helps marketer to acquire new
customers and retaining existing customers along with nurturing long-term and fruitful
business relations with them. In simple words, digital marketing communication refers
to promotion aimed at individual customer about the goods and services offered by a
marketer over digital channels of communications (Ryan, 2014). Digital channels
include computers, mobile phones, digital outdoors and digital TVs to name the most
popular. Digital marketing communication refers to the interactive, targeted, individual
and measurable communication about the products of the marketer with target
audience made over digital media (Merisavo et al. 2007). Digital marketing
communication keeping online marketing at its core essentially performs the function
similar to its conventional colleague i.e. traditional communication. It appeals
customers, apprises them about the new updates, influences their decisions and
upholds their satisfaction as its supreme objective; but its ability to customize and
personalize the communication as per target customers‟ needs gives it an upper
edge over traditional media (Hawks, 2015).
Marketing communication in digital environment can be made by many ways.
A marketer can use search engine and apply SEO and SEM to inform target audience
about its products and services. Internet marketing especially the e-mails, banner
advertising, pay-per click and e-newsletters can also be employed by the marketer to
communicate with the potential consumers. Manufacturer‟s website that furnishes
vital information about the company, brand, products and services offered, can act as
vital source of information for the consumers. Social media especially the social
networking sites and video sharing sites facilitate the meaningful relationship with the
customers (Solomon, Marshall and Stuart, 2012). Digital TV promotes the important
information in the manner desired by the customers and provides the additional
information if desired by the target customers. Strategically placed digital outdoors
with interactive features like touch-screen and QR codes, enable the marketer to target
the potential customers. No one can underscore the importance of mobile phones that
remain closest to target audience all the time and inform marketers about the
customer‟s tastes and preferences. Marketers also inform the target customers via SMS,
MMS, VAS (Value Added Services), mobile friendly sites, being the most popular
mobile marketing options. New age digital channels coupled with traditional channels
produce exceptional results for marketers.

1.3.1 Characteristics of Digital Marketing Communication

Digital communication has the characteristics of being informative, interactive,
responsive, compatible, measurable, quick, cost effective, versatile and customized
(Merisavo et al. 2007). Digital marketing facilitates communication at a faster pace and
reaches more number of people than traditional marketing communication (Smith,

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2011). Digital marketing communication banks heavily upon data storage* and data
mining* to function effectively. Data storage and data mining unveils the most
profitable customer segment, product and territory, potential customers, opportunities
for cross and up-selling*, most effective promotional media, most appropriate pricing
policy and most desirable distribution channel for a marketer.
Digital marketing offers huge quantity of information to consumers which
allow consumers instantly accessing the unimaginable information sources. Digital
marketing communication is also interactive (Deighton, 1996). Interactivity deals with
two way communication between marketers and consumers. Digital communication
aims at establishing a dialogue which enables marketers to effectively respond to the
queries of individual customer by knowing their requirements. Unlike traditional
marketing, digital communication enables individual targeting also whereby individual
customer can be reached via his/her preferred channel of choice with a tailored
message.
Measurability of the digital medium allows marketer to track the important
parameters related to consumer behaviour which deals with the keywords used for
searching information, type of digital channel used to obtain information, time spent
on particular website, frequency of visit, sharing of digital content, amount and time of
purchase, details of conversion, demographic details and others (Ryan and Jones, 2012).
The tracking is made possible by use of many analytical tools available in the market
with „Google Analytics‟ being the most popular.
Digital marketing communication is very cost effective in comparison to
traditional marketing. Digital communication can reach more number of people than the
traditional marketing communication at a very reasonable cost. Digital marketing
techniques which include content marketing, MMS, SMS, search engine optimization,
search engine marketing, social media marketing and channels like websites, online
forums, e-mails and others are not very costly to create and maintain. Moreover,
advertising over digital platforms are usually charged as per pay per click method
which is also more cost effective than traditional commission method.
Digital communication also benefits the marketer many folds apart from being
cost effective. It enables the enormous amount of data collection for the marketer as
every individual action like click, stop, listing or interaction over digital channels can
be tracked. Media effectiveness can also be easily measured over digital channels.
Customer profiling can be easily done over digital channels which leads to long-term
valued relationship with the customer (Ryan, 2014).
Digital marketing communication empowers customers by allowing
customers‟ participation. Customers can connect with others sharing similar interests
by accessing the link or communities created by them, leaving behind the barriers of
time and space. Digital communication offers customers an environment in which
they can initiate the conversation with the brand and pull the content of their choice.
Digital mediated communications enable the marketers to cultivate intimacy with the
customers and foster the strong customer relationship management. Marketers can
identify their customers before they make the purchase, thereby making them
addressable.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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TRADITIONAL MARKETING VS. DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing communication has many unique characteristics which give
digital communication an edge over traditional communication and make it a preferred
choice for many. Consumers in digital environment can have anytime access to huge
information base which was not possible in case of traditional communication due to
its outbound nature. Traditional marketing offers limited information and low
consumer engagement whereas digital marketing offers immense information to the
consumer that a consumer can copy and save for future also. Traditional marketing
offers limited or no interaction with the consumers except personal selling. Certain
other techniques like coupons, direct mails and catalogue provide limited interactivity,
that too after a fixed time period. On the other hand, digital marketing communication
facilitates individual interaction anytime anywhere. Consumer might initiate the
interaction process and can also participate in various activities initiated by the
marketers. Consumers can also interact with other consumers and seek their advice,
feedback and opinion for the particular product or service. They can be a part of
numerous online communities based on their interest. Traditionally consumers used to
contact family, relatives and friends for advice or banked upon word-of-mouth product
recommendations before making a purchase decision. Now consumers search online,
read online reviews, compare features and prices on websites, and discuss options via
social networking sites.
Traditional marketing mix has also undergone significant change in digital
environments. Product, the core offering of the marketer, has become an experience
now. Consumers talk about various products/ brands of marketers, fetch the details
from various digital sources and share with others through social media (Charan, 2011).
Price has become an exchange which varies according to time of the day, location and
loyalty to name a few. Restrictions of place have been removed and consumers can
search, compare, evaluate and buy products irrespective of their physical location.
Promotion in digital environment has probably seen the biggest shift in digital world as
almost every marketer irrespective of size, type and territory is making use of digital
channels to communicate with its target customers. Consumers have become co-
partners with marketers in shaping and spreading the marketing message. Consumers
have acknowledged digital as a medium offering timely, quick and relevant marketing
information (Urban, 2004).

DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNELS

Wertime and Fenwick (2011) in their study listed various modern digital
marketing channels used by the marketers namely the websites, social networking sites,
YouTube, online communities, e-mails, mobile phones, digital TV and digital
outdoors. However broadly classifying digital channels into content based platforms
and digital devices can further simplify the understanding about digital marketing
channels. Content based platforms include websites, social networking sites, online
communities, e-mails and others. Digital devices include computers mobile phones,
digital TV, digital outdoor and others. Fig. 1.1 depicts the major digital channels of
contemporary era.

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Figure 1.1: Digital Marketing Channels

Content Based Platforms

Content based platforms include websites, social networking sites, online
communities and e-mails. The section given below gives the details of content based
digital platforms:

a) Website
A company‟s website is a significant communication tool between a marketer
and its customers and lies at the heart of digital marketing (Stokes, 2013). Design and
information content of a website positively affects the customer satisfaction. Website is
normally the first among the digital channels that potential customers use to explore the
information about the marketer. A consumer may explore the website for seeking
information only or may use this platform for buying products.
First website was developed in year 1991. This number rose to 200 million by
the year 2010 which crossed milestone of 1 billion in the year 2014 (Interlivestats.com,
n.d.). Website can be defined as group of web pages joined by hyperlinks containing
the information about person, organization, educational institution, government, subject
to name a few. Each website has a unique address that can be reached via an internet
connection. Address of a website is known as domain name which is provided by
domain name service providers. The starting page of a website is known as home
page. Number of websites may be supported by a single server and a single website
may reside over multiple servers.

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Websites can be classified into blogs, brand building sites, corporate websites,
e-commerce site, government site, media sharing site, news site, search engine site,
social networking site and webmail. Blogs or web logs are similar to a discussion room
where users can share their experiences and ideas. Brand building websites are mainly
developed for low value, high volume fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector to
convey the relevant brand image without the intension to sell. Corporate website offers
the information about a company‟s products and services in the public domain.
E- commerce sites facilitate the buying and selling of goods and services over
electronic platforms. Government sites are managed by the state or national
government and inform residents and foreigners about the general information of the
country. Media sharing sites promote sharing of videos, pictures and music with other
users. News sites facilitate the dissemination of information related to politics,
business, international relationships, sports, films and many others areas, to the general
public. Search engine sites lead the users to find information in response to a query.
Social networking sites expedite the networking with friends, peers, colleagues and
other people sharing the similar interests where users can make friends, share pictures,
videos, audios and play games with other people in their networks. Webmail provides
users an access to the email services.
Marketers are using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine
Marketing (SEM) that enable the potential customers to access the website through
search engines. SEO is the organic and free way to earn traffic and improve visibility
for the marketers over search engines. SEM generally includes short text based
advertisements commonly labeled as sponsored links or sponsored results appearing
either at the top or at right side of result pages. „Google Adwords‟ from the stable of
Google is the most used search engine marketing service followed by „Yahoo! Search
Marketing‟ by Yahoo. Apart from SEO and SEM, banner or display advertising offers
marketers the opportunity to market their products and services in various formats like
flash, audio, video and images positioned over a website. Marketer can also rely upon
online advertising campaigns, social media channels, display advertising, email
marketing, affiliate marketing and subscription to blogs, newsletters, and games to
inform the target customers. A website can be made more sellable by providing links to
shopping carts, clear call to action, cross selling opportunities and valuable and specific
information about products and services. Free subscription to newsletters, testimonials
of the satisfied customers and feedback page, could also be used to serve the customers
better that not only build the trust of the target audience, but also makes the website an
attractive digital channel. Study conducted by Negi, Saklani, Badoni and Jasola (2002)
concluded that customization, availability of wide variety of products and facility of
online payment account for the satisfied customers‟ experience.

b) Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites have emerged as one of the most powerful marketing
channels for marketers across the globe. Social networking sites have gained immense
popularity among the masses especially in last decade (Lee, 2013). Social networking
sites are based on social media platforms that include online technologies, practices
and communities used by people to create content in the form of text, audio, video etc.

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and share feelings, knowledge, opinion and experiences with each other (Matthews,
2010). Examples of popular social media sites include photo and video sharing sites,
blogging and micro-blogging sites, social networking sites, online gaming sites,
„wikis‟, instant messaging and chatting sites and video sharing sites.
Social networking sites are the web based services that permit users to create a
public or semi-public profile and interact with other users on the website (Boyd and
Ellison, 2010). Social networking sites are the websites that connect millions of users
all over the world with similar interests using social media (Ioanăs and Stoica, 2014).
„SixDegrees.com‟ launched in 1997 was the first social networking site which
was quickly followed by „Live Journal‟, „Asian Avenue‟, „Black Planet‟ and „Lunar
Storm‟ in a short span of three years. „Facebook‟ is the most used „social
networking site‟ across the globe having maximum number of subscribers. Apart
from Facebook‟,
„Twitter‟, „LinkedIn‟, „Google +‟, „Instagram‟, „Myspace‟, „Snapchat‟ are other popular
social networking sites in India.
Social media has transformed the communication process between marketers
and consumers (Charan, 2011). Marketers are using the social networking sites due to
inherent capabilities of these sites to interact, engage and building intimate customer
relationships (Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden, 2011). Moreover timely and cost effective
access to customers is important motivator for which marketers are increasingly relying
upon social networking sites.
„YouTube‟ has emerged as one of the most used video sharing
social networking site in recent times. The section given below explains about the
video sharing site „YouTube‟.

i) YouTube: A Video Sharing Site

„YouTube‟ is one of the most prevalent video sharing social networking

sites where users can upload, share and watch videos (Cha, Kwak, Rodriguez, Ahn and
Moon, 2007; Burgess and Green, 2013). Vast majority of the content over this platform is
uploaded by the individuals whereas many of the organizations are considering it as a
useful communication medium. YouTube is the global leader in the video streaming
market, with over a billion videos viewed every day. YouTube went public in December
2005 and in a short time period, has experienced an astounding level of growth.
YouTube provides users an opportunity to upload and share videos with others. A recent
study conducted by Google stated that 91% of video ads in India were seen over
YouTube using desktops, mobiles phones and tablets (Exchange4media, 2016).
Videos shared over this interactive and interesting platform can be
advertisements, music videos, movies, live shows, presentations and many others.
Video can be uploaded by any person after creating the account over YouTube. The
profile page created over YouTube is known as channel. Marketers wisely create their
channels and promote their channels over the internet. 55% of marketers in B2C
market use YouTube prominently as a marketing strategy (Chomiak, 2016).
Compatibility of the YouTube with devices, video formats and operating systems
along with its simple

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operation are the factors responsible for its popularity among the consumers and
marketers. Marketers are embedding their website links in their YouTube channels
along with integrating it with social networking sites. Marketers are not only creating
the professional advertisements, testimonials and demonstration videos but are also
encouraging their customers to share their videos using company‟s products. YouTube
provides marketers an opportunity to connect with its customers directly. Marketers are
providing tips, buying help and comparison to the customers that ultimately help
customers taking an informed decision (Aggarwal, 2016).
People around the world are consuming video content as they no longer
demand a static advertisement, but demand an engaging, creative and interactive piece
of communication. Gordon, Miller and Collins (2015) claimed in its study that more than
a billion users visit YouTube every month. Over 3 billion videos are watched every
day on YouTube whereas 100 hours of videos are uploaded every minute. There are
many benefits of being on „YouTube‟ like it enables video sharing as 52% of viewers
falling in age groups of 18-35 years share videos with others. YouTube also promotes
keyword based targeting, audience and community engagement by obtaining users‟
comments and ratings and enabling video sharing with others. More than half (50%) of
the videos over YouTube are commented upon by the customers (McCue, 2011).

c) Online Communities
Online communities also known as „message boards‟ or „internet forums‟
refer to web-enabled and supported discussion sites where-by users can converse with
one another in the form of posted messages (Armstrong and Hagel, 2000).The
members primarily interact with each other via internet. Customers have the freedom
to choose and become a member of online communities. Generally members in online
communities interact via social networking sites. However, they also share their
opinion in specifically crafted forums, discussion boards, chat rooms, blogs and
comment sections of news sites. Online communities can be formed by the enthusiast
customers, marketers or third party. Consumers exhibit lot of faith in the online
communities as members appreciate the experience of other community members.
Online communities‟ provide a convenient platform for like minded people sharing
common interest (Chen, Wu and Yoon, 2004). Members of the community can interact
with each other via instant messaging, chat rooms, forums, e-mails, social networking
sites and discussion boards.
Online communities can be free or owned depending upon the control over the
content. Free communities are built using existing free social networking sites like
„Twitter‟, „Instagram‟, „Facebook‟, „Snapchat‟, „Google +‟ and many more. Free online
communities don‟t offer greater control over the content to the marketer. Moreover,
built-in membership of the existing social networking sites doesn‟t necessarily mean
the common interest held by the community. Owned communities also known as
„forums‟ are generally owned by the marketer wherein stricter control over content can
be exercised by the marketer. Online communities especially the owned communities
can be really productive for marketer in maintaining strong relationship with its
customers (Lefever, 2003). Owned communities have also been instrumental
in making

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word of mouth campaign successful with the help of strong customers‟ analytics
(Chowdhury, 2016).

d) Emails
Emails were probably the first real manifestations of internet. Emails have been
an important digital marketing channel for marketers to engage with the customers.
Email refers to a message distributed electronically from one computer user to others
over communication networks. However new digital devices like smartphones, tablets,
digital TV also have the capability of sending these messages due to their
technological capabilities. Initially emails mainly contained text based messages, but
now audio video and graphic files can also be sent easily via e-mails. Emails can be
sent to an individual or group of individuals. „Mailchimp‟ is one such company that
sends a billion mails every day (Finley, 2016). Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP),
an internet protocol, is used for sending the emails over internet along with „post
office protocol‟ for receiving emails (Techtarget, 2007).
Email acts as a great marketing tool for marketers for obvious reasons of
precise targeting, easiness and cost effectiveness (MacDonald, 2016). Moreover, key
metrics like open, conversion, delivery rates and clicks are easy to measure with the
help of special tracking software available in the market like „Google Analytics URL
builder‟ (Chaffey, 2016). A well-crafted email highlighting the unfulfilled needs and
presenting the product as a solution to these unfulfilled needs; can emerge as a
wonderful marketing strategy. A study conducted by Direct Marketing Association in
the year 2012 purported that consumers had confidence in emails and opted to receive
the emails containing information from marketers. One fourth of the customers found
marketing emails as informative and interesting. Marketers in the study also agreed that
clicked, opened and conversion rates of emails increased over past few years (Kaplan,
2013). However, increasing emphasis on emails by the marketer in recent years has
also offended the customers as either they don‟t pay attention to the e-mails or e-mails
going to spam. A study conducted by the firm Experian Marketing Services (EMS)
discovered that about 10% Indian consumers open the email marketing messages sent
to them (Bhattacharya, 2015). Indian consumers registered 6% click to open rates for
emails (eMarketer, 2015c).

