Advanced Marketing Study (Project) Research proposal
The project is based on the influence of social media marketing such as brand engagement with customers, brand recognition, enhancing popularity and reputation for accomplishing customer loyalty of Asos, Fashion Company.
Due to the emergence of social media and internet application, the customer has preferred shopping from online medium and the companies have also inclined their business pattern into digitals medium for earning more amount of profit(Godey, et al., 2016). Social media marketing or promotion help to target a wide range of customers from a different location which helps to improve brand recognition(Carah, 2017).
Customer loyalty and trust have also been induced through involving the customers with the brands in social media through different contest or promotion(Hassan, et al., 2015). As the number of digital businesses has risen frequently, the companies have focused on the unique customer-oriented content for executing their promotional goal.
Social media platforms have simplified the connectivity between people in a society which has become a concern for the marketers to attract most of the customers for the accomplishment of business goal(Misirlis & Vlachopoulou, 2018).
Social media also help to connect the company and the customers through the responsible sales team of a company which solves the queries of customers. Brand recognition has been improved through being involved with the citizens related to any social issue or cause which add value to customers for choosing any particular product(Yadav & Rahman, 2017).
The delivery of quality product and services help the customers to provide positive feedback on the social media handle of the firm which attracts the rest of the citizens for choosing the particular brand.
The main advantage of social media advertising is indicated through its reach to a diversified range of consumers in less time(Stoldt, et al., 2019). The simplification in the feedback gathering process by customers are also considered as the pros of the marketing technique(Karahanna, et al., 2018).
The demand and needs of the customers are accomplished through gaining their opinion in social media handle and the product or service of the company would be modified in such a direction for adding value to consumers(Voramontri & Klieb, 2018).
The content for social media marketing has the need to be updated due to the rising number of content in the form of video, audio or animation. Proper use of social media marketing helps the firms to gain competitive advantage by earning brand reputation(Fietkiewicz, et al., 2016). Thus, the study aimed to outline the benefits and approaches of social media marketing for the benefits of the business.
Asos is considered as an online cosmetic and fashion retailer in UK and the head quarter of the firm is located at London which sells diversified range of branded clothing and accessories. The firm has delivered product through online medium and the company mainly specialises on social media promotion which help them to attract most of the citizens. Asos, clothing company had used Instagram for promoting their products to wide range of customers.
Research questions or objectives
Aim
The main focus of the study is to evaluate the effect of social media marketing for gaining brand recognition and customer loyalty in the context of apparel sector of UK.
Objective
The objective of the study is as follows.
- To recognize the process of brand recognition by social media marketing
- To evaluate the impact of social media marketing for gaining customer loyalty
Question
The research question of the study is as follows.
- How does brand recognition accomplish through following the marketing process via social media platforms?
- How social media marketing does has contributed to gaining customer trust and loyalty?
Research design is defined as the approach of performing different stages of research in a stepwise manner(Clarke, et al., 2013). The research will follow exploratory research design as it explores all the aspect of social media marketing which assists the firms to target a broad range of customers and gain their trust for enhancing brand image.
The approach for aligning social media marketing and business goals will also be demonstrated through the application of exploratory research design. The approach for improving marketing via social media content is also reflected through exploratory research design.
Both secondary and primary data will be accumulated for identifying the effect of social media marketing. The secondary data will be collected from authentic journals or books which help to focus on the theoretical approach of the topic.
The contemporary effect of social media in a regular business context has emerged which indicates high availability of suitable secondary sources for the research. For the collection of primary data, 200 employees of Asos, clothing company will be selected as participants for the survey by random sampling process and among them.
150 employees will be selected for the final collection of data. The qualitative data has been evaluated by gaining the assessment of 25 managers of Asos, clothing company. The factual information based on the effect of social media promotion develops the quality of the research by string argument and the practical experience of the employees of Asos. The collected data has been analyzed through graphs and charts prepared in SPSS.
The project will be expectedly completed within 6 weeks which includes all the important and relevant steps for collection and analysis of primary and secondary data. The project will be categorised into seven stages which are following through waterfall project management model as the next stage of project will be initiated only after completing the prior one.
The planning of the project is the primary task where the timeframe and budget of the project will be decided with respect to controlled resources. From the second week, the evaluation of secondary data will be started and different social media handles of the firms will be identified for executing the project.
The financial resources are required throughout the project as it would demand diversified range of needs for project completion.
| Description | Cost |
| Primary data collection | 1000 |
| Evaluation of data | 500 |
| Accumulation of information | 400 |
| Accessing the official data of the customers | 300 |
| Total | 2200 |
References
Carah, N., 2017. Algorithmic brands: A decade of brand experiments with mobile and social media. New Media & Society, 3(19), pp. 384-400.
Clarke, J., Tamaschke, R. & Liesch, P., 2013. International experience in international business research: A conceptualization and exploration of key themes. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(3), pp. 265-279.
Fietkiewicz, K., Lins, E., Baran, K. & Stock, W., 2016. Inter-generational comparison of social media use: Investigating the online behavior of different generational cohorts. 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Science, 1(1), p. 10.
Godey, B. et al., 2016. Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 12(69), pp. 5833-5841.
Hassan, S., Nadzim, S. & Shiratuddin, N., 2015. Strategic use of social media for small business based on the AIDA model. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1(172), pp. 262-269.
Karahanna, E., Xu, S., Xu, Y. & Zhang, N., 2018. The needs–affordances–features perspective for the use of social media. Management Review, 2(26), pp. 298-310.
Misirlis, N. & Vlachopoulou, M., 2018. Social media metrics and analytics in marketing–S3M: A mapping literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 1(38), pp. 270-276.
Stoldt, R., Wellman, M., Ekdale, B. & Tully, M., 2019. Professionalizing and Profiting: The Rise of Intermediaries in the Social Media Influencer Industry. Social Media+ Society, 1(5), p. 2056305119832587`.
Voramontri, D. & Klieb, L., 2018. Impact of social media on consumer behaviour. International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences, 1(462), pp. 1-24.
Yadav, M. & Rahman, Z., 2017. Measuring consumer perception of social media marketing activities in e-commerce industry: Scale development & validation. Telematics and Informatics, 7(34), pp. 1294-1307.
Appendix 2
300MKT Preliminary Ethics Form 2019-20
Student Name: ___________________ Supervisor Name: ______________________
Research Objectives:
- To recognize the process of brand recognition by social media marketing
- To evaluate the impact of social media marketing for gaining customer loyalty
Method of data collection (e.g. questionnaire/survey, focus group, interviews, desk research)
The method of data collection is considered as survey where the employees are asked a set of close ended question and THE interview process will be done with managers for gaining their feedback.
Respondents/Participants: (how many? description, age, role etc..?)
The method of data collection is considered as survey where the employees are asked a set of close ended questions for conveying their feedback related to change in sales volume after implementing social media promotion.
Method of approach (i.e. how/where are you going to access your respondents?)
The Email id of the employees of Asos are collected from their managers after getting approval of the higher authority. It is very much obvious that the employees would cooperate with the research team.
Whereabouts will the primary research take place? If outside of Coventry University how willyou obtain permission from the relevant party?
The permission from headquarter of Asos is gathered through connecting with one of the manager of the firm as the manager is relative of one of the project team members.
Are you going to be asking any questions that could be deemed sensitive or controversial? Ifso give details.
No, the research would be conducted by following ethical consideration where the confidential and controversial question are avoided.
Are you planning to record or video the respondents
While conducting interview with managers, audio has been recorded for analysis purpose.
