BSS060-6 Research Project Proposal

1. Research Project Proposal: An investigation into ‘Does social media affect consumer behaviour’.

1.1 Outline

The research topic will be “Does social media affect consumer choices”. The research paper will include the motivation for this research, aims and objectives of the research and a project management plan will be here to showcase the main activities/ stages and activity time of the research. It is seen that the modern era is technologically advanced. People like to spend their times on internet while connecting with social media platforms(Laroche, et al., 2012). Today, most of the organisations are using social media platforms to connect with the customers. They use these social media platforms to get response from target customers. The organisations find it easier to connect with the customers as people like to spend more time surfing internet. Big brands post their product descriptions on social media websites so that the customers can get information about that particular product (Gensler, et al., 2013). It affects consumer buying behaviour.

1.2 Influential factor for choosing this topic

The research paper is based on does social media affect consumer choices. The reason behind for choosing the topic is that today, most of the organisations are using social media platforms to connect with the customers. They use these social media platforms to get response from target customers. The organisations find it easier to connect with the customers as people like to spend more time surfing internet. Big brands post their product descriptions on social media websites so that the customers can get information about that particular product(Wang, et al., 2012). It affects consumer buying behaviour. The research can help to find out the effectiveness of social media in influencing consumer choices(Bruhn, et al., 2012). In the recent decades the people are most habituated with the social media.

 

Aims and objectives                              

For every research, aims and objectives are the pillars of the paper. The main aim of the research paper is to find out the influence of social media to their consumers. The paper will also aim to understand the positive and negative aspects of social media in consumer choice.

The paper will follow some objectives for the business plan. The followings are the objectives:

1)      To understand the effectiveness of social media in influencing consumer choice a new business

2)      To provide clear understanding of positive and negative aspect of social media

1.3 Critical review of key references about Influences of social media in consumer choice

The research will take help from books, journals, articles and blogs to identify the effectiveness and disadvantage of social media in influencing consumer choices. Most of the organisations are using social media platforms to connect with the customers. Consumers now prefer the products which are seen on social media websites(Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2016). Many organizations use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and other social media platforms to promote and advertise their products. Consumers use to get attracted by this strategy. They prefer to purchase productswhich gets maximum review on social media platforms.

1.4 Project management plan

A project management plan includes some key parts which are essential for the plan. It includes cost, communication, scope, risks, time, quality, and resources. A brief description is given in this section.

Cost: Every project needs some amount of money to complete the project. The cost section includes the terms related to cost estimation. It locates the estimated cost of the project and determines the initial budget of the project. These are known as the project aspect. The cost of the project includes various components on which the project cost depends. These are material bills, risk estimates, labour rates for contractor and resources.

Communication: Communication is important for every project management plan. It provides appropriate information to the stakeholders. An effective communication provides specific information to the customers. A communication management includes systematic monitoring, implementation of plan and overall planning of communication channel. A successful business plan requires a two way communication process. It will be done between the employees and the managers of the company. 

Scope:Scope refers the positive probability of the result. In this case, the scope will identify the primary roles of the stakeholders and it will also analyse a work breakdown structure for completeness.

Risk: The term “risk” refers the important steps which will be taken by the project manager to overcome the possible risk and obstacles in future in the project. Here, it will identify the risk at the time of setting a new business and will estimate the impact of risks.

Time: Every project needs to be completed within a particular time frame. Time in project management starts with starting time and ends at delivering time. Time describes the type of schedule relationship. 

Quality: The quality management of a business management project means ensuring all the needed activities of the project will be done efficiently and effectively.

Resources: The resource management includes resource plan, resource utilization, resource availability and request resources. Resource management estimates financial resource, production resource and total inventory of the company. It also identifies the required human resources to complete the project.

1.5 Work breakdown structure and a Gantt plan

The following section will provide a Gantt plan along with stages of the research:

Step 1: The first stage will allow the meaning of the total scope of effectiveness of social media.

Step 2: The next step will hold the ability to assign the whole work for how social media affect consumer choice.

Step 3: The researcher will build a control baseline for the effectiveness of social media.

Step 4: The fourth step includes the measurement of the achievement of the particular objective after finding the effectiveness of social media.

Step 5: This step is based on gathering information, defining and reporting the appropriate level which is needed.

Step 6: This step will assess whether the structured project will affect positively to the consumer or nStep 7: The final step is based on identifying solution of the problems.

Gantt chart

 

The research will take maximum 2-3 months to complete the overall tasks.

 

2. Research methodology

2.1. A. Required resources

In this research study, the main research aim is to understand the effectiveness of social in influencing consumer choices. This study will focus on if social media can influence the consumer behaviour. This study also focused on to understand the positive and negative aspect of social media in the consumer choice and consumer behaviour(Aral, et al., 2013). The activity of the consumer is involving in the brands as the part of the consumer choice and purchasing decision. By the social media, the organisation can directly interact with the consumer. This process helps to establish strength in the relationship between consumer and the organisation or the company. In recent, most of the people are associated with the various social media site including Facebook, Twitter, etc. Social media helps to communicate in the way that establishes interactivity between customer and business organisation which had several direct effects on the consumer choice and consumer behaviour(Korda & , 2013).  The social media can grab the client attention, and it can change the consumer behaviour. The utility of the social media is most effective during the pre-sale and initial sale phase of the business organisation. In this research study, the required resources are analysis of the consumer behaviour and activities of the social media. The analysis of the consumer behaviour and activities of the social media helps to evaluate the impact of the social media on consumer behaviour.

