CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Objective

The primary objective of this corporate engagement was to understand how digital marketing
communications taking over traditional marketing, from a customer’s point of view and how
business houses react on the same. Besides, the geographic scope of this report is limited to
Lucknow Methodology

Qualitative Analysis: I took in-depth interviews of some employees, managers, and clients.
Although the number of such interviews was less, it was done to get the roles of digital
marketing communications. All the data was collected through one to one interview and online
survey . All the questions discussed below were explained to the respondent proper care has
been taken to see that respondent understand the question clearly and answer to in without any
hurry. All the respondents were interviewed at their convenience so that there is no chance that
the interviewer comprehends. The responses were clearly taken without suffering from any
ambiguity.
2.2.2 Online Survey Questionnaire: Also, to understand the customer’s perception of digital
marketing in their day-to-day life, an online survey questionnaire was designed and floated.

Data Source - This report is based on both primary and secondary data.

Primary Data:

I used an online survey and in-depth interviews to conduct or research. The online survey
questionnaire contained 15 questions on lieu with the objective. The survey was conducted on
162 people from the target group. The responses were collected with the help of Google forms
and I used social media, email network to collect the responses.

Secondary Data:

This consisted of sources like the internet, social network sites, and other sources
Data Sample

I selected a sample size of 162 people from the target population. This sample was selected
randomly, as the survey was anonymous. This online survey was kept anonymous because in
today’s world most of the people surfing online are particular about their privacy. I used this
primary data and this has been gathered for this research project specifically.

Method of Data Analysis

This is one of the most inevitable of a research project. During my internship period, I tried
collecting the qualitative as well as quantitative data by using Google Forms and personal
interviews. We used Google Forms for the online survey as they have a strong database and
equipped with numerous tools that can help in making the analytical charts and graphs. Also,
exporting the data to MS Excel was easier from Google Forms. I used MS Excel for further
analysis for my research project.

Presentation of Data

The presentation of data is in two parts. The first part describes the data on the online survey and
 the second part describes the personal interviews.

First Part: Online Survey

The copy of the questionnaire is attached in the

annexure. Question 1

Figure 1

The first question of the survey is about gender. From figure 1, it was found that 65.8% were
male and 34.2% of them were female. With the help of this data, it can be easily deduced that
more males use digital media than females.

Question 2

This question asked them about whether they use social media daily or not. Interestingly of
100% of the people responded said ‘Yes’. As per the Internet and Mobile Association of
India, Lucknow has 3.22 million active internet users in 2022 as compared to 2.35 million in
2020 and 97% of them use mobile phones to connect with the internet.
 Question 3

Figure 2

In this question, the respondents were asked about which online platform they use the most.
As per figure 2, it is evident that Facebook is at top of the chart as 69% of the people use it.
According to my senior colleague Mr. Tarun at Diksha Advertising, Facebook is the best
social media to promote products and services as it provides several tools as well as user
base to operate and conduct our activities.

Question 4

Figure 3
 This question was regarding their income. From figure 3, it can be easily seen that people
who have an income group of 5000 or less spend most of their time on digital media.
However, if we consider the factor that earners generally make the buying decision then
33% of the people considering the category of 20001-30000 and 30001 or more, will make
the buying decisions.

Question 5

Figure 4

This question asked about the profession. Figure 4 shows that 55% of the respondents are
students. Also as per msopi.nic.in 50% of the population is under 25 years of age. This
massive young population stimulates brands to design youth based products and services.
Also, if we compare the results o+f question 4 the majority of the population has an income
group of 5000 or less. This group refers to the students only. This age group prefers to spend
on digital media than conventional marketing media platforms like television, print, etc. This
age group is a major factor in ruling out conventional marketing platforms.
 Question 6

Figure 5

Through this question, we came to know that 44% of the respondents prefer internet for
communication and 82% use it for communicating with friends. From this, it can be deduced
that advertisers must focus on emotional appeal for brand promotion so that they can capture
the greater market. Advertisers must create their content more oriented towards friends and
family so that people can relate to it and get attracted to the brand. Even online shopping has
increased manifold during the past 5 years as around 42% of the respondents use the internet
for shopping online. Marketers must focus on tapping online platforms to increase their sales.

