Research Project

Do Social Media Influences Consumer Choices?

A Case study – Westfield Strateford City Shopping Centre

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Abstract
There is a drastic revolution in the way the communication and sharing of information takes
place in these days. The wide growth of social media and social networking sites has made the
sharing of interests, information, and other communication in a most simple and easy way
regardless of the location. The social media apart from the communication between friends has
also been used as a media of sharing product information and updates and consumers have
started to read and post their reviews and comments about the products they use or plan to use.
Therefore social media has become one of the major factors that affect the purchase decision
nowadays.

This is a research project which has the main aim of studying whether the social media
influences the consumer choices using a case study of Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre,
London. The research project has five chapters, the first chapter is a brief introduction about the
research which comprise of research background, aims and objectives. Chapter 2 deals with the
theoretical framework where in the researcher has collected maximum source of information
about the consumer behaviour and social media from genuine secondary sources. Chapter 3
discussed the various stages of research methodology which was followed and this included the
strategy used. The researcher used the strategy of questionnaire of about 15 questions and the
same was distributed to the people coming out the shopping centre. Chapter 4 explains the data
findings with clear presentation of data in the form of pie charts and bar diagram. The same was
also interpreted and analyzed and correlated to the Literature review. Finally in chapter 5, the
research was concluded and necessary recommendations were made for the super markets to
make use of social media and influence their choices.

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 Table of contents

ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH................................................................................................. 6

RESEARCH TITLE.......................................................................................................................................................... 6
BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH.....................................................................................................................................6
RESEARCH QUESTION................................................................................................................................................... 6
RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES....................................................................................................................................6
RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH.........................................................................................................................................7

CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................................................ 8

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................................8
SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR......................................................................................................................8
EKB MODEL...............................................................................................................................................................9
Need recognition stage:......................................................................................................................................9
Information search stage:...................................................................................................................................9
Evaluation of alternate stages............................................................................................................................9
Purchase decision stage....................................................................................................................................10
Post purchase behaviour..................................................................................................................................10
TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA.............................................................................................................................................10
WESTFIELD STRATFORD CITY SHOPPING CENTRE IN STRATFORD, LONDON-A SHORT SYNOPSIS..................................................11
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................................11

CHAPTER 3- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................ 12

RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY...............................................................................................................................................12
RESEARCH APPROACH.................................................................................................................................................12
RESEARCH DESIGN......................................................................................................................................................12
RESEARCH METHOD....................................................................................................................................................13
DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES....................................................................................................................................13
RESEARCH STRATEGY.................................................................................................................................................. 13
SAMPLING................................................................................................................................................................14
ETHICS.....................................................................................................................................................................14
DATA ANALYSIS.........................................................................................................................................................14

CHAPTER 4- DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION..........................................................................................15

FINDINGS................................................................................................................................................................. 15

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 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION....................................................................................................................................22

CHAPTER – 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................................24

Conclusion........................................................................................................................................................ 24
Recommendations............................................................................................................................................24
Areas of future research...................................................................................................................................25
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION.......................................................................................................................................26
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................................34
APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................................................37
Appendix 1- Questionnaire...............................................................................................................................37
Appendix 2- Response sheet.............................................................................................................................39

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Chapter 1 – Introduction to the research

Research Title
Do social media influence the consumer choices? A Case study ----Westfield Stratford City
Shopping Centre, London