2.1. BRelationship between research resources and research question or hypothesis

In the particular research study, the research question has identified the effectiveness of the social media which is influencing the consumer behaviour. The research resources are the analysis of consumer behaviour and activities of the social media. In the particular research topic, the relation between research resources and research question is positive(Goh, et al., 2013). The social media can significantly affect the consumer behaviour. In nowadays social media is more valuable for the inflicting consumer choice and behaviour and also influencing the brand of the business organisation. There is a signification relationship between consumer behaviour and social media. The impact of the social media on consumer behaviour and consumer choice is significantly affected.

2.2 data collection and analysis

 

Gender

The following depicts the descriptive statistics of Gender of the respondents. The mean of the gender is 1.45 which is the average value of the gender. The median is the middle value of the gender which is 1. The value kurtosis is negative it means the distribution of the data is flatter than the normal distribution(Wigginton & Abecasis, 2005).

    
Age

The following table shows the descriptive statistics of the age. The mean of the age is 2.70, and the median is 2(Newman & Benz, 1998). The value of kurtosis is negative and close to zero. As per the figure, 35 % of the respondents are of 26 years to 35 years.

Profession

The following table depicts the descriptive statistics of the profession. The mean value of profession is 2.90, and the median is 3.00. The value of skewness is very small, and the value kurtosis is negative it means the distribution of the data is flatter than the normal distribution(Ostle & Malone, 1990). 

 

Income

The following table shows descriptive statistics of income. The mean value of income is 2.10 and median are 2. The kurtosis value indicates a very flatter distribution of the data. According to the diagram, incomes of 35 % of the respondents are 10000 to 20

Consumer’s preference on online purchasing

The following table shows the preference of the consumers on the online purchasing. The mean value is 2.05 that is the average value of the respondents. The value of skewness is 0.596, and the value of kurtosis is negative(Kothari, 2004). Most of the respondents are highly agree with the fact that the consumers prefer to purchase their necessary things via online. 

 

Consumer’s attachment with social media

According to the following table and diagram, the most of the consumers are highly attached to the social media. The mean of the respondent about this fact is 1.95. As per the figure, most of the respondents are agree with the fact(Wigginton & Abecasis, 2005).
Consumer’s preference on ordering sitting at their home

According to the following table, the mean value of the respondents is 2.15 which is much greater than the standard deviation. The negative value of the kurtosis shows a flatter distribution of the data(Newman & Benz, 1998). According to the diagram, most of the respondents agreed with the fact that they prefer in ordering their necessary product sitting at their home.

Impact of Facebook on branding of a new product

The following table shows the descriptive statistics of the data about whether the Facebook can influence the branding of a new product. According to the following figure, most of the respondents are agree with the fact that Facebook influences the branding of a new product.

 

How social media helps to understand the features of the product

The following table shows the descriptive statistics of how social media helps to understand the features of the product. Most of the respondents are highly agreed with the fact that consumer can identify the unique or common features of the product by social media sites.

Convince power a company via social conversation

The following table shows the descriptive statistics of the convincing power of a company via social conversation. The mean of the data is 1.95, and the standard deviation is 0.945. According to the figure, most of the respondents are strongly agreed with the fact that a company can convince their customers by social conversation.

 3. Analysis and recommendation

3.1 Research evaluation techniques

In this particular research study mainly focused on the how social media affects the consumer choice. The objective of this particular research topic is to understand the effectiveness of social media in influencing consumer choice and provide a clear understanding of the positive and negative aspect of social media. In this particular research topic, the formative evaluation is the more appropriate as the research evaluation techniques(Kothari, 2004). Formative evolution is adopted during the implementation of the project with a particular aim which is the help to develop the project design and project performance. Formative evolution is more important for community involvement and those projects which are related to the behaviour change. In this techniques, the requirement is monitoring carefully. Formative evaluation is very important because of it the evaluation for learning. The importance of the formative evaluation it helps to grow the understanding that how to implement the research finding nto practice and this technique helps to improve the quality of the project(Newman & Benz, 1998). Formative evaluation is most useful to analysing the learning materials, research resources and effectiveness of the research outcome. Formative evaluation establishes the way of gathering the elements of research resources collected data, research problem, etc. For the above cause, formative evaluation techniques are the appropriate for complete the research study. This evaluation technique helps to allows better understanding the way of change, and it also helps to find out the gathered knowledge and learn and developed the research designs and implementation of the projects in the future. 