Digital Devices
Digital devices include computers, mobile phones, digital outdoors and digital
TV. The section given below gives the details of digital devices:

a) Computers
Computer is a device capable of storing, retrieving and processing data. Computer
accepts instructions in the form of digitalized data and produces the output as per set of
instructions or programs (Techtarget, 2005). Computers can come in various shapes and
sizes including laptops, desktops, tablets, smartphones, gaming consoles, wearable
devices and smart TV etc. to name a few. A user can perform number of

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activities ranging from typing documents, making presentations and spreadsheets and
creating and watching videos, playing games, browsing the internet, buying and selling
products, making payments and many more (GCF Global, n.d.). Integration of
computer with numerous internet enabled screens like watches, TVs and mobile
phones; has made it one of the most used digital channels. Marketers make use of
content based digital platforms mentioned previously namely websites, social
networking sites, online communities and e-mails to market their products, which are
accessed by the consumers using computer screens.

b) Mobile Phones
Penetration of Mobile Phones started exploding in mid-90s in developed
countries. Initially feature phones made use of Short Messaging Services (SMS) and
were successful in communicating the marketers‟ messages to the target
audience. Emergence of smartphones having the capabilities of advanced mobile
operating system combined with other features of hand-held devices revolutionized the
digital communication process. Smartphone market has seen significant growth since
the year 1994 wherein „IBM Simon‟ was launched (Ai et al. 2008) which was
equivalent to a smartphone, but was not officially called a smartphone. „Phone
Writer Communicator‟ of „AT&T‟ company was officially called the first
smartphone (Sager, 2012). All smartphones were working on „symbian‟ platforms
offered by „Psion Corporation‟ till the year 2007 when „Apple‟ launched „iPhone‟.
HTC in 2008 released „HTC Dream‟ built upon android operating system. „Android‟
gained immense popularity after 2010 and now dominates the mobile operating
system market. Most of the modern day smartphones can access internet, have touch
screen user interface, LCD or LED screens, play music, take pictures, receive and send
e-mails, connect socially and run third party apps.
Mobile phones have been accepted as an important communication tools in times
where mass marketing is hardly been noticed and created a kind of „third revolution‟
after the industrial and agricultural revolution (Singh, 2014). Interactivity, measurability,
localization and ubiquity of mobile phones are responsible for its acceptance as modern
day marketing tool among the customers (Barwise and Strong, 2002; Hjorth & Goggin,
2009; Manzoor, 2010). Interactivity facilitates the bi-directional communication, instant
reply and building direct dialogue between marketer and customer. Marketers are using
mobile phones as communication channel because of its measurable nature as with the
help of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)*, it becomes easy to identify and contact with
the potential customers. Global Positioning System (GPS)* helps operators to utilize the
current location of the customers for informing them about relevant information thereby
triggering impulse purchases*. Customers can also actively demand the specific
information by using GPS service. This has led to creation of location based services by
marketers that help customers to pick the best service available. The most important
feature of a mobile phone which makes it as most desired digital tool of today is its
ubiquity which deals with possession of mobile phones every
time and everywhere. It enables a marketer to contact its potential customer at any place

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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and time (Hongcharu and Eiamkanchanalai, 2009). Mobile advertising, apps, wallets*,
entertainment, internet, discount coupons*, location-based mobile services*, and mobile
banking* are few of the mobile based marketing promotional activities successfully used
by the marketers.

c) Digital TV
Digital television (DTV) makes use of digital methods for transmission of signals
which results in superior image and audio quality and more number of channels for the
viewers which in turn ensure the enhanced viewing experience. Digital TV is composed
of two way cable TV system that allows the viewers to issue instructions and give
feedback information via setup box; an electronic device. Digital TV services can be of
many types namely the „Digital Terrestrial‟ (digital signals transmitted by
arterial),
„Digital Satellite TV‟ (digital signals transmitted by satellite and received by
dish),
„Digital Cable TV‟ (high speed fibre optic cable), „Telephone Line Digital TV‟
(via telephone lines) and „Internet Protocol Television‟ (broadband connection).
India has 61% TV penetration ratio with about 17 crores (168 million) households
owning TV sets (FICCI-KPMG, 2015). India had 10.4 crores cable and satellite TV
subscribers in the year 2015 whereas number of analogue subscribers stood at 5.5 crores
(55 million). However with the government‟s efforts for cable TV digitization,
analogue subscribers are expected to be further reduced to around 50 lacs (5 million) by
the end of the year 2018. There would be around 17.5 crores (175 million) digital TV
subscribers either via digital cable or by DTH* (Direct to Home) by the year 2018
(FICCI-KPMG, 2015).
Digital TV also known as „interactive TV‟ offers numerous benefits to its
users over its analogue counter-part. The biggest advantage is its interactivity. Digital TV
is interactive that establishes a dialogue with its viewers (Rouse, 2009). Digital TV
allows its users to access the desired information by entering menus. Users can also listen
to radio channels over their TV and even demand the archived programs using on-
demand services. Remote no longer remains the only device to access TV, the function is
spotlessly performed by other devices like mobiles phones, tablets, and gaming consoles
because of web connectivity. Viewers can respond to marketing offers promptly with the
click of the remote, and marketers can direct viewers to other digital devices namely
mobiles phones, tablets, desktop for further engagement. The enhanced interactivity has
transformed a passive channel TV into a participatory consumer experience which results
in engaged and valued relationship with brands (Poggi, 2012).
Compatibility with computers and the internet is another benefit of digital TV
due to which it is emerging as an important digital channel of modern times (Rouse,
2009). DTV enables its users to access internet through their television sets. Integration
of Digital TV with internet makes the marketing efforts of marketers addressable
which results in precise targeting and measurability; the unique features of digital
marketing (Nelson, 2013). Setup boxes are now also making the access to e-mails and
e-commerce sites possible for its viewers via internet.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.
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d) Digital Outdoors
Digital outdoors are rising in popularity as a marketing channel. Digital
outdoors are the contemporary digital channels comprising of dynamic billboards and
digital screens placed at strategic locations like restaurants, shopping malls, kiosks, bus
stands, airports and railway stations etc. Initially, digital outdoors were confined to
dynamic billboards with entertaining content that attracted passerby‟s attention. Digital
outdoors were used widely by the marketers due to their cost effective nature and
improved retentions of customers. In 2011, a study concerning digital outdoors claimed
that increased usage of smartphones motivated mobile consumers to look for interactive
digital outdoors (Fera, 2012). Technological advancements made the digital outdoors
interactive whereby users have the opportunity to interact with the digital screens are
placed at carefully deliberated locations.
Digital outdoor enables marketers taking quick action whereby new and
innovative content can be shared across all the strategic locations using the same.
Moreover with the tracking capability marketer can track how many people have seen the
advertisement. Marketers can proactively plan their strategy as they can quickly modify
the content of its marketing communication with the help of required information. Digital
outdoors have now also become interactive whereby consumers interact with the
marketing communication either through clickable links available on the screen, games or
augmented reality*. Now, marketers are tracking the consumers while being exposed to
digital outdoors with the help of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or facial recognition technology
(Jeremy, 2014). Using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, marketers make excellent use of location
based marketing and send the most relevant message to the customers when they are
nearest to place of buying. Facial recognition technology not only traces the
consumer‟s facial expressions, but also the age bracket and gender. Marketers are
integrating digital outdoors with social media whereby photos and videos of social media
campaigns are distributed across the entire digital outdoors. Digital outdoors coupled with
traceability and interactivity enable marketers to draft a precise profiling of the customers
which ultimately leads towards the efficient customer targeting (Evans, 2009).

DIGITAL STATISTICS OF INDIA

Digital landscape is changing in India. India has all the potential to be a world
leader in digital communication. More and more people by every passing year are
joining the internet both from urban and rural fronts. Growing internet users‟ base,
increased possession of digital devices, falling prices of digital devices and data plans,
increased connectivity, improved internet compatibility of various digital devices, felt
need for internet and increased awareness, are leading the digital revolution in India
which have not only put the digital industry in the fastest growing business league, but
are also impacting the consumer behaviour.
Indian internet user base reached 40 crores (400 million) in the year December,
2015 as per the apex body, „Internet and Mobile Association of India‟ (Sharma, 2015).
India now stands at number two just after „China‟ in terms of number of internet users.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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The rate at which new internet users are adding to the existing pool was also the fastest
for India. There were 15.6 crores (156 million) internet users in the year 2012 which
reached to 30 crores (300 million) in the year 2014. Another 10 crores (100 million)
users were added in just one year and number reached to 40 crores in the year 2015 as
per „Department of Electronics and Information Technology India‟ (DeitY India,
2015). The number is further expected to cross 50 crores (500 million) mark by the end
of year 2016 (PTI, 2015). Fig. 1.2 is depicting the no. of internet users in India since
the year 1998 till 2015. The sharp growth can be attributed to decreased prices of
internet enabled smartphones. People from rural India are contributing the most
towards the increased internet user base; whereby they are accessing internet through
their smartphones (DeitY India, 2015).

(Source: IAMAI and Deity India, 2015)

Figure 1.2: Number of Internet Users in India

Fig. 1.3 gives the growth of internet users in percentage (%) terms for last 15
years. It can be seen from the figure that year 2002 saw the maximum growth rate of
137% due to dot com boom in early 2000s. For last five years, 30% average growth has
been seen in no. of internet users in India.

(Source: IAMAI and Deity, India, 2015)

Figure 1.3: Growth of Internet Users for last 15 Years

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Mobile subscription in India crossed 1 billion (1000 million) mark in 2016 as

per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI, 2016). Affordable devices and
reduced call tariffs have accounted for increased mobile subscribers‟ base in India. Fig.
1.4 represents the growth of „mobile subscribers‟ (in million) in India for past 15 years.

(Source: TRAI, 2016)

Figure 1.4: Number of Mobile Subscribers in India

There were 638 million mobile phone (device) users in the year 2015 (Statista,
2016), which is further expected to rise to 900 million by the year 2019 (Cisco, 2015).
However smartphones constitute a small portion of total mobile phones. There were
123 million smartphones in the year 2014 which rose to 167 million in the year 2015
(Cisco, 2015 and Statista, 2016). Gartner India (2016) predicts a big chunk of mobile
subscribers converting to smartphones users in near future. This number is further
expected to reach 204 million by the end of 2016 (eMarketer, 2016a). Fig. 1.5
represents the growth in number of mobile devices (feature phones, smartphones, and
tablets) users since the year 2013.

(Source: Cisco, 2015, Statista, 2016 and Gartner India, 2016)

Figure 1.5: Growth of Mobile Devices in India

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Social networking sites in India are very popular among urban and rural users.
There were around 63 million social networking sites users in the year 2012 which rose
to 120 million by the year 2014 (Statista, 2016).The number further increased to 145
million by the year 2015. There were 118 million urban users whereas 27 million users
were from rural area (IAMAI and IMRB, 2015). Statista (2016) predicts the number of
social media users in India to be around 224 million by the year 2018. Fig. 1.6 depicts
the number of social networking sites users in India (in million).

(Source: IAMAI & IMRB, 2015 and Statista, 2016)

Figure 1.6: Social Networking Sites Users in India

„Facebook‟ is the most popular social networking site in India having

161 million Facebook users (Malviya, 2016).The number was further expected to be
around 21 crores by the year 2018 (Statista, 2016). India is the second largest market
for Facebook after USA.
Marketers were also investing heavily across the digital platforms and
integrating their promotional campaigns across various digital platforms and devices.
Fig. 1.7 represents the spending (in crores) over digital and mobile platforms.

(Source: eMarketer, 2015a)

Figure 1.7: Spending over Digital and Mobile Platforms

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3466 crores were spent over digital platforms in the year 2013 which rose to
5723 crores by the year 2015. Spend on digital advertisement is expected to be around
10822 crores by the year 2018. Digital ad spending included display and banner
advertising, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and spend on social
networking sites and YouTube. Mobile advertisements included spend on display
advertisement, SMS and MMS.
Share of digital advertisement to total advertising spend is increasing by every
passing year. Digital ads formed 10% of total advertising spend in the year 2013 which
further rose to 14% in the year 2015. This proportion of digital advertising to total
advertising spend is expected to be 22.4% by the end of year 2018. Fig. 1.8 depicts the
details of digital ad spending to traditional ad spending.

(Source: eMarketer, 2015a)

Figure 1.8: Share of Digital Ad Spending to Traditional Ad Spending

Among all the digital channels, mobile phone has emerged as a channel having
maximum share of digital media spending. Mobile phones contributed towards 19% of
total digital media spending in the year 2015 which is expected to be more than 50% in
the year 2018.
Consumers are also becoming part of digital revolution whereby they are
actively participating in searching, comparing and purchasing over digital platforms.
Despite the lower internet penetration, 8.2 crores people bought products through
digital channels in year 2015(eMarketer, 2016a). Improvement in delivery
infrastructure and payment process coupled with rise in mobile internet has fuelled the
e-commerce business growth in India. E-commerce market in India was pegged at
107600 crores in the year 2015 registering a growth of 300% since the year 2010 when
e-commerce market was valued at 18,000 cores. This growth story is expected to
continue as e- commerce market is expected to be valued between 3, 36,250 Crores to
4, 70,750 Crores by the year 2020. Digital revolution in India is not limited to
metropolitan cities or urban areas; but Tier-II and Tier III cities are also showing the
increased demand for e-commerce. Highest demand for e-tailers has been observed
from 4,000-5,000 Tier II and Tier III towns and cities in India which accounts for about
50% of revenue for the most e-tailers (Deloitte, 2015).

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Organization profile

INDIAN PASSENGER CAR MARKET: AN OVERVIEW

Indian Passenger Car Market has seen a humble growth from a stage where
„Ambassador‟ built upon „Morris Oxford III‟ and „Premier Auto‟ in early 1950‟s ruled
the Indian market for about 35 years to the current era where more than 30 global
companies give stiff competition to each other by offering number of variants to the
customers to choose from. To better understand the Indian passenger car market, Indian
car market history can be divided into four important time zones namely Pre 1980‟s,
1980 to 1995 and 1996 to 2005 and 2005 onwards.
Before 1980‟s Indian car market was dominated by few players operating in a
closed market „License Raj‟ system offering limited number of the vehicles to serve
the customers‟ needs. „Ambassador‟ also known as „Amby‟ along with „Premier‟, was
the most preferred option of Indian customers till early 1980‟s. Maruti‟s inception in
early 80‟s by Government of India in association with „Suzuki‟ of Japanese origin
turned out to be milestone in Indian passenger car market. „Standard Motor‟, „Sipani‟
along with
„Maruti‟, „Hindustan Motors‟ and „Premier‟ were the major players in Indian passenger
car market.
Opening of Indian market for foreign players in early 90‟s made the entry of
global majors like „Opel‟, „Ford Motors‟, „Honda‟ etc. easy in India. This period also
saw „de-licensing‟ of Indian car market which further allowed global giants setting up
their assembly lines in India. After 1995, Indian automobile market saw global leaders
like, „Hyundai‟, „Daewoo‟, „Toyota‟, „Mitsubishi‟, „Skoda‟ and many more entering in
India. „Hyundai‟, the „Korean‟ major entered in India and gave tough competition to
market leader, „Maruti Suzuki‟. Indian automobile market saw a transformation
after the year 2005. Indian passenger car market grew very rapidly and India projected
itself as a manufacturing hub. Other global major brands like „Volkswagen‟, „Audi‟,
„BMW‟,
„Renault‟, „Nissan‟ and „Datsun‟ strengthened their foothold in India.
Indian passenger car market is the fifth largest market in the world. However
density of cars remains very low in India. Only 6 people per 1000 people in India
owned cars in the year 2000 which further rose to about 10 people per 1000 in the year
2008 and 20 people per 1000 people in the year 2016. This number was further was
expected to increase by 775% as per a survey conducted by International Energy
Agency which would lead towards 175 cars per 1000 people by the year 2040 (Car and
Bike Team, 2016b). Considering the car density in metropolitan studies, „Mumbai‟
had the highest density of cars where 430 cars per kilometer occupied 85% of the total
road space, followed by „Kolkata‟ having 308 cars/kilometer. „Pune‟ stood third
among the metropolitan cities having maximum density of cars per kilometer with 248
cars followed by „Delhi‟ which stood at fourth place with 93 cars/kilometer. However,
Delhi had 27.9 lakhs individual passenger cars, which was highest among all the
metropolitan cities (Car and Bike Team, 2016a).
Car forms the 14% of domestic passenger vehicle industry. Indian passenger
car market is expected to be third largest by the end of the year 2018. „Maruti Suzuki‟
is the market leader in Indian passenger car market segment having 47% market share,
followed by „Hyundai Motor India‟ having 17% of market share and „Mahindra
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India‟

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having 7.5% market share (Sengupta, 2016). Fig. 1.9 gives the market share of major
car market players in India.

(Source: SIAM India, 2016)

Figure 1.9: Market Share of Major Car Market Players in India

Indian Passenger Vehicle market (including Car and Utility Vehicles) has seen a
splendid growth in last decade especially since the year 2010. About 29, 82,772 vehicles
were produced in the year 2010-11 which rose to 34, 13,859 units in year 2015-16
registering a growth of about 14.4%. Sales of passenger vehicles also experienced a
growth rate of 11.5% for last five years. Exports of passenger vehicles have also seen a
steep surge with a growth rate of 47% in last five years. However, years 2013-14 and
2014-15 saw some downtrend in sales and production of the vehicle due to economic
downturn worldwide. Fig. 1.10 represents the data of Indian passenger vehicle market
since the year 2010 in terms of production, sales and exports (SIAM, 2016).
As per statistics disclosed by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers
(SIAM) India, Indian passenger vehicle market (including cars and utility vehicles) grew
by 7.24% in the financial year 2015-16 with a sale of 2.79 million vehicles. Car sales (not
including utility vehicles) grew by 7.87% in the financial year 2015-16 over last year and
a total of
2.02 million vehicles were sold in India. SIAM India expected car sector to grow by 6-
8% by the year ending 2016-2017 (SIAM, 2016). According to „Auto Mission Plan
2016-26‟ of Indian government, sales of passenger vehicle would increase three folds by
the year 2026 with 5.8% annual growth of Indian economy. „Auto Mission Plan‟ also
states that a 7.8% annual growth of Indian economy would increase the sales of passenger
vehicle to around 13 million units by the year 2026 which would also make „India‟, the
second largest automobile market of the world (Raj, 2016).

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(Source: SIAM, 2016)

Figure 1.10: Growth of Indian Passenger Vehicle Market

Indian passenger car market is dominated by the compact cars*, accounting for
about 75% of the share whereas luxury cars* make only 1% of the total pie. The
luxury segment is further expected to grow at an annual rate of 15% till the year 2018
(Sector Study, 2016). „Maharashtra‟ and „Gujarat‟ had been the largest contributing
states in sales of passenger car market. Utility vehicle* was the most preferred type of
cars sold in west India. North Indian states like „Delhi‟, „Punjab‟, „Haryana‟, and „Uttar
Pradesh‟ mostly preferred compact cars (Chauhan, 2013).
As per SIAM India and Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d‟
Automobiles (OICA) France, Indian passenger car market in terms of no. of units sold,
grew at a rate of 7.64 % in the year 2015 (January to December) which was highest in
the world. Indian car market has outpaced the other leading markets of the world like
„China‟ (5.9% growth rate), „UK‟ (6.2% growth rate), „France‟ (6.2% growth rate) and
„Germany‟ (5.4% growth rate) to gain the number one slot (Raj, 2016).

DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS IN INDIAN PASSENGER CAR

MARKET
Digital marketing has affected each and every industry irrespective of its
nature, size, type and category. Hence Indian Car market is no exception in which
digital‟s
„Midas‟ touch is affecting both the customers and marketers (Maklan, Knox and
Watson, 2001). Harikishan (2015) reviewed the existing literature and opined that
digital marketing communication has different objectives for different categories of
products. For an expensive and high involvement product like car; the objective is to
build brand value and creating long-term engaging relationships with the brand.
Almost every Indian car manufacturer is there on the most popular „blogs‟ sites for
automobiles namely „autoblog.com‟, „cartrade.com‟, „bestsellingcarsblog.com‟,
„topgear.com‟ and
„blog.caranddriver.com‟. Apart from the official „blogs‟, there were some other
popular blogs like „motoroctane.com‟, „indiandrives.com‟, „indiacarnews.com‟,
„ondrive.com‟,

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*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

25
 Chapter 1

„burnyourfuel.com‟, „indianautosblog.com‟ and „carblogindia.com‟ providing

relevant information to the customers. „Blablacar‟ is one of the largest online
communities of car buyers having more than 22 million members of 22
countries. „Team-BHP.com‟ is another popular online community formed by more
than a million car owners and enthusiasts giving unbiased and authentic reviews,
information, opinion and analysis.
Indian passenger car market has been one of the top digital spenders since the
year 2009 wherein automobile sector became the top digital spender surpassing telecom
and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) (Mehra, 2012). In year 2010, 10%
of total advertising budget was spent on digital platforms by Indian passenger car
market payers (Khan and Jacob, 2010) which rose to 14% by the year 2013 (IAMAI
and IMRB Report, 2013). A study conducted by „Socintel360‟ reported that
Indian automotive industry was ranked number one for social media spending from the
year 2009-13 with 114% growth rate. The social media advertising spend was further
expected to increase by 41% during 2014-2018. The growth in social media spend was
highest for India among the markets like „Italy‟, „Russia‟, „Brazil‟ and „France‟
(Anvesh, 2016). Automobile sector contributed the most towards digital ad spending in
India in the year 2015 just after FMCG (Ramnath, 2016). Automobile sector spent 16%
of its total advertising budget amounting to Rs. 724 crores towards digital platforms in
the year 2016 (Kantar IMRB and IAMAI, 2016). This section gives a brief description
of the digital marketing communication practices adopted by India‟s top car
manufacturers in last decade.
1. Maruti Suzuki India Limited: „Maruti India‟ has been an active player over
digital media for about a decade with an interactive website, social networking pages,
brand specific communities, dedicated sub-brands websites, „blogs‟, „YouTube‟
channel and many more (Afaqs, 2013). Company sold about 2-3% of its cars owing to
its digital promotional efforts in the year 2003 which further rose to 17-18% in the
year 2008.
„Maruti‟ spent about 10% of its advertising budget on digital media in 2009 and
2010 and increased it by 15% in the year 2012 (Dubey, 2012). „A-Star‟, the
company‟s compact car in the year 2008 received more than 2.5 lakhs online hits and
over 4000 cars were sold on the basis of customers‟ interface on internet (Hodges,
2015). Another car brand „Ritz‟ launched in the year 2009 made use of social media
through their „Live the Moment‟ campaign on Facebook, Twitter and micro-site
to celebrate the post purchase of the vehicle. Customers were supposed to tell the
best moment of their lives and entitled for exciting gifts including free „Maruti Ritz‟
car if their moment selected by the jury. The interactive digital campaign resulted in
more than 2 million visits on the microsite, addition of 1 lac fans on „Facebook‟
Page, 50, 000 unique entries and around 2 lakhs votes for the contestants (Kumar and
Singh, 2013).
„NEXA‟, the premium sales channel of Maruti launched in year 2015 is
claimed to provide unique digital experience to the customers. NEXA provides digitally
and technologically advanced buying experience to its customers. Paper less work culture
has been emphasized in the NEXA‟s showrooms and delightful virtual experience is
given to the customers. The company has also launched a mobile app called
„NEXA Owner‟s App‟ that details the service and accessory purchase history, keeps
a record of booking service requests, provides timely events‟ updates, provides music

26
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of the choice and offers emergency support to the consumer (Maruti Suzuki India,
2015). „Baleno‟, the premium

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hatchback of the company was launched with an innovative mobile marketing campaign
in the year 2015. The display mobile advertisement for „Baleno‟ overrode the
shake feature of mobile phone by appearing again on the screen thereby illustrating
the „defiant‟ nature of the vehicle. The campaign appeared on the mobile app of
„Economic Times‟,
„Gaana.com‟, „Daily Hunt‟, „India Times‟ and „NDTV‟. The initiative met with
great success which fuelled the successful launch of the vehicle. The company also made
excellent use of auto redirect technique using banner ads which connected users to the
Baleno‟s page within 5 seconds on Nexa‟s website. The campaign received instant
views and a CTR (Click through rate) of 3.5 (Adage India, 2016).
2. Hyundai Motor India Limited: „Hyundai‟, the second largest car
manufacturer is also very active on digital media. The company created its Facebook
page in the year 2011 and provided its customers the relevant information under three
important heads namely informative, promotional and customer engagement. Hyundai
had more than
5.5 million fans on Facebook and more than 17 million video views on
„YouTube‟ channel (Hyundai Motor India, 2015). Recently manufacturer has launched a
video song titled, „Drive Mein Junoon‟ using 118 sounds by i20 car sung by famous
singer
„Arijit Singh‟. The video was launched on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter etc. (Campaign India, 2016). Hyundai did a live screening for the launch of its
latest compact SUV „Creta‟ whereby links were shared across all social media
platforms. A Twitter contest was also launched resulting in more than 15000 tweets
within four hours (Sud, 2016).
3. Tata Motors: „Tata Motors‟ engages with its customers over major social
channels namely Facebook, Twitter and YouTube etc. Tata Motors‟ mini car
„Nano‟ also received over 30 million hits since its launch to the closure of the booking
on its dedicated website for „Nano‟. In year 2008, 4000 customers booked
„Nano‟ online (Hodges, 2015). Nano‟s facebook page was also very popular among
the fans. There is also a club called “S.O.U.L” (Safari Owners United League),
a club for „Safari‟ Owners, is active over social media. There are several road-trips
planned in a year for existing Safari buyers, where they get to meet and interact with
like-minded car buyers (Hirani, Guru and Singh, 2015). „Bolt‟, the new hatchback of
Tata was promoted using
„#GetSetBolt‟ campaign on Twitter by banking upon the popularity of important
influencers (Naidu, 2015c). Tata for its compact hatchback „Tiago‟ which was earlier
named as „Zica‟, launched „Fantastico Name Hunt‟ over „social networking sites‟ like
Facebook and Twitter and blog site „BlogAdda‟ (Naidu, 2015a). Participants could
also send their entries to the contest via SMS and „WhatsApp‟. The contest resulted in
more than 37,000 names suggested for the brand and 48 million customer engagements
(Naidu, 2015b).
4. Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M): „Mahindra‟ used digital media in designing
its pricing strategy in the year 2011 whereby it organized an inventive „Guess the
Price‟ participatory contest ten days before the launch of its „XUV 500‟. The
innovative campaign witnessed an awesome reaction whereby it receieved1.15 lakh
entries (Anand and Chaudhary, 2012). Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) was the first car
manufacturer in India that offered its new generation „Scorpio‟ for bookings on

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e-commerce portal
„Snapdeal‟ in September 2014. The company received 100 online booking via portal
and 3 million customers‟ visits. In 2016, Mahindra launched its compact SUV „KUV
100‟ on

29
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e-commerce giant‟s portal „Flipkart‟ along with two other online platforms namely
„M2All‟ and „CarAndBike.com‟. Company‟s association with Flipkart for online
booking of the vehicle aimed to target young potential customers whereas with
„CarAndBike.com‟; the company wished to engage and tap customers who visited
online auto portals before selecting the car brand (Das, 2016). The company also created
a dubsmash video with Bollywood actor „Varun Dhawan‟ and group head
„Anand Mahindra‟ and shared over social media. It also asked the customers to
upload the dubsmash videos after seeing the first look of „KUV 100‟ which resulted
in over 7 lacs views (Mishra, 2016).
5. Honda India: „Honda India‟ is using digital technologies to effectively segment
its customers and targeting customers with interest in blogging and other web activities
(Puthran, 2014). Internet played an important role in sales of „Honda‟ vehicles as
about 5% of „Honda‟ cars were sold through internet initiatives in the year 2008.
„Honda City‟ the flagship brand of the company regained its leadership position in mid-
segment sedan by heavily banking upon the digital interface (Hodges, 2015).
6. Ford: „Ford India‟ keeps 15-20% of their total ads spend for digital front
(Hasan, 2015). Ford normally designs digital contests for its customers who not only
review the car but also upload their videos online (Kumar, 2012). The company spends
about 20% of total advertising budget on digital marketing. Ford turned to social
media for its compact SUV „Ecosport‟ with the campaign „Urban Discoveries‟
which asked the participants to locate the uncommon places driving in marketed
vehicle (Wheels Unplugged, 2013). „What Drives You campaign‟ was launched
for „Figo Aspire‟ in 2015 wherein participants were asked to share their motivations
in life on website www.whatdrivesyou.in (Awasthi, 2015). Ford India was also an
active player on social networking site „Pinterest‟ and hashtag „#happydriving‟ was
one of the most popular hashtags.
7. Renault: „Renault India‟ in 2015 for launching its new vehicle called „Lodgy‟
used blogger programs including top forty bloggers of India. These bloggers
experienced the new car in „Goa‟ and shared their experience with blogs.
Company also used video stories that displayed how the vehicle changed the owners‟
lives. (Naidu, 2015b) Company also partnered with „Paytm wallet‟ for booking its
compact car „Kwid‟ in Delhi and NCR (Indiaretailing Bureau, 2016). Company‟s
famous sub-brand Duster has an online community of duster owners known as GOD
(Gang of Duster).
8. Volkswagen India: „Volkswagen India‟ utilized the supremacy of digital media
in generating awareness for the brand with the help of display ads and social media
(Gupta, 2015). In 2011, the brand took creative digital initiative “Planet Volkswagen”
that informed target audience not only about the products but also the ideas,
philosophies and values that brand cherished (afaqs, 2011). The portal showcased five
digital properties namely „Volkswagen Corporate‟, „Think Blue‟, „Text
Drive‟,
„Volkswagen Play‟, and „Volkswagen Junior‟. Volkswagen India also launched
digital media campaign called ''#AnythingforJetta'' in 2011(Gupta, 2015). Volkswagen
India through its „LinkedIn‟ page made use of recommendations advertisements
whereby potential customers received brand‟s recommendations from company‟s
official LinkedIn page. The recommendations advertisement strategy resulted in
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 Chapter 1
over 3000

31
 Chapter 1

recommendations in a month and over 10 lacs updates about Volkswagen cars. The
company also tracked its customers over social networking channels and informed
them about various offers timely by forwarding digital content in the form of audio,
video and text to their followers over social media (Digital Vidya, 2015). Volkswagen
also used mobile phones to tap the 2.5-lakh strong customer base in India for its
premium sedans „Passat‟ and „Jetta‟ (Hodges, 2015). The company regularly sent
customized e- mails and newsletters to its prospective customers. The company also
integrated the digital technologies with the traditional media and launched talking and
shivering newspaper campaigns to inform their customers about their brand
(Harikishan, 2015). Bagga and Gupta (2014) in their study concerning internet practices
by Indian automobile players claimed that Volkswagen has done really well in Indian
market by efficiently leveraging the unique capabilities of internet and social media.

CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS: THE CONCEPT

Consumer buying decision process refers to the sequence of activities which

converts a prospect* to the customer and leads an existing customer to the re-purchase
of goods and services (Schiffman, Kanuk and Kumar, 2012). Kollat, Engel and Blackwell
(1970) gave a comprehensive model of consumer behavior comprising of five stages
popularly known as „EKB Model‟ given in Fig. 1.11.

1. Need Recognition: This is the first step of consumer decision making process which
makes the customer aware about the difference between actual and desired stage
(Hawkins, Best, Coney and Mookerjee, 2008). The need can be triggered by the
internal or external stimuli. External stimuli comes from various information sources of
today namely website, mobile phones, YouTube, digital TV, digital outdoors to name
a few coupled with traditional sources which might trigger the thoughts of making a
purchase.
2. Search for Information: Once the customer acknowledges the need, the next step is
to look for the information about available options that could satisfy the identified
needs. External and internal memory sources are used for getting the information.
Internal sources bank upon the customers‟ experience and memory. External sources
constitute the information got from friends, peers, marketers and commercial sources
(Schiffman et al. 2012).
3. Evaluation of Alternatives: After collecting the information, consumer evaluates
the alternatives on the basis of certain criteria that consumer thinks important like
price, quality, features, experience of others‟ and ratings of other users to name a few.
Consumer forms certain beliefs about the alternatives that guide his/her attitude,
purchase intentions and final purchase (Sternthal and Craig, 1982). Schwenk (1984)
stated that consumers look for simplifying the evaluation process for the complex
decisions.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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 Chapter 1

(Source: Adopted from Kollat, Engel and Blackwell Model, 1970)

Figure 1.11: Consumer Buying Decision Process

4. Selection and Purchase: Favorable evaluation of a brand forms preference for the
brand that a consumer might ultimately buy. Attitude of others and unexpected
situational factors might intervene between purchase intentions and final purchase
(Kotler and Keller, 2012). Favorable attitude of others and absence of unexpected
situation would normally lead to the purchase of the product.
5. Post Purchase Behaviour: After purchasing a particular product, a customer might
feel satisfied or dissatisfied. If satisfied, consumer may recommend others the brand
and might spread negative word of mouth if dissatisfied (Brown, Barry, Dacin and
Gunst, 2005).

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Digital technologies have had the most significant impact on business
communication process. These modern technologies have reshaped the marketing
communication landscape with its exceptional competencies viz. interactivity,
customization, measurability, accessibility, customer engagement and handling huge
informative bases (Edelman and Heller, 2015). Marketers are banking upon digital
marketing communication as it permits marketers to deliver real-time, personalized
services and content, and deals with an individual customer rather than aiming at
masses (Kierzkowski et al. 1996). Innumerable internet enabled digital devices like
desktops, mobiles phones, digital TV, digital outdoors and digital watches along with
interactive platforms like websites, e-mails and social media offer themselves

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as a cost effective substitute for traditional marketing in every industry irrespective of

its size, nature, location and type. So, it makes sense for marketers to focus on
technology that more and more people are embracing like never before. Moreover,
digital channels have improved the firm‟s communication practices by converting the
discrete pieces of information into precisely formulated relevant and attractive content
which is more collaborative and measurable.
Customers in digital environments have become empowered and demanding
(Ernst & Young, 2012; Lovett, 2013) as digital media offer them superior networking
with peers and friends, more choices, unbelievable access to information, superior
experience and control over decision making process which leads to value creation for
a customers in the form of enlightenment, entertainment and utility. Consumers in
digital realm are taking informed decisions by evaluating the marketers‟
offerings on vital parameters like price, features and customization and ultimately
fetching a value deal (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004b). Consumers‟ possession of
digital devices is on rise and they are comfortable using digital information for various
purposes ranging from searching, navigation, comparing, networking, buying and
selling to expressing themselves.
Many studies aimed to establish a link between demographics and digital
communication channels usage (Kierzkowski et al. 1996; Cotte et al. 2006;
Jayawardhena et al. 2007). The studies identified that young educated customers having
different motivations like comfort, shopping, information, finding lowest price and
general exploration made the maximum usage of digital channels. A concrete opinion
could not be made on the basis of available studies regarding the association between
use of digital channels and demographic variables like income, gender occupation and
place of living.
Academicians and marketers are very deeply observing and studying the effects
of digital especially the online marketing communication on consumer behaviour for
last about two decades and there is almost consensus that digital technologies are
influencing the consumer buying decision process across product categories. Digital
marketing is influencing the entire consumer buying decision journey right from need
recognition to post-purchase stage. Consumers are also getting accustomed to the digital
technologies and are making efficient use of it before making a purchase decision.
Consumers solicit information from various digital sources, search online, check the
manufacturer‟s or supplier‟s website, give weightage to others‟ opinions and
recommendations, read the reviews of the other customers, seek the expert advice,
support and advocate their preferred brand over digital platforms and express their
satisfaction or dissatisfaction online.
Indian car marketers are enthusiastically accepting and experimenting with the
dynamic and innovative digital communication strategies and practices. Spend on
digital media by marketers is registering an increase with each passing year (Digital
Strategy Consulting, 2013). In year 2013, 13% of total advertisement‟s budget
was spent through digital media. Display advertising in automobile sector was doubled
in year 2013(Sen, 2013). Automobile sector has been one of the largest producers of
the online conversations and one of the top digital spenders since the year 2009
(Infosys View Point 2011; Google, 2012; Nielsen India, 2012; KPMG Study, 2013).
Digital

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marketing practices by Indian car marketers embrace the deployment of digital

technologies that includes leveraging the power of search engines and continuously
expanding social media and networks, individually targeted marketing and promotion,
lead generation through carefully designed landing page*, micro sites and other
strategies like participatory games, apps and contests. „Volkswagen India‟ has
the maximum followers followed by „Nissan‟ and „Hyundai Motor India‟ on the
most prominent social networking site Facebook followed by micro-blogging site
Twitter (ET Auto, 2015).
There are few industry reports by marketing research firms over the years
(Google, 2012; Infosys View Point 2011, Capgemini, 2013; Accenture Global
Automotive Report, 2015, J.D. Power Report, 2015, Nielsen, 2014a) that state that
buying a car for customers is no longer a „unidirectional‟ process. Today‟s
digital consumers come to know about new products at a faster rate than before, they
continuously „compare and evaluate‟ the brands and make informed decisions. Digital
channels „dominate‟ the purchasing journey of the customers worldwide. During their
purchasing journey, customers increasingly rely on digital channels, e.g., checking
brands‟ websites, reading reviews, visiting social networking sites and community
forums in the consideration phase. Internet has become one of the top information
sources for taking automotive buying decisions. Consumers are increasingly following
the ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline) method in car buying.
The effect of digital marketing communication along with usage intentions on
product categories like books (Chen, 2008), music (Bhattacharjee, Gopal, and Sanders,
2003; Dhar and Cheng, 2009; Molteni and Ordanini, 2003), fashion accessories
(Dauriz, Remy, & Sandri, 2014), clothing (Khare, Parveen and Mishra, 2012; Dahiya,
2012), banking and services (Shih and Fang, 2004; Kesharwani, and Singh, 2012;
Sakkthivel, 2006; Sakkthivel, 2009; Ahmed and Ward, 2016), online gaming (Lee,
2009; Lee and Tsai, 2010), internet and social networking sites usage (Fusilier and
Durlabhji, 2005; Leng, Lada, Muhammad, Ibrahim and Amboala, 2011), green
marketing (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007), online trading (Gopi and Ramayah, 2007),
personal health (Parmar and Keyson, 2008; Paisley and Sparks, 1998), road safety
(Quine, Rutter, and Arnold, 1998), mobile commerce (Mishra, 2015), organic food
(Wee et al. 2014), e-promotion of tourism (Charan, 2012); online shopping
(Thamizhvanan, and Xavier, 2013) etc. has been well researched by the researchers but
automobile industry despite being one of the largest digital spenders has faced dearth of
academic studies especially in India. It remains yet to be seen how the digital
marketing communication about a product like car which lies in extended problem
solving category* affects the consumer buying decision process of Indian car buyers.
Indian researchers have hovered around the features and factors affecting car
purchase decisions especially in offline environment (Sudhahar and Venkatapathy,
2005; Chidambaram and Alfred, 2007; Kaushik and Kaushik, 2008; Banerjee, Walker,
Deakin, and Kanafani, 2010; Gupta, 2013; John and Pragadeeswaran, 2013) and
concluded that price, fuel efficiency, design, family and friends‟ recommendations and
easy financing plans affect the car buying decisions. There are few studies available
conducted in „European‟ and „American‟ countries (Molesworth and Suortti,
2002;
*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

35
 Chapter 1

Naik and Peters, 2009) that understand the impact of online or digital communication
on car buying. The current study identified this gap in the existing body of knowledge
and aimed to fulfill the same by conducting an empirical study. The current study
wishes to explore, do consumers, both existing and potential, act upon the information
available over digital channels while buying a car? Do they pay attention to expert and
other users‟ review? Do they perceive digital channels of communication better than
the traditional channels of communication? Are there any factors that can be utilized by
marketer to effectively market the given product (car) in the market? Does attitude play
an important role towards usage of digital marketing communication while buying a
car? Do consumers face any difficulty while using digital channels of communication?
This thesis explores the impact of digital marketing communication on consumer
buying decision process while buying a car.