Also, business communication is one another important aspect which can’t be completely
ignored, this explains that reaching to different stakeholders of the business through internet
is getting easier day by day.

Question 7 and 8

These questions were kept to find out the ratio between the effectiveness of an
advertisement through an offline platform as compared to the online platform. As per the
data of responses, only 40% of the respondents were able to recall an advertisement on a
billboard as compared to 90% of the responses were able to recall an online advertisement.
It is evident that online platforms are more effective as here you can present more content as
compared to an offline platform. Also, few platforms allow users to interact as well so that it
creates a long-lasting impact on their memory for that particular brand. Also, online
platforms are more economical than conventional marketing platforms.
 Question 9 and 10

This section describes the role of digital marketing in terms of trust and a facilitator for
selling products and services. As per the data responses, most of the people that is around
92% sample population agrees with the statement that digital marketing is trustworthy and
plays a vital role in product/service selling. Now a day’s even small-scale organization has
started digital promotion to create their presence in the virtual world and this number is
rising day by day.

Question 11

Figure 6

This question was asked to know their line of thought on how they perceive information on
the new products. This question was also asked with the motive of effective is Digital
Marketing over Conventional Marketing. From figure 6 you can see that almost 31%
Strongly Agrees while 56% Agrees that digital marketing plays a vital role for the same. My
senior colleague Mr. Tarun at Diksha Advertising explained the example of marketing
strategy of Oneplus’s flagship model OnePlus 7’s. The company started promoting the
model, 6 months before the launching of product, on social media’s so that people can get
more information and time in making their buying decision. Also, they offered pre- booking
offers to attract more customer base.
Question 12 to 15

These questions were dedicated to ask about the marketing process and which marketing
process out of digital marketing, personal selling or direct marketing is more important for
the respondents on the scale of 1 to 5. Out of the data, collected 96% of the respondents think
digital marketing is highly important on the other hand only 38% think personal selling is
highly important to them. While talking with my senior colleague at Diksha Advertising, he
told me, that in today’s world customer are very cautious and doesn’t want to get influenced
by a marketer. Instead, they prefer to do their homework on the product with the help of the
internet and thus, make their buying decision. Also, around 80% of the respondents think
advertisement is important to them. According to Kotler, P.(2009), advertising is any paid
form of non-personal presentation and promotion of goods and services or ideas by an
identified sponsor. Advertising is important to create awareness in today’s world.
 Second Part: Personal Interviews

Through such personal interviews with the client, we tried to assimilate information about how
big these organizations are and how much they are spending advertising and through which
channels.

Figure 7

Through the survey, I came to know that 84% of the respondents have micro business with
fewer than 5 people working for them. This factor had a huge impact on our survey results as
the majority of the respondents who completed the survey belongs to micro businesses and
unlike big business houses with bigger budgets for marketing, they don’t have to take any
tough decisions based on their time and resources.
Figure 8
The top for marketing activities as per 8 are SEO, Email Marketing, Content marketing and Social
Media Marketing. It clearly shows marketer preference activities don’t require much expenditure and
focus on attracting customers through content marketing
 The top for marketing activities as per figure 8 are SEO, Email Marketing, Content
Marketing, and Social Media Marketing. It clearly shows the marketer preference for
activities that don’t require much expenditure and focus on attracting customers through
content marketing.

Figure 9

As per figure 9, we can easily see that the majority of the chunk don’t either don’t spend
who spends less than 4000 bucks on their digital marketing promotion. From figure 8 we
can draw a relationship over here that people do prefer marketing channels like SEO and
email marketing and social media marketing as they cost them less and create a virtual
presence as well. Less than 1% of the respondents willing to spend more than 40000 bucks
monthly for activities like content marketing.