BUS7B13 Research Methods Assignment Sample
EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING BY USING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES – A STRATEGIC MARKETING TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.
Research Questions
The research questions of the proposed study are given below:
- What is the key concept of conversational marketing driven by the use of advanced technologies?
- To what extent conversational marketing is relevant in the present age of competition in the business environment?
- What are the key benefits of using conversational marketing strategies especially for improving customer satisfaction?
Research Aim
The proposed research study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of conversational marketing to enhance customer satisfaction. While elucidating the concept of conversational marketing, the study will also shed light on the use of advanced technologies for conversational marketing strategy.
Research Objectives
The research objectives of the proposed study are as follows:
- To comprehend the concept of conversational marketing facilitated by using advanced technologies.
- To explicate the relevance of conversational marketing in the present age of immense competition in the global business environment.
- To critically explain the advantages of using conversational marketing strategies especially its role to improve customer satisfaction.
Reasoned Justification of the Study
Marketing is considered one of the core operational activities in an organisation as it is the way to make the target audience and people aware of the products and services, a company is selling (Slater, et al., 2010; Morgan, 2012). On the other hand, direct conversation with the customers is also preferred, when consumers look for personalised services nowadays. In this context, conversational marketing is becoming very relevant as it combines targeted messaging to engage people on the company website (Sotolongo & Copulsky, 2018; Grossberg, 2011). Moreover, it enables marketers to develop customer relationships, therefore, it is important to study this topic in detail and make the organisations aware of the benefits of conversational marketing. This is why the selected topic in the present study is justified.
Limitations of the study
Budget and time limitations may affect the research and outcomes to a certain extent as the researcher may face difficulties in collecting relevant data from a larger sample size. The research will be limited to the organisations only in the UK. The researcher may also face barriers in interacting with marketing managers of different organisations and collecting information from relevant secondary studies due to these limitations.
Relevant theme and Discipline/ Theory area
Concept of conversational marketing:
Conversational marketing is a strategic approach to marketing, which depends on one-to-one interaction in real-time through multiple channels (Drift Inc., 2021). This method is quite helpful to engage the visitors of company websites thereby converting leads through dialogue-driven activities. Demand for personalised services is increasing day by day, and to respond to the changing demands of customers, companies are embracing conversational marketing as a strategic marketing approach. Conversational marketing is a relatively new and a more personalised approach to operating businesses online (Kimi Tiinus, 2021).
Use of advanced technologies:
Conversational marketing offers an automated way of engaging customers and it also facilitates internal communication between customers and business in a form of one-to-one communication. Therefore, advanced technologies like chatbots and other AI-driven technologies play a vital role to carry out conversational marketing (Di Gaetano & Diliberto, 2018; Cancel & Gerhardt, 2019). FAQ (Frequently asked questions) bots are a very common conversational AI application. Apart from that, Virtual Personal Assistants are also used for the next level application of Conversational AI technology (Popescu, 2020).
Conversational marketing to improve customer satisfaction:
Conversational marketing provides the scope of interaction and the overall rate of conversation between customers and marketers (Whisbi, 2021). The problems regarding web traffic are eradicated thereby creating customers and at the same time, up-selling and cross-selling are also increased. The increasing rate of conversation improves customer experiences as the customers are allowed to share their expectations, reviews and needs and the company can make changes according to consumers’ tastes and preferences (BARIŞ, 2020). This is how conversational marketing helps companies’ market research and to know customers.
Relevant theories:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is relevant as it helps a marketer to understand the needs of consumers and fulfilling these needs can help to improve customer satisfaction. Apart from the organisational context, to ensure, employee satisfaction, this theory is applicable for marketing purposes as well (Hopper, 2020). Moreover, Network theory is also relevant as it covers key aspects of relationship building by understanding human behaviour, which is closely associated with the concept of conversational marketing (Litterio, et al., 2017).
Types of Data Employed:
In order to conduct this research study, primary data will be collected from people, who are involved in marketing activities especially digital marketing practices in UK-based organisations. A quantitative research will be carried out, therefore, the probability sampling method will be applied (Hosseini, et al., 2019). Potential respondents will be selected from a larger population using the theory of probability.
Method of Data Collection:
As a hypothesis is developed in this study, a specific area of discussion is determined, and a quantitative study has been decided to be performed, the researcher will carry out a survey to collect primary data (Davis & Pimenta, 2021). 80 employees from 4 UK-based retail firms will be the target population, who will participate in an online survey and reply to 10 closed-ended questions in the survey questionnaire. Employees will be selected from companies that have already initiated digital marketing and use the latest technologies for conversational marketing, and experience of working at least more than 2 years will be important inclusion criteria. Furthermore, the quantitative data analysis method will be applied to critically interpret the statistical data collected through a survey.
Preliminary Hypothesis:
H0 – There is no benefit of using advanced technologies for conversational marketing to improve customer satisfaction.
H1 – Conversational marketing by using advanced technologies has immense significance in improving customer satisfaction.
Direction for Future Research:
The pertinence of the selected research topic has been firmly demonstrated earlier as it is high time to understand the relevance of advancing marketing activities by embracing conversational marketing strategies. Successful completion of this study will help to know more details about different digital marketing tools and techniques. Moreover, in the future study, improved techniques can also be interpreted to innovate the conversational marketing approach.
References
BARIŞ, A., 2020. A NEW BUSINESS MARKETING TOOL: CHATBOT. GSI Journals Serie B: Advancements in Business and Economics, 3(1), pp. 31-46.
Cancel, D. & Gerhardt, D., 2019. Conversational Marketing: How the World’s Fastest Growing Companies Use Chatbots to Generate Leads 24/7/365 (and how You Can Too). s.l.: John Wiley & Sons.
Davis, K. & Pimenta, J., 2021. Case studies: Examples from primary data collection. Pragmatic Randomized Clinical Trials, pp. 427-442.
Di Gaetano, S. & Diliberto, P., 2018. Chatbots and conversational interfaces: Three Chatbots and conversational interfaces: Three domains of use. Fifth International Workshop on Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age, Volume 2101, pp. 62-70.
Drift Inc., 2021. Conversational Marketing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.drift.com/conversational-marketing/
[Accessed 27 October 2021].
Grossberg, K., 2011. 2011 Conversational Marketing Summit in New York. Strategy & Leadership.
Hopper, E., 2020. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Explained. ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, Volume 24.
Hosseini, S., Ivanov, D. & Dolgui, A., 2019. Review of quantitative methods for supply chain resilience analysis. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Volume 125, pp. 285-307.
Kimi Tiinus, 2021. What is Conversational Marketing?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.giosg.com/blog/what-is-conversational-marketing
[Accessed 27 October 2021].
Litterio, A., Nantes, E., Larrosa, J. & Gómez, L., 2017. Marketing and social networks: a criterion for detecting opinion leaders. European Journal of Management and Business Economics.
Morgan, N., 2012. Marketing and business performance. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 40(1), pp. 102-119.
Popescu, C., 2020. Chatbots as Marketing Communication Tool. FAIMA Business & Management Journal, 8(3), pp. 62-75.
Slater, S., Hult, G. & Olson, E., 2010. Factors influencing the relative importance of marketing strategy creativity and marketing strategy implementation effectiveness. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(4), pp. 551-559.
Sotolongo, N. & Copulsky, J., 2018. Conversational marketing: Creating compelling customer connections. Applied Marketing Analytics, 4(1), pp. 6-21.
Whisbi, 2021. What are the benefits of Conversational Marketing?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.whisbi.com/guides/conversational-marketing/benefits/
[Accessed 27 October 2021].
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