The word „impact‟ in the study actually reflected the „effect‟ as in

consumer oriented studies often impact and effect represent the same thing.
Quantitative measures of impact like „recognition‟ and „recall‟ which are normally
used in brand specific studies were not used in the study as it catered to a general
concept of digital marketing communication whose impact/effect was seen on buying
decision making process. Moreover, causality has been inferred on the basis of theory
because of cross sectional nature of the study. Consumer buying decision process was
seen as series of activities ranging from need recognition, search for information,
evaluation of

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alternatives, selection and purchase and post purchase as proposed by EKB Model.
Words „consumer‟ and „customer‟ were used interchangeably in the study.
The tool of the study was structured questionnaire* using 5 points Likert‟s‟
scale banking heavily upon the researched literature. The items in the questionnaire
focused upon the characteristics of digital marketing communication and their impact
on each stage of consumer buying decision process. A „positive‟ impact was said to be
made by digital marketing communication on any stage of buying decision process,
when a
„statistically significant‟ higher than average value was found associated with a stage.
The results of the study would help marketers formulating strategies with enhanced
understanding of desired digital marketing characteristics and preferred digital channel
for each stage of consumer buying decision process along with judging the overall
impact. „Preference‟ was studied on the basis of „usage‟. The most used channel was
termed as most „preferred‟ as well because in technological realms usage results only
when a channel is preferred (Ajzen, 1985; Davis, 1989).
This study made of Theory of Planned Behaviour (Decomposed) model to predict
the usage intentions of digital marketing communication while buying a car, whose
successful results could reveal extremely meaningful insights for the marketers.
Marketers would not only understand the usage intentions and actual usage, but would
also be able to leverage the important factors related to digital marketing communication
which could lead towards the desired behaviour. The results of the study could also be
applied to the understand the consumers‟ intentions to use digital technologies in other
product categories involving technological interventions especially online travel and
tourism, online shopping, online music and games, app marketing, social media
marketing to name a few.
The study was quantitative in nature and regarded an „adult‟ individual in
the family which either owned a car or planned to buy a car in near future (prospect)
as its sampling unit. The study considered many demographic variables namely age,
occupation, income, gender, annual household income and occupation. However,
sample for the study didn‟t consider the respondents without any formal
education. Moreover only adult respondents (above 18 years) were considered for the
study. Adolescent kids (age between 10 years to 17 years) in the family were not
considered in the study.
The study made use of area wise proportionate sampling involving „Delhi‟ as
its sampling area. So, the results of the study could be generalized for metropolitan
cities like „Mumbai‟, „Kolkata‟, „Chennai‟, „Pune‟ and „Bangalore. However,
while generalizing the results of the study for Tier I and Tier II, one must be cautious
enough to apprehend the natural differences existing because of demographical
differences. Moreover, different sampling methodology might yield somewhat different
results. Considering the obvious constraints of time, efforts, sample size and budget
associated with academic studies, it could be possible to have different results for large
scale studies involving large samples.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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 Chapter 1
Chapter 2

CHAPTER 3

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature review chapter has been divided into various sections namely the
consumer behaviour in digital environment, reasons for using digital channels of
communication, impact of digital marketing on consumer buying decision process,
association between demographic profile and use of digital channels of communication,
application of decomposed theory of planned behaviour in understanding usage
intentions of digital marketing communication and impact of digital marketing
communication on consumer behaviour while buying a car. The chapter presents a
systematic and comprehensive review of prominent studies concerning digital
marketing communication and identifies the research gap.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

Consumer behaviour has undergone significant changes in digital environment
(Ricciuti, 1995; Kotler, 2000). There has been an increase and improvement in digital
technologies and channels. Today, consumers are researching, evaluating and buying
everything from clothes, appliances, gadgets, grocery, insurance, to big tickets item like
cars and homes online. This is happening because internet, mobile and social media
educate the customers in the informative, interesting, indulging and participative
manner irrespective of product category (Kierzkowski et al. 1996; Gay et al. 2007;
Wertime and Fenwick, 2011, Hawks, 2015). Most common online activities performed
over internet are communication, internet banking, searching for information,
accessing digital content and uploading self-created content.
Cotte et al. (2006) advocated that unique characteristics of the internet offer
new techniques facilitating fruitful and interesting interaction among the customers,
with the organizations and the wider e-marketplace. For many consumers, internet has
become an indispensible part of their life (Sople, 2011). On an average, an internet user
in India spends nearly 5 hours online every day. The favourite activity over internet for
Indians remains social networking as more than half time of internet user is spent on
social media. Social media users spend 26% more time in social networking over
internet rather than watching TV. Majority of the social media users in the country are
younger than their global counterparts with the average age of 23 years or younger.
People check their mobile phones on an average, every 6.5 minutes and 150 times a
day. 81% of smartphone users never switch off their phone. 72% social media users

36
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log into social networking sites using mobile devices. People research online about a
product before buying it (Kemp, 2015).
Consumers have become more empowered in digital environments. They can
receive and send the digital information as per their requirements. They exercise their
choice in selecting what digital information they want themselves to be exposed to
(Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004a). Consumers are not the passive receivers of the
content like in traditional communication subjected to the hard sell (Lee, 2014).
Marketers are taking consumers‟ permission before sending the marketing information.
Marketers are engaging consumers with the exciting digital content and consumers are
also sharing the digital information with others through social media (Corniani, 2006).

REASONS FOR USING DIGITAL CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

Today, digital has been accepted as frontrunner of marketing communication
around the globe owing to its specific characteristics benefitting consumers and
marketers. Almost all the notable academicians and researchers have unanimously
agreed over the salient features of digital marketing communication which include
being interactive, measurable, customized, informative, relevant, individual, quick,
entertaining, compatible, convenient and cost effective. Researchers have also expressed
their united opinion about the capabilities of digital marketing which include enabling
customer participation in the form of creation and sharing of digital content, initiation
of a dialogue and giving feedback which ultimately empowers the customers whereby
they can choose and demand the content of their choice and can also exercise the
control over the marketing communication (Dahiya, 2013). This section briefly
explains the characteristics of digital marketing communication which make it desired
communication channel of modern era.
(a) Interactive: Interactivity is one of the most prominent reason for which consumers
prefer digital channels of communication over the traditional communication channels.
Deighton (1996) defined interactivity as ability of a medium to produce output as per
user's input/needs. The specific user‟s needs include the content in the form of
graphics, games, animation, text, audio and video (Adikesavan, 2014). He further
asserted that interactivity is possible only when a medium is able to target individual
consumers and respond according to the individual‟s requirements. Kierzkowski et
al. (1996) in their study stressed that digital marketing enables marketers to deliver
real-time, personalized services and content and deals with one consumer at a time.
Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004b) in their study affirmed that interactivity leads to
value creation among consumers as consumers participate in product evaluation and
receive content or services as per their criteria. Bird (2007) asserted that digital
communication enables marketer to consider its prospect as an individual customer
rather than seeing him or her being a constituent of mass market. Smith (2011) also
examined in his study that internet and social networking sites are interactive in nature
that empower the customers by offering them the content of their choice and
facilitating sharing that ultimately helps them in taking informed purchase decisions.
Kaptyukhin et al. (2013) found that interactivity, measurability and precise targeting
are the dominant characteristics of digital marketing. Kaufman and Horton (2014) in
their study reported that new age digital channels have expanded the platforms for
interactivity and augment

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the experience of marketers-customers interactions. Yasmin et al. (2015) in their study

also reported digital marketing communication channels as capable of generating
feedback along with being interactive and measurable. Rekha and Gayatri (2015) in
their study stated that digital marketing communication is interactive in nature which is
perceived as a significant usefulness by the target audience over the traditional
marketing communication.
(b) Measurable: Kierzkowski et al. (1996) in their study described digital marketing
communication as measurable which deals with ability of digital medium to test and
track the important communication parameters like mail views, mails clicked, bounce
rate*, message read, downloads, subscription, video views, posts likes, shares,
conversion rates to name a few. Merisavo et al. (2007) and Ferrar (2010) in their
respective studies purported that result of various digital communication campaigns
could also be measured effectively which are very difficult to measure in traditional
marketing. Hemann and Burbary (2013) in their study detailed that various
measurement tactics like cookies* the special software and analytics can be applied to
various digital channels namely websites, social media and mobile phones. The study
further stated that promotion due to buzz*, word of mouth* and viral communications*
can also be measured effectively. Ryan (2014) in his study also attributed digital media
as measurable whereby every action of a consumer could be tracked and marketer
could compare the results against Key Performance Indicators*. Marketers could also
compare the efficiency of various digital channels in terms of tracking ability and most
appropriate channel might be chosen consequently. Yasmin et al. (2015) in their study
also stated digital media had the capability to track the curser movements of the
consumers. Digital technologies bank upon database technology* which helps
marketers knowing the behavioural patterns of its customers due to its tracking ability
(Egan, 2007). Accenture (2014) in its study reported that about half of consumers
don‟t mind tracking of their activities online if tracking leads to relevant results for
them.
(c) Informative: Wind and Mahajan (2002) in their study elaborated that digital
channels offer unimaginable quantity to information to the customers. Consumers, with
the help of sophisticated search and indexing engines, get an instant access to
unimagined informative resources available over digital channels. They further asserted
in their study that digital channels give ,variety of the information, to the consumers
that involve ,information about products and services of brands, others‟ opinion in the
form of reviews and recommendations, comparative analysis and information about
transaction and payment for goods and services to name a few. The information is
available in different engaging and interactive formats like text, pictures, audio and
videos. Bauer et al. (2005) in their study concerning mobile marketing, one of the
leading digital channels, identified that information and entertainment value are the
central acceptance drivers of mobile marketing. Muller, Damgaard, Litchfield, Lewis
and Hörnle (2011) in their study examined that internet the core component of digital
marketing, provides consumers with much better and instant access to information than
the traditional channel. The study further explained that consumers make use of
supplier and manufacturer websites, comparison websites, discussion forums,
recommendations from other consumers and friends and social media as important
sources of information.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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(d) Relevant: Jones, Malczyk and Beneke (2011) in their study described digital
marketing as relevant whereby the digital channels have the capability to offer the
information as desired by the consumers i.e. to their preferred device, location and
time. Kirkpatrick (2012) affirmed that consumers avoid irrelevant information and
prefer the relevant digital content. The author defined relevance as insights based on
data which help a marketer delivering targeted communication to individual consumer.
The study further claimed that consumers penalize the marketers for offering irrelevant
content as 46% of the consumers unsubscribed from email programs, 41% of
consumers thought about ending a relationship and 22% ended the relationship with the
marketer because of irrelevance in the study. Syme (2015) defined relevance in social
media as delivering information at the right time, right place, to the right consumer
through the right device. He further explained that relevance deals with strength of
relationship whereby marketer truly understands its consumers, their needs, reasons of
buying and value perception of consumers about marketer‟s products and services.
Major search engine Google and social networking giant „Facebook‟ use
special kind of „relevance algorithms‟ and scores to deliver the relevant content to
the consumers.
(e) Customization: Customization which deals with ability to alter as per user‟s
needs, interests and tastes is also one of the important reasons which facilitated the
increased usage of digital channels of communications. Allen (1999) defined
customization as the ability to offer something different other than the standard
offering based on the users‟ request. He further explained that internet has the ability not
only to customize but also to individualize the content as per users‟ requirements. He
explained individualization as an interactive conversation with the users by uniquely
identifying a consumer and offering tailor made content or services. Web content adapts
itself according to the personal profile and offers customers relevant, new, different and
unexpected content. Wilson, Daniel and McDonald (2002) in their study stated that
interactive digital technologies allow targeting specific customers and building fruitful
relations with them. Digital marketing communication offers fragmented attention to the
audience. Rather than aiming at masses, this productive medium interacts with
individual target audience with their preferred channel (Wind and Mahajan, 2002) and
establishes a dialogue rather than a monologue. Negi and Saklani (2003) in their study
concerning online media stated that customization is the chief factor facilitating online
purchase in comparison to traditional purchase. Jones et al. (2011) in their study claimed
that consumers want to be addressed individually rather than being a part of a broader
mass without unique identification of its members. The study further ascertained that
digital technologies have the capability to target the people precisely due to wealth of
information available over digital media (Kaptyukhin, Romanov, Zhidkova and
Danchenok, 2013; Morrison, 2015)
(f) Compatibility: Compatibility refers to the ability of digital communication to deal
and interact with the varied capabilities of different digital devices, browsers,
operating systems and text formats through which consumers access the digital
content (Ryan and Jones, 2012). Contemporary digital channels have the capabilities
to provide easy and quick access to digital content without altering the latter‟s
configuration (Wigmore, 2013). Compatibility plays an important role in adoption of
new age technologies. Generally, consumers prefer the technologies requiring the least
changes in the existing behavioural patterns. Now, consumers access digital marketing

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information from number of digital devices namely the laptops, desktops,

smartphones and digital TV. So, it becomes necessary to provide a seamless
experience to the consumers across all the screens leaving behind the barriers of
compatibility issues with different browsers, coding language, screen size, operating
systems and formats. Digital marketers design the digital content in number of layouts
which provide the responsive capability to the digital content as per users‟ screen.
Marketers also use the programming queries in the digital content which produces the
output as per users‟ device capabilities like screen size, browser, resolution properties
and orientation etc. Cross device compatibility is also ensured by the marketers to
make the digital content available across variety of digital devices (Loving, 2013).
Marketers are designing the specific websites for most used digital devices of today
namely smartphones, tablets and mobile phones, known as mobile optimized sites,
which facilitate easy navigation and quick loading of pictures and videos. Mobile
optimized sites also reap the benefits of mobile functionality like tap to call, message
and e-mail. Consumers consider compatibility of digital content so important that
around 60% of customers might leave the website if latter is not compatible with their
digital devices as per a study conducted by Google (McAuliffe, 2012). Studies
conducted by Kink and Hess (2008), Delafrooz et al. (2009) and Muller et al. (2011)
also ascribed digital marketing communication as compatible which also accounted
for its increased usage.
(g) Convenient: Digital media are considered convenient to use both for marketers and
consumers. Convenience in digital media is refers to ease of use, 24*7 availability,
compatibility of digital information with digital devices, saving time and money and
finding one stop solution for information, comparisons, sharing, recommendations and
purchase (Becherer and Halstead, 2004). Consumers are increasingly making use of
digital technologies as they don‟t find digital technologies too complex to use.
Moreover, emergence of digital devices is also making the access of digital content
possible leaving behind the barriers of time and place. Consumers could access the
digital content at their preferred time, place and device. It is very easy for consumers to
save, share, recommend and respond to the digital content (Swaminathan, White and
Rao, 2005). Egan (2007) in his study discussed that digital technologies have eased the
feedback process whereby a consumer could communicate with a marketer by various
means like websites, SMS, emails, free posting and others. Muller et al. (2011) in their
study described the convenience of digital media in terms of easy information
accessibility whereby it was stated that consumers make efficient use of various digital
channels to fetch the required information quickly and easily. Nguyen (2014) attributed
online technology easy to use whereby consumers feel at ease while interacting with new
technology.
(h) Cost effective: Digital marketing communication is considered less costly as
compared to traditional marketing (Kierzkowski et al. 1996; Verma and Varma, 2003).
Ferrar (2010) in his study attributed cost effectiveness of digital media as the most
important driver that replaced expensive and less measurable traditional media. Charan
and Jaiswal (2012) in their study concerning mobile banking stated that internet has
emerged as the cheapest medium of communication. Saluja and Singh (2014) in their
study concerning social media accepted that social media is very cost effective in
comparison to its traditional counterpart which is also contributing in its huge and
varied usage by the marketers. Muller et al. (2011) in their study stressed that

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consumers consider digital technologies cost effective which ultimately leads to online
purchase. Klososky (2012) in his study concerning social networking sites examined
that digital technologies create the conversation and build on-going relationship with
customers at comparatively inexpensive cost. The inbound nature* of digital channels
is helping marketers reducing the cost of contacting the customers and generating more
leads than the traditional marketing having outbound nature*. „Hubspot‟ in its
annual study on inbound marketing proclaimed that traditional channels of
communication are getting less effective as 45% people never open the direct mail,
85% people fast forward through TV commercials, 84% people don‟t stay on the
website with excessive advertising and 91% people have unsubscribed from e-mails.
Hubspot‟s study further stated that digital marketing having inbound focus generates
54% more leads than the traditional marketing and costs 61% less than traditional
outbound marketing (Hubspot, 2013).

IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATION ON

CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS
Digital marketing communication has exerted one of the strongest influences
over the consumer buying decision process (Gay et al. 2007). Consumer buying
decision process can be understood with the help of five stages decision making steps
including need recognition, search for information, evaluation of alternatives, selection
and purchase and post purchase behaviour (Kollat et al. 1970). Digital marketing
communication which offers relevant, personalized, interactive and huge quantity of
information affects all the stages of consumer decision making process right from need
recognition to post purchase behaviour. The section explains the impact of digital
marketing communication on each stage of consumer buying decision process.