Background of the research

Today, social media has become a part of the life of an individual. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
and Linkedln are the popular jargon nowadays in social media and there are number of users
growing day by day. Ayantunji, (2016) has stated that ccommunication via social media
influences the decision making of the consumers and this creates impact on the marketing
strategies. Rodgers & Thorson, (2017) has agreed to this and further states that ccommunication
over social media affects the sentimental, cognitive and behavioural attitudes of the consumers,
particularly the advertising brings in new customer behaviour. Through social media consumers
get wide variety of recommendation by the friends and connections and these recommendations
helps for the development of brand attitudes, purchase attitudes and advertising attitudes (Lee,
2014). When the responses for a particular product or service are good, it would attract for
improved consumer purchases. As per Mohammed, et al., (2016) there are nearly 500 million
users communicating over social media. This has ultimately attracted the marketers who believe
that the social media plays a key role in developing marketing communication strategies. It also
assists the marketers for easy communication with their customers. Social media also enables the
marketers to identify the needs of the customer and also understand what their market look like
(Friedrichsen & Mühl-Benninghaus, 2013). Tuten & Solomon, (2015) have said that the major
factors of the social media also allow the consumers to assess the products, make appropriate
recommendations to their friends and also share their existing purchase.

Research Question
What is the role of social media in influencing consumer choices?

Research aims and objectives

Aim of this research is to determine the utility of Social media in affecting consumer choices.

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The objectives are:

 Understanding target consumer and their connectivity to social media

 Understanding if consumer gets affected by social media
 Evaluating what is that affects the consumers most in social media
 Evaluating how and to what intensity the effects on consumers choices are from social
media.

Rationale of the research

As said by Amir, (2015) in the past few decades, the term social media is a new form of
marketing that focuses on developing new horizons for the marketers to promote their products
and services. Social media marketing differs from traditional media as it incorporates the use of
wide ranging internet applications. In today’s competitive trends, consumer choices are
considered as a crucial aspect in marketing and based upon the consumer behaviour marketers
would plan for strong and robust marketing strategies which would ensure commercial success
(Heinze, et al., 2016). The new products or services would be purchased by few customers
initially and later there is a gradual increase in the consumers. The satisfaction developed by the
initial consumers depends upon the marketing strategy and their satisfaction would create impact
on the subsequent brand choices of the consumers. Today, it has become essential for the
organizations to employ social media techniques to influence the consumer’s choices and win
their brand loyalty. It is necessary for a research project that would help to gain understanding on
the impact of social media on consumer choices in the lights of wide academic sources.

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Chapter 2- Literature review

Introduction
In the recent past, the online environment is perceived as a new perspective in a totally
commercial way. The emergence and development of online shops have converted the users into
consumers. The most important aspect is that the social media has completely changed the way
the consumers and marketers communicate with each other. Victor, (2014) defines social media
as a form of electronic communication using which the users develop online communities to
share their ideas, messages, and other information in the form of pictures, audios and videos.

Social media and consumer behaviour

The major business component of social media is that it not only enables the consumers to
evaluate a product or service also allows making recommendations to their friends (Boone &
Kurtz, 2014). It acts as a valuable tool where a satisfied user / consumer could suggest or
recommend that product or service to other potential users. To be more precise, the consumers
use the social media sites and write reviews about the products or services and influence other
buyers (Moe & Schweidel, 2014). This review may include both satisfied and dissatisfied
statement as the tool helps the consumers to share both good and bad experiences they had with
the product or service just with a click of a mouse (Tuten & Solomon, 2015). Lee, (2014) has
further added saying that enabling the users to share their information would influence the
consumer choice and purchase decisions as the consumers have the tendency of trusting their
peers because they believe that they are similar.

Social media has enabled the customers to develop their own content and also facilitates the
sharing of information with their peers (Lipschultz, 2015). The technology advancement makes
the customer to share information with just a button click and the information is easily shared by
the customers whenever they want and wherever they are. The social media completely influence
the consumer right from gathering the information till the stage of post purchase decisions
(Gordon, 2015). Consumers are able to post their reviews about their experience about the
products or services and give necessary advices to their peers. This develops acquaintances
across the globe and provides the consumers a source of trust in their purchase decisions

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EKB Model
Different models and theories have been developed to explain consumer behaviour and the
process of purchase decisions. These models describe the process of proceeding through major
purchase decisions. Mazurek & Tkaczyk, (2016) has suggested EKB model as the most famous
consumer decision making model which comprise of five different stages such as need
recognition, information search, Evaluation of alternative stages, purchase decision stage and
post purchase behaviour.