3.2. Interpret and analysis

In this part the research study going to analysis the collected data which is collected by the interview of the customer. Twenty respondents are selected for the data collection. The questionnaires should conduct the interview and the questionnaire formed as the Likert-style. In this research paper, the collected data will provide analysis in this part(Kothari, 2004). The research indicated that 55% of the total males and most of the respondents who belong to at the age group of 26 to 35 years old are aware of the impact of the social media. Most of the housewife are influencing by the social media. The data analysis indicated that most of the respondents are preferred the purchasing from the online, and they are attached to the social media. In this analysis, it is shown that 60% of the total respondents are agreed with the that Facebook is the most popular social platform for launching new products and it is also agreed that social media is helping to understand the characteristics of the product. This research indicated that most of the people are connected with the social media(Wigginton & Abecasis, 2005). Nowadays business organisation adopted the social media as the path of the marketing. This is the easiest way to interact with the customer directly. In the recent decade, social media is used as the instrument for the interaction. Social media platform allows the common people and the business organisation as the platform in which they can share the knowledge, opinion and experience with each other. By the social media platform, the consumer may be aware of the special offers, discounts, promotions and any other different posts. Social media is the medium in which the business organisation can directly connect with the customer and also pay attention to the customer(Newman & Benz, 1998). Social media can also change the consumer behaviour. The choice and preference of the consumer may affect by the interaction of the social media. Most of the consumers are preferred online shopping. The business organisations also adopt the social media to promoting its brand in the market as well as to the consumer. The companies can reach the characteristics of the product, the price of the product quality of the product to the consumer.

3.3. Recommendation

After complete the research study, it is concluded that social media have a role in influencing the consumer behaviour in the market and it helps to develop the relationship between customer and the business organisation. In this situation, at the point of view of the business organisation, this organisation should use the instrument of the different control policies which is the help to increase the sale of the products. This research study indicated that social media influenced the consumer behaviour significantly. The consumers are encouraged by the social media to purchase the product. After complete the overall research, it was indicated that the social media and consumer behaviour are positively connected with each other. It is indicated that the impact of the social media is significantly affected the consumer behaviour. Depending on this study there is huge scope for the further study.

After completing the study, it is recommended that for the data collected the interview may ask the social media experts as the target respondents for the evaluation of the further research with efficiently. This study focused on the factors which are influencing the consumer behaviour in general in the context of social media. In the future study, the research can be focused on different social media platforms and consumer behaviour. In the further research can be based on the particular subject which is utilised the social media as the effective purchase validation instrument.

In the future, this research study can be focused on the "consumer choice and digital media marketing". In this research topic, the study may explore how the digital media marketing can influence the consumer choice and consumer behaviour. The research can evaluate the impact of the digital media marketing ion the consumer choice and consumer behaviour. Further research can be conduct on the "consumer behaviour, loyalty and social media". In this research topic, the research study may explore the how social media influenced the consumer behaviour with the brand loyalty. In this particular research paper may explain how the business organisation concern for the customer loyalty and how the consumer loyalty can influence the consumer behaviour. The research study may conduct on "how business organisation branding using social media influenced by the consumer behaviour". In the research topic, the research paper may evaluate how the business organisation use the social media by the branding of the company and how this branding influenced by the consumer behaviour.

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 References

Aral, S., Godes, D. & Dellarocas, C., 2013. Introduction to the Special Issue—Social Media and Business Transformation: A Framework for Research. Information Systems Research , 24(1), pp. 3-13.

Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller , V. & Schäfer, D. B., 2012. Are social media replacing traditional media in terms of brand equity creation?. Management Research Review, 35(9), pp. 770-790.

Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Y. L.-T. & Wiertz, C., 2013. Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp. 242-256.

Goh, K.-Y., Heng, C.-S. & Lin, Z., 2013. Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content. Information syatem research, 24(1), pp. 88-107.

Korda, H. & Z. I., 2013. Harnessing Social Media for Health Promotion and Behavior Change. Health Promotion Practice, 14(1), pp. 10-22.

Kothari, C. R., 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi: New Age International.

Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., Richard, M.-O. & Sankaranarayanan, R., 2012. The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), pp. 1755-1767.

Newman, I. & Benz, C. R., 1998. Qualitative-quantitative Research Methodology: Exploring the Interactive Continuum. Carbondale: SIU Press.

Ostle, B. & Malone, L. C., 1990. Review: Statistics in Research: Basic Concepts and Techniques for Research Workers by Bernard Ostle; Linda C. Malone. Journal of Educational Statistics, 15(1), pp. 88-90.

Schivinski, B. & Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp. 189-214.

Wang, X., Yu, C. & Wei, Y., 2012. Social Media Peer Communication and Impacts on Purchase Intentions: A Consumer Socialization Framework. Journal of nteractive Marketing, 26(4), pp. 198-208.

Wigginton, J. E. & Abecasis, G. R., 2005. PEDSTATS: descriptive statistics, graphics and quality assessment for gene mapping data. Bioinformatics, 21(16), pp. 3445-3447.

 

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