Need Recognition
Jayawardhena et al. (2003) suggested that stimuli that trigger need recognition
might come from a number of diverse sources that could initially be either online or
offline; especially as many organizations use both channels for communication. Online
marketers might influence the buying decision process of online consumers by using
traditional marketing in combination with adequate online experience or web
experience (Constantinides, 2004). Digital channels have the capability to make
customers realize the difference between desired and actual stage. Geissler (2002)
believed that a website should prompt a customer‟s interest in online store and capture
the relevant customer‟s information to develop the interest or on-going relationship.
Maklan et al. (2001) proclaimed that role of internet may be more on some
stage of consumer buying decision process than the others. The study further stated that
internet might or might not affect the need recognition stage of the consumer decision
making process. Marketers should try to prompt need recognition stage of the
consumers by either contacting them directly or by banner advertising. The study
however acknowledged that customers might turn a blind eye to these promotional

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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tactics as they do in offline promotion. In case of already existing need, the internet
was found affecting the search stage of consumer decision making process the most in
travel and automotive industry. Internet saves time in searching and provides unbiased
vast information. Hausman (2014) in the study concerning impact of social media on
consumer decision making process stated that social media shape the needs in the
recognition stage and even set a kind of norms for the people in the group over social
media. Gross (2014) in his study found that the influence of social media differs
according to the various stages of the consumers buying decision process. The study
further detailed that impact of social media diminishes as the consumer progresses
through the stages of buying decision process, thereby mostly affecting the initial
stages of consumer buying decision process.

Search for Information

Shim, Eastlick, Lotz and Warrington (2001) describe information search as a
process by which consumers gather information from various sources about the goods
and services before a purchase is made. It has been acknowledged that digital
marketing communication sheds its maximum impact on search for information stage
of consumer buying decision process across product categories like clothing, fashion,
kitchen appliance, laptops, desktops, mobile phones, tablets, TV, air tickets, games and
cars (BCG Study, 2013). Consumers prefer web as an information source for being
easy, quick and cheap (Bakos, 1997; Shapiro and Varian, 1999; Gay et al. 2007, Kink
and Hess, 2008). Customers might use various digital channels initially for inspiration
and then later on for information (BenMark and Masri, 2015).
Consumer electronics were the most searched product category searched by
35% of the consumers over internet followed by apparels and accessories searched by
30% of the customers. Books, beauty and personal care, home and furnishing,
healthcare and baby products were also among the most searched product categories
over internet as per a report of Google India (Google India, 2013a). Another study
conducted by Google India (2013b) concerning female users reported that female users
in India actively search for categories like apparels, food, baby care and skin care.
Majority of the consumers are making use of online channels for getting
information and researching about products before making a purchase decision (PWC
Study, 2012). GE Capital (2013) reported that 81% of consumers made online research
before purchasing. Study conducted by Nielsen Global Smartphone Insights (2013)
reported that 40% of consumers banked upon digital channels of communication for
getting information about products. Morrison (2014) reported 81%, Srivastava,
Srivastava and Pai (2014) reported 85% and Mitra (2015) reported 76% of consumers
resorting to digital information sources before purchasing.
Use of digital channels of communication as information source is not limited
to metropolitan cities as consumers from Tier I and Tier II cities are also researching
about products and services over digital channels before making purchase. A study
conducted by „Nielsen‟ in twelve Tier I and Tier II Indian cities concerning multi-
brand retailers reported that 40% of the consumers researched online before making an
offline purchase decision. 69% of the consumers made the decision about model and

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brand before entering the retail store (Nielsen, 2013). Another study by Mohapatra
(2012) also stated that 83% of the online searches related to purchase were from the
Tier II cities involving „Kochi‟, „Kanpur‟, „Bhubneswar‟ and „Vadodara‟ whereas 53%
consumers from Tier I cities made the purchase related online searches. The study
further elaborated that 90% of the consumers looked for prices, 55% looked for photos
and 20% looked for product reviews over online platforms. Higher research intensity
was observed for highly priced products.
Kink and Hess (2008) in their study accepted that consumers prefer search
engines more than the traditional source of information. Study conducted by
Fleishman- Hillard (2012) also agreed with the findings of Kink and Hess (2008) and
stated that 89% of people used search engines as major source of information followed
by
„Facebook‟ which was used by 62% of people. The study further purported that 79%
consumers followed brands over social networks online.
Jonathan (2012) stated that social media affects all the stages of consumer
buying decision process but it greatly affects the information search and post purchase
stage. Funde and Mehta (2014) stated that social media was used by 65% of consumers
for fulfilling their informational needs mainly because of perceived convenience,
effectiveness and perceived credibility. Customers participate over social media by
adding comments and reviews to the blogs, news, photos and videos. They also
actively participate in discussions over online forums and vote for their favourite
brands. Consumers‟ attitude is also found significantly affected by the social media
(Muthiah and Kannan, 2015). Nielsen study (2014b) concluded that content available
over social media fulfills 54% of consumer‟ information needs necessary for making a
purchase decision. Consumers value the third party content, expert reviews and non-
branded content more than the marketer‟s content during buying decision process.
Ioanăs and Stoica (2014) asserted that majority customers seek information
from manufacturer‟s website, search engines, discussion forums and
comparison websites etc. Search engines along with online forums and social
networking sites are the most used by the customers. Contemporary digital
communication channels like smartphones, digital TV, digital outdoors etc. are
emerging as the primary information sources for majority of the customers before
making a purchase decision (Dahiya, 2013).
Charan (2014) while assessing the impact of digital marketing on consumer
behaviour emphasized that consumers make use of various digital channels of
communication in their purchase decision journey. They consider digital channels as
important sources of information which also facilitate the purchase. Moore and Benbasat
(1991) and Tanakinjal, Deans and Gray (2010) attributed mobile phones as a
contemporary communication channel providing instant connectivity irrespective of
location, specific and relevant information through calls, SMS, MMS, alerts,
notifications, apps, value added services and high speed data services to mobile users
(Pandey and Shukla, 2010). People are found using mobile devices for activities like
shopping, browsing products, comparing price, reading product reviews, getting in-store
price comparison, receiving online coupons and purchasing products (Yang and Kim,
2012). A study conducted by xAd Research (2015) unveiled that mobile phones have
overtaken laptops as the preferred digital choice for searching information as 50%

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consumers found mobile as the most important device for research. Consumers use their
mobile phones for researching about products and visit the store well-prepared for
purchasing the products. The study further proclaimed that smartphones were used more
at home as compared to on the move as 64% consumers were using their smartphones at
home and 36% were using on the move.
YouTube as a communication channel excels over traditional communication
channel. „User Generated Content‟ greatly shapes and affects the brand attitudes
(Reino and Hay, 2011). Google study (2013b) reported that 40% of female users in
India considered YouTube as the most important information source. Another study
conducted by „Pixability‟ Study (2014) revealed the consumers view YouTube
before making a purchase decision and also get influenced by the videos available on
YouTube. The study further stated that primary activities conducted by consumers over
YouTube include researching, discovering new products and watching others‟
reviews. The videos that a consumer considers for decision making not only include
the branded videos from marketer‟s side but also the videos uploaded by other
consumers and experts.
Study conducted by Akrerkar (2010) concerning interactive digital television,
one of the contemporary and emerging digital channels in India asserted that consumers
use digital TV not only for watching standard programs but also use it for playing
games, making telephone calls along with surfing about products and services.
Consumers also use new age digital television for online shopping, e-banking and e-
learning.

Evaluation of Alternatives
Evaluation over digital platform deals with bringing together and analyse the
information gathered in the search stage. Online technology helps completing this task
as majority of websites allow consumers to save and compare the searches made by the
consumers (Charan, 2014). Consumers read the blogs and reviews and hold online
discussions about products and services they are considering buying. They also scan
YouTube videos and participate in discussion forums, and tweets. They trust their peers
for referrals and warnings (Giamanco and Gregoire, 2012). Consumers are increasingly
relying on other consumers' reviews to make purchase decisions online (Ludwig et al.
2013). 69% consumers read product reviews before making any purchase. On average,
a consumer visits three online stores before making a purchase (Sharma and Rehman,
2012; Fleishman-Hillard, 2012; Morrison, 2014). Social media sites like
„Facebook‟ and „Twitter‟ along with other review sites are used as platforms to share
positive and negative reviews by the consumers (Charan, 2011).
Both positive and negative reviews affect the purchase decisions, as in a study
conducted by Dimensional Research (2013), 90% of consumers accepted that they were
affected by positive reviews whereas 86% of consumers were affected by negative
reviews. Positive reviews prompted buying whereas negative reviews discouraged
users from buying. Reviews from friends have a greater impact than the other users
(Funde

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and Mehta, 2014). Mir and Rehman (2013) asserted that consumer have faith in UGC*
(user generated content) because of its impartial nature. Consumer activities over social
media including comments, ratings, favourites and subscriptions, are believed to have
both the positive and negative details without any vested commercial interest
(Jonathan, 2012). Hinckley (2015) in its study conducted with 1,000 consumers through
„Google Consumer Surveys‟ revealed that online reviews affected the major purchase
decisions like appliances, smartphones and cars of 67% of consumers. The study also
reported that 70% of the customers didn‟t go ahead with the purchase of the brand with
many negative reviews.
Sople (2011) also agreed with the fact and asserts that social influence is a
powerful contributing factor to purchase decision in market space. Individual customers
rely on a kind of collective wisdom and give more weightage to consensus
recommendations rather than the experts‟ advice and manufacturer‟s claim. The author
also appreciated the fact that modern technology is supporting the emergence of online
brand ambassadors who share their brand experiences with their friends in the social
networks and help spreading the word (like / dislike) about the brand they were using
or had already used. Web community has a big impact on the behaviour of consumers.
It is similar to reference group‟s influence on consumers. Online reviews are similar to
word of mouth in influencing purchase decisions. Moreover, consumers who influence
others are also getting influenced by others consumers (Sridhar and Srinivasan, 2012).
Friends in the networking groups also give unsolicited recommendations by sharing
pictures, liking pictures and videos and updating the status. Consumers over social
media evaluate more emotionally rather than rationally (Hausman, 2014).
Ioanăs and Stoica (2014) in their study explained that consumers over digital
platforms face the problem of information overload. Consumers use various filter rules
to sort out the most relevant information and avoiding the information overload. These
rules include decision of not accessing the complete information available over digital
channels, banking upon the well-known brands and acting on the recommendations of
peers and friends. A study conducted by GE Capital Study (2013) divulged that
consumers comprehensively conduct online research especially in comparing prices
and finances. The study further detailed that consumers access online information even
in store with their mobile phones to find the best value deal.
Hennig, Gwinner, Walsh and Gremler (2004) and Lerrthaitrakul and
Panjakajornsak (2014) stated that e-word of mouth is created on digital platforms when
consumers share reviews, opinions, recommendations, news and experiences with other
consumers which help other consumers in making an informed decision. Heriyati and
Siek (2011) and William and Buttle (2011) and in their studies accepted that e-word of
mouth positively affects the consumer decision making process especially for teen-
agers and new age customers and negative reviews affect the decision making process
more strongly in a negative manner than the positive reviews affect the decision
making in a positive manner.

*
See Glossary given in the end for details.

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Hooda and Aggarwal (2012) in their study found that consumers prefer online
sources of information because they believe they are better informed about product
characteristics and have the opportunity to fetch best value deals over online platforms.
Another study conducted by Ioanăs and Stoica (2014) revealed that consumers trust
recommendations and reviews more than the marketer‟s claims made through their
websites and advertisements. Consumers in digital environment have become
prosumers which means both the consumers and producers of online content. Halzack
(2015) in his study found that web has made information search and comparison easier
than ever which has reduced impulse buying decisions and increased potential for
taking informed decisions. Edelman and Singer (2015) stated that customers use
technology in evaluating products and services more actively by adding and removing
products over time and giving feedback about products thereby pressurizing brands to
deliver greater experience regularly.

Selection and Purchase

Purchase in online environment could entail various activities like making a
purchase decision online, a donation to a charitable cause, subscribing to a newsletter,
joining an online community, downloading a pdf map for directions and many other
numerous actions (Gay et al. 2007). Consumers are making use of digital channels in
purchase decisions (GE Capital, 2013). The study conducted by Negi and Saklani
(2003) that aimed to analyse the most bought product categories online revealed that
gift items, garments, home appliances and food items were the most bought online
items. Another study conducted by Hooda and Aggarwal, (2012) claimed that most of
the customers were engaged in buying e-tickets, e-billing, e-banking and online
shopping over e-marketing channels.
Google India‟s study (2013a) revealed that about 8 million people
shopped online in India in the year 2012 and apparel and accessories were the most
online shopped product categories. 84% of customers purchased apparel and accessories
which were followed by electronics shopped by 71% of customers. 64% of the
customers bought beauty and personal care online whereas 62% of customers bought
books. Household products were purchased by 61% of customers. Frequency of
purchase was found highest for the apparel product category. Cash on delivery was
found the most preferred payment option opted by 74% of internet users, followed by
debit card opted by 18% and credit card opted by 5% of internet users. Factors like
cash on delivery mode of payment, quick delivery, availability of branded items and
exciting offers were cited as the major motivators facilitating online shopping. Ioanăs
and Stoica (2014) in their study found the consonance with the previous studies and
revealed that in online shopping, customers purchase electronic products, clothing,
appliances, cosmetics and shoes more than any other product category.
Big ticket items like homes are also getting affected by online searches as 53%
of real estate search queries over internet in India are with the purchase intentions.
„Tata Housing‟ was able to sell about 50 homes online in „Google India Online
Shopping Festival‟ (Ramakrishnan, 2014). Study conducted by Forrester Research in
association with Google India (2014) covering 50 Indian cities estimated that India
would have more than 100 million online shoppers by the end of the year 2016. The
study further

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revealed that 50 million new online buyers would be from Tier I and Tier II cities and
71% non-buyers plan to buy from online sources in near future.
Jarvenpaa, Tractinsky and Vitale (2000) concluded that trust in an internet store
is a salient determinant of online shopping. George (2002) considered privacy,
trustworthiness and experience as key issues while making an online purchase.
According to some others, websites characteristics, individual perception and consumer
psycho-demographic characteristics, characteristics of the seller and social context
affect online consumer buying behaviour (Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000; Moon and
Kim 2001; Torkzadeh and Dhillon, 2002). Hedonic motivations that include navigation
and convenience are the main motivators for people using internet marketing (Childers,
Christopher, Peck and Carson, 2001). However, Park and Kim (2003) stated that
information quality, user interface quality, and security perceptions are the factors that
are significantly related to each consumer‟s site commitment and actual
purchase behaviour. Negi and Saklani (2003) cited customization and online availability
of exclusive and wide variety and of products as major reasons facilitating online
purchase. Chi (2011) said personalization and meeting new people are the major
motivations for active digital participation of customers. BCG in its study revealed that
37% of Indian consumers cited convenience of shopping from home as the major driver
for online shopping. 30% customers attributed discounts and 29% customers credited
wide variety of products as the major motivators for online buying (BCG Study, 2013).
Delafrooz, Paim, Haron, Sidin and Khatibi (2009) and Khalil (2014) in their studies
concerning factors affecting online shopping claimed that online shopping is much
easier than physical shopping and consumers could avoid long queues over digital
media. Moreover, product finding is also easy over digital media as typing keyword
over digital channels would directly lend to the desired product‟s page featuring all the
vital details.
Many studies also tried to investigate the reasons for not using digital channels
of communication while buying. Maklan et al. (2001) in their study accepted that
online communication channels suffer from lack of human touch and instant
gratifications. Google India (2013a) highlighted barriers to online shopping which
included fraudulent practices, sub-standard products, inability to bargain, touch and try
the product before purchase, and sharing of personal and financial details. Study
conducted by eMarketer, (2015d), also cited non-authentic and technical nature of
digital communication inhibiting the use of digital communication while buying.
Forrester and Google India study (2014) cited poor internet speed, dissatisfactory
customer service and complex return process as major deterrents towards e-shopping.
Ioanas and Stoica (2014) in their study also attributed information overload over digital
channels as major barrier that leads to confusion in the consumers‟ mind. The study
further stated that consumers might stop searching all the information available because
of increasing search cost and confusion and may apply traditional rule of thumb to
arrive at a decision. Study conducted by Charan (2014) cited misleading, offensive and
malicious information as primary factor discouraging the use of digital communication.
Singh (2014) in his study attributed security and safety of the information as the prime
concern of the customers using mobile banking.

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Post-Purchase
Post-purchase evaluation over digital platforms starts as soon as transaction gets
completed. Consumers start expecting to receive an e-mail/ SMS regarding the
conformation of the order. Many things like speedy conformation of the order, timely
delivery and quality of delivered product determine the customer satisfaction (Gay et
al. 2007). Chiu, Chang, Cheng and Fang (2009) focused on online repurchase and
contended that consumer trust and consumer satisfaction are the key antecedents of
continued purchase. Jayawardhena, Wright and Masterson (2003) contended that
emergence of virtual communities motivate customers to post and share the post
purchase behaviour.
75% females in a study conducted by Google India (2013b) accepted that they
forwarded their purchased brands to other females and 25% shared them online. Another
study conducted by Hausman (2014) revealed that consumers are engaged in post
purchase activities over social media platforms which include sharing the experience
after product‟s purchase, making recommendations to others based upon own
satisfactory experiences and disparaging or denouncing the brands in case of negative
or dissatisfactory experience after purchase. The similar findings were reported by
Charan (2014) while assessing the impact of digital marketing on consumer behavior.
The study conducted by Barhemmati and Ahmad (2015) which aimed to analyze
consumers‟ insights using social networking sites claimed that consumers view the posts
of the company and give their feedback about the products and services of the company
and co- create the value. Another study conducted by Mangold and Faulds (2009) also
acknowledged the impact of social media on consumer buying decision process and
revealed that post purchase behaviour over social media is reflected in the form of
satisfactory or dissatisfactory comments, statements or opinions.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Many studies aimed to establish a link between demographics and digital
communication channels usage. Kierzkowski et al. (1996) in their study asserted that
there is a new breed of digital consumers. These users are the people who tend to be
young, well-educated, and richer than average. Cotte et al. (2006) identified four groups
of online consumers, with different intentions and motivations namely the exploration,
entertaining, shopping and information. Jayawardhena, Wright and Dennis (2007) also
organized online consumers in four groups namely the price sensitive, rational
consumers, brand loyal buyers and comfort-oriented buyers. Study conducted by Google
India stated that 75% of females, who buy online in India, are in the 15-35 years age
group. The study also revealed that females who research online belong to high income
group category (Google Study, 2013b). BCG study in India revealed that 50% of Indian
online buyers are in the 18-24 years age group (BCG Study, 2013). Joshi and Upadhyay
(2014) in their study involving 1327 online shoppers from metropolitan, Tier 1 and Tier
II cities demonstrated that male customers dominate the online buying in India and young
customers belonging to 25-30 years age group are the most likely to purchase online. The
study further stated that 42% of consumers belong to middle and high income group
working in private service shop online.
Another study conducted by Ioanas and Stoica (2014) proclaimed that most of
online buyers are young. People belonging to low income groups are more likely to
search for information over online platforms before making a buying decision.
Females make more online searches than males and are leading in online purchases.
However, study conducted by Negi et al. (2002) didn‟t find any significant association

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between usage of online media and age, education and income. Another study
conducted by Hooda and Aggarwal (2012) also failed to detect any relationship
between gender and e-marketing usage. The study also revealed that people in high
income group are more aligned towards e-marketing because of lack of time. The
study was successful in establishing a significant relationship between income, age,
occupation and e-marketing usage. Charan and Dahiya (2015) in their study related to
digital marketing tried to establish a connection between important demographic
variables namely age, income, occupation, gender and education with the usage of
digital channels of communication. The study concluded that age, gender and
occupation had no association with digital channels of communication usage. However,
the study successfully established that post graduate consumers belonging to high
income group used YouTube and smartphones as information sources.