Need recognition stage:

This stage occurs when the consumers believes that they have an unfulfilled need. These needs
would have been due to a combined trigger of both internal and external stimuli (Mazurek &
Tkaczyk, 2016). Social media would trigger the consumer needs in the form of advertisements
appearing in the Facebook Page. The ‘Like’ Button in the Facebook page and ‘Follow’ button in
Twitter are powerful tools that helps the consumers to recognize the need.

Information search stage:

Once the need recognition stage is passed, consumers are exposed to information. Social media
offers the opportunity of getting information from friends and also from the pages they can
‘Like’ and ‘Follow’ (Hermida & Fletcher, 2012). When the consumers are buying the product for
the first time or when they feel that the products seem to be very expensive, social media helps
the consumers to make a research seeking for opinions and gather relevant information in social
media (Shaw, et al., 2012). This demonstrates that social media influence the consumers in this
information search stage as they are able to get information about products, services and brands.
Through social media, consumers are able to get trustful information from their peers

Evaluation of alternate stages

The communication of the product experience from the peers is another major stage that
influences the consumer choice and purchase decisions and this communication helps the
consumers to evaluate the different alternatives (Blythe, 2014). Forums in social media is the
best place for the consumers to acquire information and also make necessary evaluation for the
products and services (Årnes, 2017). The messages that are posted by the trusted peers who talks

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about their experience are highly influential. Social media offers the consumers large range of
views and opinions through which they are able to evaluate the alternatives.

Purchase decision stage

The consumers would reach to the stage where he would stop searching for information and
evaluate the alternatives and ultimately move to the next stage of making a purchase decision.
This decision not only depends on the consumer motivation but also on the influence of the
social media such as tools, review and recommendations.

Post purchase behaviour

In this stage, the consumers would evaluate the outcome of their purchase decision and in turn
influence the future purchase patterns. It not only influences their purchase patterns but also
those of their peers. As said by (Hoyer, et al., 2017) Social media allows the consumers to share
the feedback and opinions and give their bad and good experiences and this would spread to
hundreds and thousands across the world within seconds.

Types of Social Media

As stated by Adeyinka, (2016) there are various categories of social media and some of the
major ones are micro blogging, multimedia sharing and social networking.

Micro blogging: Twitter is micro blogging sites in which the users are able to communicate very
fast by following the accounts of people and companies and directly communicate with them
(Adeyinka, 2016). Certain tweets have become viral within few minutes

Multimedia sharing: YouTube and Flickr are multimedia sharing sites wherein the users are able
to able to upload the multimedia files and share with their peers (Baruah, 2012). Users are given
the chance of subscribing the channels and always be updated with the latest information. The
users in these sites can also criticize the products and companies also pays for posting a product
review.

Social networking sites: This includes Facebook and LinkedLn and these allow the consumers /
users to develop their own profiles and get connected with their friends, peers, families and
others with whom they share the product information (Vermaat, 2015). As said by Mark, 2014)

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consumers can just click ‘Like’ of a product page they like and get the latest updated information
when that brand posts some information.

Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in Stratford, London-A short Synopsis

Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre located in Stratford London and the centre was
established in the year 2011. The Shopping centre is one of the largest urban shopping centres in
Europe and third largest in UK by retail space and the retail floor area of 1,905,542 sq.ft. The
shopping centre is anchored by three leading supermarkets such as John Lewis, Waitrose
Supermarket, Marks and Spencer’s, a 24 hour Casino, and 17-screen all digital Vue Cinema. It
also has sophisticated hotels Premier Inn and Holiday Inn with 267 and 350 rooms respectively.
Apart from this, the shopping centre has 280 small stores and 70 restaurants

Conclusion
In the current technological advancements, any information is reached from one part to another
part of the world within seconds. The same is applicable even for customer choice and purchase
decisions where the consumers have the opportunity of gaining product information across the
globe through social media channels. Therefore, the marketers would have to utilize the social
media technologies in such a way the product attracts the users and push their purchase decision
and also write positive reviews about the product after their experience.

