Importance of Social Media

1. Introduction

Companies are now adopting several new methods to attract customers toward there product or services for influencing them to make purchases. Among them social media is most trending options used by majority of companies for promoting their product as well as brand which also support them to achieve competitive advantage. Social media sites provide a platform where marketer can communicate directly with consumers and can provide them personalised services to them by handling their issues separately (Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi, 2014). Apart from this it also help a marketer in maintaining a long term relation with customers by sharing the information with them and responding to their queries. Mark & Spence is a well known international brand which uses social media as a major source for promoting and selling its products to customer worldwide. This support in influencing consumer behavior as they can check all the details of product along with their quality or durability by reading feedback of other experienced users. Social media sites provide the basis through which customer can weight the positive factors of particular product to make up their decision (Berger Paul and et. al., 2012). Aim:- “To determine importance of social media and its influence on consumers’ purchases. A case study on Mark & Spencer.” Objectives:

• To understand the concept of social media.

• To analyse the factors that affect the consumers’ purchases.

• To determine the importance of social media in influencing purchasing of consumer.

Questions:

• Explains the concept of social media?

• What are the factors that affect the consumers’ purchases?

• Explain about the importance of social media in influencing the purchasing of consumer?

RATIONALE

Main reason behind this study is to determine the importance of social media in influencing the consumer purchasing behaviour. As Mark & Spencer operates its business in dynamic environment where the choice of customers changes on regular basis. Apart from this the increasing competition in market is also influence the choice of customer by providing various alternatives to choose from them (Goh, Heng and Lin, 2013). The result of which sale of Mark & Spencer is declining as there are many options available to customer in marketplace. Because of which company has decided to concentrate on promoting their brand and product through social media sites. As it has now become a major source of interaction and sharing information among people within the society. Therefore this study is conducted to identify the fact that up-to what extent and in which ways the social media influence the purchasing behaviour of consumer. Apart from this, the information collected through this research will also help company to adopt appropriate strategy for marketing its product over Internet. So that it can interact with customers directly and respond to there issues which further support in enhancing the brand image and achieving the competitive advantage over rivals.

2. Literature Review

This is consider as a most essential part for a research because it depict about the knowledge as well as views of different scholars and authors regarding the current topic. Literature Review critically analyse about the positive as well as negative aspect of the topic which support a researcher to determine the effectiveness of its current project.

Concept of social media

According to the Hudson Matthew, (2018) Social media is defines as websites and applications that are created to provide peoples a platform to share content efficiently, quickly and in real time. As per the view point of , social media plays an essential role in defining about what we think about, how we observe things and discussion about various issues prevailing in society. Further they quoted that social media influence the various aspects of society i.e. cultural, social, spiritual, political, economical and religious. Apart from this social media also have a great impact over the thinking level of a person, their feeling and reaction over particular issues. According to the Goh, Heng and Lin, (2013) social media is a way to share information and also created the demand for marketers to market their product online to communicate with large number of people within relatively less time and cost. Hence, social media marketing have a positive impact over the growth of company by increasing its volume of sale through broadening its market base. But as per the view point of Naylor, Lamberton and West, (2012) Social media plays both positive as well as negative role in marketing of product or services. As customer who uses social media site for purchasing their product or services, generally make up their decision on the bases of reviews from experienced consumers. So, negative reviews from other customers may affect the brand image of company and also influence the choice of visitors.

Factors that affect the consumers’ purchases

According to Alton Larry, (2016) customers choose one product over another after weighing a variety of factors which are divided into two categories i.e. product or non product factors. The product factors directly related with the features, benefits, quality or quantity that a particular product poses. On the other hand non product factors include brand name, product placement, packaging, pricing and reputation of that product. So, Mark & Spencer must predict the buying behaviour of consumer on the bases of these factors before marketing or positioning their product in market.