UNDERSTANDING THE USAGE INTENTIONS OF DIGITAL

COMMUNICATION: THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR
(DECOMPOSED)
Assessing the impact of technology on consumer behaviour has always been a
complex task involving integrated set of factors related to culture, sub-culture, personal
and psychological aspect (Hawkins, Best, Coney and Mookerjee, 2008). Researchers
assert that technology usage has been found significantly affecting from attitude
(Chandra, Goswami and Chouhan, 2012; Chiu, Hsu, Sun, Lin, and Sun, 2005; Chu and
Lu, 2007), recommendations from friends (Chang and Chin, 2010; Thakur and
Srivastava, 2013), relatives and family (Dahiya, 2014), skills, capability and resources
(Giantari, Zain, Rahayu and Solimun, 2013; Wee et al. 2014). Study conducted by
Chandra et al. (2012) revealed that customers have positive attitude towards social
media as they believe social media help them taking a right purchase decision. They
also consider social media trustworthy and unbiased information source. The study also
revealed that positive customers‟ attitude towards social media supports purchase
decisions. Chiu et al. (2005) in their study concerning online purchase intentions
revealed that perceived ease of use directly affected attitude which in turn affected the
purchase intentions. Chu and Lu (2007) in their study concerning online music adoption
stated that perceived usefulness had an impact on attitude which ultimately affected the
purchase intentions. Dahiya (2014) in her study revealed that recommendations and
opinion of family, friends and relative of the consumer affected the technology usage in
purchase journey. A study conducted by Takhire and Joorshari (2015) reported that
electronic word-of-mouth and purchase intentions had positive relationship with
customer decision making process in online shopping, whereas perceived risks had
negative relationship with trust and purchase intentions. The study highlighted that
consumers trust the electronic word of mouth and thereby reduce the risk associated
with online buying. Consumers also tend to share negative word of mouth after post
purchase dissonance. The study also postulated that purchase intentions were positively
related to actual purchase. Li and Zhang (2002) carried out an extensive and systematic
review of consumer behaviour and stressed that attitude, intentions and purchase
behaviour were the most used dependent variables while assessing the impact of online
technology on consumer decision making, whereas personal characteristics, product and
service characteristics and website‟s quality were the most used independent variables.
Intentions to use digital marketing communication have been well researched by the
researchers across product categories like books, music fashion accessories, clothing,
banking, online gaming, internet and social networking sites usage, green marketing,
online trading, personal health, road safety and mobile banking etc; thereby revealing
useful consumers‟ insights. However, such comprehensive researches have not
been

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observed in extended problem solving product category like car, especially in Indian
context.
Technology is of little or no use unless it is accepted and used by the intended
group of customers (Oye, Iahad and Ab.Rahim, 2012). With the rapid proliferation of
new age technologies with which marketers are striving hard to reach and influence
their target customers and spending huge sums of money in due course; the issue of
technology adoption become more important than ever (Chau and Hu, 2001). There
remains a strong need to study the individual user acceptance of technology not only to
justify the increased marketing spend towards these cotemporary technological
platforms by the marketers; but also for the potential of such technologies in bringing
paradigm shift in customer acquisition, retention and management (Sharma and Mishra,
2015). Impact of digital marketing communication which is a technology driven
process can be successfully analyzed by using adoption based theories and models like
Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of
Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Decomposed Theory of Planned Behaviour (DTPB)
providing meaningful insights about consumer behaviour (Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw,
1989; Davis, 1989; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975; Ajzen, 1991; Liao and Cheung, 2001).
These technology adoption theories and models apprise researchers about the set of
explanatory variables accounting for the known properties of the phenomenon under
study, thereby enabling researchers to predict the particular occurrence
(Samaradiwakara and Gunawardena, 2014). Also, these models facilitate the
explanation and prediction of a phenomenon by providing a theoretical illustration of
real world (Burch 2003).
„Theory of Reasoned Action‟ proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1975) states
that intentions are the precursor to the actual behaviour. Intentions to behave in a
particular way are formed on the basis of attitudinal beliefs and subjective norms. TRA
suffered from the drawback of assuming the behaviour of the person to be volitional
only which otherwise could also be subjected to resource constraints (Ajzen, 1991).
„Technology Acceptance Model‟ proposed by Davis in 1989 was also known to
predict the purchase intentions. TAM was developed on the basis of the much studied
Theory of Reasoned Action by Fishbein and Ajzen (Davis, 1989). TAM proposes that
the beliefs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are fundamental in
forming an attitude towards an information system, which in turn forms behavioural
intention, following by actual system use (Davis et al. 1989). Davis defines perceived
usefulness as the belief of users that technology usage would improve the performance.
Perceived ease of use deals with beliefs of the users that system would be effortless to
operate. Lee, Kozar and Larsen (2003), Karahanna, Straub and Chervany (1999) and
Agarwal and Prasad (1998) modified TAM by adding variables like experience, self-
efficacy, perceived risk and social influence, cognitive absorption, playfulness and
compatibility which enhanced the predicting ability of TAM. TAM also failed to
explain situations where behavioural intentions were deeply influenced by social
context and consumer co-creation of value (Baron, Patterson and Harris, 2006).
The limitation of TRA and TAM were resolved by „Theory of Planned
Behaviour‟ (Ajzen, 1991) which stated that behaviour of an individual could be better
explained considering the rational constraints. Theory of Planned Behavior is used when
behavior is planned. It attributes that human behaviour is guided by three types of
contemplations which are behavioural, normative and control beliefs. Behavioural beliefs
deal with consequences of the behavior and their outcome evaluation determine the
attitude of the person. Attitude in technology mediated communication is referred to
consumers‟ feelings of favourableness and unfavourableness towards usage
of online/digital communication. Normative beliefs deal with the perception of other
persons

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in the users‟ circle of influence about the desired behavior. The normative beliefs
along with motivation to comply form the subjective norms as per Theory of Planned
Behaviour. Subjective norms refer to perceptions of consumers towards their referent
groups including important people like friends, family and peers. Control beliefs deal
with the perception regarding the presence or absence of the factors which might inhibit
or facilitate the performance. These beliefs in aggregation form the perceived behavioral
control, the third construct of TPB. Perceived behavioural control consists of
consumers‟ perception about necessary skills, ability, knowledge and resources to use the
technology. All three constructs namely attitude, subjective norms and perceived
behavioural control form the usage intentions. Intention refers to the person's readiness to
perform a particular behavior, and is considered precursor to the actual behavior. TPB
further postulates that actual usage is determined by usage intentions and perceived
behavioural control.
TPB had stronger prediction ability than TRA and was widely used in
information technology related studies (Ajzen, 1985; Mathieson, 1991; Taylor and
Todd, 1995b; Harrison, Mykytyn and Riemenschneider, 1997). TPB also was not able
to explain how people planned their behaviour and the way planning mechanism was
related to planned behaviour. Researchers like Rogers (1983); Bandura, Freeman and
Lightsey (1999); Chau and Hu (2001) and Gillenson & Sherrell (2002) asserted that it
was not sufficient to study all the relevant beliefs in one single unit and
„decomposed‟ the belief structures of TPB.
Taylor and Todd (1995a) further deconstructed TPB‟s three individual
constructs namely attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control and
named it as decomposed TPB. Attitude was decomposed into three factors piggy riding
the „Theory of Diffusion‟ namely perceived usefulness (relative advantage),
perceived ease of use (lack of complexity) and compatibility. Perceived usefulness
deals with the relative advantages and benefits of the new technology over its precursor.
Perceived ease of use deals with effortless usage of new technology and compatibility
dealt with fitting of new technology in the existing value system and needs of the users.
Subjective norms were decomposed into friends, family and relatives. Subjective norms
considered both interpersonal and external influences affecting technology usage.
Perceived behavioural control was deconstructed into self-efficacy, resource facilitating
conditions and technology facilitating conditions. Self-efficacy is defined as judgment of
the individual about his/her capabilities to perform the desired behaviour. Resource
facilitating conditions deal with availability of the resources like time, money, internet
and devices in order to use the technology. Technology facilitating conditions involve the
beliefs about authenticity, trustworthiness and compatibility of the technology with other
digital devices.
Decomposed TPB works well over the drawbacks of other prevalent models
like TRA, TAM and TPB. Unlike TRA, decomposed TPB handles the situation really
well when behaviour of the person is not 100% volitional and under some constraints.
Decomposed TPB excels over TAM in situations where behavioural intentions are
deeply influenced by social context and consumer‟s co-creation of value (Baron,
Patterson and Harris, 2006).
Jaruwachirathanakul and Fink (2005) and Shih and Fang (2004) successfully
established the use of DTPB in predicting the internet banking usage intentions. Hsu
and Chiu (2004) found DTPB explaining significant variation in IT continuation usage
intentions. Hsieh, Rai, and Keil (2008) while studying digital inequality validated the
successful use of DTPB in predicting usage intentions. Smarkola (2008) applied DTPB
in understanding the intentions to use computer application in curricula and posited that
DTPB successfully explained the usage intentions. Hung, Ku, and Chien (2012) saw an

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effective use of DTPB model in explaining the usage intentions towards evidence
based medicine. Dos Santos and Okazaki (2013) illustrated the successful use of DTPB
in predicting usage intentions towards e-learning. Sahli and Legohérel (2014) in their
study concerning online tourism products also confirmed the explanatory power of
decomposed TPB.
Many researchers compared the contemporary models and found DTPB
explaining more variation in usage intentions in comparison to other models. Taylor
and Todd (1995b) also conducted a study to compare TAM, TPB and decomposed TPB
keeping the common constructs and concluded that decomposed TPB had better
explanatory power than the TAM and TPB. Legris, Ingham, and Collerette (2003) used
TAM and TAM2 to predict the usage intentions towards an innovative technology and
asserted that explanatory powers of both versions of TAM can be significantly
improved if social beliefs and capability beliefs can be added to TAM. Hung and
Chang (2005) compared TAM, TPB and DTPB in assessing Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) usage intentions and revealed that DTPB explained more variation
than pure TPB and TAM. Lin (2007) also compared TAM, TPB and decomposed TPB
for predicting usage intentions and claimed that decomposed TPB excelled over TAM
and TPB. TAM explained 41% variation in usage intentions and 31% in actual usage.
TPB explained 46 % variation in behavioural intentions and 30% variation in actual
usage. Decomposed TPB explained 57 % variation in behavioural/usage intentions and
33 % variation in actual usage. Decomposed TPB explained actual usage slightly better
than TAM and TPB. Behavioural intentions were best explained by Decomposed TPB.
Attitude, the important construct for all the models explaining behavioural intentions
was best explained by decomposed TPB which explained 63 % variation in attitude.
The study concluded that although decomposed TPB was complex than TPB and TAM,
but the model was more effective in predicting usage intentions and provided
meaningful insights towards understanding usage intentions.
Rouibah and Ould-Ali (2007) while testing the six competitive models in
predicting the intentions to use SMS banking proclaimed that DTPB had the largest
explanation for usage intentions. Huh, Kim and Law (2009) compared TAM, TPB and
DTPB for predicting the usage intentions towards hotel information system and asserted
that DTPB best explained the usage intentions. Smarkola (2011) in the study concerning
computer‟ usage intentions in class room compared TAM and DTPB and asserted
that DTPB explained users‟ intentions better than TAM. Hou (2013 and 2014) while
assessing the users‟ acceptance of business intelligence used TAM, TPB and DTPB
and postulated that DTPB explained maximum variation in usage intentions. Further the
author stated that DTPB provide more detailed explanation for subjective norms and
perceived behavioural control. Brown, Venkatesh and Hoehle (2015) compared seven
contemporary models explaining technology usage and conjectured that DTPB along
with TPB and Model of Adoption of Technology in Households (MATH) excelled in
explaining usage intentions over other models.
As the present study intended to know the factors if any, that can be leveraged
by the marketers to effectively market the given product, Decomposed Theory of
Planned Behaviour was used in the study (Fig. 2.1). The model also understands the
consumers‟ intentions to use digital marketing communication while buying a car.

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(Source: Adapted from Taylor and Todd, 1995)

Figure 2.1: Decomposed TPB Model

IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING COMMUNICATION ON

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN INDIAN PASSENGER CAR MARKET

Indian passenger car marketers have been one of the top digital media spenders
for about more than half a decade (Mehra, 2012). Digital marketing communication is
affecting both the Indian car buyers and marketers (Maklan et al. 2001; Kumar and Singh,
2013). A press release of India‟s largest car marketer, „Maruti‟ stated that an emerging
segment of Indian car buyers desire an integration of people, technology, processes and
physical experience at showroom bundled together which could give them the unique car
buying experience (Maruti Suzuki India, 2015). Review of available literature showed that
in Indian context, researchers have emphasized upon the features and factors affecting car
purchase decisions especially in offline environment (Sudhahar and Venkatapathy, 2005;
Chidambaram and Alfred, 2007; Kaushik and Kaushik, 2008; Banerjee, Walker, Deakin,
and Kanafani, 2010; Gupta, 2013; John and Pragadeeswaran, 2013) and have not
considered the effect of digital communication on entire buying decision process in
entirety. However, there are few recent studies conducted by Kumar (2012), Bagga and
Gupta (2014), Agrawal & Arockiadoss (2012) and Samson, Mehta and Chandani, (2014)
which either primarily advocate the usage of digital media by Indian car marketers or
highlight the awareness creating capability of online media among Indian car buyers.
The purchase journey of a car involves a number of different phases from need
recognition, search for information, evaluation to purchase and post-purchase, dominated

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by digital channels (Nielsen, 2012). Indian car buyers use digital channels of
communication as an information source; evaluate the various brands online, pay attention
to reviews, opinions and comments of other customers, peers, friends and experts, join the
online communities, discussion forums, social networking pages of car brands, subscribe to
newsletters and promotional e-mails and finally express their experience and opinion over
digital platforms (Kusuma, 2015). Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt and Füller (2013) proclaim
that although new age technologies present novel challenges and opportunities for the
marketers as car buying decisions are majorly getting affected from digital
communication, still the exact outcome of technological usage is disputed and
marketers also yet need to understand the effect on buying decisions.
This section presents the tabular brief of major studies and reports which
recognized the effect of digital marketing communication on consumer behaviour while
buying a car in India.

Table 2.1: Tabular Brief of Major Studies concerning Digital Marketing in Indian
Passenger Car Market

Author/ Major Findings of the Study

Organization (Year)
1. Philip (2009)  75% of Indian car buyers evaluated the various brands online which
ultimately affected the buying decision.
 31% Indian car buyers made the car buying decisions based on mobile
advertisements.
 22% of car buyers were influenced by web banner advertising.
 Consumers were also found engaging in online interaction with dealers.
2. Capgemini  Manufacturer Website, automotive blog, online forums, video sites were the
(2009) most used information sources for Indian consumers while buying a car.
 75% consumers bought the car from the dealers having maximum positive online
comments whereas 57% didn‟t buy from the dealers having negative
comments.
 Indian consumers used internet in order to avoid the direct interaction with
the dealer.
3. Webchutney  Indian automobile sector was one of the highly impacted sectors by online
(2010) searches and social media.
 Automobile was the most researched sector online.
 72% consumers considered internet as a primary information resource.
 61% of Indian car owners were evolved internet users as they were using
internet for last 5 years.
 Most common consumer activities over internet included accessing website,
expressing opinion in forums and discussion forums, joining social
networking pages and giving recommendations to others.
 81% consumers preferred manufacturer‟s website as the information
source. 65% consumers preferred review sites and 61% opted for social
networking sites as major information sources while buying a car.
 84% young Indian consumers (25-39 years) expressed their desire to buy a
car online.
 62% consumers shared their car related experience online.
continued

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Table 2.1 (continued)

4. Capgemini  Digital channels of communication were affecting the car purchase decisions.
Study (2011-12)  Car buyers in India expected an immediate response from dealers in
response to a query.
 Financing for the vehicle was made easy by the digital channels of
communication.
 Mobile phones and smartphones were the preferred digital devices used
while buying a car.
 Latent demand for completing the entire decision making process online was
increasing for Indian consumers. 52% Indian customers expressed their
desire to carry out the car-buying process online.
 Fast and easy transaction was the major motivator for buying a product
online followed by possibility of getting price discounts.
5. Google (2011)  Indian consumers were ahead of consumers in „US‟ and „Europe‟ in using the
internet to research for cars and bikes purchases.
 Majority Indian consumers used internet as the first place to do their research
before deciding on the vehicle of choice.
6. Nataraj and  There was a steady increase in online communities and forums of Indian car
Nagaraja (2012) buyers.
 Consumers found the consensus recommendations very encouraging
generated from social media.
 Consumers used other people‟s opinion expressed over internet in evaluating
and selecting the car brand.
7. Nielsen (2012)  Digital channels dominated the car purchasing journey.
 Internet was rated more important information source than traditional
communication channels.
 People checked brands‟ websites, read reviews, and visited social
networking sites and community forums in the consideration phase.
 Internet created awareness for the vehicle and influenced the buyers‟
decision making process.
 50% of the car buyers researched online before visiting the showroom.
 54 % changed their brand consideration set after online research.
 56% customers watched video online.
 48% rated YouTube as an important information source.
 42% consumers considered search engine the most important information
source.
 There was a 125 % year-on-year growth of auto queries on mobile phones.
8. Accenture (2012)  Consumers demanded better online support, recommendation and
personalization while buying a car.
 Manufacturer‟s website, recommendations from friends, social media
and family were the most influencing factors affecting car buying decision.
 58% Indian consumers referred to social media reviews while buying a car.
 59% Indian consumers expressed their desire to have an online chat with
dealers.
 54% Indian consumers expressed their desire for a mobile enabled website.
 13% of Indian consumers expressed their desire to buy a car online.
continued

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Table 2.1 (continued)

9. KPMG (2013)  In Indian automobile industry, consumer interactions were shifting from
traditional to digital platform.
 Need recognition stage of buying decision could be triggered by online
display ads, content marketing and mobile advertisement.
 Consumers were consulting friends, family, business and experts through
digital media for information and guidance while buying a car.
 65% Indian consumers researched online before buying a car for getting
information about features, pricing and comparative review.
 72% prospective car buyers researched over internet before buying a car.
 72% consumers were affected by digital word of mouth available via online
discussion and review forums.
 62% customers referred third party websites as an information source.
 44% consumers already made a decision about brand and model through
online sources before visiting the dealer.
 53% consumers expressed their desire to purchase the car online.