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Chapter 3- Research Methodology

Research methodology is a very crucial area which is a sequential flow that elucidates the
research questions in an organized pattern. This chapter discusses the step-by-step stages on how
the research has been conducted throughout

Research philosophy
Research philosophy is the first and foremost stage in the research methodology and it mainly
comprise of developing the nature, knowledge and background of the research (Matthews, 2014).
The philosophy are of three types and they are Positivism, Interpretive and realism, positivism
put emphasis on the external realities and collects the data from sample, interpretive refers to the
beliefs and values and realism is the combination of both external realities and beliefs of the
environment (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2014). In this research, the researcher was necessitated in
collecting the relevant information from the sample and draws the findings appropriate to the
aims and objectives of the research.

Research approach
Inductive and deductive are the two different research approaches, under deductive which is
based on positivism philosophy the researcher creates the hypothesis with the predefined theories
and experiments and in the inductive approach, the researcher analyzes the facts and describe the
theories and hypothesis accordingly (Wilson, 2014). As the researcher has selected the
positivism philosophy, the deductive approach was selected.

Research design
Exploratory, explanatory and descriptive are the three different research designs (Wimmer &
Dominik, 2011). This research lacked adequate knowledge about whether social media
influences the consumer choice. As stated by Riazi (2016) the researcher had to explore the
market situation and gain thorough understanding about the consumer choices, their interaction
in the social media etc. Hence the researcher selected exploratory design for the given situation.
The Explanatory is used for the collection of data for a specific market condition and Descriptive

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is mainly used to explain the data and the characteristics of the subject to be studied
(Neelankavil, 2015).

Research method
Qualitative and quantitative are the two research method, the former enables the researcher to
gain knowledge of why a particular occurrence has happened instead of finding answers for how
they happened (Rubin &Babbie, 2013). Quantitative on the other hand gathers numerical data
and evaluates a particular situation. It is mainly used to enumerate beliefs for the research and
develops numerical data to come with accurate results (Rubin & Babbie, 2013).Qualitative uses
techniques like structured and semi-structured interviews and collects larger information from a
smaller sample (Creswell, 2014). The researcher believed the numerical data would be
convenient for gathering the data and subsequent analysis and hence the researcher selected the
quantitative data

Data collection techniques

Primary and secondary data are the two different data collection techniques. The secondary data
refers to the information gathered from academic books, journals, articles, government
publications and other published sources (Collins, 2010). (Dwyer, 2013) has stated that these
sources helped the researcher gaining better awareness about the research background.
Alternatively primary research is another technique in which the information is developed by the
researcher on his/her own using survey, questionnaire, interviews etc (Zikmund, 2013). The
researcher developed the theoretical framework using different books, journals and articles and
based upon this used questionnaire for collection of primary data.

Research strategy
A standardized questionnaire was prepared based on the theoretical framework and other
information collected from various sources. As stated by Barclay &Osei-Bryson, (2016)
questionnaire was considered as standard research tool to obtain standardized data by presenting
identical questions with the same stimulus to the participants. The researcher prepared a
questionnaire that had total of 15 questions.

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Sampling
Sampling is mainly used as a statistical tool for obtaining the participants from the population.
O'Dwyer & Bernauer (2014) has given a definition for research population as a set of people
having similar characteristics. The sampling is divided into Probability sampling and non-
probability, Probability sampling is a sampling technique where the size is fixed and then the
samples from the population would be selected and the sample would have to be a representative
of the population studied whereas in non probability sampling the samples do not have any equal
opportunity of being selected as a member (Babbie, 2015). The researcher used the convenience
sampling of non-probability and selected 30 participants from the outside the Westfield Stratford
City shopping centre in Stratford, London who have visited the supermarkets

Ethics
The researcher collected the data from the customers visiting Westfield Stratford City shopping
centre in Stratford, London. The researcher gave a brief introduction about the research and got
their permission prior to the collection of data. Only after getting the consent the questionnaire
was given. No controversial elements were included in the questionnaire and personal data such
as name, address and phone numbers were not collected. The participants were also ensured for
utmost confidentiality and data protection.

Data Analysis
The researcher collated the data collected from the 30 participants in an excel sheet for further
evaluation. The data was appropriately grouped for each and every question using the built-in
functions. Finally, the percentage analysis was used to present the data in charts and bar
diagrams for better clarity.

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Chapter 4- Data Analysis and Interpretation

Findings
Q1 Gender

Figure 1: Made by student (2017)

The above figure shows that out of 30 participants, 17 were male and 13 were female
respectively giving a rough assumption that male shoppers are more than females.
43%
Q2. Age

10%

23%

Figure 2: Made by student (2017)

17%
The figure depicts that 15 participants belong to the age group 21-30, 7 belongs to ‘Less than
20’, 5 falls in the category of 31-40 and only 3 of them belonged to ‘greater than 40’.

15

50%
Q3. Do you use social media?

10%
Figure 3: made by student (2017)

Out of 30 participants, 27 have replied that they use social media. Only 3 of them have said that
they don’t use social media. Out of these three, 2 of them were ‘Male’ and belong to the age
group ‘greater than 40 and 1 is Female under the age group 31-40.

Q4. Which of the mentioned social networking sites do you use the most?

90%

7%

Figure 4: Made by student (2017) 23%

Among the five different social media websites given, none of the participants uses Flickr. 10
participants have expressed that they use Twitter the most, 8 have selected ‘Youtube’, 7 of them
have said ‘Facebook’, and 2 have selected ‘LinkedLn’. This 27%
question was not answered by three
participants who have answered ‘No’ for question No.3.

33%

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Q5. How long have you been using social media?

3%
7%

17%
Figure 5: Made by student (2017)

About 19 participants are using the social media for more than 5 years and many of these
participants belonged to the age group ’21-30’. 5 of them have marked ‘3-5 years’, 2 have
selected 1-2 years and only one participant has said that he is using the social media less than a
year only. This question was not answered by three participants
63%
who have answered ‘No’ for
question No.3.

Q6. If any of your friends follows a brand, do you follow the brand?

Figure 6: made by student (2017)

This question was answered by 27 participants only among which 15 answered that they would
follow their friends in the brand, 12 have said ‘No’.
40%

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Q7. Which of the reasons below applies to your preference for accessing social media?

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

Figure 7: made by student (2017)

50%
The participants were allowed to select more than 1 option for the above question. This question
like the above ones was answered87%
by 27 participants only. 26 of them have said that they access
social media to40%post / read reviews comments about the products. 23 have selected ‘to get
77%
updates’, 16 have expressed to stay in touch with friends. All of the above options were selected
30%
by 14 participants.
53%
Q8. Do you trust the reviews / opinions about products, services and brands on Social Media?
20%

10%

0%
To post /read reviews To stay in touch with friends To get updates

13%

Figure 8: made by student (2017)

Among the 27 answered, 23 have said ‘Yes’ and they trust the reviews and comments about
products / services and brands in social media. But 4 of them have not agreed and said ‘No’.

18
Q9. When you want to find product information, do you use social media websites?

Figure 9: Made by student (2017) 23%

The above question was answered by 27 participants only. Among this, 20 of them have
expressed that they use various social media websites to gather information about products and
services. But 7 have said ‘No’

Q10. Do you compare products/services using social media?

67%

Figure 10: made by student (2017) 27%

As like the above questions, 27 answered this question. 19 have said that they make comparison
of different brands of product and services using social media. On the other hand, 8 have said
that they do not use social media.

Q11. Do you agree that the reviews and comments about products and services can push to make
your purchase decisions?