10. Bagchi (2013)  70% consumers were using social media to know about other
customers‟ recommendations, reviews and experiences while making car
purchasing decisions.
 Major online activities by the consumers while buying a car included reading
reviews, comparing prices and model, looking for technical specifications
and watching videos while making a car purchase decision.
 Consumers also used Smartphones for an enhanced digital experience.

11. Capgemini  Social media had a significant impact on car buying especially on young
(2013) customers.
 50% customers were likely to purchase the vehicle with positive comments
and reviews over social media whereas 35% were not likely to purchase the
vehicle with negative comments.
 Customers expected dealers to be present virtually along with physical
presence in order to give them personalized buying experience.

12. Nielsen (2014a)  50% of Indian consumers adopt Research Online, Purchase Offline method
while buying a car.
 48% of car consumers used online platforms for information.
 Consumers favoured digital channels because of its ability to offer unbiased
information.
 Consumers looked for technical specifications of the vehicle, car comparison
and expert reviews over online platforms.
 43% of the customers made the car buying decision on their own whereas
33% sought the opinion of their friends and family.
 There were increasing numbers of female buyers in luxury segment.

Continued

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Table 2.1 (continued)

13. C+R Research  Consumers made use of both online and offline information sources while
(2014) buying a car.
 Digital channels were emerging as popular and increasingly used
information sources.
 Majority of the customers used 2-3 major informational sources.
 75% of consumers used online sources as one of the major informational
sources.
 Consumers found websites the most trustworthy, helpful and important
source of information.
 50% of the consumers used independent research sites as the most important
source.
 Search engines were used by 49% of people.
 63% of people used their mobile phones even at dealership.
 68% Indian consumers used online sources to decide about the
dealer‟s showroom.
 50% of consumers didn‟t believe in contacting dealers before the visit.
 Consumers contacted dealers before the visit using emails, online chats and
mobile phones.
 Car buyers visited only one to two dealers‟ showrooms before making a
final purchase
14. Charan and  Indian car buyers used websites as their most preferred digital channel of
Dahiya (2015) communication, followed by digital outdoors, smartphones and YouTube
while buying a car.
 Digital marketing communication affected the entire decision making
process right from information search to post purchase.
 Digital marketing communication reduced searching cost and visits to
showroom and facilitated easy comparison and informed decision.
15. Jaleel (2015)  Majority of Indian consumer started their purchase decision journey with
digital channels.
 Online searches for cars increased at a compounded rate of 54% every year
since 2009.
 Website was the most used information source.
 Consumers used manufacturer‟s website, search engine, dealer‟s website,
expert reviews website, news website; online magazines, vehicle specific
online magazine, social networking sites and online discussion boards during
car buying journey.
16. Mogensen  Digital activities of the consumer over internet were labeled as micro-moments.
(2015)  The study listed five most important moments which namely, which car was
the best moment, was that right for me moment, can I afford it moment,
where should I buy it moment and was I getting a deal moment.
 Digital communication affected all mico-moments.
 Evaluation was the most affected stage by digital marketing communication.
 69% consumers relied upon videos to complete the early researches and
evaluation about cars.
 Mobile emerged as the most important digital channels used throughout the
purchase decision journey.
continued

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Table 2.1 (continued)

17. J.D. Power  Internet penetration was increasing among car buyers as new information
Report (2015) source.
 52% consumers accessed manufacturer's web sites, 40% surfed the auto
section of consumer or news website, 35 % gained information from
dedicated car web sites/forum and 27% preferred dealer's web sites while
searching about cars.
18. CarDekho.com  75% car buyers in India were beginning their buying decision process with
(2015) online research.
 66% of the consumers searched about cars using their smart phones.
19. Capgemini  49% people relied upon dealer/manufacturer websites whereas 43% used
(2015) search engines as major source of information while buying a car.
 Web forums were used by 19% of consumers whereas 12 % used social
media pages and 9% made use of their Smartphone apps.
 Websites was the most popular digital channel for Indian consumers while
buying a car.
 80% people in India were substantially influenced by the positive reviews
about cars available over digital channels.
 Consumers demanded personalized experience and quick response to their
queries to ease out the evaluation process.
 95% consumers expected a marketer to respond to their query within a day
whereas 69% expected a response within four hours.
 48% of consumers expressed their desire to receive weekly information
from dealer or marketer between purchase and delivery of the vehicle.
20. Bruce (2015)  A car buyer checked an average 10 dealers' website before deciding the final
dealer to visit for.
 Customer‟s visits for dealers' showrooms reduced from 5 times ten years ago
to an average of 1.6 times.
21. Nair (2015)  Digital channels reduced the visits to the showrooms as essential activities
involved in car buying such as comparing various brands, short listing of the
brand and dealer; were conducted online.
22. Harwani,  Consumers attributed price discounts, an opportunity to buy a vehicle not
(2015) locally available and easiness of digital media as major contributors towards
usage of digital media while buying a car.
 57% of the respondents expressed their desire to buy the car online.
 Car buyers expected to receive post purchase communication especially
between the purchase and delivery.
 Preferred communication channels for the post purchase communication
included for e-mail, smartphones and websites.
23. Accenture  80% of the consumers were making use of some form of digital technologies
(2015) to research about cars.
 Consumers gave preference to personalized information, virtual car demos
and online comparison sites in the consumer buying decision process.
 Most Indian consumers were influenced by the car websites and online
automotive publications while buying a car.
 82% consumers were interested in online financing negotiation for cars.
 84% of Indian consumers expressed their desire to complete their entire car-
buying process online.
 63% of consumes also expressed their appetite for using new online channels
for car purchase.
continued

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Table 2.1 (continued)

24. Wolstenholme  25% consumers added a new brand in their consideration set over digital
(2015) platforms during the search and 50% consumers bought that brand which
was initially not in the favourite list.
 45% of the of the car buyers in the study considered social media as an
important source of news about a company, its brands, services etc. along
with being the most important communication channel.
25. eMarketer  Car buyers were hesitant in making online buying and booking for a vehicle
(2015b) in India.
 Only 15% of the consumers in developed country like Germany booked car
online and a miser 6% paid online for a new car online.
26. xAd Research  21% of people who researched about cars on their mobiles were likely to
(2015) purchase within the hour whereas 38% planned to buy within a week and
15% intended to do so within a month.
 Activities like joining a consumer forum, subscribing to newsletter,
following social networking sites pages of the car marketers, pre-poning the
buying decision and buying a vehicle on the basis of consensus
recommendations were included in purchase decisions of car buyers. Chapter 4
27. Basu and  Car buyers not only demanded quality products but also the satisfying
Didyala (2015) experience in a digitally connected environment.
 Consumers demanded seamless experience across various digital channels,
personalized information recommendations and quick feedback mechanism
from marketers‟ end

CHAPTER 4

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF CUSTOMERS USING

DIGITAL CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

Many classification variables were used in the study to better understand the
association between digital channels of communication and demographic variables
while buying a car. This chapter aims to analyze the association between demographic
variables like age, income, education, occupation and gender with digital channels of
communication. The chapter also explains the association between place of living and
brand of car with digital channels of communication. Moreover, the chapter identifies
the distinct customers segments using digital channels of communication while buying
a car.

DETAILS OF CLASSIFICATION VARIABLES

The main variables used in the study included age, education, income, gender,
place of living, occupation and brand of the car owned. Given below is the detail of the
variables:

a) Age

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 Data for the study was collected from respondents belongingChapter 2
to various age
groups. Table 4.1 shows the age distribution of respondents in the sample. It can be
seen from the table that about 36% of the sample was represented by respondents
belonging to 18-25 years age group. Respondents belonging to 26-30 years age group
made 18% of the sample whereas 31-35 years age group was represented by 15% of
respondents. About 10% of sample was represented by respondents belonging to 36-40
years age group. 20% of the sample was represented by the respondents of above 40
years age. It can be said that about 69% of the sample was represented by respondents
below the age of 35 years. The sample distribution by age almost congregates with the
findings of Census (2011) whereby it stated that 65% people in India are below the age
of 35 years. 31% of the sample was represented by respondents above the age of 35
years.

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Table 4.1: Age Distribution of Respondents

Sr. No. Age Categories Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 18-25 years 286 35.7
2 26-30 years 147 18.4
3 31-35 years 118 14.7
4 36-40 years 83 10.4
5 above 40 years 167 20.8
Total 801 100.0

The variable was included in the study as researcher wished to see whether
usage of various digital channels of communication was affected by age or not. Did
people belonging to a particular age group have preference for particular digital
channel or not?

b) Education
Data for the study was collected from respondents with different educational
background. Table 4.2 shows the educational background of respondents in the sample.
46% respondents in sample claimed to possess graduate degree whereas 35%
respondents said they were post graduate. 16% of the respondents were inter-mediate
(senior secondary) whereas 3% of respondents were found possessing other educational
qualifications like Doctoral Degree, Diploma etc.

Table 4.2: Educational Background of Respondents

Sr. No. Educational Background Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 Senior Secondary 129 16.1
2 Graduate 366 45.7
3 Post Graduate 282 35.2
4 Others 24 3.0
Total 801 100.0

This variable was included in the study to unravel the relation if any between
the education and usage of digital channels.

c) Occupation
Data for the study was collected from respondents with different occupations.
40% of the sample was represented by respondents in service sector. 30% of the
sample was represented by the student respondents whereas business and home-maker
represented the 22% and 9% of the sample respectively. Table 4.3 displays the
„occupation‟ of respondents in the sample.

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Table 4.3: Occupation of the Respondents

Sr. No. Occupation Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 Student 237 29.6
2 Service 318 39.7
3 Business 176 22.0
4 Home-maker 70 8.7
Total 801 100.0

The variable was included in the study to assess whether people belonging to
different occupations used different digital channels of communication.

d) Annual Household Income

Data was collected from the respondents belonging to various income groups.
Table 4.4 shows the annual household income distribution of respondents in the
sample. Annual household income was used as car in India is a family product rather
than an individual item. Income categories were specified keeping the prices of cars in
India in various segments namely hatchback, compact, sedan and luxury segments.
Minimum annual household income category was kept as below 4 lakhs which was
represented by about 19% of the sample. Income category of 4 Lakhs and above but
below 8 Lakhs was represented by about 42% of the respondents. Income category of 8
Lakhs and above but below 20 Lakhs was represented by 31% of the respondents
whereas 20 lakhs and above annual income category was represented by 8% of
respondents.

Table 4.4: Annual Household Income of Respondents

Sr. No. Annual Household Income Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 Below 4 Lakhs 150 18.7
2 4 Lakhs and above but below 8 Lakhs 340 42.4
3 8 Lakhs and above but below 20 Lakhs 246 30.7
4 20 Lakhs and above 65 8.1
Total 801 100.0

This variable was included in the study to assess the relationship if any,
between income and use of digital channels communication.

e) Place of Living
Data was collected from urban, sub-urban and rural areas of Delhi to see
whether digital marketing is still an urban phenomenon or it has crossed the boundaries
of urban space and people use digital channels of communication in rural and sub-
urban areas also. Census (2011) was used as frame of reference for defining the urban,
sub- urban and rural areas of the study. An urban area as per Census (2011) was
defined

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as a constitutional place with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified

town area committee having the minimum population of 5,000 and at least 75% of
male working population engaged in non-agricultural occupations. Such areas are
normally associated with density population of at least 400 people per sq. km. (1,000
per sq. mile). An area was considered rural if it was not classified as urban as per the
above definition. As per Census (2011), sub-urban area was also known as „Census
Town‟ and represents the settlements with a population over 5,000. Such settlements
have lost the characteristics of a village with agriculture as the principal occupation.
However, sub-urban settlements have not attained the municipality level so that they
might be categorized as census towns.
Table 4.5 displays the place of living in the collected sample. 45% of data was
collected from respondents residing in urban area, 28% of data was collected from sub-
urban areas and 27% of data was collected from respondents residing in rural areas.

Table 4.5: Place of Living of Respondents

Sr. No. Place of Living Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 Urban 364 45.4
2 Semi-Urban 220 27.5
3 Rural 217 27.1
Total 801 100.0

The variable was included in the study to see the association if any, between
the place of living and use of digital channels of communication.

f) Gender of the Respondents

Data for the study was collected both from males and females respondents.
Table 4.6 displays the gender of the respondents. Male respondents composed the 64%
of the sample whereas 37% of the sample was represented by female respondents.

Table 4.6: Gender of Respondents

Sr. No. Gender Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 Male 509 63.5
2 Female 292 36.5
Total 801 100.0

The variable was included in the study to know whether use of digital
channels differed significantly with the gender of the people.

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g) Brand of Car Owned

Data was collected from various actual and potential car customers. „Car‟ in
the study referred to a road vehicle with four wheels powered by an internal
combustion engine and able to carry a small number of people especially meant for
personal use. The study didn‟t discriminate the vehicle by its category based on
engine size, body type, size and length. Table 4.7 displays the distribution of various
car brands and potential car customers. There were about 8% of people who at the
time of the study didn‟t own the vehicle, so they were considered the „potential
customers‟. „Maruti Suzuki‟ was found leading the car segment with 39% share in the
sample followed by „Hyundai‟ with 21% of the share in the sample. The
sample results were in tandem with the market share of car manufacturers in India
where Maruti Suzuki is the leader followed by Hyundai.

Table 4.7: Share of Various Car Brand Owners and Potential Customers in Sample

Sr. No. Brand of Car Frequency Percentage in the Sample

1 Maruti Suzuki 314 39.2
2 Hyundai 170 21.2
3 Tata 31 3.9
4 Ford 21 2.6
5 Polo 27 3.4
6 Toyota 47 5.9
7 Renault 10 1.2
8 Chevrolet 11 1.4
9 Honda 53 6.6
10 BMW 14 1.7
11 Audi 9 1.1
12 Porsche 2 .2
13 Skoda 11 1.4
14 Mahindra 14 1.7
15 HM 3 .4
16 Mercedes 3 .4
17 Potential Customers 61 7.6
Total 801 100.0

Different car marketers allocate different budget to the digital platforms. So, this
variable was included in the study to see the relationship if any between particular
different car brands owners and usage of digital channels.

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DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF CUSTOMERS USING DIGITAL

CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION
The study intended to know the demographic profile of the customers who
used digital channels of communication. It was also envisioned to see whether an
association existed between a customer belonging to particular demography and use of
particular digital channel. Following hypotheses were formulated to study the
relationship between demographic profile of the consumer and usage of digital
channels of communication.
Ho: There is no relationship between demographic profile of the consumer and type of
digital communication channel used while buying a car.
Ha: There is a relationship between demographic profile of the consumer and type of
digital communication channel used while buying a car.
Section given below presents the analytical details of proposed association
between demographic variables and digital channels while buying a car.

Age and Channels of Communication

Descriptive details of age and communication channels usage revealed that
respondents made more use of digital channels of communication in comparison to
traditional channels of communication across all age groups (Fig. 4.1).

Figure 4.1: Age and Channels of Communication

It can be seen from the Fig. 4.1 that about 29% of the respondents who made
use of digital channels of communication while buying a car belonged to the 18-25

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years age group. It was also observed that 7% of the respondents belonging to 18-25
years age group used traditional channels of communication. 15% of the respondents to
26-30 years age group used digital channels whereas only 4% of the respondents in the
same age group used traditional channels of communication. 12% of the respondents
belonging to 31-35 years age group used digital channels whereas only 3% of
respondents belonging to the same group were found using traditional channel of
communication. 8% of the respondents using digital channels were found associated
with 36-40 years age group whereas only 3% of respondents in the same age group
used traditional channels of communication while buying a car. 12% of the respondents
in above 40 years age group used digital channels whereas 9% used traditional channels
of communication while buying a car.
Table 4.8 displays the frequency details of the sample resulting from the cross -
tabulation of age and channels of communication.

Table 4.8: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Age

Age Categories Channels of Communication Total

Traditional Channels Digital Channels
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
18-25 years 54 (27%) 232 (38%) 286
26-30 years 29 (15%) 118 (20%) 147
31-35 years 21(11%) 97 (16%) 118
36-40 years 22 (11%) 61(10%) 83
Above 40 years 72 (36%) 95 (16%) 167
Total 198 603 801

It was observed that respondents belonging to 18-25 years made maximum use
(38%) of digital channels while buying a car followed by 26-30 years age group used
by 20% of the respondents. Respondents belonging to 36-40 years age groups made
least use (10%) of digital channels while buying a car. Respondents belonging to
„above
40 years‟ age group led all the age groups in traditional communication channel category
whereby 36% of the respondents made use of traditional communication channels while buying car.
The group was followed by 27% respondents belonging to 18-25 years age group category who
relied more on traditional channels of communication.

Age and Digital Channels Association

A customer can use different digital marketing channels namely websites (WS),
social networking sites (SNS), „YouTube‟ (YT), phones, smartphones (SP),
online communities (OC), digital outdoors (DO), digital television (DTV), e-mails and
others.
The section given below contains the results of 603 rather than 801
respondents who used at least one of the digital channels while buying a car. Both the
variables namely the age and usage of digital channels were measured at nominal

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scale having mutually exclusive categories whereby respondent‟s response for each
digital channel was recorded either as „use‟ or „no use‟. Categorical unpaired data
was collected from large sample that also ensured the minimum expected cell count of
more than five in eighty percent of the cells. Not a single cell contained the expected
frequency count of less than one. Data successfully met all the assumptions of one of
the most useful analytical tools, Chi-square. So, Chi-square test was applied as a test
of significance in order to see the association between age and specific digital channel
of communication. Chi-square was calculated for each digital channel (i.e. Websites,
SNS, YouTube, Phone, Smartphone, Online Communities, Digital Outdoor, Digital
TV, E-mail and Others) and results have been represented in the form of a summary
table 4.10.