19
 12%

36%

20%

Figure 11: Made by student (2017)

This question was answered by all the 30 participants. Among 30, 13 and 9 have said that they
Agree and strongly agree that the reviews and comments from social media push the purchase
decisions. 5 have said that they neither agree nor disagree and 3 have disagreed.

Q12. How often have you discontinued using a brand or a service because of the
reviews/feedback you read on social media?
52%

4%
Figure 12: Made by student (2017)

This question was answered by 27 participants only. Among them, 18 of them have said that they
regularly have the habit of discontinuing a brand after reading a negative review in social media.
Only 1 participant have marked ‘Never’ for this question and 8 have expressed that they
‘sometimes’ do that.

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72%
Q13. Do you think that social media influences your choices more than the traditional media?

12%

12% 36%

Figure 13: Made by student (2017)

Like the above question, this was also answered by all 30 participants. 24 participants have
agreed to the above and have expressed that social media influences the consumer choices more
than the traditional media, among which 9 have said that they strongly agree. 3 have neither
agreed nor disagreed and 3 have completely disagreed.

Q14. After making purchase do you write reviews on Social Media?

60%

4%
12%

36%
Figure 14: Made by student (2017)

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This question was not answered by 3 participants. Among the remaining 27, 14 participants have
opted ‘sometimes’, 9 have selected ‘Never’, 3 for ‘frequently’ and only 1 for ‘Always’.

Q15. Which information channels have biggest influence on your choice of brands?

Figure 15: Made by student (2017)

40%

This question was answered by 30 participants. In regard to the different channels that influence 56%
the brand choice of consumers, 14 participants have said that TV ads influence them, 10 have
selected ‘Social media’, and 3 each have selected Internet Ads and Magazine Ads respectively.

Analysis and Interpretation

The research was mainly aimed to understand whether the12%
social media influences the
consumer’s choices and in regard to this, the researcher prepared relevant 12%
questionnaire and
distributed to the 30 participants and collected the data. After collecting the data, it was
appropriately tabulated and presented in pie charts and bar diagram which was depicted in the
above section. This section would analyse the data to bring correlation to the research aims and
objectives and come out with necessary outcomes.

The questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 were framed to understand the demographic variables and also
gain the basic knowledge that the participants have about the social media. The answers of Qno.2
shows that in general the social media are mostly used by the people who are in the ages between
21 and 30 and people who are greater than 40 years tend to have least interest about social
media. Among 30 participants, 3 including 2 males belonging to age group ‘greater than 40’ are

22
not using social media. This might be due to the fear of using the technology because of lack of
knowledge. The question 5 also shows that 19 have expressed that they use the social media for
more than 5 years. From this, it is clearly understood that at least 70% of world population are
into the social media in the recent past and the sharing of information is more. The results of
question No. 6 also reveal that most of them are spending more time in social media. The
Literature review has explained the different categories of social media and in regard to this, the
questionnaire results shows that Twitter, FaceBook, and Youtube are used the most and has good
popularity where as Flickr, and LinkedLn used very rarely or not used. The questions 6, 7,
8,9,10, 11 and 13 are completely based on the consumer behaviour and EKB Model discussed in
the Literature Review. The EKB Model explains the stages of how a consumer is influenced in
the social media. Question No7 which discussed about the reasons for using social media,
majority have expressed that they use to read comments, and to get updates. Some of the
participants have also said that they stay in touch with the friends and other who live far. This
clearly shows that the consumers mostly use the social media to view the comments and product
updates about the products brand they prefer. The results of Question No 9 also show that most
of the people use social media to search information about the products. The results of Question
no. 8, and 10 also points that people trust the reviews and comments about products brands in
social media and the also regularly use social media to compare the products and services and
they also believe that these reviews and comments influence their purchase decisions. So, these
findings give adequate proof that social media has a role in influencing the consumer choices and
this has also been properly evidenced in the Literature review through authenticated sources.
Contrary to this, the results of question No. 13 show that the users only sometimes or never post
reviews after their purchase of products. This reveals that the users are gaining the information
from their peers in social media but not willing share their experience. The results of QNo.14
also points out that the users are mostly influences by TV ads first and then only social media
this is quite contrary and gives evidence that most of them watches TV ads to get the product
information.

23
Chapter – 5 Conclusion and recommendations

Conclusion
The research of evaluating whether the social media influences the consumer choice has given
valuable information in both secondary and primary sources. The researcher has extracted the
best possible information from genuine sources and they are in correlation to the aims and
objectives of the research. Subsequent to this, the researcher has given adequate evidence both
from positive and negative view and in general there is good clarity in the data collection and has
enough evidence for the research topic that people are influenced by social media in their choices
of products and purchase decisions. The results of the data findings clearly indicated that social
media has great influence on the customer choice and therefore the marketers would have to
develop Social Media technologies and make use of social media in their marketing strategies.
The Literature review and subsequent data findings have clearly revealed that the current day
trend of increased use of social media in daily life would be a new implication for the marketers.
Hence the marketers would have to grab the opportunity and engage their customers and show
them that they care and listen to their needs. Using social media, Marketers would be able to
create and develop long term customer relationship and enhance their loyalty.

Recommendations
# 1 The results of the survey indicated that only some of them post their reviews and comments
after the purchase. Therefore the marketers would have to identify these influencers and
communicate with them. The marketers can also send invitation for special events and through
this they can influence the people who give reviews and comments

#2 By engaging with the customers in Social media, the marketers can get the feedback for the
products and increase the quality accordingly. So, being reactive and proactive helps the
marketer to gain sustainable competitive advantage

#3. The results of the survey showed that the social media was not much used by the older
generations. Therefore Social media would be more effective and valuable when used with other
media channels

24
Areas of future research
The above research was very limited and does not have wider perspective to understand
the influence of social media on consumer choice. It was just limited to sharing of
information. To get deeper insight additional research is recommended in the future
which would analyze the cultural dimension on social media. Also, other characteristics
such as age, gender, etc can be included which has the possibility of changing the degree
of influence of social media on their purchase decisions. In the future research, the
number of participants can be increased to higher number as larger the population,
better the clarity.

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PowerPoint Presentation

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Appendices

Appendix 1- Questionnaire
1- Gender  Male
 Female
2- Age  Less than 20
 21-30
 31-40
 Greater than 40
3- Do you use social media?  Yes
 No
4- Which of the mentioned social networking sites do you use the  Facebook
most?  Twitter
 YouTube
 Flickr
 LinkedIn
5- How long have you been using social media  Less than 1 year
 1-2 years
 2 – 5 years
 More than 5 years
6- How many hours in a day do you access your social media  Less than 1 hour
 1-2 hrs
accounts?
 More than 2 hrs

7- Which of the reasons below applies to your preference for  To stay in touch
with friends and
accessing social media
family
 To follow and get
latest updates from
brands that I use
 To post/read reviews
about products and
services I plan to use
 All of the above
8- Do you trust the reviews / opinions about products, services and  Yes
brands on Social Media  No

9- When you want to find product information, do you use social  Yes
media websites?  No
10- Do you compare products/services using social media  Yes
 No
11- Do you agree that the reviews and comments about products and  Strongly agree
services can push to make your purchase decisions?  Neither agree nor

37
 disagree
 Agree
 Disagree
12- How often have you discontinued using a brand or a service  Sometimes
 Regularly
because of the reviews/feedback you read on social media?
 Never

13- Do you think that social media influences your choices more  Strongly agree
than the traditional media  Neither agree nor
disagree
 Agree
 Disagree
14- After making purchase do you write reviews on Social Media  Always
 Frequently
 Sometimes
 Never
15- Which information channels have biggest influence on your  TV Ads
choice of brands  Internet Ads
 Magazine Ads
 Social media

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Appendix 2- Response sheet

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