Table 4.10: Age and Use of Digital Channels

Age WS SNS YT Phone SP OC DO DTV Email Others

18-25 Years 201 109 82 27 88 45 61 64 26 4

26-30 Years 100 59 53 27 66 33 40 39 9 3

31-35 Years 88 33 41 15 40 25 24 20 9 5

36-40 Years 54 28 25 11 23 24 19 24 5 4

Above 40 Years 84 44 45 30 45 21 34 38 15 7

Total (out of 603) 527 273 246 110 256 148 178 185 64 23

% of Use 87.4 45.3 40.8 18.2 42.5 24.5 29.5 30.7 10.6 3.8

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Education and Channels of Communication

This can be seen from the Fig. 4.2 that across all educational categories of
respondents, digital channels of communication outnumbered the use of traditional
channels of communication while buying a car.

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Figure 4.2: Education and Channels of Communication

It can be observed from the Fig. 4.2 that 34% of the graduate respondents used
digital channels of communication whereas only 12% of the graduate respondents used
traditional channels of communication. 27% of the post graduate respondents used
digital channels of communication whereas only 8% of the post-graduate respondents
used traditional channels of communication while buying a car. 12% of respondents
possessing senior-secondary education were found using digital channels of
communication whereas only 4% of the respondents used traditional channel of
communication. It was also observed that about 2% of the respondents belonging to
„others‟ educational background used digital channels of communication whereas only
1% of the respondents belonging to others occupational category used traditional
channels of communication.
Table 4.11 displays the frequency details of the sample resulting from the cross
-tabulation of occupation and channels of communication.

Table 4.11: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Education

Educational Background Channels of Communication Total

Traditional Channels Digital Channels
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
Senior Secondary 33 (17%) 96(16%) 129
Graduate 91(46%) 275(46%) 366
Post Graduate 65(33) 217 (36%) 282
Others 9 (4%) 15 (2%) 24
Total 198 603 801

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Table 4.11 depicts that 46% of the respondents belonging to graduate category
made maximum use of digital channels while buying a car followed by 36% of post
graduate respondents. Respondents belonging to others category made the least use of
digital channels while buying a car. In the traditional channels category, 46% of
graduate respondents followed by 33% post graduate respondents led the educational
category in making use of traditional channel of communication while buying a car.
Occupation and Channels of Communication
This can be seen from Fig. 4.3 that across all occupational categories
respondents used digital channels more than the traditional communication channels
while buying a car.

Figure 4.3: Occupation and Channels of Communication

It can also be seen from the fig. 4.3 that 31% of the respondents who used
digital channels of communication belonged to service occupational category. 9% of
the respondents belonging to service occupational category also used traditional
channels of communication. 24% of the respondents belonging to student occupational
category made use of digital channels of communication whereas only 6% of student
respondents used traditional channels of communication. 16% of the respondents
belonging to business occupational category used digital channels of communication
whereas only 6% of respondents used traditional channels of communication in
business occupational category. 5% of the respondents belonging to home-maker
category used digital channels of communication while buying a car whereas 3.5% of
home-maker respondents used traditional channels of communication.

Table 4.13 displays the frequency details of the sample resulting from the
cross- tabulation of occupation and channels of communication.

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Table 4.13: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Occupation

Occupation Channels of Communication Total

Traditional Channels Digital Channels
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
Student 48 (24%) 189 (31%) 237
Service 74 (38%) 244 (41%) 318
Business 48 (24%) 128 (21%) 176
Home-maker 28 (14%) 42 (7%) 70
Total 198 603 801

It can be seen from the table 4.13 that 41% of respondents belonging to service
category made maximum use of digital channels while buying a car followed by 31%
of respondents belonging to student category. Home-makers made the least use (7%) of
the digital channels while buying a car. Respondents belonging to service category
(38%) followed by student (24%) and business (24%) category made maximum use of
traditional channels of communication while buying a car.
Income and Channels of Communication
It can be seen from the Fig. 4.4 that respondents belonging to all income
categories used digital channels of communication more than the traditional channels of
communication while buying a car.

Figure 4.4: Income and Use of Communication Channels

32% of the respondents using digital channels of communication while buying a car,
were found belonging to annual income category of 4 Lakhs and above but below 8
Lakhs. 11% of the respondents from the same income category used traditional
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channels of communication while buying a car. 24% of the respondents using digital
channels of communication belonged to 8 Lakhs and above but below 20 Lakhs
income category whereas only 7% from the same income category used traditional
channels of communication. 13% of the respondents belonging to less than 4 lakhs
annual income category used digital channels of communication whereas only 5% used
traditional communication channel. 7% of the respondents belonging to above 20 lakhs
income category used digital channels of communication, whereas only 1% of
respondents from the same income category used traditional channel of communication
while buying a car.

Table 4.16 displays the frequency details of the sample resulting from the cross-
tabulation of annual household income and channels of communication.

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Table 4.16: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Annual Household Income

Annual Household Income Channels of Communication Total

Traditional Channels Digital Channels
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
Below 4 Lakhs 43(22%) 107 (18%) 150
4 Lakhs and above but below 8 Lakhs 87 (44%) 253 (42%) 340
8 Lakhs and above but below 20 Lakhs 58 (29%) 188 (31%) 246
20 Lakhs and above 10 (5%) 55 (9%) 65
Total 198 603 801

It can be seen from the table 4.16 that 42% of respondents belonging to 4 Lakhs
and above but below 8 Lakhs followed by 31% of respondents belonging to 8 Lakhs
and above but below 20 Lakhs income category made the maximum use of digital
channels of communication. It was found that when respondents made use of traditional
channels of communication, 44% of respondents belonging to 4 Lakhs and above but
below 8 Lakhs followed by 29% of 8 Lakhs and above but below 20 Lakhs income
category made the maximum use of traditional channels of communication.
Gender and Channels of Communication
Fig. 4.5 shows that both male and female respondents used digital channels
more than the traditional channels while buying a car.

Figure 4.5: Gender and Use of Communication Channels

This can be seen from Fig. 4.5 that 49% of male respondents used digital
channels whereas only 14% of male respondents used traditional channels of
communication. 26% of the female respondents used digital channels whereas about
11% of female respondents used traditional communication channels while buying a
car.

Table 4.18 displays the frequency details of the sample resulting from the
cross- tabulation of gender and channels of communication.
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Table 4.18: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Gender

Gender of the Channels of Communication Total

Respondent Traditional Channels Digital Channels
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
Male 114 (58%) 395 (65%) 509
Female 84 (42%) 208 (35%) 292
Total 198 603 801

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Table 4.18 shows that male respondents (65%) made more use of digital
channels of communication in comparison to female respondents (35%) while buying a
car. A similar trend was also observed in making use of traditional channels of
communication where male respondents (58%) used traditional channels more in
comparison to female respondents (42%).
PLACE OF LIVING AND CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION
It can be seen from the Fig. 4.6 that respondents belonging to urban, semi-
urban and rural areas used digital channels of communication more in comparison to
traditional channels of communication while buying a car.

Figure 4.6: Place of Living and Use of Communication Channels

35% of the respondents belonging to urban area used digital channels of

communication whereas only about 10.5% of urban respondents used traditional
communication. 21% of the semi-urban respondents used digital channels whereas only
7% of the semi-urban respondents used traditional channel. 20% of rural respondents
used digital channels of communication whereas about 7.5% of rural respondents used
traditional channel of communication.
Table 4.21 displays the frequency details of the sample resulting from the
cross- tabulation of place of living and channels of communication.

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Table 4.21: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Place of Living

Place of Living Channels of Communication Total

Traditional Channels Digital Channels
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
Urban 84 (43%) 280 (46%) 364
Semi-Urban 54 (27%) 166 (28%) 220
Rural 60 (30%) 157 (26%) 217
Total 198 603 801

Table 4.21 shows that respondents belonging to urban (46%) area followed by
semi-urban area (28%) made maximum use of digital channels while buying a car.
Respondents belonging to urban area (42%) followed by rural area (30%) made
maximum usage of traditional channels of communication while buying a car.
CAR BRAND AND CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION
It can be seen from Fig. 4.7 that across all car brands, respondents used digital
channels more than the traditional channels of communication.

Figure 4.7: Brand of Car Owned and Use of Communication Channels

28.5% of the „Maruti‟ car owners used digital channels of

communication whereas only 11% used traditional channels of communication.
16% of „Hyundai‟ owners used digital channels of communication whereas only 5%
Hyundai owners used traditional communication. Similar results were obtained for other
car brands and potential customers too.
It can be seen from the table 4.23 that Car owners of Maruti (38%) and
Hyundai (21%) along with potential customers (8%) made the maximum use of digital
channels of communication while buying a car. Car owners of Maruti (43%) and
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Hyundai (22%) along with potential customers (6%) also made maximum use of
traditional channels of communication.

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Table 4.23: Cross Tabulation of Channels and Brand of Car Owned

Brand of Car Channels of Communication Channels of

Traditional Channels Traditional Channels Communication
(% within Channel) (% within Channel)
Maruti 86 (43%) 228(38%) 314
Hyundai 43 (22%) 127(21%) 170
Tata 5 (2.5%) 26(4%) 31
Ford 5 (2.5%) 16 (3%) 21
Polo 5(2.5%) 22(4%) 27
Toyota 15(8%) 32(5%) 47
Renault 2 (1%) 8(1%) 10
Chevrolet 4(2%) 7(1%) 11
Honda 8(4%) 45(8%) 53
BMW 2 (1%) 12(2%) 14
Audi 3(1.5%) 6(1%) 9
Porsche 1(.5%) 1(.2%) 2
Skoda 5(2.5%) 6(1%) 11
Mahindra 1(.05%) 13(2%) 14
HM 1(.5%) 2(.3%) 3
Chapter 8
Mercedes 0 (0%) 3(.5%) 3
Potential Customers 12(6%) 49(8%) 61
Total 198 603 801

CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter lists the major findings and concludes it by discussing the
implications of the results. The chapter acknowledges the unique findings of the study
indicating the significant addition to knowledge base. Limitations of the study have
also been described in the chapter. Future prospects of the study have also been briefed
in the chapter. The chapter ends with giving valuable suggestions to the marketers.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The study aimed to describe the demographic profile of consumers using
digital channels of communication, the most preferred digital channels of
communication, consumers‟ attitude towards digital marketing communication, impact
of digital marketing communication on consumer buying decision making process and
the factors which could be leveraged by the car marketers to effectively their brand in
Indian car market. The section given below details the findings of the study.

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The findings have important implications for the car marketers as they must
understand that digital channels of communication are mainly used by the young
customers. These customers also have their preferences for particular digital channels
of communication. So, targeting these customers with their preferred channel of
communication should produce good business results for the marketers. The results also
infer that digital technologies have crossed the boundaries of urban metropolitan
establishments and are registering its presence across semi-urban and rural areas as
well.

1. vast majority (72%) of the respondents agreed that digital marketing

communication is informative in nature facilitating easy evaluation of car brands.
2. Digital marketing communication was considered being interactive by a vast
majority (73%) of the respondents.
3. Relevant nature of digital marketing communication was acknowledged by a vast
majority (69%) of respondents.

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4. About three fourth (74%) of the respondents appreciated the quick nature of digital
marketing communication by accepting that digital marketing communication
saves time while buying a car.
5. About two third (66%) of the respondents considered digital channels of
communication being „compatible‟ facilitating easy availability of experts‟
advice and an informed decision while buying a car. Another good majority
(58%) of the respondents found digital marketing channels easy to use.
6. A simple majority of the respondents found digital marketing communication as
low cost (54%) alternative to the traditional communication and offering best
value deals (55%) to the respondents.
7. Digital marketing communication results in easy selection of car brand as a good
majority (61%) of the respondents accepted this fact in the study.
8. A good majority (65%) of the respondents found digital marketing communication
being technical in nature.
9. Half (50%) of respondents considered digital communication non-authentic and
less trustworthy in nature.
10. Less than majority (46%) of the respondents considered using digital marketing
communication while buying a car a good idea which also depicts the bright side
of digital marketing communication in Indian car market.
SUGGESTIONS
The study concluded that digital marketing communication affects the car
buying decision process. It was found in the study that respondents used many digital
platforms and digital channels to get information in each and every stage of car buying
decision process. Respondents leveraged the potential digital media to gain information
about various car brands and dealers, evaluating the car brands, making the selection

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and purchase decision and expressing their post-purchase feelings. The section given
below presents the main suggestions of the study:
(a) Making the Digital Channels of Communication More Effective
It was found from the study that a vast majority of the respondents used digital
channels of communication while buying a car, implying that future belongs to digital
marketing communication. The most used digital channels of communication were
websites, social networking sites, smartphones and YouTube. The major suggestions
related to digital channels of communication have been given below:

 Websites emerged as the main digital communication channel while buying a car.
Websites were used in search for information stage by the respondents. Literature
also reported that websites were interactive, informative and relevant in nature, so
it is proposed that websites of car manufacturer should be interactive carrying all
the relevant information. It was also found from the literature review that websites
can be viewed over multiple screens i.e. desktops, laptops, mobile phones, digital
outdoors and TV. So, it makes more sense to improve the compatibility of the
corporate websites across multiple channels to give a consistent experience to the
customers. Content of the websites should be given utmost importance and it
should help customers through their entire consumer buying decision process
thereby facilitating them in making an informed decision. Description of technical
details about cars should also be there on the websites, which would help in
relevant evaluation of the vehicle.
 Websites should be regularly updated and should have an adequate amount of
audio-visual display through rich data formats like flashy graphics, animations,
videos and audios. Video formats carrying the effective demonstrations or 360
degree virtual demos of the vehicles should be used to stimulate the interest of the
customers. Every link and component of the website should work properly
thereby ensuring the functionality of the websites. Also, it should facilitate easy
navigation across pages. Websites should expedite the comparison among various
car brands which would help customers making an informed decision. Chat widget
over website can further help customers clearing their personal doubts and queries.
 Customers might reach the website through search engines, so effective search
engine optimization (SEO) strategies should be adopted. Important keywords used
in the search engines should be used in the website as well as in the links.
Effective SEO would result in ranking manufacture‟s website a higher rank than
others. The landing page of the website should also be attractive and informative
enough to help the customers in fulfilling all the informational needs. Landing
page of the website should also have the information that can further kindle the
interest of the customers. Consumers consider the digital channels of
communication quick alternative to traditional communication, so it should be
ensured that website doesn‟t take too long to load. Regular appraisal and updation
of the content and resolving technical issues would help in bringing the new traffic
to the website and retaining the old customers. At least one tracking tool should
be used to identify the performance of the website.

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 Social networking sites were the most used digital channels of communication
after websites. Social networking sites were used in the need recognition stage of
car buying decision process. It is proposed that car marketers should upload the
updated content regularly over social networking sites. Curiosity can be built up
around new launches by carefully planning a launch strategy over social networks.
Available literature about social media asserted that customers‟ participation
and control over social media are facilitating the growth of social networking
sites. So, marketers are suggested to establish a dialogue rather than monologue
over social media. Marketers should encourage the customers to share and post the
affiliations and opinions about their experiences with other users on social media.
The conversations over social media would result in meaningful insights about
consumer behaviour. Social networking sites of manufacturers should also have
„live-chat‟ functions which would facilitate the real-time chatting
between customers and marketers. Social networking contests, quizzes and games
should be used by the marketers which would not only involve the customers but
also create buzz around the brand. Marketers can also choose to send email alerts
to the interested or potential customers over social media.
 It was found in the literature that customers paid attention to other customers‟
reviews and results of the study also validated that respondents considered
consensus recommendations more than the marketers‟ claim. So, marketers
are suggested to join the consumers‟ community whereby they might identify the
opinion leaders who would not only influence other customers but also help them
in evaluation stage of car buying decision process. Marketers should utilize these
communities to communicate their marketing offers through groups and sub-
groups. Marketers should pay attention to the comments of customers about their
brand over social media and act quickly to the complaints, suggestions and
concerns if any, of the customers.
 Smartphones were used by the respondents for being informative, quick and
interactive. So, marketers are advised to design the mobile communication
strategies carrying informative content ensuring the compatibility of the content
with different mobile operating systems. Marketers should design interesting
mobile applications and mobile websites to offer the relevant information to the
customers. Consumers should be made aware about the application of particular
car brand both by personal and commercial channels of communication. „App‟
of the company should be made available at popular „apps stores‟. Mobile
website of the company should be designed facilitating easy navigation across
pages and enhanced customer experience. Mobile games can also be used to
engage customers with the brands.
 Digital marketing communication by its very nature is measurable which allows
tracking of each customer‟s action and reaction. So, marketers should segment
customers group effectively on the basis of parameters like history, frequency of
visits, favourite items, list items and many others. Marketers should carefully target
these distinct segments with customized messages containing relevant information
and specific promotional offers. Marketers should analyze how people are
responding to various mobile marketing tactics and try to engage them at each and
every step of consumer buying decision process.

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 Chapter 4

 Consumers also used YouTube as one of the most used digital channels while
buying a car so it is recommended to offer marketing content in appealing video
formats available on video sharing sites. Literature disclosed that customers found
YouTube as an interesting and important communication channel while buying a
car. Marketers are suggested to use various formats like funny, spoof, testimonials
and demonstrations to present the information about various car brands in an
interesting manner. The videos should have the capability to get shared with other
customers. Important keywords should be used in titles and tags of videos so that
customers can easily find the channel when searched for. The results of the study
ascertained that respondents were using YouTube for being compatible, informative
and relevant. So, it was suggested to use experts‟ reviews to help customers deciding
the best car brand as per his/her requirements. „YouTube analytics‟ should be
used to reveal the important customers‟ details with which future
communication could be established for identifying the needs of the prospects and
converting them in to the customers.
 Other digital communication channels like digital outdoors, digital TV and online
communities were found informative, easy-to-use and offering experts and
customers‟ reviews while buying a car. Marketers are recommended to
provide informative contents to these channels. It was found in the study that
respondents used online communities especially in evaluation stage. So, due
importance should be given to the online reputation management by paying sincere
attention to the testimonials and reviews posted by the users about a marketer‟s
brand in online communities.

(b) Nurture Positive Attitude towards Digital Marketing Communication

It was found in the study that respondents had positive attitude towards digital
marketing communication while buying a car. It was also found that attitude also affected
digital marketing communication usage intentions while buying a car. Respondents used
digital communication while buying a car because they found communication being
informative, interactive, relevant and easily available. So, marketers should ensure that
they adhere to the features important to the customers while devising a digital
communication programme. Companies should ensure the availability of complete
information over digital platforms. It is also suggested to devise an integrated
communication program to give a consistent experience over digital platforms.

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